[ptk]

That looks really bad thanks for the tip.

[Chris Mc]

Hey Chris,

I changed the props on my Skymule, added some Mater Airscrew 10inch carbon reinforced nylon.

I tightened up the props, stood in front and maxed out the throttle.....

Lesson DON'T stand in front of plane when testing new props, especially if not tight enough.

BTW The new props are much more powerful.

Cheers,

Andrew

Holy Crap Batman, well that's one lesson learned the hard way

[Busboy]

OUCH.... That's gotta hurt big time.... Of course any prop will do damage.....

[srl]

Phoenix sim session on again tonight from 7.30. Maybe we could put a upper case 'P" at the end of your name so we know each other ?

srl

[robbo]

Sorry interstate... this week

[dfw]

Hi Srl,

I' ll try to login, but might be 8 Pm-ish for me to get to it.

Btw, last time I could hear Srl, but not sure if my side was audible tough -?-

Cheers,

[srl]

i could hear you a bit Dirk.
I believe you may need a full gaming headset for it to work properly. I only have a cam.
I'll join in when I hear you tonight.

srl

[Babar]

any body flying tomm?
regards

[Chris Mc]

I'll be there, probably 8.30 or so.

[Busboy]

I'll come down for a while. Have the Cub and Apprentice and ???????

[Spook]

Awesome, I'll see if I can get there as well. BOM forecast looks to be a great day for flying.

[srl]

Flying on the sim tonight.

srl

[Quadzimodo]

FPV RACING EVENT 2 B HELD AT PRCAC FLYING FIELD THIS SATURDAY 22ND APRIL

Hi Guys,

I got a call earlier today from Dave Purebred from FPVR.org (and NSWMRC.org) advising that the first event in their winter season, the first round of the NSW series, must find a new location less than 48 hours before the event is to be held this Saturday. The issue comes from a scheduling error with Western Sydney University (FPVR.org's primary location for competition events) which was only discovered at the last minute.

I have spoken with our secretary Chris, who has agreed to allow the competition to be moved to our flying field on short notice for this one off event, provided that a number of conditions are met.

On site parking will follow our regular routine, with any overflow cars pushed west towards the heli area or parked out on Tucks Rd. A multirotor circuit made up of gates, flags and stuff will be assembled in the flying area, with care taken to allow fixed-wing flyers to use the runway at several points throughout the day. Conventional flying will be possible before 9am, as well as 30-minutes between 9am and 11am + 30minutes between 11am and 1pm (at a minimum). Dave visited the flying field this afternoon and is also investigating whether he can condense his setup to allow conventional flying through the day's proceedings (a am not confident this will be possible though). Setup will begin from 7:30am ,with the day's schedule beginning at 9am and running through until 5pm.

Unfortunately our Treasurer, Secretary and President will not be around this weekend to supervise, but I will be there from beginning to end, so please feel free to direct any questions, requests or issues to me. Obviously it is our flying field and this is very short notice, so it is a key priority to ensure that we can accommodate PRCAC members wherever possible.

PRCAC will receive some modest income in the form of $5 for each registered pilot (half the pilot registration fee), with between 30 and 40 pilots expected to attend on the day I am told.

Anyone among us who is interested in getting involved and competing on the day should visit fpvr.org, create a login and register their name for the relevant event (link to 22nd of April event can be found on front page). As members of PRCAC you are already insured and do not need to become members of NSWMRC for coverage. NOTE - There are prizes for placeholders and it is perhaps worth mentioning that the winner of each state leaderboard this season gets a free ticket to go and compete at the Drone World Championships in Korea.

My number is 0414915451 should anyone wish to get in contact with me.

regards,

Jason

[Busboy]

Looks like it'll be a huge day. Unfortunately I'll be working....

[BOB]

Hi guys. A quick suggestion I know this is very short notice but could we organise a sausage sizzle, also we definitely need a couple of members to help out to help with the parking and to prevent members of the public wandering into areas where they shouldn’t go and is somebody can arrive early to open the gate as the quad guys arrive very early, I myself will be there early but have problems opening then a gate so would appreciate if somebody else could turn up early?. I don’t know how many members have been to a quad racing meeting but it is spectacular say the least.

[Chris Mc]

Bob, Jason will be there early to open and set up. The Sausage idea is a good one, however, I won't be at the field anytime over the weekend.

[dfw]

I will try to come in as early a I can, happy to help out for a while, won't be able to stay the whole event.

Hopefully get a flight in before race starts, too

[robbo]

Guys sorry wont be able to make it still in brisbane till next week. Please help out if you can... with some safety marshalling, sausage sizzle... whatever.

[srl]

Here are some pictures from the day.

   

   

   

   

   

srl

[robbo]

Looks great... anyone want to write a summary of how it went?? Any lessons learnt for next time??

[Quadzimodo]

Looks great... anyone want to write a summary of how it went?? Any lessons learnt for next time??

I was just about to pull the SD card from my Phantom and look at the footage from today when I saw your message. I also have some DVR footage which I can upload when I get to it.

All went extremely well I think. Dave was happy just to have the day go off without a hitch.

Bob was indispensable, as usual. First there in the morning, diligently managing parking as the cars piled in and generally being a proactive watcher of all things; stepping in to assist wherever possible. I was still (rather foolishly) screwing around updating PCs and installing RAM at 4:40 this morning and somehow put my head down without setting an alarm, waking up to a great fright at 8:57am; when I had agreed to let Dave in at 8am. Dave didn't even bother calling me, because Bob was there from 7am. I arrived 25-minutes after waking to find the track complete and the pilots commencing the circuit briefing. Thank you Bob for saving my skin and helping the day go so smoothly.

Frankly, our field is far from ideal for such competitive racing. Dryer ground really is a necessity as it would afford the pilots far more comfort and allow the circuit to be pushed further south. I really wasn't happy with the separation between the track and the pilots/spectator area along the northern treeline. This aspect simply must be improved if we are to do this again. The close proximity between the pilot area (mostly netted) and the start/finish gate made for some exciting experiences. Having said that, the guys maintained excellent discipline throughout the day ensuring people were behind the flight line when pilots were in the air and keeping pilots out of the air while people were on the circuit.

A number of the pilots commented about how (I am paraphrasing) out of their element they felt flying above such swampy ground. As with all fpv racing events, there were consistent crash outs throughout the day. Many fell on relatively dry ground, others ended up in the quagmire; with the result ranging from unscathed to completely submerged and out for the day.

A number of our boys turned up, but none of us flew. The schedule of heats and classes was extensive, with racing beginning by 10am and running continuously until after 5pm. Unfortunately I lost my main 250 sized quad to the bottom of a mountain lake last weekend, so had nothing suitable to race. I did fill a gap on the start line in two beginner heats towards the end of the day with my tiny little 90mm micro, but didn't get far from takeoff due to lack of RX range and talent.

It was a good turnout; so much so that we would have made a few hunge extra if we had snags and water to offer. Maccas on Abbott Road was the solution for many. All wonderful people though. Great culture, everyone lovely, very friendly atmosphere. I think our youngest pilot was 15 and the oldest around 60. Nice to see so many people there.

The biggest and perhaps only major disappointment was the fact that council chose today to catch up on the mowing. With us in there and the track set up so early our field missed out on a much needed mow.

Bump out was quick, with a relatively thorough cleanup possible just before we lost light. Barry, Bob and I shut the gate in the dark. A fun day had by all.

[Busboy]

Sounds like a great day out there. Congratulations to everyone involved in all aspects of the day.
Unfortunately if we had more notice, the field could've got mown during the week, but it is what it is.
As for the comfort zone of the pilots flying around swampy areas, perhaps it'll make them better pilots for the experience...

[robbo]

Sounds good... yeah mowing we can arrange with more notice... swampy is our eternal problem... especially after so much rain... if we try again... maybe we look at the driest part of the year.

[BOB]

Hi guys. Well is not much more I could add to what is already been said except to say it was a great day weather was fantastic and those quad guys are fantastic full of fun and a pleasure to have at our field and I’m hoping we can repeat it sometime in the future this time we should be able to have the lawn mowed and run a barbecue and hopefully dry field.

[Chris Mc]

I wouldn't get our hopes up for a repeat performance. Reading Justin's review, I would suggest that the FPV guys did not like flying there.

"A number of the pilots commented about how (I am paraphrasing) out of their element they felt flying above such swampy ground. As with all fpv racing events, there were consistent crash outs throughout the day. Many fell on relatively dry ground, others ended up in the quagmire; with the result ranging from unscathed to completely submerged and out for the day."

We would be happy to host it again, at a cost, and certainly a BBQ would be provided, with sufficient notice.

I assume that Jason will direct deposit any cash made on the day, if so Jason, please use "FPV" as the reference. Thanks.

[kizza42]

There was always an old saying about PRCAC, If you can fly there, you can fly anywhere. These guys need to suck it up and get skillz

[Chris Mc]

There was always an old saying about PRCAC, If you can fly there, you can fly anywhere. These guys need to suck it up and get skillz

My sentiments exactly........Bloody Drones !!!!!!!!

[dfw]

For setup I would suggest the following :
No parking on the field, then put the pilot box at the field entry. This gives you a better separation between pilot box and race track, safer for visitors as they won't need to walk passed the racetrack and additional (and dryer) grounds over what was now used for parking and tents. Only downside is that all parking has to happen on the entry road or tucks road, but that was the case for a lot of participants anyways.

[Quadzimodo]

Sounds like a great day out there. Congratulations to everyone involved in all aspects of the day.
Unfortunately if we had more notice, the field could've got mown during the week, but it is what it is.
As for the comfort zone of the pilots flying around swampy areas, perhaps it'll make them better pilots for the experience...

It certainly was a good day, great weather too really. The long grass did make some retrievals more time consuming. One battery, ejected during a collision with the start/finish gate, proved particularly difficult to find.

Sounds good... yeah mowing we can arrange with more notice... swampy is our eternal problem... especially after so much rain... if we try again... maybe we look at the driest part of the year.

We were good enough to provide a space for their competition event to take place as scheduled, with less than 48 hours notice, so the lack of a mow was not a problem and the least of anybody's concern. Having to postpone or move the event would have been a disaster for scheduling the national series.

Yeah, a dryer time of year might be better. I expect it might be difficult to schedule though, as all you need is one good rain and the event is best moved to dryer land.

Awesome day though. See the below vid for a perspective on the day from one of the novice pilots.

Hi guys. Well is not much more I could add to what is already been said except to say it was a great day weather was fantastic and those quad guys are fantastic full of fun and a pleasure to have at our field and I’m hoping we can repeat it sometime in the future this time we should be able to have the lawn mowed and run a barbecue and hopefully dry field.

Love your work mate. It would not have been the same day without you.

I wouldn't get our hopes up for a repeat performance. Reading Justin's review, I would suggest that the FPV guys did not like flying there.

"A number of the pilots commented about how (I am paraphrasing) out of their element they felt flying above such swampy ground. As with all fpv racing events, there were consistent crash outs throughout the day. Many fell on relatively dry ground, others ended up in the quagmire; with the result ranging from unscathed to completely submerged and out for the day."

We would be happy to host it again, at a cost, and certainly a BBQ would be provided, with sufficient notice.

I assume that Jason will direct deposit any cash made on the day, if so Jason, please use "FPV" as the reference. Thanks.

Feeling a bit out of your element is a long way from turning your nose up at something.



Any sane person would obviously prefer not to get their gear coated in mud if it can be avoided, but this did not impact on the intensity of the competition at all.



Dave has our account details so if a transfer has not already been made I would expect it is not far away.

There was always an old saying about PRCAC, If you can fly there, you can fly anywhere. These guys need to suck it up and get skillz

These guys certainly have got mad skillz.

For setup I would suggest the following :
No parking on the field, then put the pilot box at the field entry. This gives you a better separation between pilot box and race track, safer for visitors as they won't need to walk passed the racetrack and additional (and dryer) grounds over what was now used for parking and tents. Only downside is that all parking has to happen on the entry road or tucks road, but that was the case for a lot of participants anyways.

All good points. With more time to play with, and armed with what was learned this time, I have no doubt that we can make a better go of it.

[Quadzimodo]

Here is a simple timelapse shot from above using my sky cow. Unfortunately the quads are simply too small and too far away to make out, but it provides an idea of the setup on the day.