Discussions

I am ready to try a mission using my Arducopter Quad with the APM2.5. In Mission Planner  I have set a circuit of events, from a takeoff from home, then on to 7 waypoints with the appropriate waypoints set, and then a RTL to end up where I started. I am using 1.2.73  and the copter firmware is 3.01

Question 1.  

I don't have "auto" set up on a switch on my radio".. can I just lift off in stable mode, then use a mouse click switch to auto in MP?

Questions 2.

I want to get specific video "look at's" during the flight. The camera is fixed and always pointing ahead.

(no gimble or pan/tilt)   Do I set the yaw for each waypoint, and if so, is it relative to the direction I am going.  I do want to film to the side during some parts of the flight, including circling around an object and making it the subject of the video.

Am I to take a protractor and measure the offset from straight ahead in the path of travel, to set into the yaw setting for each waypoint or is there some other way?   When the yaw angle changes from waypoint to waypoint, does the copter rotate smoothly between yaw angles?

Question 3. Once it is sent on the mission, if it looses command radio control and Telemetry, does it continue the mission?

answers to these questions will be very helpful or direct me to where I can find detailed info on the methods of using the mission planning would be great.

I will be starting small in a very large open area and test small missions at first until I have a good understanding on what to expect.

Thanks in advance for any wisdom!

Richard