I will be at the field this Sunday from about 10 until about 1 pm to help Alton with his autonomous flight testing. That is the flying wing thing, not the quad. ;D
Frank
There is rain in the forecast tomorrow. I will make the decision to go/no go at 9 am.
Frank
Sure. Keep me posted. Thanks Frank :)
On my way.
If it rains I will be flying at the Tim Horton's at Woodbine and Stouffville Roads.
Call me for an update on my cell 416-605-0707.
In England they would call this a gorgeous summer day. In Holland they would say "What rain?" ;D
Frank
Well, we flew!
It was windy (25 km/hr), a cross-wind (east-south-east), gusty, swirly and my car thermometer indicated 2 degrees celsius. We have flown in warmer weather in February.
We had two complete flights of at least 15 minutes each. Both flights were mostly autonomous and at different altitudes, down to 50 meters.... or in terms you would understand.... half a mistake high.
This plane usually breaks ground after about 1/2 the runway when the wind is light. This time we flew from the north taxiway and across the runway to be 100% upwind . I felt this was safer than trying to take off down the runway and have the cross wind catch the left wingtip. Note: we were the only idiots flying so there was no safety risk.
Alton hung onto the plane with only the nose wheel on the taxiway until it was at full throttle. Then he let go. Both times it took off at about the middle of the runway with at least 10 feet left before hitting the edge of the grass.
The landings were especially tricky because of the road. I swung the plane over the driveway and landed across the runway until touchdown. It went well.
Alton will post the video soon and a photo of the cross-runway take-off.
Frank
Great flying despite the strong wind. I wonder how come nobody at TEMAC showed up :P ::)
I have uploaded the videos and Bill will post some data to show how sideways the plane was flying.
In both flights, the plane was following a pre-programmed flight plan which circles the field. The plane was also programmed to descend 25m every two laps to capture data at various altitudes.
Flight 1 : 14 mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXEY1AHrz2Q
Flight 2 : 18 mins, Video was cut short. I was an idiot and didn't clear up the memory card before the flight. Too bad the camera didn't capture Frank's crosswind landing skills ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2gBJE8dUMg
- Alton
We have lots of data from both flights (too much data from both flights). Alton is right, the plane was heading about 30 degrees off of its ground track for portions of the flight. We recorded 18km/h winds gusting to 22km/h from the east at our ground station, and 25km/h winds at altitude.
We've made some cool plots of the flight path on top of a Google earth image. The orange path is full manual mode (Frank flying, full throttle), yellow is Fly-by-wire (Frank commands roll and pitch, the plane tries to keep up), and green and blue are full autonomous (the plane maintains altitude/airspeed and follows waypoints). We started the autonomous flight at 150m above ground and descended 25m every two circuits.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_M-cK8ymvEbZXhrSXZiaWJXMXc
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_M-cK8ymvEbbTZNLVJiekRCNXc
The last plot I uploaded shows the programmed altitude and airspeed, and the actual values the plane is achieving over the autonomous section of the flight. It maintains altitude within 5m and airspeed within 2m/s in the gusty conditions we had.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_M-cK8ymvEbZnBBYTNBZ2U3ZnM
Bill
Wow, the second Google earth mapping shows absolutely steady tracking (green tracks) of the two circuits at each height.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_M-cK8ymvEbbTZNLVJiekRCNXc/view
The orange path (FvB at full throttle, full manual) looks like a dog's breakfast. 8)
Frank
I forgot to add... our altitude doesn't exactly match up with Google earth's, that's why it looks like Frank put it down North of the cars in the google earth pictures. The video shows the actual landing was where Frank said it was ;D.
Bill
Nice save Bill!
The club members won't believe you but nice try. 8)
Frank