Bring arducopter higher than tallest structure in the world

Posted by Damo on June 26, 2013 at 12:42pm

HI,

I have a goal to fly the arducopter higher than the current tallest structure 829.8 metres and record the flight. I intend on doing this on a calm day but expect winds at high alt. I do not know what speed to expect. Has anyone brought you copter to a high alt of this value and any learnings i can take?

Thanks

Damo

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Replies

  • Doug Walmsley July 17, 2013 at 7:25am

    I launched mt 3D Robotics Hexa-C copter last week up in the mountains of Virginia and conducted a high speed vertical run for what appeared to be 15-20 seconds in Stablized mode.  I was able to see it the entire time and hadn't considered just how high I went until I started my decent.  It took a considerable amount of time to bring it down due to not wanting it to flip on descent.  I worked my throttle back from roughtly 45% to a minium of about 10% to keep the props turning and still maintaining stability.  At one point the copter began to wobble and I had to ramp up RPMs to bring it back to level while descending.  I strong discourage anyone not willing to accept risks of flipping and crashing your UAV by maintaining a mimium RPM on your UAV.

     

    My Hexa was equipped with Telemetry, a 5000 maH Lipo, and Gimbal Stablized Hero 2 camera which recorded the entire run.  At present due to weight increase to my factory setup, my Lipo on normal flight runs for 8-9 minutes.  I did run into a issue with my Quanum Battery Telemetry monitor, I lost signal with the copter's battery somewhere at 150 meters as the copter ran up to 650 meters AGL vertical assent so I am unable to assess how many milli-ampre it took to get to that altitude.  I was able to successfully bring it back down and land it, but I forgot to reconnect the battery telemetry to see how much was consumed.

     

    Hope this helps. I have telemetry logs,KMZ file, and video I plan to share later when I get back home from work.  Will post for those who are interested.

  • Indre July 16, 2013 at 5:49am

    I've been @1740m with my APM2.5 quad and battery wise it can go approx to 2,5km altitude, but i'd have to upgrade FPV antenna. I certanly wouldn't try this in urban envoirment...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqms7Zkpztc&feature=c4-overview&...

  • steve July 7, 2013 at 6:20am

    Some high flying :)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGimzB5QM1M

  • Developer
    Jani Hirvinen July 1, 2013 at 11:24pm

    As far as I remember there were one or two cases that ArduCopter did fly to over 700 meters altitude due ehem.. minor software issue looong ago. So yes we know that they can fly high. (btw pilot got his copter back with RTL command so everything were ok after all).

    FPVLeif in Norway has flown hes hexa (or was it octo) to over 1km of altitude. In technically there is no limits on how high you can go. It's more like physical limits.. Your battery and also thrust that your motors can create. More higher you go, faster motors needs to spin to keep same lift due air is getting thinner. 

    We have flown our jDrones copters on altitudes of 1.8km MSL here in Thailand and later this year we have plans to go and test them on 2.5km altitudes (flying at mountain areas, not in free space)

    jD-main
  • ws_Alex July 1, 2013 at 9:50pm

    The tallest tower in the middle is 330 meters. Don't know whether my tricopter was higher than it or not? The gopro looked down a little bit.

    330.jpg

  • Euan Ramsay July 1, 2013 at 12:31am
    I think it's important to not lose sight of the OP's intention - to fly to 1,000m. I think we can safely say that he won't be buzzing any famous Dubai tower in the process, and that he would be choosing a suitable venue for this.

    50 miles outside of Dubia, it's horizon-to-horizon of completely empty desert for one, way outside any flight paths, and would be a very suitable venue (heat issues aside).

    I don't think anyone is advocating breaking any aviation rules here, merely to ensure the OP obtains the correct permission to do this.

    And I for one, would like to see this done - pushing the boundaries and all that.
  • Søren Kuula June 30, 2013 at 9:41am

    My Mikrokopter was at 1025m AGL once. There was even time for some hovering and hesitation on the way up.

  • Benny Simonsen June 29, 2013 at 12:09pm

    I did fly an Arducopter quite high once (~700m), but certainly not intentionally. See this link Icarus

    Hope you check the regulations before the attempt.

  • David Dewey June 29, 2013 at 1:24am

    I did a flight up the side of Yellow Mountain with my little ArduPhantom that started at 411 meters launch and climbed 400 meters higher before turning around. Seems you should be able to go twice that elevation gain with a standard-sized Arducopter. Here's the video, crash at the end caused by the 2.9 auto mode switch throttle cut bug: 

  • Glenn Wallace June 28, 2013 at 7:20am

    I am not sure what country you are in, but in the US and Australia you must keep below 400ft AGL.

    Wherever you are, you'd also need to some plan to ensure you aren't near any full size aircraft.

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