Multirotor Flying Meet Number 2

[Robert Longbottom]

Hi all,

A couple of people expressed interesting in another flying meet at this weeks Hackspace so how about this weekend?  It's still bitterly cold for flying at the minute, but for an hour or so it's bearable.  If you believe the Metcheck Forecast Saturday will be okay and the better of the two days (less wind), though Metoffice seem to think it will rain in the afternoon.  The Gyrocopter is fixed, but I don't think I'll be flying it again until I get the hang of plane flying!  So I might bring my new foamy plane as well as the quads, but plane flying is way more wind-adverse than multirotor flying and needs so much more space and fewer obstacles (at least for my level of skill!)

Location, same place as last time in Lydiard Park which has loads of space (and a cafe!), or try Moredon Playing Fields, or somewhere else - Shaw Forest Park maybe?

Time, Sat morning 11am-ish, or after lunch 2pm ish (and hope it doesn't rain)?

My preference would be Lydiard, Sat 2pm, but I'm not that fussed.

Reply with a preference if you're interested and we'll see how the weather pans out.

Planes, quads, hexas, hubsans and non-flyers welcome too if you haven't had chance to come down to the Hackspace recently and just fancy some fresh air and saying hi :-)

Cheers,

Rob.

[Jamie Osborne]

Excellent! I'm happy with any of the options, though Saturday afternoon sounds nicer.

Might be worth checking out Shaw Forest Park sometime as an alternative central option if nobody has before. Though scouting new locations might be best done ahead of time if suitability is not known. Otherwise, we could meet there this time?

At the moment the weather seems to alternate between Spring's "a little warmer and sunnier than of late", to "not so cold, but miserable and wet". The touch of precipitation on Saturday is only showing about 0.1mm which isn't normally noticeable - so let's all hope for the former!

Jamie

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[Robert Longbottom]

Shaw Forest is a perfectly decent flying location, there is a large open field (which can be a bit muddy).  I know there is a group of people who go there to fly planes because I've bumped into them once or twice at the weekend or lunchtimes. They seem friendly enough and didn't mind me flying the Hubsan or my Hovership at the same time they were flying, though I think the expectation is that quadcopters give way to planes or stay off the "runway" while planes are landing or taking off because obviously multirotors are more manoeuvrable. (Though after seeing a guy flying a plane at the last drone meet up meet I think that's just a question of pilot skill!!)

I think they are another "unofficial" flying group.  At one point they had a runway cut in the grass, but I think they might have stopped that now.

Im happy to go there this time if its closer for other people as well.  See who else chips in...

[Damian Axford]

would like to come, but waaaay too busy this weekend - will keep an eye out for the next one - in hopefully warmer weather :)

[jmeosbn .]

would like to come, but waaaay too busy this weekend

Uh... no fun! ;)

 

[jmeosbn]

Nobody else?

[Malcolm Pett]

Hi all yeah should be ok for me too...Jamie do you want picking pumpkins?

[Jess Robinson]

Yesss.. but not this weekend, recovering from the flu lurgy thing. (During which James hiccuped for 24hrs straight.. try sleeping through that!)

Jess

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[jmeosbn .]

Yes please!  (Pumpkins? No...)

Jamie Osborne

On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 9:14 PM, Malcolm Pett <mal...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi all yeah should be ok for me too...Jamie do you want picking pumpkins?

[Malcolm Pett]

Ipad auto fill thingy does some strange things...or I am crap at typing :-)

[Robert Longbottom]

Ah, thats a shame, but good excuse :-)  Next time.

[Robert Longbottom]

Pumkins, lol :-)

Tomorrow 2pm Shaw Forest Park it is then.  Meet in the car park, or on the main field.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5745655,-1.8260541,15z

See you there!

Rob.

[Malcolm Pett]

Jamie meet you in the car park about 1.45

[Jamie Osborne]

Excellent - see you in a bit.

Jamie

> On 21 Feb 2015, at 10:54, Malcolm Pett <mal...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Jamie meet you in the car park about 1.45
>

[Gyrobot]

Sorry, I got notification of this too late, and I couldn't have made it anyway due to family commitments.

Hope you had a good time.

[Jamie Osborne]

Yes, it was a bit windy some times and there was a touch of rain for five minutes or so, but it's a good place for flying... (except when your hubsan flys off without you! :-/ )

Jamie

On 22 Feb 2015, at 10:43, Gyrobot <sp...@gyrobot.co.uk> wrote:

Sorry, I got notification of this too late, and I couldn't have made it anyway due to family commitments.

Hope you had a good time.

--

[Robert Longbottom]

Yes, looking at the rain this afternoon we certainly picked the better of the two days!  It was a good afternoons flying.

[Jamie Osborne]

Looks like another nice afternoon tomorrow (with light rain in the evening), anyone up for flying?

Jamie

[Robert Longbottom]

Maybe if it clears up, it's looking pretty miserable here at the minute!

Have you got another Hubsan already?

[Jamie Osborne]

Yeah, got it on Tuesday! :D

It's supposed to start raining in an hour or so, then again early tomorrow afternoon. :(

Looks like next week is going to be clear, so try again next sat/sun?

Jamie

[Robert Longbottom]

Ah, that was quick.

Yeah, it's pretty windy out there as well.  I've just been to Barbury and the Y6 flew well given the wind, but the Hovership could barely fly into the wind even on full tilt, so I gave up with that!

See what next week is like, maybe aim for a sunday, maybe more people will be able to make that than a saturday.

[Jamie Osborne]

Yes, got it in time to use as test apparatus on Wednesday!

Sunday is good for me; anyone else?

Jamie

[Jamie Osborne]

Oh, meant to say that Barbury sounds like fun but I guess wind is to be expected there?

Shaw forest was pretty good, though also windy last week (but I think that would have been the case anywhere). I did wonder what was over the hills Mal kept visiting, and if we could get any shelter behind them..

Jamie

[Jess Robinson]

Yes please! Sat might be better.. or we bring visitor.. doubt he'd mind ;)

Jess

[Robert Longbottom]

Cool, either day is good for me, so we'll see what the forecast is saying towards the end of next week.

Did James get his quadcopter fixed / flying?

[Robert Longbottom]

Yeah, it's always interesting to try flying in windy conditions and now I know that the y6 will be okay in reasonably strong wind thats good!

I don't think there is any better space than where we were for flying at Shaw Forest.  Over the back of that hill it drops down to the old railway line, now cyclepath that goes down to B&Q and over those hills you were looking on I think there is just more hills.  Hiding behind hills from the wind is okay, until you fly up into the moving air and suddenly get blown away, better to know it's there from the start really.

[Jamie Osborne]

Yeah.. All good points! :)

Maybe try a more central spot next time though; away from all the brushy marshy stuff!

Jamie

[Robert Longbottom]

Yeah, I suspect that anytime we think it's good to go flying so will the plane people, which is okay, they seem like a friendly bunch and it's pretty cool to watch them flying the planes because some of them are pretty good.  I think some of them also fly helis which I'd like to see (and possibly mulli-rotor too). 

However planes need loads of room to land and take off and generally fly in, at least compared to multi-rotors, so we will always get nicely asked to stay clear of the "runway", and thats fair enough really, no complaints from me.  Either that or you end up flying in turn, which would be okay.  And once I get my gimbal setup and working it might be fun to try and film the planes flying :-)

[Jamie Osborne]

By more centrally, I was meaning to the right of them and the entrance (rather than in front of them or to the left). Along with them, we only seemed to be using one half of that whole area.

Though having to stay out of their way all afternoon for 3 mins of flight seems a bit too demanding (and especially so if they are always there).

Jamie

[Robert Longbottom]

Well, yeah, we did say we'd go over to the other side (to the right) where those people were flying that little quad when we first got there, but they said they'd prefer we stay within shouting range, which I can understand.

We should have moved when they left really, but it never crossed my mind!

We can also alternate where we go between there, Lydiard, Morden(?) and anywhere else with plenty of space and not too many people like that.

[Jamie Osborne]

I get their preference, but we'll be fine going to the right - my preference is to be out of their way rather than squashed between them and the "forest from which no Hubsan shall return"!

Jamie