With much excitement I found some time to give my dual setting flaperon system a test run. In the video, it's used during the low altitude and climb out at the beginning, the landing, and a couple other points along the way. It does feel a bit better for landings and launches, but I think I might increase the 'flap' angle to the full throw of the servo to get the maximum effect possible.
For those wondering, this uses the Turnigy 9x transmitter with er9x firmware. I have two switches which each supply additive signal to both of the differential aileron channels.
I'm moving in a couple days so I've packed up the plane and quad for now, and this'll be the last testing at this location for a while. I can't wait to see if ArduPlane can handle the tx-based flaperons (fingers crossed).
Comments
Hi. I just found this thread, on my plane I have multiple ailerons enabled (using two channels from the Tx) I'm interested in trying a mild flaperon mix on the APM to assist with rolling takeoff in windless conditions (the plane does not have flaps).
It would be great if the output from the Automatic Flaps function could be fed into a flaperon mix but not sure if this is possible (I've read through the APM Plane instructions)
APM 2.5 running v2.74b, Thanks.
I readed that, but says nothing about flaperons, only diferential ailerons.
i´ll take photos of the behavior of the flaperons and upload them later.
Take a look at: http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/wiki/MultipleAilerons
I don´t find the explanation of how to get the flaperon function, con you give the link ?
THANKS
Greg, thanks for the warning. That's a very good point to bring up. The last thing I want to do is get caught in a spin! The flap settings I have are currently minimal and have a minor effect, and I also make sure I'm not using them in significant maneuvers. I also have rudder mixed with ailerons so there is always at least some compensation. Thanks for the information!
You must be careful with flaperons. The cause "adverse aileron roll". If you have a lot of flap, you have a lot of adverse roll. You could easily spin into the ground. This is cause by uneven drag between the wings with is counter to what you want. That's why its called "adverse", its bad. With flaps deployed, when you put in roll input, say to roll right, the drag is less on the right wing and more on the left wing. So while you are rolling right the plane yaws to the left, and that is the recipe for a stall-spin. The more you roll one way, the more it yaws the wrong way. Trainer planes typically use differential (more up than down) aileron throws to compensate for this even without flaperons.
Thanks! I was waiting for someone like you to come along and tell me what's what. :) This is the first plane I've flown (only a handfull of flights at that), so I've just been getting the hang of it and have not even touched ArduPlane yet. My APM is still on my quad. I appreciate the information, since I have not yet begun to dig through the ArduPlane wiki.
you do know that the ArduPlane code supports it, right ?
All you need to do is to configure one of the auxiliary channels (5, 6 or 7) to have the flaperon function.
The wiki explains a bit better how to do it using the APM planner GUI