Emergency Unpowered Descent

[PatR]

Fairly similar, they both drop like a brick. As for being wide of the post, why yearn for a power off descent in order to deal with a preventable emergency? No emergency descent method is going to compensate for a lack of flight planning and flight safety. If people are that worried about manned aircraft they could employ a spotter and get a heck of a lot more flight safety in the process.

 

[prathbun]

The post is pointless, so any reply can not be less pointless.
May as talk about flying pigs, and the associated aerodynamics.

Fairly similar, they both drop like a brick. As for being wide of the post, why yearn for a power off descent in order to deal with a preventable emergency? No emergency descent method is going to compensate for a lack of flight planning and flight safety. If people are that worried about manned aircraft they could employ a spotter and get a heck of a lot more flight safety in the process.

With respect, the OP made it clear the question was academic ("This isn't a question to challenge legality or rationale of such a maneuver, more just curiosity around the general physics and capability of the craft itself."); and in my opinion not pointless at all. I wasn't aware there was a prohibition here against knowledge for knowledge's sake.

It's a sorry day when people in these forums get put down for asking "what-if" questions...

.

 

[Steve Carr]

With respect, the OP made it clear the question was academic ("This isn't a question to challenge legality or rationale of such a maneuver, more just curiosity around the general physics and capability of the craft itself."); and in my opinion not pointless at all. I wasn't aware there was a prohibition here against knowledge for knowledge's sake.
It's a sorry day when people in these forums get put down for asking "what-if" questions...
.

What if questions are one way to expand knowledge of the aircraft we fly. Sadly, the example posted demonstrates that somebody actually tried it but did so in a high density residential area. It ended with a crash in that same neighborhood. A willingness to risk your own aircraft should at least be done using some degree of safety. Anyone contemplating doing this experiment should understand the comments here are publicly searchable. That, Sir, would be part of the knowledge to which you refer.

 

[prathbun]

What if questions are one way to expand knowledge of the aircraft we fly. Sadly, the example posted demonstrates that somebody actually tried it but did so in a high density residential area. It ended with a crash in that same neighborhood. A willingness to risk your own aircraft should at least be done using some degree of safety. Anyone contemplating doing this experiment should understand the comments here are publicly searchable. That, Sir, would be part of the knowledge to which you refer.

I completely agree! There will always be people who push the envelope without thinking through the consequences (remember the guy a few weeks back who posted a video of his Breeze kissing cars in a parking lot, and was thankful his drone didn't get hurt?), and anybody ignorant or mean enough to put bystanders at risk should be educated by the legal system (Drone operator investigated for causing 'substantial risk of death' in Space Needle crash).

If a person on these forums asks a "pointless" question and gets a landslide of how stupid, ill-advised or illegal what s/he's asking about is, they're likely to keep their questions to themselves and go try crazy stuff without asking anybody's input.

If you rail at your kid for asking what would happen if they jumped off the roof with an umbrella as a parachute, who's more ignorant - you or the kid?

I'm gonna need a new soap-box soon; this one's wearing out.

 

[Dr Delta]

I completely agree! There will always be people who push the envelope without thinking through the consequences (remember the guy a few weeks back who posted a video of his Breeze kissing cars in a parking lot, and was thankful his drone didn't get hurt?), and anybody ignorant or mean enough to put bystanders at risk should be educated by the legal system (Drone operator investigated for causing 'substantial risk of death' in Space Needle crash).

If a person on these forums asks a "pointless" question and gets a landslide of how stupid, ill-advised or illegal what s/he's asking about is, they're likely to keep their questions to themselves and go try crazy stuff without asking anybody's input.

If you rail at your kid for asking what would happen if they jumped off the roof with an umbrella as a parachute, who's more ignorant - you or the kid?

I'm gonna need a new soap-box soon; this one's wearing out.

The dilemma of choices to make.

Love the soap box.

 

[glider]

The best way is to circle along with full throttle down (on the H). That way you avoid VRS and the battery is conserved much better. 1000 ft. alt can be reduced to 20 ft quite efficiently.

With Arducopter you have to be careful because full throttle down idles the motors, so it's by experience knowing the limit.

 

[PatR]

During a massively unthinking moment, that's how I learned how a multirotor reacted when motor speed was reduced to zero. Others present thought I was doing some trick flying. The real trick was not crapping myself while an $1,800 multirotor was approaching the ground inverted while trying to achieve terminal velocity. I was lucky. It's not something that should be done with a camera rig.

OTOH, if you have money to burn and in a place nothing or nobody else can get hurt, give it a go if you want. If you walk away with a bag full of broken multirotor, don't blame the manufacturer. A word of caution though; most flight controllers go a little bonkers when exceeding 60* of roll or pitch if the PID's weren't originally set up to handle it.

 

[Paranull]

Hi!
I saw this video, with mavic today

Best regards.

 

[PatR]

You might find a better home for that in the DJI forums.

 

[prathbun]

You might find a better home for that in the DJI forums.

Really???
You might ignore the thread if you don't have anything to add.

 

[Ralphy]

Put an emergency parachute in top for safety and do it over a bushy tree with no camera. I do it I my FPV racer all the time zip up high shut of motors and drops like a rock then power up before hitting the ground . It keeps all systems on even when motors power down and it's very responsive .

 

[OmegaOmega]

Put an emergency parachute in top for safety and do it over a bushy tree with no camera. I do it I my FPV racer all the time zip up high shut of motors

Hey @Ralphy - The parachute makes for a great idea. The first time I even thought of the combo was when I was at Fry's Electronics and actually saw a drone system they were selling with built in 'parachute' rescue. The fact that it was well designed and built in was great and made total sense.

As for the Typhoon - the key thing that I've noticed that is significantly different from DJI, for example, is that the TH shuts down the flight controller when it is upside down.

As for your FPV racer, I'm curious as to the specs. When you are in the midst of a dead drop, do you notice a significant amount of time for recovery in terms of decelerating the rate of descent?

 

[OmegaOmega]

Hi!
I saw this video, with mavic today


Best regards.

Hey @Paranull - I did find that as well; I was astonished that he did it at such a low altitude; but appreciate that he did it under far better control than the other video I posted of the DJI drone falling from several thousand feat up in the air (both due to a CSC then later to a power failure).

The bigger question for the Yuneec side is whether it's possible with a quad copter (specifically TH) - Yuneec's flight software is not as matured and iterated as DJI and additionally, Yuneec commands a motor stop of the device rolls beyond 90 degrees (DJI does not, at least in sport mode).

The thing I found fascinating when I saw this video, however, was that the craft maintained it's upright position. The same was true of the first DJI video I posted - yet the two are completely different designs.

 

[Dr Delta]

Hi!
I saw this video, with mavic today

Best regards.

Looks like one needs a ton of anabolic muscle to handle DJI controller. LOL

 

[Ralphy]

Hey @Ralphy - The parachute makes for a great idea. The first time I even thought of the combo was when I was at Fry's Electronics and actually saw a drone system they were selling with built in 'parachute' rescue. The fact that it was well designed and built in was great and made total sense.

As for the Typhoon - the key thing that I've noticed that is significantly different from DJI, for example, is that the TH shuts down the flight controller when it is upside down.

As for your FPV racer, I'm curious as to the specs. When you are in the midst of a dead drop, do you notice a significant amount of time for recovery in terms of decelerating the rate of descent?

The parachute is a good safety strategy that can get you a Certificate of Authorization from the FAA to operate in controlled airspace.

The FPV i have is the F210 from walkera. The speed is insane fast with no gps control and 3 different flight modes. There is the beginner mode which is stabilized mode that self levels when its within 90 degrees of level. I can drop it from ummmmmm 400' and recover it from hitting the ground at less than 50' above ground level. It has a top speed of about 70ish mph so it can recover from almost any situation quickly.

 

[OmegaOmega]

most flight controllers go a little bonkers when exceeding 60* of roll or pitch if the PID's weren't originally set up to handle it.

Does anyone know if it's easy to change this parameter with the Yuneec system? Or even if there's a way to disable the failsafe that cuts the motors if the device turns beyond the 90 degrees?

 

[Ralphy]

Does anyone know if it's easy to change this parameter with the Yuneec system? Or even if there's a way to disable the failsafe that cuts the motors if the device turns beyond the 90 degrees?

Imagine having a OHH **** button on the ST-16. IT shuts the motors down and lands it in a controlled manner before blowing up by hitting the ground. No more slow battery draining descents or Vortex ring effect. This can be bigger than realsense.

 

[PatR]

The motor/tilt shut down is there to protect both the public and the aircraft after a crash. There's nothing quite like watching your toy beat itself to death after it unexpectedly hits the ground. Inexperienced users can fumble around for quite some time before establishing they need to push a power button. Perhaps a little more exciting is watching some excited kid run over and grab it with all the props spinning away. The Phantom is well noted for not shutting down after a crash, even when inverted.

 

[OmegaOmega]

The motor/tilt shut down is there to protect both the public and the aircraft after a crash. There's nothing quite like watching your toy beat itself to death after it unexpectedly hits the ground. Inexperienced users can fumble around for quite some time before establishing they need to push a power button. Perhaps a little more exciting is watching some excited kid run over and grab it with all the props spinning away. The Phantom is well noted for not shutting down after a crash, even when inverted.

Agreed - I definitely appreciate the feature. It seems equally as absent in my Autel which had no problems continuing to operate at what felt like full throttle even though it had tipped and completely turned upside down after bouncing on a hard landing.

 

[Ralphy]

Agreed - I definitely appreciate the feature. It seems equally as absent in my Autel which had no problems continuing to operate at what felt like full throttle even though it had tipped and completely turned upside down after bouncing on a hard landing.

Good point