Back in the air! And TI wobble incident...
10-20-2006, 10:36 AM
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Back in the air! And TI wobble incident...
Hey folks!
For various reasons, I've been away from flying my DF and this forum for several months, but I'm back in the air! I've got a DF V TI with the frame brace and the Eyecam (not Extreme). The Eyecam is fun for getting some interesting video, but as has been pointed out many times here, it's not sufficient for high or even mid-quality shots, especially with the original mounting (which is all I have). But it's still a lot of fun.
I did run into an issue on my last flight, no damage, fortunately! I believe I experienced the "fatal TI wobble" which has been written about here, and I think I know what caused it in this case: calibrating in the shade and then flying into sunlight. Oops! I calibrated TI (got two lights) in my driveway in the shade of the house...It was mid-to-late afternoon and the sun was already relatively low in the sky. Two mistakes: calibrating over cement, and calibrating in the shade. On takeoff, the DF seemed basically Ok, but a little wobbly. As soon as it gained enough altitude to get into the sunlight, it started wobbling badly, I couldn't recover, and it flipped itself to the ground. Fortunately, it came down in quite possibly the best place available: a nice soft bush. No damage, other than some slightly twisted motor mounts, and an amazing amount of sap on the rotors. :-)
So I realigned the motors, cleaned the rotors, and repeated the same procedure...Once again, the DF got a bad wobble as soon as it got into sunlight, but this time I recovered it and landed. Then I figured out what I was doing wrong and took the DF out into the lawn, recalibrating in the sunlight and over grass (two lights again). I took off from the driveway and all was fine, both in the sunlight and in the shade. It was rather windy, though, so I didn't take the DF too high.
The whole flight (or set of flights, I should say) was a great experience: I learned something important about TI calibration and greatly increased my confidence flying the DF both by recovering from the second "TI wobble" incident and also dealing with some pretty hefty winds. Obviously, I need to temper that confidence, though, or another bad crash will be just around the corner! :-)
I've got a lot of catching up to do here it looks like!
Will
For various reasons, I've been away from flying my DF and this forum for several months, but I'm back in the air! I've got a DF V TI with the frame brace and the Eyecam (not Extreme). The Eyecam is fun for getting some interesting video, but as has been pointed out many times here, it's not sufficient for high or even mid-quality shots, especially with the original mounting (which is all I have). But it's still a lot of fun.
I did run into an issue on my last flight, no damage, fortunately! I believe I experienced the "fatal TI wobble" which has been written about here, and I think I know what caused it in this case: calibrating in the shade and then flying into sunlight. Oops! I calibrated TI (got two lights) in my driveway in the shade of the house...It was mid-to-late afternoon and the sun was already relatively low in the sky. Two mistakes: calibrating over cement, and calibrating in the shade. On takeoff, the DF seemed basically Ok, but a little wobbly. As soon as it gained enough altitude to get into the sunlight, it started wobbling badly, I couldn't recover, and it flipped itself to the ground. Fortunately, it came down in quite possibly the best place available: a nice soft bush. No damage, other than some slightly twisted motor mounts, and an amazing amount of sap on the rotors. :-)
So I realigned the motors, cleaned the rotors, and repeated the same procedure...Once again, the DF got a bad wobble as soon as it got into sunlight, but this time I recovered it and landed. Then I figured out what I was doing wrong and took the DF out into the lawn, recalibrating in the sunlight and over grass (two lights again). I took off from the driveway and all was fine, both in the sunlight and in the shade. It was rather windy, though, so I didn't take the DF too high.
The whole flight (or set of flights, I should say) was a great experience: I learned something important about TI calibration and greatly increased my confidence flying the DF both by recovering from the second "TI wobble" incident and also dealing with some pretty hefty winds. Obviously, I need to temper that confidence, though, or another bad crash will be just around the corner! :-)
I've got a lot of catching up to do here it looks like!
Will
