Kwads May 2018

The line as May 2018.

Summer Flying Fidgeland

Early Summer in the Mountains

Mountain cabin season openers is probably a great time to visit post winter skiing crowds. It's quieter at this time of the year with typically no one else around in the area. It's perfect if you want solitude. Parts of the trail may still be snowed over but it's beautiful none the less. The animals like grouse (winter feathers), jack rabbit and lemmings are also sometimes more visible at this time.

The famed lemming, I saw a few of them this season some scurrying about the cabin.

Spring at Vaulen Beach in Early Summer

It's perhaps the busiest season for the birds ... looking for mates, seeking alliances, building nests and starting a family. Vaulen Beach is just down the hill from where we live, it's a small secluded patch of nature along Ganddal Fjord.

Maudal Flights Early Summer

The Thinsly Twins

The Thinsly twins are 260mm size kwads with a light aluminium shell, 4mm carbon arms with bottom loading battery bay. Both equipped with Foxeer F303 flight controller and Geprc PDB running Cleanflight.

Thinly Gold runs on Hobbywing 2205 1800KV motors with DYS DS30Amp BLHeli_S ESCs. It flies  very quietly and stable.

The Thinly Blue runs on Emax 2205 2300KV motors with Little Bee 40Amp BLHeli_S. It's also a stable flyer with a slightly higher noise than its twin brother.

Both craft uses Idealfly 5in triprops and Flysky IA6B receiver.

Thinsly Gold 260.

Thinsly Blue 260mm.

Terrible news : 1st total lost for the season

Our first total casualty this season. And Motland has taken a second drone. 

The first casualty here was the Hubsan H109s together with the Gitup Git2. This time an inadvertent half flip landed  the EX220 straight into the fast flowing snowmelt with a rocky bottom. 

The water level was high and the stream was flowing really strong on account of voluminous water from the snowmelt. It is a total loss since a rescue is out of the question as the situation stands now.

Parts loss tally:

EX220 Frame Nok250

Furibee MN2205 2300KV motors Nok240

Furibee BLHeli_32 30Amp ESC Nok280

Betaflight F3 Flight controller Nok 340

Hawkeye Firefly Micro camera  Nok220

Azure 5in two bladed props Negligible

Flysky X6B receiver Nok75

Total loss = Nok 1405

So long EX220, may you RIP in your last resting space. who knows if the water level goes down the next month or so, we'll see you again.

EX220 last pose.

CLICK ON THE LINK TO SEE FLIGHT VIDEOS OF EX220.

Bjorndalsnuten in May

This hike used to be our annual climb with family and sometimes friends. The first climb was attempted way back in 2012 when both Ali and Aisya also climbed with me.  Almost five years on, I am the only one left interested enough to attempt it. I absolutely love watching the clouds from the edge of Bjorndalsnutes (363m) ... the play of shadows and light on the ground as the clouds go about their business up above. So I tend to linger a while whenever I'm up here ...

New entrants this early in the season

Racer275 has been fully reburfished with a set of new DYS Samguk Wei 2600kv motors. It flew very well with new acquired vigour and quietness. Two of the original Sprot motors were burnt and beyond rescue.

Racer275 video flying sunny skies with new motors and recording with Onepaa X2000.

The Puda240 is still waiting on the bench, since it had BLHeli_32 previously which were possibly damaged by unfortunately the dunk into seawater I decided to refurbish the build with a new set of Hakrc 30amp BLHeli_32. One motor was replaced since I havent figured out how to replace an infinity clip on the original damaged motor 1. The Betaflight F3 FC was definitely damaged, it powered up fine on BF3.3 however currents are not flowing from the Lipo. Most likely the circuit breaker broke during the crash.

Meanwhile 4xnew racers were added to the stable, however these are destined for Spring 2019 season. Unless of course their build is fastracked for whatever reason. They are all larger long range frames.

Realacc Sphinx 275mm
DYS Samguk Wu 2206 2700kv motors

Realacc Martian-7 300mm
DYS Samguk Shu 2306 2300kv motors

I-Flight XL8 + Martian 2 Top n Bottom plates, 360mm
DYS Fire 2600 kv motors

Geprc Mark2-7 7 Inch 300mm
DYS Samguk Shu 2306 2800kv motors

Other than the I-flight XL8+Martian2 halfcaste, all the others are on DYS Samguk motors ... they had a green sale at Elefun the other week, NOK89/motor versus the usual NO119. It's NOK79/motor at Banggood always.

We shall see in the coming weeks whether these racers will make it to the air this season but we can be sure they can be build up in a day or two if ever the need arises.

New flight videos this week :

Genius 2 took up to the air with Quelima SQ12 recording 1080p.

Hakrc 220 flying in the Holmevika woods with Hubsan FPV cam recording 1080p.

XSR6 recording clouds with Gopro Session 5.

Hakrc 220 chasing clouds with the Hubsan.

Amax260 enjoting a bluesky flight with Hawkeye Firefly Micro recording 1080p.

EX220 flying the woods with Hawkeye Firefly Micro recording 1080p.