05-29-2010, 08:26 PM
While all of us thoroughly enjoyed meeting up in L'Aigle earlier this month we discussed the possibility of doing a meeting in a place a little more "different" for FPV. So I volunteered to put together a weekend "meet & fly" at my place in lovely St. Anton am Arlberg, Austria - the place most of you already know from my vids.
There will be FPV meetings all over Europe this summer, but this one will set itself apart by being strictly for FPV flyers. If vendors are present, they are free to talk about their equipment, bring it along and sell it from their cars, but there will be no official stands, no banners - just a couple of FPV folks enjoying the essence of FPV: flying!
We have a few locations for flight, with weather determining which one to visit. We have a R/C field at our disposal and I will reserve it for one day so that there will be no 2.4GHz R/C transmitters present to ruin our videos. It's a registered R/C field so normally regular R/C rules apply and we will need to respect them so they do not get into problems (there are no flight zones and no altitude restrictions, but let's not buzz the village at 150mph in 2m altitude, ok?
)
The other locations are on the mountains and may require purchasing a cablecar ticket (about 20 EUR) at the reward of having ~10 miles clear LOS over beautiful peaks and mountain lakes. There are about 10 different locations and 2 days at our disposal, so we will pick whichever we like best collectively or split up the groups and everyone can enjoy what they prefer the most.
Planes & Pilots
Obviously you are free to bring just about any plane you'd like. My recommendation is on big gliders and generally more heavy birds, though, as it will allow you to enjoy the thermals and scenery without having to worry about winds too much. Also keep in mind you will launch at a minimum altitude of 1300m above sea level. Your plane will fly faster and climb slower given the same prop. My suggestion is to increase the pitch of your prop by 1" when flying here.
Anyone is free to participate, but I do recommend having a few hours of FPV on your back and having successfully done a few long range flights (no, anything below 3km/2mi is NOT considered long range). Remember, if you crash your plane on a peak, the chances of retrieval without organizing an expedition are very slim. Your cars will not drive you to the top of the mountains, so you'll spend a day's walk just getting to the place your plane crashed. Landing can be pretty tricky too, sometimes the runway is a patch of grass 45 degrees steep.
Accomodation
Our place is a mountain resort, so accomodation is not a problem. You may organize a place to stay yourself or ask me to do it for you. I will book you at my grandmother's apartment house where one bed is 40 - 45 EUR including breakfast. You can bring your wife, girlfriend, kids, there is enough place for everyone. If you call at the tourist office (+43 5446 22690, open 8 - 18) they can direct you at other hotels, maybe also for a cheaper price (quality of the rooms usually matches the price, so don't think I'm ripping you off or something )
Rules
Even though this is a pretty easy-going event, there are few rules in place in order for everyone to enjoy the experience to the max.
* No 2.4GHz R/C. It pollutes the 2.4 band and prevents anyone else from flying
* Everyone gets a frequency. This means the amount of people taking part is limited to the amount of frequencies. So reserve yours early if you want to come. Once a frequency is taken, it is not allowed to be re-used. This will enable anyone to just turn on their equipment without having to worry about downing another plane. This applies to video channels and R/C channels.
* No EagleTree equipment. We are good friends with the mountain rescue squad who will help retrieve our planes in case there are crashes in unreachable places. I don't want to strain that relationship too much
Date & Registration
We have a couple of dates at our disposal. I'd like to poll first who's interested in coming and when they are available. Then we'll allot the frequencies and worry about accommodation. Put your RCGroups username here. The registration will close in 1 week (June 6th)
http://doodle.com/uh5cpfnt5uu7xkey
There will be FPV meetings all over Europe this summer, but this one will set itself apart by being strictly for FPV flyers. If vendors are present, they are free to talk about their equipment, bring it along and sell it from their cars, but there will be no official stands, no banners - just a couple of FPV folks enjoying the essence of FPV: flying!
We have a few locations for flight, with weather determining which one to visit. We have a R/C field at our disposal and I will reserve it for one day so that there will be no 2.4GHz R/C transmitters present to ruin our videos. It's a registered R/C field so normally regular R/C rules apply and we will need to respect them so they do not get into problems (there are no flight zones and no altitude restrictions, but let's not buzz the village at 150mph in 2m altitude, ok?
)The other locations are on the mountains and may require purchasing a cablecar ticket (about 20 EUR) at the reward of having ~10 miles clear LOS over beautiful peaks and mountain lakes. There are about 10 different locations and 2 days at our disposal, so we will pick whichever we like best collectively or split up the groups and everyone can enjoy what they prefer the most.
Planes & Pilots
Obviously you are free to bring just about any plane you'd like. My recommendation is on big gliders and generally more heavy birds, though, as it will allow you to enjoy the thermals and scenery without having to worry about winds too much. Also keep in mind you will launch at a minimum altitude of 1300m above sea level. Your plane will fly faster and climb slower given the same prop. My suggestion is to increase the pitch of your prop by 1" when flying here.
Anyone is free to participate, but I do recommend having a few hours of FPV on your back and having successfully done a few long range flights (no, anything below 3km/2mi is NOT considered long range). Remember, if you crash your plane on a peak, the chances of retrieval without organizing an expedition are very slim. Your cars will not drive you to the top of the mountains, so you'll spend a day's walk just getting to the place your plane crashed. Landing can be pretty tricky too, sometimes the runway is a patch of grass 45 degrees steep.
Accomodation
Our place is a mountain resort, so accomodation is not a problem. You may organize a place to stay yourself or ask me to do it for you. I will book you at my grandmother's apartment house where one bed is 40 - 45 EUR including breakfast. You can bring your wife, girlfriend, kids, there is enough place for everyone. If you call at the tourist office (+43 5446 22690, open 8 - 18) they can direct you at other hotels, maybe also for a cheaper price (quality of the rooms usually matches the price, so don't think I'm ripping you off or something
)Rules
Even though this is a pretty easy-going event, there are few rules in place in order for everyone to enjoy the experience to the max.
* No 2.4GHz R/C. It pollutes the 2.4 band and prevents anyone else from flying
* Everyone gets a frequency. This means the amount of people taking part is limited to the amount of frequencies. So reserve yours early if you want to come. Once a frequency is taken, it is not allowed to be re-used. This will enable anyone to just turn on their equipment without having to worry about downing another plane. This applies to video channels and R/C channels.
* No EagleTree equipment. We are good friends with the mountain rescue squad who will help retrieve our planes in case there are crashes in unreachable places. I don't want to strain that relationship too much
Date & Registration
We have a couple of dates at our disposal. I'd like to poll first who's interested in coming and when they are available. Then we'll allot the frequencies and worry about accommodation. Put your RCGroups username here. The registration will close in 1 week (June 6th)
http://doodle.com/uh5cpfnt5uu7xkey
