Earlier this week I was able to fulfill one of my long-time goals of making an FPV assent of one of Colorado's 14,000 foot peaks (14ers in local lingo). I flew my Deep Reaper XL flying wing to the top of the 14,065 foot Mount Bierstadt.
Flying at high altitudes can be a challenge. My launch point was at the top of Guanella Pass, which is around 11,600 feet elevation. This was the first time I've tried flying at that altitude, and I wasn't even completely sure my plane would be able to launch. But because I have around a pound more thrust than the plane's weight and there was a stiff wind to toss it into, the plane launched just fine.
The weather wasn't terribly favorable, and was constantly threatening rain. On my second flight I ended up getting myself and all my equipment drenched in a sudden downpour. The air was very turbulent in the lee of the mountain and my plane got tossed around quite a bit. I also had a very bad video signal near the peak--I suspect because of multipathing off the mountain combined with interference from the thunderstorms in the area.
Despite all the challenges, the flight was a success and the video turned out beautifully. I'm hoping to do a lot more high altitude flying in the Colorado mountains before the end of the summer.
Filmed with a Contour Roam2 HD camera. Edited in Sony Vegas Pro 12.
Gear:
Crash Test Hobbies Deep Reaper XL flying wing
1250kv Turnigy SK3 motor, 10x6 APC propeller
2x 4000 mah 4S 20C Zippy batteries
800mw 1.3ghz VTX w/ Mad Mushroom antenna on the plane; crosshair antenna on the ground
Comments
I think I flew around 23 minutes. I normally get closer to 30 minutes but the assent used a lot of the batteries.
Awesome stuff.
Very cool. How long was the actual flight?
Hehe, I think the answer for that would be a satellite. Either that or an ansible. Maybe if we could communicate using quantum entanglement we wouldn't have to worry about line of sight or interference. :)
Someday someone will figure out how to solve the radio issues.
Yes I was below myself at that point in a valley, but I still had line of sight to it. You can see that whole hollow from the field next to the parking lot I was flying from.
Starting at around 2:37 you're skimming low and appear to be in a shallow valley with a pond or small lake. Were you still able to keep some line of sight? It feels like you're in a hole at this point. But very neat flight!