Well I went out this morning to try and fly my Bixler for the first time. I have quite a bit of multirotor flying experience, but no fixed wing outside of a simulator. I guess predictably it ended in failure.
I'm guessing my first two hand launches weren't powerful enough, as the plane flew straight at the ground even with full up elevator. Damage was suffered both times, but nothing that couldn't be fixed on the spot with some duct tape.
Third launch was a success (I gave it a bit of a run up and a push) and it took to the air. However I could tell it was in trouble as it wallowed about, banked right and hit the ground wingtip first. This broke the wing spar so it was game over.
So I'm guessing my COG wasn't correctly placed. I'd placed the battery so that the plane balanced when held under its wing spar, but given todays performance perhaps this is too far forward. Perhaps I should pull out the washers that came glued in the nose?
If anyone has any other general advice I'd appreciate it greatly.
Thanks,
Chris
Replies
Hello again,
I took my Bixler out for another FPV flight today. I have had a few very successful flights - good landings, handles well etc. But this time after takeoff when i got to about 50 feet, i nudged the nose down level and then it plummeted (FAST!) straight nose down into the ground. All glued up again now - but any ideas why this happened. There was a bit of wind - i was flying into it - im thinking mabye when i nudged the nose down the wind pushed me down as well, but i don't have much experience.
Any thoughts appreciated before i take it out for another flight!
We're back to lots of rain here again. You may have seen the news about the mudslide up here. So no flying for a while.
1.2/1.3 does NOT play well with 2.4. I usually fly FPV with quads (I have 13 of them) and I can tell you from personal experience they're a VERY bad combo. On FrSky 2.4 radio combos where I normally have almost a kilometer range, if I use 1.2 video, I have about 50 meters range. I've learned this the hard way.
ReadyMadeRC sells a "notch filter" made by IBCrazy for the video transmitter that can help, but it's not 100%.
I have an update if your interested. I took it for another flight, this time got nice and high so as to give some room to move if something went wrong. Had a nice flight for 5 or so minutes - beautiful handling on the bixler. Nudged the nose down once - then WHAM starts to nose dive from 100m > starts beeping cos of loss of signal > throttle cuts out cos of failsafe on 2.4 receiver > no controls > then i got controls back but a bit shakey, pulled up glided around - perfect landing. So that's todays saga!
My theory is that the 1.2ghz video is interfering with the 2.4ghz RC causing signal dropouts. But it is a bit of a coincidence that when i nudge the nose down on both crashes then the signal drops out. In any event - this time i heard the signal dropout beep from the RX and throttle cut from failsafe - so my problem is RC control dropping out - just need to finalize why?
I have read up on it and it appears others have had same problem with 1.2/2.4 together - good thing my UHF gear is already posted on its way to me!
Hows your Bixler flying going?
Thanks
You had the same thing happen! Creepy!
I saw a video of a guy flying a Bixler online, he was flying into the wind, wham!, it nosedive 50ft or so into the ground just like mine did. He thinks it was the wind and not enough throttle? I have a sorta black box recording my flight video w/OSD etc, and it cut out right before it hit the ground too - but thats the low FPS.
I am now waiting for NO wind WHATSOEVER, to take it out for another flight. I still haven't put APM in it - as i want to get the hang of flying FPV first. Yeah, my lipos dont look good either - it hit hard. Let me know if you formulate what caused your crash. This Bixler will be just my trainer for sure now - more glue than foam!
Thanks
It's funny, Friday evening I had a similar experience. I was flying along quite nicely, about 20ft off the ground, getting ready to land, and my craft suddenly did a steep straight down dive into the ground. I broke a wing and the fuselage and smashed in the nose. The LIPO isn't looking too good either.
I have no idea what caused it. Looking at the logs, everything looks fine until there is not more data - I'm assuming when I crashed I lost the last second or two of data.
I was in FBWA mode when it happened. The only thing I did unusual in this flight was play around a bit with the "Navigation Angles" in the Tuning section. I was doing this live while flying, maybe that caused a problem. Though I was starting to tweak the flight pretty nicely.
Goodo. I have a stabilizer
...I think my last post was incomplete...
I use the standalone stabilizer instead of an APM in the bixler whilst i test out everything and learn to fly, i would rather lose a $17 stabilizer than an APM2.5!
The APM will be going in as soon as i get hand launching down pat. Once i am up in the air i have never crashed and have nice high flights.
Thanks for all the tips.
Easiest is to get someone experienced to help or do the first flight, I taught myself but it's definately the hard & expensive way. Now I teach a bit and can see that having someone experienced is the way to go. Biggest problem is that if the plane is out of trim then a novice pilot is not able to recognise it, that ONLY comes with experience. Still today I re-trim some of my students planes. All foamies need some trimming on every flight.
CG should be where the manufacturer recommends or look at the RCGroups.com forum for people who have flown it and what they recommend. With it's high mounted motor (high thrustline) the Bixler types to tend to dive on launch with full throttle as the motor pushes the nose down, sometimes launching on half throttle helps with a good throw to get it up to flying speed. One of my flying mates crashed one this morning on launch and he's flown it a lot.
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