FPV racer around and inside a train in Nevada.

Casey53 · Sep 25, 2017

Saw this on the news:

I was looking at the guy's interesting gear list under the Youtube video and his radio is some Futaba 18SZH 18 channel worth $1,100. I was wondering about his insane reception lock of the FPV racer both going inside the metal boxcar and between the tanker cars. I don't think DJI could hold onto a signal like it did.

Illegal or not, and perhaps being sped up on the video, guy's got some serious flying skills and darn good radio setup too.

AeroMirage · Sep 25, 2017

Off the hook!!!
That was crazy!!

Keule · Sep 26, 2017

I love the scene where the engineer sees the drone and shuts the window! LOL

Scoobywrx05 · Sep 26, 2017

I've seen some of their videos. I know only one person with the skills to do that around where I live and it isn't me. Lol. If that was a dji drone it would of crashed the first time it flew close to the train.

NickU · Sep 26, 2017

Keule said:
I love the scene where the engineer sees the drone and shuts the window! LOL

Yeah, he's either already had someone fly in & buzz him inside the cab, or he's thinking damned noisy little bugger that!

Casey53 · Sep 26, 2017

I'm still in awe of that Futaba radio's telemetry and signal lock.

A DJI radio setup would likely lead to a crash given all the metal surroundings and flying under the tanker car while it was moving, and in and out of the moving boxcar. I'm curious as to the range of it too given it is in the same 2.4GHz band. It has to hold a signal far better than DJI to fly the way he did. Should work far better around steel bridges too as he flew between the crossbeams and under them.

DJI needs to fix their radios to the level of the FPV guys with their Futabas. Too many "Found drone. Call to identify." fly-aways being reported in the Phantom forum given that they should RTH with signal loss....maybe. DJI isn't quite there yet.

Scoobywrx05 · Sep 26, 2017

Casey53 said:
I'm still in awe of that Futaba radio's telemetry and signal lock.

A DJI radio setup would likely lead to a crash given all the metal surroundings and flying under the tanker car while it was moving, and in and out of the moving boxcar. I'm curious as to the range of it too given it is in the same 2.4GHz band. It has to hold a signal far better than DJI to fly the way he did. Should work far better around steel bridges too as he flew between the crossbeams and under them.

DJI needs to fix their radios to the level of the FPV guys with their Futabas. Too many "Found drone. Call to identify." fly-aways being reported in the Phantom forum given that they should RTH with signal loss....maybe. DJI isn't quite there yet.

Legal reasons of wattage output is my guess. I'm sure his radio and fpv set up are over legal limits of the FCC. I can put my i1 on the back deck of my house and go sit in my workshop which is on the front side of the house and take off and fly to the front side of my workshop. So at start up signal is going thru 3 walls or up thru the roof and back down. I also have a metal roof on my place.

Casey53 · Sep 26, 2017

Scoobywrx05 said:
Legal reasons of wattage output is my guess. I'm sure his radio and fpv set up are over legal limits of the FCC. I can put my i1 on the back deck of my house and go sit in my workshop which is on the front side of the house and take off and fly to the front side of my workshop. So at start up signal is going thru 3 walls or up thru the roof and back down. I also have a metal roof on my place.

That could be part of it. The antenna when he landed looks like some sort of T-shaped affair and not like the stock one. I see Futaba was his sponsor so maybe they gave him some aid too.

Another thing is the FPV's don't have all the GPS/GEO and compass stuff so they can probably navigate around metal objects better too.

I was also curious of how close he was to that engineer who closed the window.

From his gear list, he listed the camera as this 1/3" sensor with a 150 degree field of view: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...6V8YZ&linkId=d52d13ffd16f2576c0363f34d4a74518

Using this field of view calculator for a 1/3" sensor and getting to their claim of a 150 degree angle of view ( Depth of Field, Angle & Field of View, & Equivalent Lens Calculator - Points in Focus Photography{%22c%22:[{%22f%22:0,%22av%22:%221.8%22,%22fl%22:0.8,%22d%22:1219}],%22m%22:0} ) I had to use a 0.8mm lens. At four feet, it would give one a 24' horizontal view of the train's lead engine so the FPV drone was pretty close to the cab to alert the engineer. The guy may have been able to swat at it if any closer.

So he was very, very close to the train do do the video with that camera setup. Probably not that much clearance between the steel bridge and train either to fly between them. Thing must be a flying gnat and some razor sharp reflexes of the pilot.

Fwiw, the guy won 1st place in recent Great Lakes Cup Championship too. If you want to see his take-off location, it's here as we've used it for butt-breaks on motorcycle rides from Truckee, CA to Reno, NV along I-80: 39.482921 -119.993854 His range check was .55 miles and distance to the bridge is about 500 feet so not that far, just the wide-angle makes it appear further. His training video shows some of them riding in a van following two flat bed semi-trucks with hoops on them to practice flying at moving objects, courtesy of Futaba too.

Eric Braun · Sep 30, 2017

The video we see is certainly recorded on the craft. But I'm surprised he can control it with a standard radio. It's a real testament to Futaba's technology. I though he HAD to be running a 433MHz long distance radio of some sort.