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Best flight times, electric vs nitro...etc.(plane)?

Posted by Ben Weber on June 14, 2013 at 8:51pm

Hi, 

I would like to get into flying drones and i'm really excited I just don't know what to buy. Since I would like to have a FPV system and of course Ardupilot.  I'm about to purchase the already made system from Udrone but I was really hoping for some longer flight times than the standard 30-40 minutes.  How about 3+ hours? 

Is Nitro out of the question or really that much harder to use with Ardupilot? I'm thinking generally I could get better flight times.  I guess you could say i'm a stereotypical redneck engineer that lives in North Dakota in the middle of the oil boom so I don't think oil/loud engines is necessarily a problem for me..

I have read a lot of people saying they are getting longer flight times but reading on later in the post it becomes more and more apparent that they are making up stories so I would appreciate an honest opinion.

I am leaning towards an already made kit but I wouldn't mind just a plane with an FPV system to calibrate/practice with before I start using APM. Eventually I would like to add some thermal imaging/image tracking to the live video stream which I might not be able to accomplish but it sure would be fun to try and I will of course post updates about my progress.

With these future goals in mind where should I start?  What airframe/model will have a high payload capacity and 3+ hour flight time?

I know all of you veteran APM guys are busy and maybe this seems like a silly post to answer I would appreciate any help/guidance/direction/patience I can get.

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Replies

  • Duffy January 30, 2016 at 11:14am

    Hi There,

     We have got more than 4 hours on the Raptor E1 using a 26,000mah 6 S lipo and custom made large diameter propellers on a slow spinning motor.

     Best

  • Tyrell John November 11, 2013 at 1:55am

    Been working on the MK802 iv. I see that the Linux perloaded OS is now available. I'm busy trying to do it myself with some help.

     

    http://www.rikomagic.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4696&...

  • Richard Kennedy October 15, 2013 at 6:19pm

    Hi John

    Just read most of you posts here. Great project you have going! I used to make my own foam wings cores for RC planes but as you noted they go from very light to very heavy really fast with epoxy and cloth. What I ended up doing was using 3M77 spray contact cement and believe it or not simple construction paper. What I found was it was fast and cheap and STRONG! Before the paper went on I would carefully cut a small groove for a 1/4" plywood spare that went about %15 of the way in each wing 1/2. I'd glue that in with epoxy. The only downside was the paper would not tolerate water from rain or snow or oil from my 2 stroke nitro fuel. However in my case I didn't care as I was simply trying to teach myself to fly without breaking a balsa wing that took forever to make. So it didn't need it to last forever and if I had a hard landing [ that happened a lot learning! ] it was no big a deal I'd just make another one. It occurred to me you might want to do what I did or similar and not worry about a top notch professional wing at least for the early phase of testing so you can concentrate on the other issues. If you damage the wing during trials its not a huge setback. Anyway good luck!!!!
  • 100KM
    crystal garris October 7, 2013 at 11:54pm
    @ben,
    for out of the box 3 hour electric performance, check out the techpod. I have already done a 2hour 50 minute flight.
  • Ben Weber October 6, 2013 at 4:29pm

    I'm working on a solution for transmitting the PPM signals via cell phone signal without the need for a data connection . I'm hoping its possible and basing my hypothesis the "Audio" input and output on my Turnigy 9x transmitter connected to the Mic/Audio jack on a cell phone.

    I've found this http://www.flytron.com/programmers/56-compufly-usbtoppm-converter.html which converts serial to USB for flying with a computer.

    There are several flight simulators which convert a PPM signal to a serial/auxilary for using a standard RC TX for flying a simulator. I'm hoping someone will have some in depth knowledge of this idea.

  • Tyrell John October 5, 2013 at 2:31am

    A recharging self start solution.

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL1wzOx_JbU

  • Ben Weber September 26, 2013 at 5:24pm

    That's very impressive Tom. I'm forward to your blog post. How long are your flight times?

  • Gustav Kuhn August 19, 2013 at 1:42pm

    Hi TJ,

    Whereabouts do you live?

    Been following this conversation with with interest. AMT is cool, helped a friend build a full size BD4C,

    wing tips, engine cowl, and wheel spats all done with AMT products.

    Oh, it won the 2013 State Presidents Air Race a month or so back !

    A well designed wing beats most conventional airframes, but a mediocre conventional beats a bad wing any day !

    And regrettably, a well designed propeller still is the most efficient way to transfer motor power to the air.

    At least at our levels.

    Up to X8 size, electric is the way to go, search these forums, a X8 did just over 100 kms......

    The size you seem to be contemplating really starts to require wheels for launching and landing, and wheels don't translate too well on a delta/wings. And there is nothing that tames a beast of an airframe as well as a generous vertical surface as far to the rear of the frame as possible!

    (Think darts)

    I was going ahead with a 50cc twin petrol engine plane, search my blog, but my life kinda fell apart, so now I'm tinkering with a 1.9 m SkyWalker.

    Might actually fly it one day :-(

  • Tyrell John August 4, 2013 at 4:19am

    First test results.

     

    The SH18" 2.74cc Nitro engine running on 25% nitro

     

    5ml of fuel every 60seconds running at high to medium rev.

     

    1000ml / 5 = 200 minutes (+-3hours)

     

     

     

     

  • Ben Weber July 19, 2013 at 10:03am

    The 3g dongle would be a lot lighter and wouldn't carry unnecessary components. How do you plan to implement the 3g dongle to APM as your transmitter and reciever?

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