Chapter 1.
– Hey! There is a guy who comes to fly with his laptop and a camera on the plane! They say he lands looking at the computer.
– What are you saying? My son Pepe and I were preparing a flight test with Heli for aerial photography.
– It is not possible, I answered sure of myself, that cannot be done, it would break the plane on the first landing.
– Well, it just arrived, you will see …
– He is a member of the club? I don’t know him. Who is he?
-He must be new around here, it seems interesting, look at everything he’s riding.
Paco with his first Easy glider with a camera and the “cinema”
I approached with all the curiosity in the world, 28 years ago (we were in 2007) that I fly all kinds of bugs and that I had only seen in an old movie as a child, it was a dream, would it be possible? How did I not find out before? it will work?.
Paco was displaying what I would call shortly afterwards “the cinema” on the airfield. A laptop PC tucked into a cardboard box, cut out to make it easy to see the screen in sunlight, a simple tripod with a small antenna, an elapor sailboat with a small video camera, and some electronics on board, uuufff what is this?
A simple assembly and a determined pilot. I greet him and start to browse, without further ado, he puts the sailboat in flight and while it takes off I take advantage and look at the PC screen…. It was beautiful, simple and effective… very good impression, I was still hallucinating when he told me:
– You want to try?
– Really can I?
– Sure you do, sure you like it
– Well, let’s see …
My first FPV flight was with an Easy Glider and a PC. Two or three minutes with which I enjoyed like never before, it really captivated me, for a few days I didn’t think of anything else.
The following weekend was a wait. If Paco returned to the club, he would see that kind of flight again and maybe he would fly again. At last, he returned and installed his “cinema” with seats included for the assistants. I wasted no time and wandered around to beg for one more flight.
Paco’s “home theater”
Eager to share his discovery, he offered to fly me again. It was windy and when I left the Glider in flight, I was a bit disoriented. The sailboat was moving away while he advised me to return. When I wanted to realize I no longer had a command, I lost control and the plane fell far away. When I realized it, the station’s antenna was pointing to the ground. A good fright.
After 20 minutes of searching, we found the lost sailboat by faintly hearing the sound of the coverage failure alarm that she installed.
To be continue…
One comment
Francisco
Hey Pepe, I’m Paco. It was a pleasure to read this article. I remember those days of the beginning of FPV flights. We enjoied a lot, I would say , like kids with na new toy. Thanks for this articles, is nice to remember how all this started.
I want to go to Puzol , hope to see you soon.
Best regards.
Paco.