BushmanLA Registered User Thread OP





After the first thermal flight posted here we went over to the farm to try and spot for feral hogs. We launched and everything was great except for the camera being tilted up slightly which made me fly tilted down all the time and well... you get the idea. Nothing broke, rice fields make a great cushion.



After that I made some major changes to the airplane. Better Dragonlink antenna setup. Better RVOSD anti vibration mount. And we made a camera mount for the daylight camera so we could quick change between it and the thermal cam.



I did lots of test flights with the daytime camera getting things trimmed and tuned and comfortable. The problem with the thermal camera is that it has a very narrow field of view compared to what we all fly AND it just makes the horizon a nasty blur. So I had to get used to flying with the RVOSD data on screen and trusting it.



We made another trip to the farm Friday and everything wen't ok. Did a daytime flight to survey damage.



Dehogaflier 8-12-11 LonePine Daylight Damage Survey (9 min 18 sec)



Then we did a dusk flight with the thermal. Very stressful. There anything out there but fields and trees and they are all pretty much the same temp! Add the tight field of view and it is very easy to get disoriented. Would be totally impossible without an OSD.



After that we landed, charged the batteries and had a smoke to calm my nerves. We launched again at around 10 pm. My copilot/spotter/communications officer used a spot light to help me take off. We have LED's on the wings and reflective tape so it wasn't too hard.

I found the flying much easier this time, I think the cool of night was helping. There was a decent wind blowing and at one time I was actually flying backwards according to the gps

We spotted a pig on the camera and shortly afterward my camera tilt servo died (stuck looking down!) so using RTH and the spotlight I landed it asap.



Dehogaflier 8-12-11 LonePine Thermal (2 min 45 sec)







We loaded up and converged on the pig's position a few mins with intent to do violence but it turned out to be a little deer taking a nap.



It was an exciting and exhausting night. Flying with that camera is HARD. Later on everyone else went home but I stayed to try and find the pigs the old fashioned way. I ended up falling asleep on the road only to be woken up an hour later by some big giant beast of a pig wallowing in the ditch a few yards from me. He ran away before I could get a shot off. This is how things have gone so far...After the first thermal flight posted here we went over to the farm to try and spot for feral hogs. We launched and everything was great except for the camera being tilted up slightly which made me fly tilted down all the time and well... you get the idea. Nothing broke, rice fields make a great cushion.After that I made some major changes to the airplane. Better Dragonlink antenna setup. Better RVOSD anti vibration mount. And we made a camera mount for the daylight camera so we could quick change between it and the thermal cam.I did lots of test flights with the daytime camera getting things trimmed and tuned and comfortable. The problem with the thermal camera is that it has a very narrow field of view compared to what we all fly AND it just makes the horizon a nasty blur. So I had to get used to flying with the RVOSD data on screen and trusting it.We made another trip to the farm Friday and everything wen't ok. Did a daytime flight to survey damage.Then we did a dusk flight with the thermal. Very stressful. There anything out there but fields and trees and they are all pretty much the same temp! Add the tight field of view and it is very easy to get disoriented. Would be totally impossible without an OSD.After that we landed, charged the batteries and had a smoke to calm my nerves.We launched again at around 10 pm. My copilot/spotter/communications officer used a spot light to help me take off. We have LED's on the wings and reflective tape so it wasn't too hard.I found the flying much easier this time, I think the cool of night was helping. There was a decent wind blowing and at one time I was actually flying backwards according to the gpsWe spotted a pig on the camera and shortly afterward my camera tilt servo died (stuck looking down!) so using RTH and the spotlight I landed it asap.We loaded up and converged on the pig's position a few mins with intent to do violence but it turned out to be a little deer taking a nap.It was an exciting and exhausting night. Flying with that camera is HARD. Later on everyone else went home but I stayed to try and find the pigs the old fashioned way. I ended up falling asleep on the road only to be woken up an hour later by some big giant beast of a pig wallowing in the ditch a few yards from me. He ran away before I could get a shot off.