Long Range First Person View (FPV) Plane Introduction

I've been working on a new plane since early July 2017. It's the Finwing Sabre that I bought from ReadyMadeRC as a dedicated long range first person view (FPV) plane. As of the time of this first post, the plane has 38 flights on it (all successful). The plane has a wingspan of 75", is made with EPO foam, and weighs 7 to 8+ pounds flying weight (highly dependent on battery).

Youtube video link:
Finwing Sabre Onboard Videos Playlist

My intent was to slowly expand my FPV experience from typical, simple, backyard flying with my Parkzone Sport Cub, to a sophisticated long range setup.

This means the plane will be capable of long range radio performance, long range FPV video, and have a flight controller with on-screen-display (OSD). The OSD provides the live FPV view with all of the pertinent data regarding the airplane's location, speed, altitude, battery voltage, etc.

The scope and some goals when I started this ongoing project were as follows:

• Plane must be capable of 20 miles and back (40 mile round trip)
• Plane must have a pan and tilt setup on at least the FPV camera
• Plane must carry at least one HD camera
• Use the Eagle Tree Vector flight controller and OSD
• Use the pitot tube expansion kit for the Vector flight controller (for airspeed)
• Use Dragon Link Advanced UHF long range radio and telemetry system
• Use 1.3 GHz FPV gear (for range), rather than the 5.8 GHz gear
• Build a proper ground station for the receiving end of the FPV video signal

Here are some photos of the plane. I will follow up with more posts to detail the setup and progress with regard to the scope of the above items.

Sabre when it was first completed, prior to maiden flight.

How it looks decorated, with the color applied with Monokote sticker sheets.

In Flight