Scouting Using RC Aircraft Aerial Photos

[Critterhunter]

I've had a few people ask me about getting into the hobby of RC, which is a good match for most people who enjoy detecting IMHO. I would say that a great way to introduce yourself to this sport and tune your flying skills would be to pick up this great little plane called the Ember 2. It's made by Parkzone which is a respected company who offers good value (cheap) for your money. They also sell other micro front yard or indoor RC craft like this but I would suggest starting with the Ember. It's easier to fly with it's rudder/elevator controls and dihedral in the wing (wing bent up at the tips to help self-correct the plane in flight). It's so light that it will withstand many crashes with no damage in your front yard. I've wacked mine into cement doing stunts and only broke a prop here and there. All the replacement parts are cheap and can be found at most local hobby stores. If you mail order one I'd suggest getting extra props and prop shafts.

It will loop, roll, fly inverted (upside down), and can be slowed down to a pratical crawl if you feel like doing nice easy low flights just off the ground, yet will climb higher than you can see it. Do NOT fly it in any kind of wind at least until you learn to fly well. Best performance is in no wind or a very slight breeze, which I find near sun down always seems to happen. It's a great stress reliever to sit on the front porch and fly the thing around nice and soft like. It will go a good 10 to 15 minutes on a charge depending on throttle speed you are using.

You won't believe how tiny this thing is. The single cell lipo is just maybe twice as long as your fingernail. There are two versions of this plane. One comes with everything including transmitter, battery, and charger and is still south of $110 (I think they are around $80 now). I'd also suggest picking up one or two extra batteries so you can charge one while flying the other. A 110ma single cell lipo will give you longer run times than the 75ma one I think it comes with. The charger runs off 4 AA batteries so you can charge it in the field while flying. This thing also uses Spectrum technology which is a digital transmission to enhance control and range. Very impressive technology crammed into such a little thing. It's a pure blast to fly even for the seasoned RC pilot.

If you do buy one my only tips for learning to fly are don't mob the controls, don't mob the controls, and lastly don't mob the controls. In RC that's a common problem for new pilots. Little inputs to the stick by just tapping it and waiting for the reaction are what you want to do. Also, remember to kill the throttle on any crash right away. Try this thing out and I guarantee you you'll get more fun out of it in a week than you could ever buy for $80 elsewhere, at least if you aren't local to the famous chicken ranch.

 

[Critterhunter]

My next RC platform for doing aerial video scout work for potential metal detecting sites will be one of the following two platforms. Haven't decided which yet. The red dual boom pusher with the 6 foot wingspan (Prestone Coolant bottle in picture for scale comparison) I built a few years ago. Unfortunately it only survived to half way through it's maiden flight due to me programming the wrong set of control parameters in the computerized radio (my mistake). There wasn't enough deflection to retain control when banking into a steep turn. I've built smaller versions of this plane and they have shown great stability even at low speeds, which are ideal for video scouting, but the Predator is obviously a time tested design for the same application.

 

[Critterhunter]

One of these two wireless camera systems I threw together will be used for the live video feed to the ground station. Each has their own pros and cons. The 2 watt system features greater range and superior video quality, but it puts out such a strong transmission signal that it could cause problems with the plane's RX. I may have to mount the video transmitter on one wing tip and then counter balance it with a weight at the other to lesson the chance of a lock out.

 

[Critterhunter]

Synthnut, Kered, and others...Thought you'd like to see what else I'm using those Rhino 750ma lipo packs for. I always use 2250ma 3 cell lipos in my planes, but since I bought two of these 750ma Rhino lipos to power my GT (one at a time of course), I figured I'd design and build an RC plane to use those in when they are not being used for metal detecting.

My normal designs and builds I come up with tend to be on the heavy side due to all the strength mods I like to use on them. I hate nothing worse than a plane that falls apart on one hard landing or moderate crash, so I tend to build them real beefy to survive that sort of abuse. So, it's not typical for me to try to build a real light plane. Super light planes can only be flown on non-windy days for the most part. So, I figured if I was going to use something as light and small as a 750ma lipo, I might as well try to build a light plane to go along with it.

For that reason I decided I'd build a stick design using two carbon arrow shafts as the fuse. Can't get any lighter than that. Despite my intentions, I still had to put a few of my usual strength mods in, such as bambo skewers embedded in the flat foam tail to stiff that up. After all, I could burn a few ounces of weight with all of the weight I was saving with a carbon tube body. Using landing gear was also a first for me, or at least on any plane that I have in flying condition. Most of my planes just belly land, so I built some landing gear for this one.

The AUW (All Up Weight...Or what it was with battery installed and flying) was 15.9 ounces! That's very light for me. I did a wing loading calculation on it and my wing loading is about 7 ounces (based on the square surface area of the wing), where as none of my prior builds was less than about 10 or 12 ounces of wing loading. What that means is this plane will stay afloat at walking speed. It can float around with very little throttle for lazy flights just above the ground if I want. The design I came up with is half way between a floater type plane like that and a glider. The wing isn't quite as long and narrow as a glider (but close), yet it isn't quite as wide and short as a floater. It's a half breed, so it should both be able to float at super slow speeds and also ride some rising thermals like a glider can.

It's a lazy flyer for those calm summer days when I don't want to fly at 90mph like some of my planes can. Very relaxing slow/soft flying and some riding thermals with the motor off. Since this plane is so light and with such low wing loading it should ride the faintest of thermals. When you are riding those with no motor you can pretty much keep a plane in the air all day without landing if you want. In fact, yesterday on it's maiden (it flew real well!) it was obviously cold out but as it past the snow covered grass and flew over the black top parking lot the plane started to rise up from the warmer air rising from the parking lot. That's pretty impressive. I should have some real fun with this one.

Just thought you'd like to see what a lipo is normaly intended for and that it's not just for powering a metal detector. See the lipo slug under the fuse boom near the front? It's head in place via two velcro straps.

It's just a design I came up with in my head. The wing I hotwired from EPS foam. It has two carbon arrow shafts in it to strengthen/stiff that. The wingspan is 47". The prop will fold backwards when the motor is off, further decreasing drag...which it has very little of to begin with since it has no body to speak of.