Frank's Story

Just a short flight.

Windy and raining all day today. As the sun started to go down it eased off a little, still quite windy though. I found a sheltered spot and as long as I did not fly too high I should be ok with the wind. So keeping it low I got in my daily fix. Note the lack of "jello" effect on the video too. You would never know it was a windy day.

Getting used to flying sideways and low.

 
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frankc before you found the lump of foam behind the gimbal did you get a message on screen saying GIMBALL OVERLOAD ?.
 
frankc before you found the lump of foam behind the gimbal did you get a message on screen saying GIMBALL OVERLOAD ?.
No. Never got any gimbal messages at all. If it was not for the fact I picked it up and REALLY looked at it I would never have spotted them. If I had seen them when I first got the machine I probably just assumed it was part of the machine. :)
 
First attempt at some proper filming.

All my previous flights were really just practice sessions to get used to what the heli can, and cannot, do. So last night I thought Id go out filming today but this time to shoot some proper, for want of a better term, footage.

Its not exactly ideal at the moment. Still in the last throws of winter here. No leaves on trees and everything looking a shade of gray. So I put what I thought were the optimum settings on the camera. Decided to try 4K again. Everything set up so I could just pick up my rucksack and go.

Got up this morning just as the sun was rising. Great! Lighting would shortly be at optimum. Scrapped off the ice on the cars windscreen. Hands rather numb at this stage. Drove off to my usual shooting spot. Put everything together in car so I could just get out and walk a short way ready to start filming before I lost that good light.

Walked to my usual spot, sheltered behind a huge bush. Only to find a sheep had just given birth to twins right on my take off point. I thought her needs were greater than mine, besides which the new lambs did look so cute.

I drove off to another spot a couple of miles away. Had lost that light but it would still be quite good. No wind! *** cold but still quite good.

Spent a good 20 mins putting all my practiced skills to the test. Battery on one bar so called it a day.

Back at home I put the SD into the computer and although the scenes were very clear my computer really cannot handle 4K videos. So at the moment I am uploading the raw footage straight onto Youtube. 2 hours left!

Obviously I will loose some quality when Youtube has finished processing but at least I feel I have progressed a little. Will post when Youtube has finished.
 
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Here is it guys. Not in 4K, I had to reduce it but non the less I am very happy with my first production.

Here it is : Sunrise. (go full screen by clicking square type thing bottom right)


If the video looks like it was shot through a shower screen just hit the cog wheel in the bottom corner and take the resolution to its highest 720p or even higher. Still not a great reproduction of my work but a lot better :)

Just uploaded it to another website. Save all the hassle about changing settings. Sunrise

Enjoy.
 
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If you are struggling to edit, the widely recommended flat video settings won't be best - in particular log mode looks like mud unless you go in quite aggressively with contrast and saturation.
'None' setting is a good option, and looks natural - can be readily tweaked a bit more if need be.
 
I have adobe premiere, but you could do something very similar in (e.g.) free gopro studio.
The thing is, to avoid much edit work beyond cutting sectons out you can use the P3 presets and get more than acceptable results.
Video editing, colour grading and optimal rendering for presumed end use is major subject in itself and takes a long while to get to grips with.
 
Been out again. Last night I thought lets get out there before the sunsets. But I was too slow. I set off anyway to try and catch the sun that had just gone down behind the hills. The hills may not look it but I had to climb to over 1000+ feet just to get near the top.

I must do something though to get rid of the 'washed out' look. Another job for the settings.

So here is the little video.

 
I got rid of the guard and got one that locks and covers the lens they're not expensive


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
... no... The wrench is to hold the motor while you REMOVE tight props. As it says when you "read the manual"
Old motors have a metal wrench / new motors have a plastic tool to grip the motor.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app
I thought the plastic tool was a filter wrench to remove the lens filter. It sorta worked for that purpose, but it wasn't quite the right size. Must, indeed, be to grip the motor to remove a tight prop!
 
That tool is for prop. I tried to use it for the lens cover and it broke if you put the lens cover back on check it once in a while because it can get loose
That must be why they put it on so tight
 

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