I’m keeping a running list of my flights on my LaTrax Alias quadcopter. This is starting from my first flight ever to about now, at 30 flights in. Each flight lasts about 10-15 minutes. I’m no expert, and I definitely needed a lot of practice.

Flight Log :

• 1 : Easy on the throttle management there !
• 2 : Terrified of hitting the sprinklers. Keeping it hovering a few cm off the ground for now.
• 4 : Can sustain a hover, facing me.
• 5 : Able to “hop” across the floor.
• 8 : Getting better at managing the throttle. Flew it from downstairs to upstairs a couple of times.
• 9 : Starting to hover in other orientations (facing away, sideways, etc…).
• 10 : Cranked up the rudder sensitivity to the max allowable on Easy mode (80%).
• 11 : Still crashing. Managed to fly it downstairs though.
• 12 : Rotors are starting to show a lot of scuffs from lots of crashes.
• 13 : Got that itch to take it outside, but still not confident yet. Settled for flying back and forth across the living room for now. A little bit shakey and a still few crashes.
• 17 : Took it outside for the first time in the evening. Flew it on an abandoned road with a bit of wind. Forecast said it was up to 20km/h. Had a bit of difficulty but was it ever fun flying it on Fast Mode.
• 18 : Took it outside in the daytime. There was less wind than previous flight but I got a bit carried away. Wind was a bit tricky and hard to tell the orientation in the daytime. Ended up getting caught in a tree and spent the rest of my lunch hour wading through the snow and climbing a tree – got it out though ! A bit sobering and I think I’ll work on flying it more at lower alt before going nuts again like this.
• 19 : Flew it around indoors, getting better at control.
• 20/21 : More outdoor night flying – easier to maintain orientation in the night because of the LEDs. Super fun !
• 22/23 : Windier outdoor night flying. Improved control and more fun ! Timed the flight at 9:08.
• 30 : Very comfortable flying it. Can pretty much make it go wherever I want it to go.

So after about 300 minutes or 5 hours of flying, I’m pretty confident in my abilities.

Where now ?

Now I’m looking at FPV implementations. Searching for a 25mW transmitter/camera combo along with trying to decide to go with googles or display on the receiver side. Most camera/transmitter/receiver/displays come out to around to another $300-500 more 🙁

So far, I’ve been eye-ing the Spektrum VA1100 camera/transmitter combo, which may simplify things though.

Add-on : Starting FPV

• 32 : Started FPV (First Person View) with the Spektrum VA1100 camera/transmitter and Fat Shark Teleporter goggles.
• 33/34 : Crashing a lot indoors – decided to take it outside. Having lots of fun.
• 37/38 : Rudimentary control outside, got stuck on a lower branch on a tree 🙁