[ Peter Barker, Andrew (Tridge) Tridgell and Leonard Hall analyzing flight logs ]
Take three software developers, a bunch of flying robots, a windy day, some
coffee and mix. What you will get is a fun day of exciting flying just as
we did when Arudcopter Developer Leonard Hall visited the Canberra UAV
team at the Canberra Model Aircraft this week.
Leonard dropped in to do some flying with fellow Ardupilot developer
Andrew Tridgell and other CUAV team members to catch up with CUAV progress
on various projects and to demonstrate how to tune aircraft. We even
learned the theory of how heli software uses a virtual leash to control
helicopters.
The highlight of the day was most certainly watching what happens when you
attempt to fly a 15Kg Porter quadplane in the wind when it's been poorly
tuned. I've never seen a plane pitch ninety degrees on landing before and
I hope that I'll never see that again. Other highlights were watching
Leonard tune a racing quad and a very smooth autonomous Gaui GX9
helicopter flying in high wind.
As the sun set on a cold windy day there was only one thing left to do,
dinner at a lovely Thai restaurant. You just couldn't ask for a better
day.
More pics on the Canberra UAV Flickr page.
Comments
Come on Darrell; we want to watch the backstage :D
Never says never RMAviation ;) , Australia looks a nice country to visit.
Randy - The really scary part is that I left out the scary parts! :-)
Watching Leonard tune a copter is downright scary! It's like he's trying to kill the copter.
Yeah, looking pretty good.
Just curious about the image with the backplate off the motor and looks like engine damage. Guess it was taken March 28th however.
I'll let Greg comment about heli details. You wouldn't believe how much time he's spent getting every detail right on all the helis that we use. There have been lots of issues but he's tackled them all and won. The result is a heli we can use in the Outback Challenge that flies great. Check out the video of the flight when Leonard visited:
Looks like fun, wish more people were near me.
Did you guys have a problem with the GX9 engine?
A pitty that I live so far :( , Lot's to learn and fun :)