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Successful reverse thrust landing in 28+ mph gusty wind

Posted by Tj Bordelon on October 9, 2010 at 7:50pm

Ever fly on days you know you shouldn't? Trees were swaying, and my gut was saying no. But I guess you never know until you try. I'd have to say that I couldn't fly in this wind. The ground track of the aircraft was so unintuitive, especially on landing. At times it was just hoovering overhead making minimal progress.

Days like this that really test your autopilot.

Anyway, this video shows my full auto-landing sequence, complete with the dive from 180 feet down to 50, and final flare with reverse thrust. The throttle you hear on landing is reverse, not forward thrust.

Entire flight is automated. Takeoff, flight to 3 waypionts, and finally landing. Enjoy :)
Tags: ezstar, autopilot, freespace, landing, reverse, thrust
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Comments

  • Tj Bordelon October 13, 2010 at 4:23pm
    @doug. No, it varies. One morning somehow dew got in after a landing and messed up my 2nd flight. Another morning it was dirt. Just bad luck lately.
  • Developer
    Doug Weibel October 13, 2010 at 10:54am
    What does your pitot tube get clogged with??? Bugs?
  • Tj Bordelon October 11, 2010 at 8:05pm
    I don't do it as good as some other methods I've heard folks using. For me, I have to circle the LZ once. Supposedly there's a way to know from only 2 measurements spaced a few seconds apart. The only requirement being that you have to change attitude... could be pitch, roll, yaw, whatever. And you can supposedly do it without a pitot. Now this seems like magic, but I've heard it's possible.

    I can see myself doing it instantaneously by figuring out where my track SHOULD go (given pitot airspeed and heading) and get the difference between that and where I actually ended up.

    PS - My pitot always gets clogged. I think it's just bad luck. Fortunately this is detectable and I revert to GPS airspeed and sound the warning bells.
  • Dean October 11, 2010 at 6:29pm
    Atto gets around wind estimation with a trick I think is clever and has some other advantages, but no I absolutely didn't mean any sarcasm. I mean that if your crab angle is 45 degrees, then obviously the wind speed must be about equal to aircraft airspeed, and it is very typical for sUAS to cruise at 28 mph or so... thus I wrote "Yep, based on this I can easily see the winds must have been 28+ mph"

    Dean
  • Dean October 11, 2010 at 6:27pm
    AttoPilot doesn't have a wind estimator. I am tickled to read about people doing this.
  • Dean October 11, 2010 at 6:26pm
    NOT SARCASM!!
  • Tj Bordelon October 11, 2010 at 5:26pm
    @Dean - Not sure if that's sarcasm... but what I'm getting at is if you add the aircraft's velocity vector of 25 mph and a wind velocity vector of 25 mph perpendicular, you get a 45 degree velocity which was what I was getting at.
  • Chris McNair October 11, 2010 at 2:25pm
    "Sith throttles?! Always two, there are... " Many apologies. I have no idea where that came from.. Somewhere deep in the mind..
  • Dean October 11, 2010 at 1:38pm
    "I land at a bearing almost 45 degrees from where I'm pointing."

    Yep, based on this I can easily see the winds must have been 28+mph.
  • Tj Bordelon October 11, 2010 at 7:30am
    @Dean. Yeah your winds have me beat. For whatever reason the wind at ground level vs what was above the trees was very different.
This reply was deleted.