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Windsurfer for long range

I purchased this similar model from Amazon, and finally had an opportunity to give it a good test last week.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013SL2GF4?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00

With my Inspire I'd usually experience video signal breakup and artifacts around 2000 ft, but with this I managed 8200 ft before any degradation. This was in the early morning hours, and from a mountain side overlook where I had perfect line of sight, but still very impressive for such an inexpensive item.
 
Careful to be sure to point your remote at the craft... With these reflectors, the tx becomes quite directional. Side-on and reverse transmission suffers

"Pinpoint" directional is how I would describe it, the further out you go with these, to be sure.
 
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Careful to be sure to point your remote at the craft... With these reflectors, the tx becomes quite directional. Side-on and reverse transmission suffers
Yes I know.I will only use this in open area's
 
With my Inspire I'd usually experience video signal breakup and artifacts around 2000 ft, but with this I managed 8200 ft before any degradation. This was in the early morning hours, and from a mountain side overlook where I had perfect line of sight, but still very impressive for such an inexpensive item.
2000 ft?Have been over 10000 ft with standard RC.But it depends where I am.But even in difficult terrain I have never been under 4000 ft.When I see the red signal coming I slow down a bit wait for green and things are ok again.
 
2000 ft?Have been over 10000 ft with standard RC.But it depends where I am.But even in difficult terrain I have never been under 4000 ft.When I see the red signal coming I slow down a bit wait for green and things are ok again.

I've certainly been able to go further than 2000 ft with a stock RC, but the intermittent video drop outs make filming anything of consequence difficult. The Windsurfer, while very directional, allows for a far more reliable signal even when flying less than 5000 ft away. At least for my Inspire. Many on the boards seem to get much better range out of their stock controllers than I do. That's the primary reason I looked into easy addon solutions like this.
 
Ok so I did a test this morning fairly calm winds (less than 5 mph) partly cloudy skies some sun. Launched from where I always do for consistency there a few trees nothing outrageous but not a wide open area. Stock form it went 600-800 ft then I got the red " weak signal " message (127ft H) put on the windsurfer 1,400 ft got weak signal but didn't lose complete signal , increased my height to 200ft. managed to get to 3,700 ft. flying by satellite pic because HD FPV signal was completely gone , then all signal lost completely blank screen , took a big gulp :( the remote started beeping then a message popped up RTH , I let it do it's thing when it got back within 1,200 ft I got FPV back and it landed safely. So here's my take on all this in wide open totally unobstructed areas (LOS flying) the inspire does well (I havnt gone miles but obviously many have) but in an area with a few trees etc.(not even buildings) it's not too hot in the range department. Now I didn't want to do this but compared to my stock phantom 2 in the exact spot I flew 2KM , then with my modded FPVLR remote I went 3.4 KM just the facts from my tests. Now the only thing I hav'nt played with is the manual channel thing it's on auto now where I guess it chooses the best channel for FPV viewing if anyone can chime in on this if theres a better way to get range with minor obstructions like trees (not a lot either) let me know. The one good thing is now I know the RTH function works as it should , very impressive.
 
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not a good idea to use the parabolic reflector on transmit antennas because impedance will shift and there can be harmful reflected power going back into the transmitter. Those work well on receive antennas , not transmit antennas.
We also got another record distance 8 miles + 8 miles back and 6.25 miles with no boosters on fpvlr V.2 kit
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Got to ask.
with T48 battery best I can get is about 17,100 feet one way... flying an average of 30 ish Mph. NO Wind.
And then return home 17,100 feet.
So that's about 6.6 miles round trip and land with 20% battery remaining.

How does someone fly over 8 miles out and 8 miles back = 16 miles round trip on a Inspire 1 ?
Is anyone else getting this kind of overall flight distance.

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Got to ask.
with T48 battery best I can get is about 17,100 feet one way... flying an average of 30 ish Mph. NO Wind.
And then return home 17,100 feet.
So that's about 6.6 miles round trip and land with 20% battery remaining.

How does someone fly over 8 miles out and 8 miles back = 16 miles round trip on a Inspire 1 ?
Is anyone else getting this kind of overall flight distance.

.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1449544495.654833.jpg
 
Cliepilot how do you get that distance are your channels on auto or do you manually select it , and that has to be flying over a remote area or over water.
 
Cliepilot how do you get that distance are your channels on auto or do you manually select it , and that has to be flying over a remote area or over water.
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correct. flying over water
I did the 32 channel patch
manually set once I find the best channel. wait about 10 seconds to ensure no interference .


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