My First UAS

20120119 - Ready 2.jpg

A few things to point out before we get started:
1) this was back in 2012… when you couldn’t just buy an aircraft with an autopilot, and smart phones with useful screens were just becoming a thing,.
2) Is it strange that just a few year later I would actually own a Cessna 182 much like this one?

Basic Package:

So to get started in my RC hobby I ended up purchasing a (well… three over the couple of years I was at this) foam Cessna 182 aircraft and learned how to fly the old fashioned way, by looking at it from the outside. Both the ral aircraft and this little foamy thing are actually really good performers, and heavy lifters. Learning was quick and then it was on to the modifications.

Setup:

The primary modification was the installation of a large battery, upgraded prop motor, and the range video FPV autopilot package. In the land before store bought drones this involved a lot of cutting of foam to make room for everything, balsa to make a sub structure that would hold it, and then hacking it all in. Then weigh the aircraft, check balance and readjust everything. The installation worked out well, through the windscreen you can see the FPV camera, and on the left the GPS antenna. Jammed up against the pilots window you can see the PCB for the unit, and in the back oddly where the ELT antenna on a real aircraft would be, is the radio transmitter for the video feed.

This is all analog, so their’s a fair amount of Radio Shack (remember that place?) adapters to go from this feed to that. Also, the receiver was analog. So my ground station consisted of a tripod to hold the remotely mounted antenna somewhere high and useful and a standard coax back to literally a TV sitting in the seat of the truck. Kids these days don’t appreciate the struggle.

Flight Test

I remember it being a frightful first flight. I actually flew the vehicle by eye, just because that’s how I knew how to fly it, and only checked back at the screen every so often. It was cold, lightly snowing, and I couldn’t wait.

As the weather got better, so did I. Eventually I would learn to fly that little plane solely though the FPV, performing aerobatic maneuvers, scale private pilot maneuvers, and at one point even a brief bit of IFR. Just a hunk of foam, balsa wood and some fairly crude electronics and I had my first airplane. I flew the heck out of it until I tried the autopilot features that resulted in a stall/spin/big rock situation. Most of the parts are recovered, and maybe one day this little Cessna will take to the sky again.

Previous
Previous

I always wanted to be a pilot.