Another bad landing

[AeroJ]

Yes and proven. A pilot using a TH wishing to go commercial in the U.K. must actually demonstrate this ability during his operational assessment before applying for the PfCO.

Remember that when switching off the GPS on a TH you aren't actually switching it off...you are just telling the aircraft to ignore the GPS information. Very important, though, that the GPS was active at the start of the flight.

Well that's just bloody marvelous Thanks FV !

 

[FlushVision]

Well that's just bloody marvelous Thanks FV !

It's just one of those failsafes that the TH has. To help prevent it from drifting away over the horizon should you lose control link while the GPS is off.

If you lose control link with GPS off it should return to the last known position of the controller registered before GPS is switched off and hover until control is re-established or land once the battery has reached a certain low level state. Indeed, it should act in exactly the same way as if GPS is switched on if you lose control signal. I do recommend, though, that one should not use this function without cause. It is a failsafe to be relied upon in emergency only...but be assured that it does work.

Note that I believe it takes a few seconds for this function to kick in. So if it is drifting at the time it loses control signal it could still fly into a tree if you are a bit close to the trees.

 

[Dougcjohn]

It's just one of those failsafes that the TH has. To help prevent it from drifting away over the horizon should you lose control link while the GPS is off.

If you lose control link with GPS off it should return to the last known position of the controller registered before GPS is switched off and hover until control is re-established or land once the battery has reached a certain low level state. Indeed, it should act in exactly the same way as if GPS is switched on if you lose control signal. I do recommend, though, that one should not use this function without cause. It is a failsafe to be relied upon in emergency only...but be assured that it does work.

Note that I believe it takes a few seconds for this function to kick in. So if it is drifting at the time it loses control signal it could still fly into a tree if you are a bit close to the trees.

That is nice to learn, but that is if the GPS unit is functional within the H. This is if GPS signal is lost between RC & AC. If GPS fails on the AC, there is no valid reference due to no known present position. Which is more common with all the various threads on lost control or fly aways... a lost signal connection or a failed or odd behavior GPS unit on AC?

 

[FlushVision]

That is nice to learn, but that is if the GPS unit is functional within the H. This is if GPS signal is lost between RC & AC. If GPS fails on the AC, there is no valid reference due to no known present position. Which is more common with all the various threads on lost control or fly aways... a lost signal connection or a failed or odd behavior GPS unit on AC?

Yes, only works if the GPS is not faulty and has just been switched off. If the GPS has stopped working because of a fault then it's a bad day for the pilot.

 

[Dustoff]

I can attest to fact to only turn off gps once you have taken off . I turned off right at start up and when I took off it went drifting off very fast in to tree .

 

[NorWiscPilot]

it scares me to death to fly with no GPS I've done it a couple times but I hate the way the thing drifts around and I know darn well you sure better keep it in line of sight.
Keith Kuhn

Keith,

I bet the “scare” comes more from the investment in your H (at risk) than the actual flight without GPS. That is, your confidence is too low to let you relax with that much money in the air.

As has been mentioned many times, go get something under $100; say a Hubsan 107 something. No camera, no frills. Just something you can fly indoors or out, fully manual. Get your confidence up there. If it crashes, likely not much damage. Even if totaled, a new system is less than $40.

Spent many hours watching tv and flying at the same time. Lots of fun, actually... and no worries.

Jeff

P.S. prop guards on the little guys a definite must!

 

[Dougcjohn]

Yes, only works if the GPS is not faulty and has just been switched off. If the GPS has stopped working because of a fault then it's a bad day for the pilot.

That makes sense, I was attempting to grasp if I was missing something really cool within the H.
If the GPS fails, it's positional guidance system is gone but it's still flyable with stable control... requires manual corrections. I haven't followed all the Fly away threads, but if the GPS fails does it "normally" go into a out of logic/offline condition providing no ill behavior or does it feed false logic causing havoc on the flight controls?

 

[FlushVision]

That makes sense, I was attempting to grasp if I was missing something really cool within the H.
If the GPS fails, it's positional guidance system is gone but it's still flyable with stable control... requires manual corrections. I haven't followed all the Fly away threads, but if the GPS fails does it "normally" go into a out of logic/offline condition providing no ill behavior or does it feed false logic causing havoc on the flight controls?

Depends how the GPS has failed/become faulty. Best case scenario is that the aircraft has just lost it's satellites and just goes into atti mode leaving the aircraft still controllable. If, on the other hand, the GPS information is garbled or inaccurate then all bets are off since this could cause the aircraft to go to a location that it 'thinks' it should be rather than where it actually is. If the pilot is lucky then the false location may only be a hundred or so yards away and he can recover the aircraft (this is sometimes caused when flying with a high Kp index value). When this happens some pilots think it's a classic fly away only stopped by the tree he's just flown into when in reality if the tree wasn't there the aircraft would have only flown a few more yards. Sometimes, though, the data is totally mushed and then you have a classic Over-The-Horizon flyaway. If the pilot is on his toes he may be able to stop it by simply switching GPS off and flying atti until landed...one of the main reasons why a pilot should get a bit of practice with flying without the aid of GPS.

 

[PatR]

Keith,

I bet the “scare” comes more from the investment in your H (at risk) than the actual flight without GPS. That is, your confidence is too low to let you relax with that much money in the air.

During my days with RC aerobatics (not very long ago) we would see many that would fly airplanes worth just a few hundred $$ with reckless abandon. Wide open throttle, a hundred plus mph, and sticks always jammed in the corners. As aerobatics expanded the planes became much larger and a lot more expensive things changed. It was almost comical watching those that had flown smaller, cheaper planes with disregard for model preservation do little more than fly lazy race track orbits after they obtained larger planes costing $4,000.00-$8,000.00. For some even getting them to start an engine and take off was more stress than they wanted to deal with.

The point with the above is if someone is more concerned with the cost of a lost or crashed aircraft than with the enjoyment they are obtaining from said aircraft, they should be doing something else. We should be seeing something other than $$ signs when we elect to participate in this hobby. Never spend more than you can comfortably afford to lose.

Something that does much to relieve that stress is competency. The better we understand our systems and the more we practice with them the less stress we experience with them. Having to ability to fly comfortably in full control without requiring GPS guidance is one of the signs of competency. Always being in control of the landing is another. Put those two together and there is little left to fear.