I'm in the process of getting my Ardupilot Mega running and I've tried hardware-in-the-loop testing with X-plane. I have it to the point where it will take off by itself, fly several waypoints and land by itself. I've mapped out the points to be similar to that of a pattern around a runway with the plane taking off and landing on the runway. The problem is the takeoff and landing headings. When the landing script takes over the heading is no longer straight down the runway and the plane drifts off to the right. I'm attributing this to the "p-factor" of a propeller aircraft which causes it to drift to the right. According to the takeoff description the Ardupilot locks onto a heading after a certain speed is achieved. My question is would it be possible to alter this so that during takeoff the plane tracked the center of the runway? If so, where in the code would this be modified? I'm encountering a similar problem on the landing where the plane drifts to the right. I haven't looked into this problem too much but I imagine it can be modified to track a certain heading as well. Any help is much appreciated.
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I am not 100% sure ,but I think the auto land function just holds the wings level at a certain point close to landing. Once it hits the last waypoint it throttles back and and holds steady. You don't want to navigate (ie. start banking) close to the ground. This is not a problem, but more of a reality limitation. Even preditors drones are landed manually by a local pilot (fpv) without the satellite latency. Safety from crashing takes priority over navigational accuracy during these critical flight times.