Narrated Skyhunter FPV Into the Night, almost broke it! lol

[@MrSteve2714740]

That has gotta be the FPV video I’ve ever seen by far. I was on the edge of my frigging seat for the journey home. Your defo need runways lights putting up and do some more night flights. Epic vid buddy you should be proud of yourself for staying as calm as you did.

[@coreyperez13]

I'm a retired Military Rotary Wing pilot. I puckered when you lost altitude and REALLY puckered on your landing. Good job!

[@phoeij]

And there I am flying 1 KM and almost having a heart attack, while you are out tens of KM's, when it's dark, managing to find your runway using a flashlight, landing softly AND saving your plane like it's nothing. Man! Well done!!

[@GlitchyFPV]

Both the best and worst part of long-range flying is when " a routine flight " suddenly becomes a completely unplanned flight. Its the most intense thing in the moment, but once its over, its one of those things you appreciate. 100% pilot skill here. Subscribed, keep it up dude.

[@bonafidepirate]

lol I couldn't agree more!

[@100SteveB]

This is a clear case of needing to put in some runway lights! 😁 But seriously, nicely saved, that got a way bit sketchy towards the end there with the altitude. I absolutely love flying my multi-rotors at night, but have not dared to fly my fixed wings once it gets too dark, I have two approach patterns I can use for landing, one is down a steep hill with a tree line along the top, and a high hedgerow down one side - along with a lot of wire fencing. The other way is even more exciting with the added bonus of power lines and poles to avoid, along with a couple of barns to scoot past. If it was not for that I would love to do some night flying with the fixed wings, would finally justify the high intensity led nav lights i have on Ranger. I think what you need Keith is a couple of high intensity flashing beacons you can place outside if needed - just to help you find your way to the ground safely in the event of any future mishaps with camera settings!

[@jhughes2286]

No we love to hear you narrate the flights! Love your videos keep it going!

[@ezalku]

nice video capture, time to put some led on the runway and on skyhunter

[@aerofpv2109]

Those FPV night returns are so cool as one can use there OSD for assistance but I find it much easier with the skyhunter. With a proper setup they literally fly themselves. Kudos Kieth.

[@bonafidepirate]

Definitely! Having a well tuned and tested OSD/AP is what saved this one. Without it I would not have flown the plane back, it would be out there in the fields somewhere right now... lol

[@aerofpv2109]

So glad it worked out man. Your builds are a testament to your superb FPV flights. Stay great and I'll be up soon. I took a break this summer as my 5 year old is now old enough to have great adventures with. Hes the future FPV pilot and who knows what will be out then haha. Cheers

[@s.w.warbirds4126]

Just came across your channel very cool . I have been flying a couple of years now and just starting getting into FPV as in just ordered my gear that comes Monday and going to start with Opterra . I'm a landscaper and really like your runway . Since I'm new here I looked for another video of the runway being lit :( Rope lites are cheap and and would be easy with little cost to lite that puppy up ! Couple of blinking beacons out by trees you fly through coming in up ? Nice job on getting her home !

[@captaintripps7354]

I never tire of your narrations. Excellent piloting skills and excellent flight!

[@bonafidepirate]

Thanks for the kind words!

[@caymanhilldesigns453]

I have watched tis video so so so many times... Love it. Its a classic in my eyes. Better than any drama on TV by far.

[@danielhowsare778]

I bought a strobe light to mount on my mini talon. Dang that was close, glad you got back safe. Good thing you're flying in familiar territory

[@alasdair4161]

Awesome gripping video... you performed an ILS with zero visibility, I have done same, but with pitlab it's easy, as it paints your runway with a glideslope indicator, whereas you just descended into total blackness! At least you had the bare essentials to get you back home. Great work... and plane saved.

[@jeepman012]

Nice Commentary, You did the right thing keeping cool, Most flyers would have just got the Skyhunter on the ground, one thing I have on all my Planes is Navigation lights, HobbyKing have a Turnigy set and they are Very bright, Happy Flying.

[@SuperVette05]

Just watched this video for about the 20th time. still one of my favorites as I have come home in the dark and it's pretty hard to stick a landing like you did. Nice job.

[@spartan3299]

Reminds me of an incident during the Gulf War. I was a medic riding night medivac in a huey UH1-d. We all were under 2nd generation night vision goggles searching for a flashlight being waved when I looked at the panel and noted the radar altimeter sinking past 20 ft agl! I yelled pull up in the intercom and the PIC pulled up to a nice hover before continuing the search with an eye on the radar altimeter. Tough seeing the ground until yours really close. Lesson learned.

[@bonafidepirate]

That sounds pretty crazy! I can't imagine being in that situation, it's bad enough sitting on the ground watching a little screen, being onboard must be pretty wild... lol

[@probante]

This video recalls to my mind when I was in the same situation at night and lost some time searching for my flash light in order to help myself during landing. By the time I grabbed it, I lost contact with my plane and started freaking out. Well, after a good 2 minutes looking at the black sky I realized that she made all by herself and landed few meters from some trees. Lucky minor scratches....

[@bonafidepirate]

lol Sounds fun, not at the time but after it was all over with at least... :D

[@caymanhilldesigns453]

Watching this again in 2021. Better than anything on TV

[@GNRFreak69]

Awesome flying!

[@smoothvirus]

Nice save! You should check out the PitLab OSD you can setup an ILS approach right into your backyard runway.

[@transgenerations]

That would be perfect for Keith Cy....

[@awuma]

Have you used Pitlab? I live close to the producer, and there are people here who love his stuff. I saw the OSD in operation yesterday, looks very nice indeed.

[@davidclark2733]

This makes a good case for having LED strobe lights on both the aircraft and the ground station !!

[@andym5195]

real cool stuff, runway lights next?

[@andresmoks7272]

Want to see more videos like this! Such mishaps are something everyone can learn from, it does not always have to be your own. But no-one wants to share their failures..

[@PaulMorley1]

Would have been crazy if you had forward flood lights on the SH to have turned them on right there at the end when you realized the altitude and you were only 9 ft off deck. Great Vid!! I was on the edge of my seat. :)

[@bonafidepirate]

Yeah I'd love to have some good lights on there! lol

[@alexandrpetrov1110]

Thank you!

[@solarpall]

Nice job! I have been working on installing lights in my sky hunter in case this happens to me. This would allow for a visual landing instead of doc landing. It is time for you to get a night vision camera on the S.H. and do a review! That would be very cool.

[@bonafidepirate]

I would LOVE to have FLIR on there. I've looked into it more than once, but dang! $$$$$

[@Dru180sx]

Legendary flight.

[@steinne]

Great video, thanks for sharing the story behind it......

[@robertasjuscius1092]

That was an next level visual aproach, you can build an LED lit runaway that would be a great idea :))

[@pavelrafique108]

WoW! how did you do that! great job!

[@Starbuckin]

I was like Oh NO when I saw your altitude down to 8 feet! I'm currently building a Skyhunter for night missions only (the "Nighthunter" and plan on using the Runcam Night Eagle. If you had that camera in this situation you probably would have had plenty of light to land just fine without runway beacons. It would be a good idea to install some runway lighting, strips that can be rolled out on the ground and quickly deployed in an emergency like this. Installing permanent light will just be a mowing nightmare. Glad you didn't crash up your girl bro, you had to have been VERY close to contacting the ground.

[@jaspreet_dhanjal]

Wow thats some amazing story 😍

[@jetrg12]

wow, that would have been really stressful, great save here! Maybe you could request a feature enhancement to eagletree, like Marcin below suggested, defining the runway on the vector and then to be able to line up with it :-)

[@bonafidepirate]

Defintely! Can you imagine if they used the "SkyGates" stuff to set up an approach? Fly through the boxes to stay on course to your landing. I would LOVE to see that implemented. Maybe we can rally up enough support for it and convince the guys at Eagle Tree! lol

[@probante]

bonafidepirate try PITLAB AP. It has all the feature for nightfly ( runway, autoland etc etc)

[@rkornilo]

You probably know by now but they have added the sky gates feature.

[@greatgandalf5233]

Good video thanks...

[@twinturbostang]

Wow. Glad you got it back. Was watching your altitude at that last turn and it went really low! What if you did a fly-over first to get your bearings and see how much light you'd have to land. And then come around and do the landing?

[@bonafidepirate]

I had pretty much decided I had one shot to get it right... lol There was no light at all, at least not enough to see anything more than the couple of street lights and my flashlight for reference. Everything else was just going off the mental picture I had of everything having landed here so many times. :)

[@icp-trek]

Great job! Runway lights next then :)

[@mlentsch]

Compelling! I missed this one back in '17.... better times!

[@bonafidepirate]

Definitely better times! lol

[@imba2484]

wow... thats why I have some navigation lights on my fx-61. I can switch them on and land by line of sight flying. have you thought of setting up skygates as a landing aid?

[@bonafidepirate]

I never even thought of using Skygates for that, until someone else mentioned a ILS landing aid in another comment. Can you actually set up Skygates with a fixed wing model? I've never even read the documentation for it, just wrote it off as another quad feature that I'll never use... lol I'm definitely going to look into that now. Sounds like a fun project!

[@imba2484]

bonafidepirate I think I saw a video somewhere on KZbin it being used on a fixed wing. I don't know why it wouldn't work. I just think that it's not possible to turn it on or off during flight, that would be a major issue for the rest of the flight when you don't need it.

[@austntexan]

Congrats on getting her down safely! Great video!

[@Stormin13]

Nice save dude

[@timothybolton]

Really dig the narrated videos. Glad you made it back ok. Looks like it's time for a lighted runway. Maybe some nice battery operated LED edge markers? Shouldn't be to hard to make. 👍👍👍

[@jameswiser]

This was interesting. Options that come to mind are outfighting your Plane with a bright light / beacon that you can toggle on via radio switch and then transition from FPV to line of sight to land it. Telemetry alerts would help as well. Would that have worked ?

[@bonafidepirate]

Possibly! I considered a LOS landing, but when I ran out to reposition the flash light I could hear the plane coming overhead, but couldn't see it. Lights would have helped, but I'd need more than just a strobe. I would need enough lights for some kind of orientation.

[@stevietee10]

@@bonafidepirate Red, Green wing tip lights, white LED strip down the fuselage bottom edge should do it nicely :-)

[@heliovespa]

good job.merci beaucoup

[@ricksquebecrc4627]

yeah , like matt said phew !!!! wonderful flight , the best i`ve seen so far and your video is very clear , what kind of dvr are you using , did you use the split cam you got ?? thanks a lot for the video

[@MrVasmikey]

Strobes my friend! That was so exciting! Just loved it.

[@엘뤼리렐레]

Hi, how did you made it?

[@flighttherapybullisticfpv133]

Hey Keith, this is one of my favourite videos, I always come back to it every few months.. I thought i could get a taste of the skyhunter experience by building a Mini Skyunter and after almost a year of trying to make it work it still flies like a pig lol Is the full sized version that much better than the mini? I dont know if youve flown the mini but Ive been looking for some info on the full size in relation to the mini

[@bonafidepirate]

The only one I've flown is the 1800mm full size one. I've heard more than one person that's flown the smaller ones say they are not as nice as the big one. I can't offer any more input beyond that though.. lol I do know the big one flies quite nice though.

[@Q8TsyQ8]

wow its really amazing flight at night and so many action !! you got it safe landing wow thats great !!!!

[@dontknowler]

Very thrilling. A powerful laser pointer, pointed into the sky, could have given you a beam of light visible from great distance. I have one for similar purposes.

[@BlackPixxelDE]

nice adventure!

[@wildtexusa]

oh man, that was awesome! combination of luck and skill there, my friend. I saw that altitude hit 9ft out in your field (before you said you were too low) and I was just thinking to myself "boy, he's a confident sob". LOL

[@bonafidepirate]

lol For sure! I'm just lucky there's nothing but open farmland all around me, just the one tree line that I knew was north of me. If there had been any small trees, buildings, etc. out there I sure was low enough to hit them! That said, if I were flying from a parking lot in town there would have been plenty of lights to guide me in... lol

[@SomethingBlack]

fun to watch - thanks!!

[@bonafidepirate]

Thanks!

[@dji7464]

Bro what cam is that bro awesome

[@nihilisticone4215]

Nice flying! Way to Sully your way outta that pucker factor 10 pickle :p Could you have pulled your car around back and lit up the landing strip with your headlights?

[@sparkey044]

Great job.. How bout a strobe on your workshop?

[@bonafidepirate]

I had actually looked at some small strobes a few years ago, but never found anything I liked and eventually forgot about it. I sure would have liked to have one last night though! lol

[@sparkey044]

I had a skivey wad by the time you landed.

[@foamaxmore]

You did very well for finding some visible navigation points well done!!! What would we do w/o flashlights?!LOL

[@bonafidepirate]

We'd have to wait until morning to go search the soybeans for a wreck site... :p

[@mike_oe]

Good job, very cool!

[@t395delta]

nice save

[@johndeesfpv9289]

dam that was close

[@sukhrajsingh466]

That was great!

[@EnglishTurbines]

Jeez, that was close....I thought you were going to stuff it when you realised you had flown past yourself...nice job....I think some Runway LEDS are what you need..?....Going back to the DVR quality, we were talking about that the other day if I remember correctly, that is the best DVR recording I have seen you produce by some margin. Im a bit obsessive over Video downlink quality and I do have some very clean DVR footage myself. I was asking you about how do I record downlink in 16:9 ratio....It seems a relevant question for us Fixed Wing guys because I like 16:9 and Runcam and the like are heading along this very obvious route....So, that begs the question, when will someone produce a DVR dedicated to record our feed in 16:9 Ratio? I wish Runcam would produce a DVR to do it.....Like to see some DVR on this setup in bright sunlit conditions too, it should be pretty epic.

[@bonafidepirate]

Yeah, I think this little box records pretty close to what I was getting with a MiniDV camera back in the day, if not better. I too would like to see someone build a better DVR for FPV use. As it is, we're pretty much stuck with old antique stuff from back when analog video was still mainstream, or cheap gadgets ported over from the security industry where a few people still use it. I guess it's just not profitable enough for anyone to build better hardware than what already exists. It doesn't seem too far fetched for someone to take the best of the old hardware and package it into a nice product specifically for FPV though...

[@EnglishTurbines]

Yes, agree 100%....Maybe Runcam are listening..?...What is the point of running 16:9 and PAL if you can't record it directly in its native format? Speaking of which, have you tried recording in PAL format yet with that little DVR???..It may be better still, more lines than NTSC...?

[@bonafidepirate]

FYI, got another video uploading right now, I flew the Skywalker today and recorded it with the setup. I also mounted up one of the better FPV cams I have here, a CC1526, it's a 800TVL CCD Effio-v. Pretty good quality as far as ground footage goes! lol It will be up in a little while, later tonight.

[@EnglishTurbines]

Oh cool....Id like to see that....I thought anything over 600tvl was wasted though?...I have a 1200tvl Foxeer, it gives a great image but it wont display my OSD text...its all fuzzy edged text...!!!

[@primigen]

wow great work man .. my heart would have been racing

[@evertonms2024]

@bonafidepirate Do you forgot to put cam in automatic B & W ?

[@bonafidepirate]

Yes, I quickly put that camera on the plane as I was in a rush to fly and it was getting late, I never thought to check the settings in the menus. Big mistake that I won't make again! lol

[@adrianlee30]

I think you should now invest in some light for your runway. Nice videos keep them coming, one day I hope to start doing some fix wing.

[@bonafidepirate]

I usually don't have a problem flying late like this, but my cameras are usually set up for it too... lol That and I make it a point not to get caught out 5 miles from home when I figure it it's done got too dark! :D

[@FPVSteve]

Wow, just seen this and ... . nice save!!

[@bonafidepirate]

Yeah that was a little bit sketchy... lol I was sure I'd probably break something, but didn't give up. I figured I might as well stay in it and try! I like to think it was at least part skill, but I know luck was a huge part of saving that one without any damage. :)

[@Hendretti]

That was as sketchy as it gets. Nice job staying calm.

[@BoopyTheFox]

My butt clenched so hard: 1. Pitch-black visibility 2. Low battery 3. ATTITUDE DROP 4. Losing visual clues at the end Videos like this make me want to get either emergency flares, or a powerful laser that could shoot a visible line upwards.

[@etab83]

Great results. It's to bad they still don't make them. I'm sure there are many people that would be interested.

[@bonafidepirate]

Yeah, I'd really like to see new drivers and software too, so I don't need a computer with XP on it just for recording... lol I tried setting up a virtual machine to run XP, but I had problem getting USB working properly. I tried a few different VMs using different software, only one of them would let the capture program see the device plugged in, but it still couldn't push data over the USB port fast enough to record anything useful, so I gave up on that idea. ;)

[@55Rumble]

Hi There... I have recently maidened my new Skyhunter and having seen yours... Can I ask you what your set-up is? Motor, prop, battery and so-on. I have quite a high draw at over 50A on launch and want to get that down some... Anyway. Any help help with that would be great. David.

[@bonafidepirate]

I have a Sunnysky 2820 800Kv motor in mine, with a 12x6 APC-E prop, running on 4S. It's the "standard" setup that most others were using, and seems to work well.

[@55Rumble]

bonafidepirate I had better get one then.... Lol

[@wad5uk]

By that was close. Well done. I would have had brown trousers and a heart attack.

[@bonafidepirate]

It was a little stressful, I can't deny that! lol

[@tommuhlemanjr.3871]

That was cool, but I think there was a lot of skill there aside from the luck. I'd bet you could have gotten that plane back in if you were blindfolded and only had the motor sounds to judge its position and distance. Lol.

[@ArthurHendriks]

Excellent :)

[@thefpvlife7785]

Flying ILS becomes easier over time. Just trust your telemetry on your OSD. Nice night FPV flight.

[@Slash7FPV]

Nice fpv adventure! I would light my cars lights if possible in such a situation

[@SomethingFishy707]

that was awesome!

[@daniel.b9797]

Bro great flying I will never fly at night I'm too scared to crash my plane you got balls good job

[@flyingmusician1018]

Dang how could you see lol what cam was that?

[@bonafidepirate]

I didn't really see much of anything... lol It was the Mini Swift, but the problem was the settings. I was in a rush to fly and threw it on the plane right before taking off, and never thought to check the settings in the menus. I was probably playing around with that camera at some point and had the settings all messed up. Won't make that mistake again!

[@daggad02]

Good save but with all those huge fields next to your house I wouldn't be very nervous... ;)

[@transgenerations]

Wow!!! Drag that Owl Plus back out Keith.... Heck I was butt clenching just watching. LOL!

[@youniles]

wow good job

[@doubleshadow2082]

Awesome video by the way...👍🏻

[@bonafidepirate]

Thanks 😁

[@jmceara]

Which TX and RX are you using? Looks like a local (on-plane) DVR! Isn't?

[@bonafidepirate]

No I've never used a DVR onboard, all my FPV feed recording is done on the ground. I fly in an area with a very low noise floor on 1.3GHz, with RMRC vTX and Racewood receivers. I usually pair up two receivers with Eagle Eyes diversity controller, one with a directional antenna and one either lower gain directional or omni.

[@doubleshadow2082]

How do you move the camera like that?

[@bonafidepirate]

It's mounted on a pan and tilt, using servos. I control them with the sliders on the side of my transmitter.

[@doubleshadow2082]

bonafidepirate Thank you sir... By the way which skyhunter is in this video?

[@doubleshadow2082]

Do you happen to have a parts list?sorry if I’m buggin,I’m just looking to buy my first wing/plane and I watch a lot of your vids and just curious what you fly...

[@assimeon]

your video tx??

[@bonafidepirate]

1500mW 1258MHz from RMRC, the gold budget version - www.readymaderc.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11_30_38&products_id=1203

[@mitchellreece3711]

Setup landing lights like a real runway :)

[@RcBuddy]

Well done, that was scary. ;o)

[@Migueldeservantes]

I would have had a Heart attack... specially when I saw coming back that altitude of only 10 meters... "I don't know... a men in your situation with all the toys should consider to install some runway lights at this point" Just saying that's all! If you use some LED's you probably can do it really cheaply...

[@bonafidepirate]

That altitude is in feet, not meters! lol I actually had some solar LED runway lights some years ago, but they didn't really do much. I couldn't see them from the plane until I was right on top of them. It would have to be something pretty bright I think.

[@Migueldeservantes]

Never the less I do insist! that was stressful for me! & I don't own the plane, or are the pilot.. so perhaps the need to really get some high power LED's on the proper configuration for a very basic run way is true necessity.. it was a true awesome video..

[@flighttherapybullisticfpv133]

This was legitimately nerve wracking lol wow man talk about skills.. now i know why the new drone certs up here in canada are basically civil air knowledge based.. i guess thats as close as you can get to FPV IFR lol

[@spartan3299]

I felt the pucker factor, Wow, pretty good and very lucky IFR landing without glide slope indication! But mostly a great lesson. Got to be a good and cheap lighting solution for runway and approach lights these days. I am very impressed how stable a platform this Skyhunter. Really very cool possibilities if done safely.

[@mikeman230]

👍👍

[@thetrashrabbit]

damnnnnnnnn. that's insane

[@tubeaudioslave]

Pitlab ILS would have helped on this flight.

[@dozerduty]

Whew!😅

[@Jazzynet100]

You are now instrument rated lol

[@davidunderwood1907]

lol ahhhh sigh

[@stonebox2404]

balls of steel;))

[@TomFYouTube]

Woah! Had me on the edge of my seat. Check your email for me when you get a chance please. Thanks

[@Thiago_TS_BR]

👍👍