Comment by Manfred Dickgiesser on September 22, 2012 at 6:00pm

So you say the cause of your problem, an upside-down flight was through by bad vibrations?

read this:

http://www.diydrones.com/forum/topics/600-size-heli?commentId=70584...

Developer Comment by Mark Colwell on September 23, 2012 at 5:09am

You earn a CrashProof badge! Very good performer. 

Try a ski mask visor (buy from thrift store) get one that has a removable visor with two films, outer film is very strong and air gap prevents fogging. Separate or cut out visor and then use double sided foam tape to assemble to your cured shape for camera pod. Good luck!

Comment by Francois Sabourin on September 23, 2012 at 7:39pm

Isn't flying high tech fun? Given your recent difficulties, I realize you may still be rebuilding your confidence in the APM's reliability, but when you ask: "Now if I could just find a way to fly better" it occurs to me that in your videos you seem to fly either in full auto or in stabilize mode. Have you considered the Fly-By-Wire modes?

The higher modes give progressively more authority to the autopilot and reduce the workload on the pilot. FBW-B in particular may help you avoid entering into a stall and spinning because it defaults to keeping the flight envelope limited to 45 degrees bank, 15 degrees nose up or 25 degrees nose down, as well as controlling the throttle to maintain a cruise speed and power setting within the limits programmed in Mission Planner.

These are very different flying paradigms and do require some getting used to but well worth taking advantage of. Fair warning, if you forget what mode you are in you can get into trouble as well. When I started experimenting with FBW modes, I nearly nosed my plane into the lake when I gave a full nose down input. It was supposed to hold a 25 degree nose down attitude. Except I was in manual mode, not FBW-A. Can you say "dramatic loss of altitude"? That said, I prefer fly-by-wire over stabilize mode any day. For me it has proved to be much more stable and a predictable way to fly at the limits of visual range.

Comment