We've been having quite bad (windy) weather that It has been almost impossible to get the glider up in the air to gather more flight data . But nonetheless, I managed to analyse the data that I have come to some interesting conclusion on the behaviour of the aircraft in flight. The post-filtering of the IMU euler angles prior to controller design only add approximately 4/10th of the second in lag (guestimate). The servo limiter which I set on all channels is which what a normal flight actuation is experienced (considering wind factors). It's quite clear from the graphs that GPS velocity is expected to change with aircraft pitch although the nature of the sensitivity over a 1Hz update was not expected. The noise factor in launch in both roll and pitch channels shows that an alternative method needs to be established for a take-off and landing autopilot mode. There seems to be a considerable lag in pitch servo input and pitch change. This makes sense for the fact that t...

So I got some flight time under my belt yesterday. I must say there's nothing better than seeing your flying skills improve with time ( I can't wait to get more batteries so I can get my heli in the air as well). Anyway, back to the glider autopilot . Managed to get the roll autopilot to stabilize the aircraft which was a great feat. Although because the glider is inherently unstable during banking (due to the battery pack sitting on top of the wing) the roll autopilot relies heavily in controlling the rates produced by the aircraft. This is still a problem as roll rate doesn't yet have a strong influence in the control loop . The same can be said about the pitch controller (which I had to land the aircraft, upload new code and launch again). Due to the lack of control on the pitch rate, the phugoid mode of the aircraft is activated and the aircraft goes into an unstable dives which eventually would cause a crash. The use of the safety switch mechanism logic has ...

Depicts a traditional PID controller. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I'm such an exciting right now. It's been over a year of putting this UAV glider with custom autopilot and electronics together and now we're at the pivotal stage. In-flight testing of autopilot and GPS waypoint tracking!! Decided to go for a flight test on Sunday morning before church (around 7am) eventhough I was performing the church band that morning (crazy I know). It was bitter cold but decided to push through. I must say that I realised that I need a small collapse table/stool to setup the instruments instead of the wet/moist ground. I was great to see that the transmitter code works as expected. There was no lag in the transmission of signals from transmitter -> autopilot -> servos. The turning of aircraft with rudder and elevator control was smooth and consistent. It was refreshing to see that the filtering algorithm worked well. Decided to test the roll autopilot first, this...

An aircraft separation incident between an unmanned aerial vehicle and crop duster highlights the challenges with having a diverse mix of aircraft operating in the same airspace. On 12 September 2013 the pilot of an Ayres S2R commenced aerial agricultural spraying operations on a property near Horsham, Victoria. At about the same time, the operator of a UAV, Sensefly eBee 178, arrived at ‘Iluka Echo’ (Echo) mine site to conduct an aerial photography survey of the site. After completing his pre-flight preparation and risk assessment of the operation, the operator heard an aircraft operating about 1 – 1.5 km away on a neighbouring property.

If you want to use my graphic outside Wikipedia, and its resolution or license doesn't satisfy you, write to me: 100px (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The radian glider took a real beating at the last crash. Although it had a 'soft' landing eventually, going through the trees was not pleasant the foamy airframe . since it wasn't covered, indentations can be seen all over the aircraft.

The Dx4e transmitter (currently that's what I'm using) creates alot of noise when used with arduino. It's quite clear that the receiver has a tuned low pass filter that needed to be emulated for the code. A low pass filter was implemented with a stategy of using a the gradient of 3 values to determine whether allow input to the servo signal stream or not. Here's the pseudo code below:

Although it was a bittersweet moment when the Radian glider took off (my own airframe had a disastrous crash), it felt really good seeing that glider gracefully fly through the skies. After the repairs I had to make on it, I realise that motor has a pitch up moment on the airframe causing the glider to quickly gain altitude but loosing forward speed. That will have to be remedied.

FAA can't regulate small RC aircraft as "drones," judge rules NTSB judge strikes down $10,000 fine against man for unlicensed "commercial use." Raphael Pirker prepares to launch his " FPV " remote controlled plane in New York City in a video he posted in 2010. http://vimeo.com/17351140 In 2011, Raphael Pirker used a RiteWing Zephyr II  remote-controlled flying wing to record aerial video of a hospital campus for use in a television advertisement. That act resulted in the Federal Aviation Administration issuing a fine to Pirker of $10,000 for that commercial use of an unmanned aircraft. But now an administrative judge with the National Transportation Safety Board has struck down that fine , contending that FAA regulations can't be applied to the styrofoam drone Pirker flew.

Shinden by Bryan Hebert (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Hi all, I came across this spreadsheet containing rough estimates of common building materials used for scratchbuild of RC airplanes . Use it, don't use it. Here it is. What it doesn't have, is a updated list on LIPO batteries and common brushless motors but besides that it's pretty decent. Enjoy! Click the link below: https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flyelectric.ukgateway.net%2Fweights.xls

I Although I now have a Radian glider. It's quite difficult to find open places where you're able to practice your flying. So i decided to design a new airframe that will be able to keep my flight hours up without having to travel far. The aim was to make a cheap. light and yet strong powered plane that, if needed, would be able to carry the autopilot board. The airframe was made of foam core , 160gsm board paper, packaging tape and dowel sticks.