A few photo`s taken from the parkzone radian glider

Bruthal

St Annes golf course, Bull Island, Dublin, - Howth head is in upper right of photo


Lansdowne Road - Northumberland Road junction, Dublin city


Car park at Shelbourne Road, Dublin city (Where we flew from)


Aviva Stadium, Lansdowne Road


Aviva Stadium, Lansdowne Road


Beach at Bray head, County Wicklow

Tabnabs

They're excellent, any chance you can label them for the folks who aren't familiar with the area?

Bruthal

Dyflin wrote: »

They're excellent, any chance you can label them for the folks who aren't familiar with the area?

yes i will do that.

Kashkai

Very nice shots there Robbie. Were you using a wide angled lens for the Howth shot?

Must have been interesting to say the least, getting the Rad back down into such a tight spot as that car park with all the tall buildings around. My Rad likes a long glide in.

Btw, how did you manage to keep an eye on her when flying over Dublin City? Weren't you worried that you'd lose sight of her behind some tall buildings? I temporarily lost sight of my Supercub behind a tree for only a couple of seconds a few months back but she came out from behind the tree in a nosedive that I only managed to pull her out of in time. Were you using one of your video gizmos to fly, i.e. fpv?

Bruthal

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

Very nice shots there Robbie. Were you using a wide angled lens for the Howth shot?

Must have been interesting to say the least, getting the Rad back down into such a tight spot as that car park with all the tall buildings around. My Rad likes a long glide in.

Btw, how did you manage to keep an eye on her when flying over Dublin City? Weren't you worried that you'd lose sight of her behind some tall buildings? I temporarily lost sight of my Supercub behind a tree for only a couple of seconds a few months back but she came out from behind the tree in a nosedive that I only managed to pull her out of in time. Were you using one of your video gizmos to fly, i.e. fpv?

It was wide angle for all the shots, its actually the go-pro hero video camera taking videos, i just took stills from the video.
When landing in tight spots i catch the radian in flight, just fly in and catch in flight.

There was no problem with losing sight, i just kept it well above any buildings so it was not a problem. It was all direct flying in them photos with the camera just recording video.

Bruthal

Actually now just looking again Dave, only the photo over Bull Island and Bray Head are the go pro wide angle, the others are from a compact camera which was filming in movie mode, so they are not wide angle, just Bull Island and the Howth Head.

coolwings

robbie7730 wrote: »

Actually now just looking again Dave, only the photo over Bull Island and Bray Head are the go pro wide angle, the others are from a compact camera which was filming in movie mode, so they are not wide angle, just Bull Island and the Howth Head.

Very good clarity for stills from video Robbie.

Can you post a photo or two showing the cam setup in/on the plane itself?

Bruthal

Here it is, just a strip of aluminium bent around a wine bottle and 2 other
pieces bolted to it, and camera attached, nothing to complex,
Just start camera and fly.

Bruthal

coolwings wrote: »

Very good clarity for stills from video Robbie.

Yes it comes out quite good from the movie clip. I am just pausing and using the Prnt Scrn buttons on pc. Then paste into corel paint.
If you were printing then taking stills with a still camera is better, but the stills from movie clips are good on the screen.

Storm 10

Lovely pics all right, how do you get to fly over the City do you need permission, if it lost control and went down in a busy street do you have to have special insurance, not being bitchy just wondering

Kashkai

God almighty Robbie, thats not a Radian anymore, its akin to a "Predator" drone. All you're missing now is a couple of air to ground missiles

You've done a hell of a lot of mods to that bird. Why did you place the receiver on the outside? Was the camera gear interfering with the signal? What is the antennae on the back btw?

Noticed that you have a second Radian now.

Bruthal

Storm 10 wrote: »

Lovely pics all right, how do you get to fly over the City do you need permission, if it lost control and went down in a busy street do you have to have special insurance, not being bitchy just wondering

Well its very slow flying anyway, i catch it when its coming in to land so its not going to cause havoc, but there is risk with anything i guess. But that flying in the city is a once off id say. The owner of that glider had insurance on it at the time of that flight. That and an MK mikrokopter he had insured, but i would`t fly that near any city centre. Or anythig these days probably.

Bruthal

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

God almighty Robbie, thats not a Radian anymore, its akin to a "Predator" drone. All you're missing now is a couple of air to ground missiles

You've done a hell of a lot of mods to that bird. Why did you place the receiver on the outside? Was the camera gear interfering with the signal? What is the antennae on the back btw?

Noticed that you have a second Radian now.

The radian on the floor is sons one, the one hanging up is another fellas who i fly it for. Aerial on back is a 2.4ghz video tx. A bit tricky with the spektrum radio, but with the return to home auto pilot it works well, had it out to 5 or 600 meters anyway. Usually fly by direct view or using screen with spotter beside me. I wired it all internally and used multiplex 6 pin plugs to plug in video tx, and front mini camera.

I put the satellite receiver of the AR7000 on outside because inside canopy is tight for space, and on outside it might be slightly better diversity. Not much mods really, in seconds the video tx can be plugged out and the minu camera and its like a normal radian.

Storm 10

robbie7730 wrote: »

Well its very slow flying anyway, i catch it when its coming in to land so its not going to cause havoc, but there is risk with anything i guess. But that flying in the city is a once off id say. The owner of that glider had insurance on it at the time of that flight. That an an MK mikrokopter he had insured, but i would`t fly that near any city centre. Or anythig these days probably.

Thanks for the reply I was only wondering how it could fly over a City out of curiosity as I thought that you would loose sight of it, the pics are amazing quality how long can it stay in the air.

Bruthal

Storm 10 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply I was only wondering how it could fly over a City out of curiosity as I thought that you would loose sight of it, the pics are amazing quality how long can it stay in the air.

With the camera gear it will fly for 20 minutes, without it just as pure glider, flights of an hour or more are possible, average flight would be 30 to 35 minutes.

I did not fly it very far in the city, 150-200 meters, which is very near, as by direct sight you could fly 5 or 600 meters easily.
Once its up high enough it wont go behind buildings. Was quite a big open area at the car park we flew out of. But i did catch it on landings as the ground was very rough for landing on,

Storm 10

robbie7730 wrote: »

With the camera gear it will fly for 20 minutes, without it just as pure glider, flights of an hour or more are possible, average flight would be 30 to 35 minutes.

I did not fly it very far in the city, 150-200 meters, which is very near, as by direct sight you could fly 5 or 600 meters easily.
Once its up high enough it wont go behind buildings. Was quite a big open area at the car park we flew out of. But i did catch it on landings as the ground was very rough for landing on,

Thanks for that robbie7730 if you get any more put them up its nice to see things from a different angle and the quality being so good, good luck with the flying.

Bruthal

Storm 10 wrote: »

Thanks for that robbie7730 if you get any more put them up its nice to see things from a different angle and the quality being so good, good luck with the flying.

Yes i might put a few more up, because its stills taken from video there could be a few more alright. Is anyone else taking any?

Kashkai

I've a few vids taken from about 1,000 feet up of the countryside around my place. However, my "broadband" is very slow and the upload speed to youtube said it would take 8 hours to put a vid up. I don't know how to take a snapshot off a video. Pity as I have some nice shots of rolling countryside.

Btw, Robbie what is the "return to home" feature? If its what I think, i.e. a gps based bring the plane back to you, I'd be interested in getting this for my Rad as I have had one "flyaway" to date and I'm always a bit worried I might lose her again.

Bruthal

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

I've a few vids taken from about 1,000 feet up of the countryside around my place. However, my "broadband" is very slow and the upload speed to youtube said it would take 8 hours to put a vid up. I don't know how to take a snapshot off a video. Pity as I have some nice shots of rolling countryside.

Btw, Robbie what is the "return to home" feature? If its what I think, i.e. a gps based bring the plane back to you, I'd be interested in getting this for my Rad as I have had one "flyaway" to date and I'm always a bit worried I might lose her again.

Yes it steers the plane back if signal lost, was tricky to set up when i tried a while back, because the eagle tree system has to sense when there is a receiver failsafe, so this time what i did was, as i was binding the Tx to Rx i set the throttle sub trim to -20%, so this is the level the spektrum Rx will bring throttle to if signal lost, and the eagle tree senses this and auto pilot comes on, so the only time the throttle can now reach -20% is signal loss and the AR700 goes to failsafe. I also programmed the aux2 switch to mix with throttle so switching this brings throttle to -20% also and in effect i have a return to home switch. Otherwise to test the return to home involves using the on screen menus while in flight. A switch a lot simpler to test the autopilot. Its the eagle tree OSD pro im using.

To take snapshot off video, play the video full screen, pause it, press ctrl and Prnt Scrn keys on pc together. This copies the screen image as you see it. Then open a paint programme and click edit, paste as new image. Save as jpeg renamed so its easy to find.

Vlc media player is a great player for getting full screen playback. The Ctrl-Prnt Scrn copies the entire screen image so if you just had video in a small window you would need to crop the image after.

Bruthal

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

I have had one "flyaway" to date and I'm always a bit worried I might lose her again.

The return to home wont work too well in windy conditions anyway, with light gliders i tend to fly up wind more so than down wind if its a windy day, if you get into trouble upwind its more likely at least to come a bit nearer to you, where as down wind it will fly further away.

Bruthal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz3fQkADBuA

Bruthal

Northumberland Road - Lansdowne Road junction. (looking up Pembroke Road)


Dublin city looking east along Pembroke Road



Woodlawn Estate, County Galway



Woodlawn Estate, County Galway



Woodlawn Estate, County Galway



Woodlawn Estate, County Galway



Aviva stadium

Storm 10

robbie 7730 you should show the picture of the Aviva Stadium to the Rugby HQ I bet they would purchase a copy from you its brilliant, well done.

Storm 10

Only spotted the video now very good ,you put a big finger print on the lens before take off Thanks for putting them up and giving us a different look at Dublin.

You should post these in the Aircraft Thread so the guys there can look at them it has a big following on that section.

Bruthal

Storm 10 wrote: »

Only spotted the video now very good ,you put a big finger print on the lens before take off Thanks for putting them up and giving us a different look at Dublin.

Its not a finger print unfortunately, the fella i do the flyin with, its his go pro camera, they come with a protective case but we dont put that on because of weight, so the wide angle lens glass protrudes a little from the casing. The very first use of it i had it pointing direct down on glider and scratched the lens coating on front garden wall putting glider down on it. He has since got a second go pro camera so i use the scratched one for experimenting with different setups.

Bruthal

Radian in flight

Plug

robbie7730 wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz3fQkADBuA

Feck this crap Im going to buy one in 2 weeks:D

Bruthal

Plug wrote: »

Feck this crap Im going to buy one in 2 weeks:D

The picture taken in post #26 is taken using a flycamone v2, not too bad of a camera for recording your flights.

The video in the post you quoted (#27)is a cularis glider, but the radian is great for starting and a fair bit cheaper.

There is a parkzone radian pro just new out which has ailerons as well, the standard radian just has rudder. elevator and throttle. But for starting off thats plenty. I think the non aileron one is better for photos as its more stable wing shape helps keep it level.

Plug

Do you have a link for that?

Bruthal

Plug wrote: »

Do you have a link for that?

To what, the camera?

Plug

robbie7730 wrote: »

To what, the camera?

The new glider with the ailerons.

Bruthal

Plug wrote: »

The new glider with the ailerons.

3rd and 4th items on this site page, BNF (Bind N Fly) you need a spektrum tx
and PNP (Plun N Play) you need any type tx with rx, flight battery and charger.
http://www.squadronleader.co.uk/category/ParkZone_Radian_Glider,b.html

Same as above on this site - type radian into the search here, and its items 7 and 8

http://www.modelmaniacsonline.co.uk

I dont see any parkzone radian pro RTF versions but you could search in google and see. Its probably because the PRO version has 4 wing controls, full house they call it, and this can use from simple 5 channel radio to use just basic flaps and ailerons, up to full crow braking and reflex and camber setups with the higher end radios.

I have the cularis setup with crow braking which involved a fair bit of mixing on the Spektrum DX7 radio, using all 7 channels.

Plug

Think i'll stay with your one, too much hastle getting other things. RTF wins!

Bruthal

Yes its very good anyway, and everything in one box is very handy. A great way of seeing will you want to progress on.

Just make sure you dont just go and try fly it yourself if you have not flown before,

Kashkai

Its a good idea to get at least one lesson as you'll then see that flying rc planes isn't as easy as it looks. By getting at least one lesson, you'll learn a healthy respect for flying these planes and you'll then be cautious for your first 10 hours or so of flying until you get competent.

I was flying my Trojan in the Park a few weeks back when some guy came along and starting chatting excitedly as he put his new plane together (a Parkzone P51 Mustang.). I was concentrating on my own flying but listening to this guy going on about how this was his first plane, how cool it looked, how fast it could go etc etc. To be honest, when he said "his first plane....", I moved my Trojan higher into the air out of the way while I tried to tell him that he might have bitten off more than he could chew with the Mustang for a first plane. Instead of listening to me, he took that as a challenge and when he finally figured out how to connect the battery, he was too eager to get his plane into the air. To be fair, he got the plane into the air allright, for about 5 seconds anyway as he pulled back on the stick too much and before he knew what was happening, the Mustang had done a beautiful loop back down nose first into the ground, flight over. I landed my Trojan as he was picking up his broken Mustang.

Now I'm not crowing here as I did exactly the same thing when I'd been flying about 8 weeks so I knew how he felt. I had a look at his plane and he'd gotten off fairly lightly. The prop was broken and the nose was cracked. I had some epoxy with me and I glued the nose back onto the fuze. I took off the damaged prop and replaced it with the spare one in his box (yes he assembled his new plane in the park - talk about eager!). I didn't have my buddy cord with me or else I could have hooked up to his tx and acted as his failsafe, so I gave him a few pointers and took his plane off for him and did a few gentle circuits and landed it for him. i've been flying since last February and I think I'm pretty competent now but the Mustang was a handful for me let alone a complete noob to the hobby. I gave his tx to him and told him what to do but on take off he was still too jerky with teh stick and almost did another loop until I regained control from him. When she was up high enough, I showed him how to bank slowly which he got the hang of. I advised him how to land but he came in too fast and too steep and despite my call to go round he stuffed it into the ground. No damage that I could see but he was very demoralised. I advised him to get a Supercub or a Radian to learn on and to leave teh Mustang until he'd learned the ropes.

I haven't seen him again.

Bruthal

In fairness we could all try that, my first time flying i had a go myself too, and the result was the same as above, and you might have even though i suggested getting assistance at least on the first flight, except your battery got drained flat and beyond being able to recharge before you got a chance which probably worked out well in the end.

Its so easy to get planes now that the teptation to just fly without a lesson or two is higher than ever. And it does look easy enough.

My first plane was a hi-boy with a .40 nitro engine in 1988(not one for a solo first attempt) and i gave it a go, did`t last long that attempt, patched it back up, tried again, and still managed to patch it back up after that and went for the all important help with the initial flights in the phoenix park.

If that was me and someone came along i would land and say here let me try that for you if you have never flown before, if they still insist on trying themselves i`d say fair enough, nothing more you can do.

How is the trojan flying? i flew the mustang like the one you mentioned that fella had and it was like it was on rails.

Kashkai

I've had to do a few mods to the Trojan to get her right, i.e. the canopy is held on with a small magnet which isn't strong enough and when inverted, it sometimes pops off and you have an unintended aerial bomb so I used some velcro as a secondary fixing which holds it on. I've also had to put hinge tape on the elevator as it is a known weak point and can separate from the tail which will end you flight real quick. The landing gear (its a nosewheel, not a tail dragger) is a little fragile and it won't take much to snap the nosewheel. The dark grey paintscheme makes disorientation on a dull cloudy day a real possibility as it blends in too well with dark clouds.

Apart from that she is very stable in the air while capable of full aerobatics. I like her as opposed to love her at this stage cause for a €200 plane, I've had to make repairs before she even got in the air. Still prefer my Rad and Cub but I might get more used to the Trojan in time.

Btw, you were right when you said that my draining my first lipo by accident was fortuitous as I know I would have looped the Rad on first take off and ruined her so your help with the first flight was what I and every noob needs.

Bruthal

Them magnets would be strong enough to hold on canopies alright, the problem in a lot of instances is the magnets dont quite make physical contact with each other because they are inside a plastic holder which by design means the plastic lip on the holders is between the magnets.

I dont be too bothered by any small mods that may need to be done to improve a RTF plane, i know it could be said they should be perfect, but mass production to keep prices down, (and they are good value really),
means a few user improvements can be made. I said before i have a P51 mustang nitro plane 10 years now which was ARTF and just needed engine and radio gear fitted, but a few flights later the left landing gear went up through wing and i was not too pleased as all landings were reasonably good as only about 10th flight. A lack of glue was the culprit. But thats the nature of this. I like everyone at the time in the 80`s started when you had to build your aircraft, so you have a good idea then of the things to look out for. Something can always be missed though.

Having said all that, i probably would just fly without checking too much myself too, and check plane after each flight.

Bruthal

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

Apart from that she is very stable in the air while capable of full aerobatics. I like her as opposed to love her at this stage cause for a €200 plane, I've had to make repairs before she even got in the air. Still prefer my Rad and Cub but I might get more used to the Trojan in time.

I was like that when first flew the cularis, but now i think its brill. The first flights i had the radian motor in it to get it flying quicker as had no motor for the cularis at that stage, so it was not as good a performance as it is now, its double the weight of the radian so needs a bit extra in the power dept as a powered glider. I have a motor in it now which has plenty of power.

Kashkai

I know of some guys who like to upgrade the stock motor in their planes but I often wonder if a boost in speed performance is worth it as the stronger motor drains the battery quicker.

I'm still mulling over what plane to buy myself for xmas. I fancy a warbird but just when I've decided on a particular model, GOOGLE throws up stories about shoddy build and electrical problems.

I was going for one of these:

http://www.tjdmodels.com/e-commerce/tjdmodels/category.jsf?categoryId=347

But now I'm hearing of problems from guys who've bought one of these fms planes with landing gear going up through a wing on "supposedley" soft landings.

Bruthal

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

I know of some guys who like to upgrade the stock motor in their planes but I often wonder if a boost in speed performance is worth it as the stronger motor drains the battery quicker.

Yes but you need a motor that can deliver some sort of performance. In my case i had a radian motor in a cularis, which took double the time to reach a given altitude, so now the motor is only on for half the time to get to the given altitude, and i was also able to put in a 2600mah battery instead of a 2200 one when i put the propper wattage motor in. I only used the radian motor to get the cularis flying sooner than i otherwise would have.

As for higher performance but shorter flight times, it all depends i suppose, the pilot can always throttle back a little to get the same flight time, but still have extra as well. This would be in faster planes rather than gliders which are a different typr of flying.

That was one good thing about the radian, its a good motor setup in it. Plenty of power.

psjdstu

scary but very cool

Bruthal

psjdstu wrote: »

scary but very cool

We fly that radian using live video from it, there are 2 in the youtube channel i sent that you looked at, 2nd and 8th videos in list. Thats the live view for flying. The other camera records the HD video and photos.