The next SuperMiss mission...

[icebear]

After the 'Lighthouse Mission' last month I have decided for a new mission, but over land this time.

This mission is simply to test a longer range mission with camera and I plan to take over at the end-point rather than return-to-base.

We have friends who come down to our area évery year and they stay at a farm which is located in an agricultural area. Perfect for an UAV flight since there are virtually no houses and just drirt roads and farming land everywhere...

It will also be nice to be able to use a car to follow the plane instead of risking it to be lost at sea.

Here is a brief description of the 'mission'.

1) Take off at my local field
2) Short 360 degree turn to test that the autopilot is working OK
3) A 5-mile route to the farm where our friends stay
4) Circling around the farm for 2 miles before landing manually

We have had the worst summer weather-wise since 10 years, so now I just hope it will clear up for the mission to take place...

Watch this space! :D

/Icebear

[kd7ost]

Very Cool Bjorn,

I'll be watching for the mission.

Dan

[Tom Harper]

Good encore.

Tom

[icebear]

Thanks Tom & Dan!

I have just switched to a 8x6 APC-e prop which instantly increased my average cruise speed from 30-33 kph to 40 kph (20 mph to 25 mph).

I need to verify my range before heading out on the mission but the first tests implies that range actually increased somewhat, in spite of the slightly higher current draw. Must be a better efficiency...

More details to follow!

/Bjorn

[VasMan]

We have had the worst summer weather-wise since 10 years, so now I just hope it will clear up for the mission to take place...


Off topic, but funny you should mention the weather. It's been the windiest year so far here, for as long as I can remember.

[icebear]

Definitely off topic :) but where is "here"?

[icebear]

Last week we embarked on the second longer UAV mission as planned.
Luckily the nice weather coincided with a planned dinner at our friends place so at 6 PM we started the mission from my local ‘field’ (farmland really).

The mission comprised a 10 mile route - 16 waypoints from my field, approx 6 miles cross country along small roads and another 3-4 miles circling around the farm.

We followed the plane by car to be ready to take over if anything would happen.

Apart from loosing sight for a short when stepping out of the car and fearing that battery power was running out, everything went very well. Instead of landing on the road leading to the house I made a landing on the front lawn!
We were awarded with champagne by our hosts after the successful mission – a nice detail!

Even if the SuperMiss has logged over 150 miles, this was the first time I have tested longer route legs – approx 1 mile long and it was also the first time to follow by a chase car.

We had a tailwind of approx 8 mph and even if my secondary GPS logger was not present I have been able to estimate the following statistics;

- 10 WP’s made (mission aborted after one lap around the farm since I was fearing low battery)
- 18 minutes runtime from start to finish
- Approx 2/3 of 2170mAh used up in the pack (1.4 Ah)
- Approx 8 miles travelled
- Mileage: 5 miles/Ah, equalling 10 miles + on a 3S-2170 pack
- Cruise speed approx 32 mph with the tailwind of 8 mph

Interesting observations;

- A change to 8x6 prop instead of 8x4 prop increased efficiency and increased cruise speed from approx. 20 mph to 25 mph
- The longer route legs seemed to produced more ’curved’ tracking – need to investigate further if rudder trim is OK or if the tailwind caused some drift
- The Flightpower EVO 3S-2170 pack gives more or less its stated capacity at the cruise current draw of approx 4 amps meaning max 28-30 min runtime
and a range of up to 10 miles.
- The earlier problem with erratic elevator (not connected to the autopilot) was solved by setting a fixed failsafe instead of ’last-good-frame-hold’ and also by turning the tx off during navigation.

Here is a 4 minute video of the mission! See this link;

www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=716042#post7837224


Enjoy!

/Icebear

[_helitron_]

Congrats Icebear, very impressive mission :) !

Greets and good luck in advance for the next mission :D ,

Erwin

[icebear]

Thanks Erwin!

I am already planning the next one :D....

/Icebear

[kd7ost]

Way to go Bjorn,

You're getting to be an old hat at this. ;) Looking forward to your next. I know there is a lot of planning even on these types of flights with double and triple checking coordinates, ranges, where to land etc. Fine job once again.

Dan

[icebear]

Dan,

Thanks a lot :D. You're right about planning. It's so easy to overlook things, but so far I have been lucky. The range was the most critical issue this time and last time it was the FS-8 rx problem that I hadn't realized during numerous preparation runs.

The next real challenge would be to draw and build the next UAV airframe from scratch like the ones in your projects :rolleyes: ...

/Bjorn

[_helitron_]

Hi Bjorn,

I've had also a FS-8 installed in my MPX Cularis glider and wing levelling was ok so far but I had horrible range problems with the Rx together with my Futaba FS-28. Normally I use only original Futaba Rx and I didn't have any problems in the last 16 years with the FC-28. I've more than 20 years experience in R/C and additional I'm a professional electronics developer and I tried really hard to get an appropriate range with the FS-8 unfortunately without success.

At the end I've switched to the AP2000i stabilizer from SpartanRC in UK and I'm REALLY impressed of the performance of this device. Originally designed for helicopters it it also usable for planes without problems. It's flashable for firmware upgrades and one of the best things, calibration is done in the air with flip of a switch on the Tx. Ah yes, additionally the AP2000i uses the sensor of the FS-8 !

Greets, Erwin

[icebear]

Hi Erwin,

Thanks for the tip regarding the AP2000i! I have heard about it but wasn't sure if it worked with fixed wings so that was good to know.

Mind you, I don't use the FS-8 for wing levelling in my Supermiss, just the rx itself. The Picopilot manages winglevelling but I use the FS-8 because of it's failsafe features. This works well, but it turned out that I have to set a fixed failsafe position. Using the 'last good frame hold' function makes the servo jitter when getting out of range.

Regarding range I have understood that the FS-8 is rather sensitive, so some people have had their tx's re-tuned (FMA did it for them) to match the FS-8 properly. I actually got 1 mile range over water during my Lighthouse mission so I guess my Hitec Optic 6 matches the FS-8.

Anyway, I'll look into the Spartan gear!

Thanks,

Björn

[tritan]

Bjorn,

I am awaiting a test version for a fixed wing firmware for my AP2000i from Angelo at Spartan to try out on my Soarstick. This will be a first for fixed wing firmwares to hopefully be followed by upgraded ones later on when he get the time to make developments.

At its present form the AP2000i is usable for fixed wing but not to use for flaperons. With the AP2000i it is possible to use any RX, even 2,4GHz. Thats why Erwin and I have switched from FMA to AP2000i. Also the Spartan is much more user friendly and rugged with its CF case. It also has a LCD display.

Tritan

[_helitron_]

Bjorn,

I am awaiting a test version for a fixed wing firmware for my AP2000i from Angelo at Spartan to try out on my Soarstick. This will be a first for fixed wing firmwares to hopefully be followed by upgraded ones later on when he get the time to make developments.

At its present form the AP2000i is usable for fixed wing but not to use for flaperons. With the AP2000i it is possible to use any RX, even 2,4GHz. Thats why Erwin and I have switched from FMA to AP2000i. Also the Spartan is much more user friendly and rugged with its CF case. It also has a LCD display.

Tritan

Hi Tritan,

nice to hear from you again :) ! In the meantime I've managed to install the AP2000i in my Cularis glider. I eliminated all aileron/flap mixers (for example butterfly for landing or aileron to flaps for boosting the effect of ailerons) and did some testflights with great success.

In the glider I connected both flap servos with a Y-cable and increased the up-deflection of the flaps a lot, so I can use it now as a airbrake for fast descending. I also increased the deflection of the ailerons and for one aileron servo I had to alter the direction of travel of course but that was not that effort. Both aileron servos and the elevator servo are connected to the outputs of the AP2000i, swashplate type is S4 and pitch travel is 0%. That's all.

I did in the meantime more than 10 flights with the AP2000i, the last one with really strong wind, and I'm absolutely satisfied with the job of this device ! Beside of this I like the ability of firmware updates (flashing) and the possibility to calibrate in the air very much ! And at last the programmability via LC display is also a very pretty feature of the AP2000i. By the way I don't need more than 75% of gain, that was enough for all situations so far. It's also no problem at all to land with the AP2000i activated, it's also very helpful in this situation.

With the strong wind I was able to fly the glider most of the time only with rudder, that's very important, because I need der wing leveller for my planned rudder-home autopilot realized with a RCAP3 and an AltHold from EladioMF in Spain (AltHold is working together with a ZLog from MX).

Ok, that's my experiences so far with the AP2000i :) !

Cheers, Erwin

[_helitron_]

Hi Erwin,

Thanks for the tip regarding the AP2000i! I have heard about it but wasn't sure if it worked with fixed wings so that was good to know.

Mind you, I don't use the FS-8 for wing levelling in my Supermiss, just the rx itself. The Picopilot manages winglevelling but I use the FS-8 because of it's failsafe features. This works well, but it turned out that I have to set a fixed failsafe position. Using the 'last good frame hold' function makes the servo jitter when getting out of range.

Regarding range I have understood that the FS-8 is rather sensitive, so some people have had their tx's re-tuned (FMA did it for them) to match the FS-8 properly. I actually got 1 mile range over water during my Lighthouse mission so I guess my Hitec Optic 6 matches the FS-8.

Anyway, I'll look into the Spartan gear!

Thanks,

Björn

Oh, sorry Björn, I knew that you fly with the Picopilot but I forgot it unfortunately :o ! And I remember now also of your posts with the FS-8 problems regarding the failsafe feature.

Cheers, Erwin

[cainebean]

icebear, what is your AUW? I'm was going to build a SS based off the Miss2 wing but wondered why not just use the actual airframe it came with. This will be for AP. I was hoping I could get a 10 oz payload.

[icebear]

Hi cainbean,
My auw is 35 oz with 3S-2100 LiPO.
The fuse with everything incl rx, servos, motor weighs about 18 oz.
I often let the SuperMiss with Miss2 wing carry autopilot/camera/GPS/secondary GPS which is a total payload of 10 oz and that only makes the setup less wind sensitive and a little faster.
/Icebear

[cainebean]

So 28-30 oz with battery and another 6 or 7 oz for battery for a total of 35 oz. With all of that weight did it still have a decent glide? And about how long does it take to land in feet? Right now I'd say the slow stick only needs about 10-15 feet total to land once it gets about 5 feet off the ground. Just wondering how it would compare. Hey I appreciate your help.

Caine