Up, Up in the Air in my Rudimentary Looking Quadcopter

Monday February 21, 2011 at 11:29 pm | Filed under Hobbies, Projects, Quadcopter

The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious.  And why shouldn’t it be? – it is the same the angels breathe.  ~Mark Twain

Okay that may be a bit heavy, but I gotta say… it was quite a thrill to push forward on that throttle stick and have the quad lift off for the first time. Don’t confuse that with the quad being successful on its first attempt. But it was close. A couple of settings tweaks later and it was flying pretty well, even with my lack of experience at the controls. We got some late afternoon flying in and Monique, Brenna, Vork and Michael were there for moral support, successful flight ro not. Actually Vork might have been there to mock me if it didn’t work. Not sure.

So no pictures today, as the whole build was really completed yesterday. But what I do have for you today is a incredibly quickly thrown together video of some of the highlights. **Spoiler Alert** there’s a big crash at the end!

The crash was from about 35-ish feet and it snapped off two of the “landing gear” which were temporarily attached with servo tape and a couple of tie-wraps. OR you can say that they were engineered to break away in the case of a rough landing. Yeah, let’s say that. At any rate, damage was cosmetic and had we heeded the incessant beeping of the “low battery warning alarm” (whatever) that had been going off for around 30 seconds, then we probably could have avoided this. I was just getting started though! Somehow batteries seemed optional when I was lost in flight. Wrong.

The quad has been dubbed the “VorkMike Mark 1″ after the three guys that donated most, in money, time, and interest. Also, much thanks to Monique for putting up with me taking on a new hobby somewhat out of the blue and putting in some nights of work in the garage. I’m leaving for Florida tomorrow morning and I’ll be back Sunday, so no flying my quad until I get back, I guess. Glad we got it off the ground today!

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3 Responses to “Up, Up in the Air in my Rudimentary Looking Quadcopter”

  1. A.N. Says:
    February 22nd, 2011 at 8:12 am

    Good thing you waited to send up a camera!

  2. Joe Says:
    February 22nd, 2011 at 9:02 am

    I actually think that would have made an awesome shot from onboard! GoPro power!

  3. Jon Says:
    February 24th, 2011 at 5:17 pm

    Awesome! Wish I could’ve been there for that. It’s inspiring, for sure. Looking forward to more videos!