Auto land and transmitter failure

[MattClark]

Practicing for my commercial license and knowing you have to turn the transmitter off, after plucking up the courage, tried exactly that. It’s my understanding that for CAA it has to return home and land.
Once the transmitter was turned off, it seemed to sit there for a few (felt very long) seconds, then climbed and started heading home. Once it returned it just sat there hovering, with me below with switched off controller in hand. It hovered for a few minutes until I turned the transmitter back on and it connected to let me control and land.
Question is, is there a setting to enable auto land if the control signal is lost?
I’ve looked but I can’t see one.
Any help gratefully received.

 

[Steve Carr]

Practicing for my commercial license and knowing you have to turn the transmitter off, after plucking up the courage, tried exactly that. It’s my understanding that for CAA it has to return home and land.
Once the transmitter was turned off, it seemed to sit there for a few (felt very long) seconds, then climbed and started heading home. Once it returned it just sat there hovering, with me below with switched off controller in hand. It hovered for a few minutes until I turned the transmitter back on and it connected to let me control and land.
Question is, is there a setting to enable auto land if the control signal is lost?
I’ve looked but I can’t see one.
Any help gratefully received.

There are two different schemes to return and land.
1. When you select "Home" on the ST16, the H will fly back and land about 15' from the controller in the "Line of Flight".
2. On signal loss, the H will fly back to the last known position of the ST16 and then hover in place waiting for the signal to reconnect. When the battery gets low, it will auto land.

 

[MattClark]

Thanks for the reply, I will have to check with the training centre if it’s acceptable. It is my understanding the CAA want it demonstrated that the aircraft returns and lands.

 

[Steve Carr]

Thanks for the reply, I will have to check with the training centre if it’s acceptable. It is my understanding the CAA want it demonstrated that the aircraft returns and lands.

Indeed it does return and land. Others have posted the same testing with the CAA as acceptable. I believe @FlushVision has done this as well.

 

[VETTE198620002000]

There are two different schemes to return and land.
1. When you select "Home" on the ST16, the H will fly back and land about 15' from the controller in the "Line of Flight".
2. On signal loss, the H will fly back to the last known position of the ST16 and then hover in place waiting for the signal to reconnect. When the battery gets low, it will auto land.

Wow I did not know this about signal loss. i didn't see anything online or in the "h" directions about it. good info to know. thanks

 

[MattClark]

When I tried it today it didn’t land at all, just hovered. It returns and lands when I push return to home. This was a full turn off of the transmitter. Am I missing a setting somewhere?

 

[Steve Carr]

When I tried it today it didn’t land at all, just hovered. It returns and lands when I push return to home. This was a full turn off of the transmitter. Am I missing a setting somewhere?

It won't land (in scheme No 2 above) until the battery voltage gets low enough to force an auto land. It's faster to test it with a partially depleted battery. Since the ST16 is turned off, you can't monitor the voltage or feel the vibration. I would only test this without the camera attached, but it does work.

 

[wings]

Is the CAA in England? Like the FAA in the US.

 

[PatR]

Thanks for the reply, I will have to check with the training centre if it’s acceptable. It is my understanding the CAA want it demonstrated that the aircraft returns and lands.

It will do exactly that but won’t land until the battery depletes. It is waiting to regain signal. Barring acquiring a signal it will wait for the battery to go down. It is bot programmed to auto land except after an RTH command or low battery. All that is in Yuneec documentation.

You should take some time to read the documentation and get to know your aircraft before taking the exam.

 

[MattClark]

Thank you all for your replies. I was just wanted to find out if it is suitable to do the test with, as the examiner has told me the CAA (UK version of the FAA) requires it to return AND land after loss of transmitter control. I need to find out if the return and hover will be accepted to pass.

 

[Dr Delta]

Thank you all for your replies. I was just wanted to find out if it is suitable to do the test with, as the examiner has told me the CAA (UK version of the FAA) requires it to return AND land after loss of transmitter control. I need to find out if the return and hover will be accepted to pass.

Message #4....?

 

[MattClark]

With regard to message #4, when I tried it, the drone returned and stayed in a hover and didn’t land. I had to turn transmitter back on to land it myself. It was a fresh battery so after waiting approx 2 minutes I came to the conclusion it wasn’t going to come down so powered up the transmitter.

 

[Dr Delta]

Yeh.
Well, the answer to that and your former questions are in the other posts above.

 

[MattClark]

I didn’t mean to upset anyone, and I appreciate the responses.
I was just asking if there was an option to have it land after signal loss.

 

[Dr Delta]

Of course no offense taken, Matt.

But you can find these answers in the previous messages.

- the H will autoland after powering off the ST, but it will return to home first and then wait for connection to re-esteblish. If this does not occur it wil auto-land as the battary is depleted (so for test best use a not fully charged battary).

- British members of this forum have acomplished their paperwork with perfectly standard H drones.

- Flush Vision is a British member with all papers and great knowledge of British legislation. I am sure he will be happy to help if you send him a personal message.

Cheers!

 

[MattClark]

Thanks for the reply. The bit that threw me was that the examiner I spoke to said it had to return and land in the test. My experience was return and hover. I just wasn’t sure if return and hover would pass the test. I will have to clarify with the examiner. But the fact others have managed to get there papers must mean it is acceptable. Thank you all for your time and patience.

 

[NorWiscPilot]

Thanks for the reply. The bit that threw me was that the examiner I spoke to said it had to return and land in the test. My experience was return and hover. I just wasn’t sure if return and hover would pass the test. I will have to clarify with the examiner. But the fact others have managed to get there papers must mean it is acceptable. Thank you all for your time and patience.

Matt,

What others are telling you is this:

“Upon signal loss, the Tyhoon H will return home and hover. If signal is not regained before depletion of it’s battery, the H will land.”

What you are failing to decipher is this: “the H will return home, and will land once the battery is depleted.”

What the examiner needs to see demonstrated is the return home and land. The examiner may have to wait a bit to observe the “landing” part of the sequence, but it will happen.

Hope this helps!

Jeff

 

[MattClark]

Thanks Jeff.

 

[PatR]

The aircraft must perform to the standards as published by the manufacturer. The examiner does not have the authority to demand software or aircraft performance meets his personal standards.

You’re working within a well documented set of legal applicability standards. Learn them and be able to instantly make reference to them. Right now you are akin to someone going to play a high stakes poker game but don’t know the rules and have never played before. The only thing certain is that you will lose.

 

[FlushVision]

Matt,

What others are telling you is this:

“Upon signal loss, the Tyhoon H will return home and hover. If signal is not regained before depletion of it’s battery, the H will land.”

What you are failing to decipher is this: “the H will return home and land, after battery depletion.”

What the examiner needs to see demonstrated is the return home and land. The examiner may have to wait a bit to observe the “landing” part of the sequence, but it will happen.

Hope this helps!

Jeff

NorWiscPilot. I have quoted the above for context only.

The above is correct. You have to demonstrate a return to home and landing on a loss of control signal. The fact that the aircraft will return to roughly above the ST16 and hover waiting for control to be re-established is not an issue since the aircraft will auto land once a certain low level state is reached with the battery. Since the aircraft will auto-land (eventually) you are demonstrating exactly that which is required. This element of the test is usually the last part of field operational test so you will not be asked to take off again. The overall 'in the air' field test takes around 11 minutes (it did for me anyway) not including the hover time on the last part of the test so that by the time you are conducting the last demonstration your battery will be some way to depletion meaning that you shouldn't need to wait too long for the aircraft to land.

Note that during the test you will also need to demonstrate a loss of GPS and still meet the above test. The H480 will be able to do this so long as the GPS was originally switched on at the time of take-off, then switched off after take-off.

Note that on switching off the GPS you are not actually switching off the GPS...just telling the aircraft not to rely on it for normal GPS aided flight...it will still assist the aircraft in a 'return to ST16 event' returning the aircraft to the last known position of the controller.

EDIT. Better not set the RTH height too high. Since you know that you will be allowing the aircraft to land on a critically depleted battery the last thing you need is for it to have to do this from three or four hundred feet up.