Author: RCExplorer – David

Hi Guys! I’m back from my trip to Mexico!

Mexico is hot! Really, really hot. And humid. Luckily the hotel-rooms had AC ^^
The hotel we stayed at and did the aerial photography for was huge. They had two really big pools and a really big beach. Even though the hotel was booked to 90%, it didn’t feel like there were that many people there, which was nice.

My hotel-room was really nice. It had a real touch of luxury to it and I even had a Jacuzzi (which was awesome).

The week was far from trouble free though. The winds were really strong which didn’t make flying the tricopter easier. They manly wanted pictures of the resort, so we made that our priority. We strapped on a secondary camera which we set for continuous shooting and did over 30 flights in total.

Here is a sample of the pictures we took: (more…)

If you want to see me slapping Josh Bixler from Flitetest check out this video:

It was awesome!

I’m leaving for Cancun, Mexico in just 5 hours. The reason why I’m going there is because I got an offer to do some aerial video work for a 5 star hotel. In exchange Chad, Julie (Chads wife) and me are going to get one week all inclusive vacation down there.

The hotel were going to stay at and film is called Valentin Imperial Maya, and it looks like paradise. I look forward to getting some sun and hopefully see some Mayan ruins. See you in a week!

Ladies and gentlemen!
I give you my first FPV video from the United States of America:

The story behind the video:
I was talking to Chad about cool places to fly FPV around here, and he told me about an old abandoned factory/warehouse in Canton, Ohio. Which he thought would be perfect to get some cool shots at. The best part is that he just happened to know the owner.

So Chad, Christian (Chads son) and I jumped in the car and a couple of minutes later we arrived at this really derelict old warehouse. It looked so creepy even during the daylight. It was such a big place as well. There were multiple buildings with multiple floors with endless places to fly and get cool shots. Unfortunately it was to dark to get cool indoor footage with the gopro, so we did most of the flying outdoor.

At one point we climbed up to the roof. Chad brought his FT flyer and we had a blast. Chad flying his plane around over the rooftops and me trying to follow him with the tricopter. It was one awesome day.

The music in the video was created by one of Chads employees at StoneKap, Michael Camenet. He is just amazing when it comes to composing music and editing video and he was kind enough to make me a tune to use in the video.

I hope you guys like the higher tempo and flow of the video.
Be sure to tell me what you think.

Flitetest just released this teaser of SEFF 2011

It really portraits the awesomeness of SEFF in my opinion.

I’m back from my awesome trip to SEFF.

The drive down took nearly 18 hours, but that was mainly because we hit traffic a couple of times and maybe my 3 Tricopter flights didn’t help speed things up. Since we were 7 people in total plus gear and airplanes we took two SUV’s. I was in the car with Chad, the producer and Josh Bixler so we talked RC non-stop the entire way down, which made the trip seem a lot shorter than it was.

I have to give a shot out to FATZ, which is the restaurant where we had dinner. They are located right next to a giant water tower shaped like a peach (which was awesome to fly around with the Tricopter). And despite the name they had one of the best burgers I ever had and the people there were super nice.

The gigant peach.

We arrived at the hotel at 2 in the morning and we pretty much went straight to bed. The next morning we got up early, bolted down some breakfast and drove straight to Hodges field.

SEFF is big! The flight line was smaller than I expected but the camping area was way bigger. There were people everywhere and planes in the air as well as on the ground. The first couple of hours were just sensory overload for me. I didn’t know where to look or what to do. It was awesome.

EZ-up’s and planes right next to the flight line
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Tomorrow morning the Flitetest and I will be leaving for South Eastern Flying Festival (SEFF). We will be attending the event Friday and Saturday, meeting fans and interviewing interesting persons.

I’m so looking forward to it as Diggs on ATTF have been hyping it for 3 years. He is by the way one of the people I look forward to meeting there. Will any of you be attending? Hmm, most of you that are going will probably already be there, and not read this until you get back home ^^

Well if you see a guy in RCExplorer.se t-shirt be sure to say Hi.

Americans don’t have the blinds in between the two sheets of glass in their windows. In Sweden that’s more or less a standard.

Amaricans put cheese on everything and lots of it. Since I’ve arrived I think I’ve had like two meals without cheese.

Americans deep fry everything. Even cheese.

All stores are so huge. A hardware store is larger than an entire mall in Sweden.

Americans drive huge cars. I’ve only seen a handful of ”normal” sized cars. I was surprised the other day when I saw a H2 Humvee and didn’t react to the size of it. I think I’m getting used to everything being so big here.

Gas price is 1/3 of what it is in Sweden.

Americans worry too much. They should relax a bit.

You can start a conversation with anyone here. Americans love to talk with whom ever. I like that a lot.

The power-outlets in the US look like sad faces that are trying to say -”No, please don’t shove that thing into my eyes”

I feel bad every time I plug in a cable.

I love it here though. Times flies by and I’m trying to grab on to it as hard as I can.

Update: All boards are now sold out. I will not be making any more.

Hey guys, I just want to let you know that I have a couple of KapteinKUK multi-rotor flight-controllers flashed with Tricopter firmware ready for shipment. These are the last ones that I have and I will not be making any more flight controllers. This is the last batch.

Send me an e-mail if you’re interested, the price will be 1000SEK (about $158 with todays exchange rate) shipping included. I prefer payment through Paypal, unless you have a Swedish bank account.

I just want to make it clear that the flight-controllers comes with Tricopter firmware installed. I made the boards just before leaving for the US, and the boards are back home in Sweden with my wife, who will handle the shipping. As I brought the AVR programmer with me, she can’t change the firmware in the board.

First come, first served.

More info about the board can be found here
The setup guide for the board can be found here