Finally, a stable(ish) flight! On Sunday 8th, the UAV finally flew in a more or less stable flight in the AUTO1 position. This essentially means that the UAV controls attitude and takes directional input from the radio. The UAV interprets the RC signal and decides on the relevant bank and pitch angles. In the case of the testing this weekend, it was noted that the maximum bank and pitch angles were not sufficient to have full control of the plane. Additionally some roll oscillation was noted although given that the gyro is presently disconnected, this is not unexpected.
One significant problem came to light with this flight and that was lack of telemetry. Even thought the antenna positioning was identical to the last flight, very few data packets were exchanged with the aircraft while in flight. This is being investigated, but is likely to require a more powerful ground antenna.
Next steps are to repeat the flight with improved reception so that good data can be gathered, then to test and calibrate the attitude response of the plane using the HSI.
Once responsive flight is acheived in AUTO1, the Gyro can be re-integrated and finally, AUTO2 flight with a simple ‘Circle Home’ Mission can be attempted.
The attitude problem was discovered to be a fundamental mistake when setting up the airframe file which caused teh aicraft to believe it was upsidedown.