Hi all,

My name is Steve Lange, but I go by surfimp online. I have been into RC for about 30 years now, super passionate about it ever since I was a kid, begging my dad to get me an RC plane. Now I am a dad, and fortunate that my two sons (ages 10 and 12) fly RC with me

I mainly focus on slope soaring, though I have been messing around with quads since the early 2000s when I got to fly a Draganflyer for the first time (it sucked!). I have experience with electric planes, cars and micro helis as well. In 2012 I got a Blade mQX with which I mastered basic LoS quad flying. I also have a nanoQX. They are both much better than the Draganflyer, LOL!

Original Draganflyer


For as long as I've been involved with RC, and aircraft in general, flying aerobatics has been my passion. Aerobatic slope gliders, especially so. In 2006 I designed the Le Fish EPP aerobatic slope glider. I released the plan open source and it's been sold as a kit ever since, with manufacturers on every continent releasing their own versions of the plane. I also run the website SlopeAerobatics.com and the VTPR and Slope Aerobatics Facebook group.

Here's my most popular video to date featuring Le Fish, to give an idea of what I'm about:


In 2007 I got captivated by the idea of aerial video and got my HAM license. I did some basic stuff but the components were really expensive and not very good back then. By 2012 I was getting psyched about FPV again, and got a 5.8ghz setup with Fat Sharks for use on a Radian. I got into quads after the mQX came out and made it easy, but I held off on building a bigger quad because it was really hard to get a CC3D flight control board, which seemed like the best for what I wanted to do. I had my heart set on a Hoverthings FPV frame... lol.

Hoverthings FPV frame circa 2012:



Anyways, to make an already too-long story a bit shorter, recently I came across some freestyle FPV multirotor videos and was really stoked. I said to myself, "These guys get me!" and knew I had to finally get a quad put together. Have spent a couple weeks researching, flying Liftoff, and just getting stoked on how good everything has gotten in this space, especially since 2014/2015 or so. It's rad!

Sorry for the wall of text, but I really like what I've seen from this forum so far and will surely be dropping a bunch of newb questions soon.

Stoked!
Steve

Welcome to the forum Steve! This forum is full of very helpful people.

I don't think I've ever seen 'slope gliders' before, very cool!

Welcome Steve!  Good to have you here!  You may be a "newb" to FPV multirotors, but I'm really looking forward to what you will be bringing to intoFPV.  You've already started - great stuff!! 

Welcome to the forum Steve! Multirotors are a very fast moving part of the hobby these days and the advances in both hardware and software over the last few years have been very exciting indeed.

Slope soaring with Le Fish looks like lots of fun! When learning slope soaring, is there lots of climbing involved to retrieve your plane from half way down the cliff?

Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone

(06-Sep-2017, 07:46 AM)unseen Wrote: Slope soaring with Le Fish looks like lots of fun! When learning slope soaring, is there lots of climbing involved to retrieve your plane from half way down the cliff?

Yes, there can be lots of walking / hiking / climbing / rappelling to get planes when they crash! But the upside is that the flying spots are almost always very beautiful. I just got back from a trip to France last month where we visited the Alps and Pyrenees to fly... it was a longtime dream and it exceeded expectations!

Typical spot in the French Alps... unreal scenery.

Hi Steve and welcome.  You have some serious skills there.  When I was much younger I flew RC sailplanes, but nothing like that.  I may have to give it a shot...again.   Thanks you for sharing!

WOW!! I have never see aerobatics like that from something without a motor, (not that I can do aerobatics like that but) suddenly it feels like I'm cheating..! Brilliant!

Of course you get a huge welcome from me Steve, I look forward to seeing more slope gliding. 
What battery do you use on your gliders? Did I see an FPV cam on the plane in your 1st video(?) and how does flying FPV affect your ability to read the wind? and a million other questions! 
For now, just a big welcome and I hope you enjoy your time at into FPV as much as I do.

Yeah that's some radical flying, already looking forward to any miniquad FPV videos of yours!

Heh, thanks guys I grew up in SoCal and surfing and skateboarding are really strong influences on my approach to flying. 2011-2014 was a big time for advancement in our gliders, they got a lot lighter, a lot more durable and a LOT more maneuverable.

Railslides, flips, etc.:


It seems like that period, for us, was similar to what happened in 2014-2016 for FPV quads.

But anyways, back in 2008 I was dreaming of an aerobatic slope glider that could fly forward and backwards, flip, etc.... sound familiar?



Today we (the slope aerobatics hobby) finally have a really good glider - the Dream-Flight Ahi - that takes only an hour to build and flies really well. But it took years of putting out videos, forum interactions, etc. to get our little corner of reality to this point. Things move slowly in gliders... it's a tiny market, location- and weather-dependent, etc. Quads are much easier to garner mass appeal.



So, suffice to say, when I stumbled across videos by Charpu & etc. I was super hyped. This stuff is right up my alley

Thanks again for the warm welcome. Prepare to be bombarded with newbie posts! LOL

Steve

(06-Sep-2017, 06:27 PM)Tom BD Bad Wrote: What battery do you use on your gliders? Did I see an FPV cam on the plane in your 1st video(?) and how does flying FPV affect your ability to read the wind? and a million other questions!

We mostly run NiMH and LiFe chemistries, as (at least in the past) there was a lot of concern around potential fire hazards with lipos. Remote locations, often covered in tall dry grass, the chance of frequent and very strong crashes... and no advantage to the weight savings lipos offer, as we need an often substantial amount of noseweight to balance the planes.

I have done some FPV on the slope, using a GoPro Hero2, 5.8ghz downlink and Fat Shark Aviators.



However, in the video you're referring to, I was experimenting with an old 808 keychain camera. Results were OK, though I think mounting it on the tail didn't work out so well... lol.



Anyways, flying slope via FPV is a little tricky, as you are often flying at a "crab" angle to the slope... probably a pan-and-tilt setup with headtracking would be very beneficial, and in fact my renewed interest in FPV (and possibly adapting it to slope aerobatics flying) began there. Then I saw what was being done with FPV quads and I realized that multirotors were essentially the ultimate pan-and-tilt system for cameras

So, yes, I'd like to do some more FPV slope soaring, but in terms of the resulting "product", I suspect an FPV quad copter flying on the slope - and filming slope gliders doing aerobatics while doing quad freestyle aerobatics itself - will be even cooler. And more importantly, I'm just stoked on this approach to flying. Quadcopters are VTOL perfected, and come the closest of any flying craft currently invented to capturing that feeling of flying in dreams... at least for me

Steve

Welcome surfimp, we are always lucky to have new people with such diverse backgrounds in the hobby and related hobbies! Your videos are amazing for sure!

It'll be amazing how all of that experience reflects your freestyle flight! Something tells me that you are going to have a bit of a head start with the learning curve and we'll all be learning from you in no time :p but no pressure lol.

Your videos mesmerize me

Welcome to the forums!

Welcome!
Like your vids, for some reason "gliding" was in my head as high altitude and relatively boring.
Seeing you doing this stuff gave me some new perceptive

Thanks for the kind words, Fint and everyone else!

Here's a new one... it's pretty high altitude (it's in the Alps!) and I'll let you be the judge of whether it's boring



All my quad gear has shown up, and I did some more FPV on the weekend. Just waiting on my solder station.

(21-Sep-2017, 02:48 PM)surfimp Wrote: I'll let you be the judge of whether it's boring

officially judging: not boring! great video.