Lighthouse mission II

[icebear]

Hi,

It has been excatly one year on Saturday since I got some aerial pictures of our local lighthouse 2 kilometers off the coast and I thought it would be fun to mark the anniversary by doing a video mission.

I have re-routed the track slightly to provide a better, hopefully continous "in-view" angle of the lighthouse (see route below).

Otherwise I will use the same equipment as last time;

SuperMiss with Miss2 polyhedral wing
Pentax Optio S5z camera for 640x480 onboard video
Picopilot -NA and GPS
MEGA 16/25/4 inrunnder with APC-e 9x4.5 prop
3S-2500 mAh LiPO

This setup gives me 25 minutes flight at a cruise speed of approx 35 kph (20 mph) and that would be more than suffiecient for the 5 km (3 mile) track.

Just some more testflights over land and then the wait for perfect weather...

/Icebear

[Paul_BB]

Good luck !

Paul

[kd7ost]

Yay,

Looking forward to the results. Good luck but you'll make it fine.

Dan

[phubner]

Excellent that you've been able to send flights out it for a year! Congrats! Curious - Why not use Dean's Atto?

Paul H

[icebear]

Thanks Paul & Dan & Paul !

It is too windy right now and I want to make some over ground tests to setup camera angles etc so it may be a week or two before I get the chance...

More news to come... :)

/Bjorn

[Tom Harper]

Eagerly awaiting your report!

[tungym]

amazing! I cannot realize a e-flyer can last 25 mins.!

[zlite]

Also curious: why aren't you using AttoPilot?

[icebear]

Zlite - I decided to use my SuperMiss & Picpilot since it is ready to go with camera mount etc. The season has only just started so I am sure there will be lots of opportunities for other setups too soon... :)

tungym - my other 'miss' - the Miss2 - has a smaller motor and actually runs for 60 minutes on a 3Ah pack (Axi 2212/34 + 9x6 APC slo-fly prop). I wonder what the new EVOLite 5.4 Ah pack would give in terms of duration... :D

/Icebear

[icebear]

After a week of windy weather finally there was a calm enough morning with only 3 m/s = 10 kph winds.

We walked down to the golf course by the beach at 9 AM and got ready to fly out to the lighthouse if everything seemed OK.

A few test WP's were made and looked good so the SuperMiss headed out to sea...

I wasn't quick enough with my binoculars and soon lost sight of the SuperMiss. A really loooong wait followed and after 9-10 minutes we were quite certain that the SuperMiss was lost at sea. Not a plane in sight anywhere...

THEN suddenly a low humming sound from above made me look up and already circling over our heads was the SuperMiss!!! How could we have missed it coming back!?

Anyway - a 4 mile flight in 10 minutes (40 kph=25 mph cruise) and the following video was caught with the Pentax Optio S5z.

Thanks everyone for your moral support!

Enjoy! :D

http://www.vimeo.com/1138606
http://www.vimeo.com/1138606 (http://http://www.vimeo.com/1138606)

/Bjorn

[Paul_BB]

There should be two UAV forums on RCgroups:
- one for those with the right stuff, the Icebear kind
- a second one for the rest of us :p

Great video Icebear ! The fearless Viking !

Paul

[nick.sargeant]

Congrats on another successful mission!
Icebear, have you attempted anything similar with a RCAP3, WPS and althold?

Nick

[zik]

Great mission Icebear! Well done!

[cadmanpilot]

Now that was really impressive! What an accomplishment.

Paul

[_helitron_]

Hey Bjorn,

also congrats from my side on your new great success :) ! Impressive work again !

Erwin

[LouB]

Just want to add my hearty congratulations. Strong work. You are an inspiration.

Lou

[icebear]

Thank you so much for your kind words Paul, Nick, zik, Paul2, Erwin and Lou!

Nick - I don't have the RCAP3 anymore but I don't think I would be confident enough with a FMA copilot over water anyhow.

Now it's time to get that downlink sorted...!

/Bjorn

[Jack Crossfire]

This gives us a lot of confidence in dirt simple GPS autopilot. What happens if the wind isn't calm?

[dmgoedde]

This gives us a lot of confidence in dirt simple GPS autopilot. What happens if the wind isn't calm?I know Bjorn will answer this, but here is my $0.02 based on what I have learned and know from my own development work.

Pico is not a "dirt simple" GPS autopilot. It has at least a 1-axis gyro on the yaw axis, or so I have heard others conjecture. My guess is this gyro data is bias-corrected against GPS turn rate info in a simple Kalman or other filter type. Per UNAV literature of Pico being suitable for "motor glider" types, my guess is if the airframe is not too much of a handful, certain stabilization assumptions hold true, and the Pico can keep on top of the situation and keep plane in a stable realm of roll angle.

A true dirt-simple GPS autopilot will always be a bad idea, as it is prone to tip stall even a very stable plane if a couple conditions come into alignment, namely a turn while a gust of wind hits. Once the tip stall and spiral start, the Autopilot won't help, because it has no direct metrology into the roll angle. I have seen this personally back when I was flying GPS-only autopilots even in the Miss2 motor glider.

[icebear]

Jack,

I totally agree with what Dean is saying. There is a huge difference between, say the RCAP2 which and the Picopilot, but as you say - I have got a lot of confidence in the system.

The Picopilot is quite capable of stabilizing a trainer type airframe and I have been flying in winds up to 7 m/s = 25 kph = 15 mph.
Since I use light electrics, anything more than that will be too close to the cruise speed. Stabilization of the roll axis has not been a problem though. For these small 'missions' I wanted to make sure the route didn't get too long due to the headwind, so I chose a max wind limit of 3-4 m/s (=12 kph=7,5 mph).

/Bjorn

[Gary Mortimer]

Sorry to add this late but congrats, liked the music too.

Cheers

G