Its official - I can crash in still air

[Hands0n]

Mother always used to say "The pride comes before the fall" - she must be having a quiet chuckle this morning 

I dropped my Firefly 450 quad out of the sky this morning and snapped one of its rotor arms.  No harm done, I have a small stock - admittedly not dipped into for some considerable time.

So what went wrong then?  I got a bit flash and overcooked it a little bit after having a nice chat with a couple of dear ladies walking their dog nearby who had come over to comment on the "UFO". They were quite taken with it.  So as they walked off I continued with my flying, pushing the envelope a little bit - trying to get this cursed orientation into my brain.  We';re getting there but it is taking time for me to work out how to "see" which way it is facing when at height or distance.

Today when bringing it in to me, nose in, I got a bit too close to some trees to my left and went under the overhang, tried to back out, saw it climb, didn';t want to hit the tree and did that stupid thing I';ve not done for ages and dumped the throttle!  FFS! I know much better than to do that! 

Well the inevitable happened - gravity took over, I became a passenger  and the Firefly landed ungraciously on its right front rotor arm.

[jwl940]

I feel for you HO; no pain no gain.

Orientation also gives me grief, after a few 10s of yards the quad is just a blob with 4 arms and no colours and the LEDs are no help in good daylight.  The best solution I';ve found so far is to count the arms as they rotate and try to make all turns balanced (banked) so I can see the quads profile clearly in the turns.  I';m getting there but oh so slowly.  Any tips gratefully received.

[Marty McFly]

thanks for your honest comments as allways,but your getting there and enjoying the journey,Marty, :scotland:

[Biffa]

Any tips gratefully received.

Practice and more practice, also try and remember what you were doing before losing orientation.

[jwl940]

Thankfully my RTL switch gets me out of trouble and hasn';t put me in any deeper trouble (yet).  Perhaps I should ask Santa for more batteries.

[Opto-Mystic]

Danny, that is so sad  ::)
Would you like me to come and give a few flying lessons?

[Hands0n]

Hey Donald, if you';re seriously suggesting coming to Kent from Somerset ... I';ll have some of that 

I have figured out that I really need a strategy for orientation, and that I haven';t quite sorted one out yet.  It is a common problem to that which my car driving pupils face (I';m a part time ADI) when they don';t know which way the wheel is turned (straight, one full turn right or one full turn left).  My answer to them is to stare intently out of the windscreen, and move the car one inch. If it moves left or right then that is the direction the wheel is turned, if going forwards. The opposite if going backwards.

Not such an easy strategy to adopt in the air, but what I am coming to by way of an idea is to Pitch the aircraft forward and see what happens. If nothing then it is either facing me or pointing away - in which case I Roll left or right and see if it follows or is opposite side to side movement. If it moves to the left then it is facing left or right then it is facing right.  That way I can start to figure out what to do to bring the aircraft closer to me so I can see what its doing.

All of this requires me to maintain calm and have some space to move in. Not so bad on a still air day, much more freaky on a windy day, in which case I have to try to use Loiter to give me some breathing space.

I';ve fitted LEDs to the front - white - they';re flipping useless against the sky in daylight.

Mind you, apart from this slight mishap my APM 2.5 equipped Firefly flew beautifully today. Loiter was like it was nailed to the sky, RTL test was 100%, as was Land. Stabilise was really effective, giving up the control for big stick movements  and taking stability and self-levelling control when centred.  Altitude Hold really worked well also. 

So this really was 100% pilot error.

NB: The rotor arm has been replaced and a short test flight/hover in back garden confirms nothing else broken.

[Dek]

Maybe what';s needed is some sort of audio feedback system. A single continuous tone when directly facing away and an octave lower when facing towards. As the quad turns left or right it would become two tones varying in length until the quad is at 90 degrees to you when the tones would be the same length. You would have a gap between the playing of the tones so you would be able to work out whether port or starboard side is facing. I would think it would be fairly easy for the programmers to get the info from the gps and compass and work out where home is and the orientation of the quad relative to it (as per RTL). The tones could be generated on the transmitter over your telemetry link. If you programmed it to say the trainer switch, you could switch it on only when and for as long as needed to regain orientation.

Mad idea? I';ve got lots

Dek

[guest325]

That';s really bad luck, however brain f4rts are the real enemy and need to be exorcised! Oh plus keep away from the model magnets - advice also to self after this morning!

[Biffa]

keep away from the model magnets - advice also to self after this morning!

Indeed, if there is something that can be hit, it inevitably will be

[teslahed]

I';ve fitted LEDs to the front - white - they';re flipping useless against the sky in daylight.

High Density Red and Green LED tape shows up the best in daylight conditions. I avoid white and also blue because those colours don';t show up as well against the sky. Blue is ok when it';s overcast.

At least it was a cheap crash - best kind

[guest325]

Indeed, if there is something that can be hit, it inevitably will be

More commonly known as s@ds law     

[Opto-Mystic]

Well, Danny, after my facetious comment about giving you flaying lessons, I was thinking to my smug self... "Hmmm I haven';t crashed so far" (all of 5 flights) Now watch me have an Opps moment, i thought.

I took the quad outside to do a gentle flight... What happens? The Grand Architect of the Universe decided to intervene.

I has my first crash too! Bummer! On my neighbour';s roof. The only damage a very minor crack on the GPS dome the tips of two props look like a rottweiler gave them a nasty sucking and a very badly bruised ego!

I dunno what really happened. it was on GPS mode and suddenly decided to escape. Instead of gaining height to give me time to get it under proper control, I slowed the motors 

Just shows it can happen to the best of us

[Hands0n]

High Density Red and Green LED tape shows up the best in daylight conditions. I avoid white and also blue because those colours don';t show up as well against the sky. Blue is ok when it';s overcast.

I have a reel each of red and green. Hadn';t got around to fitting it.  I';ll give the other two colours a try and perhaps just aim the white downwards or something.  I';ve also got that Red/White strobe to try out. Just don';t have a spare RC channel to give it (the thing uses the RC PWM to known when to be on or off ...).

Ah, model magnets. Yes. Hmmm   

[Hands0n]

Well, Danny, after my facetious comment about giving you flaying lessons, I was thinking to my smug self... "Hmmm I haven';t crashed so far" (all of 5 flights) Now watch me have an Opps moment, i thought.

I took the quad outside to do a gentle flight... What happens? The Grand Architect of the Universe decided to intervene.

I has my first crash too! Bummer! On my neighbour';s roof. The only damage a very minor crack on the GPS dome the tips of two props look like a rottweiler gave them a nasty sucking and a very badly bruised ego!

I dunno what really happened. it was on GPS mode and suddenly decided to escape. Instead of gaining height to give me time to get it under proper control, I slowed the motors 

Just shows it can happen to the best of us

Awww Donald, thats rough. It wasn';t me though. I swear.  I didn';t put the JooJoo on you 

That "slowing the motors" is an absolute curse of mine!  For as long as I am in my comfort zone all is okay. The moment it gets all hairy I';ll dump the throttle and watch it fall to earth.  I am trying hard to rehearse the various saving strategies so that the muscle memory doesn';t do the caveman panic thing 

Glad not too much damage done to yours mate.