Another warm night and morning, we are getting spoiled although it was quite foggy early on. Fog means no wind, no wind means good flying weather. As the morning progressed the fog lifted, so as Lyn busied herself with the laundry, I reluctantly left her and headed out to to the local school and it’s playing fields. Apart from a couple of short hops in a confined area this was to be the first serious flight of the quadcopter in an open space.
I got the machine set up and hit the throttle, up it went just as advertised. I was flying in what is known as safe mode, in this mode it is virtually impossible to crash the machine. If you let go of the controls the ‘copter will just hover where it is. A 15ft radius safe zone is established around the pilot by the helicopter, meaning that it is impossible to fly the ‘copter within 15ft of the pilot, if you try to bring it closer it will just stop. Bit like a force field on Startrek. If you descend too quickly it will slow its rate of descent automatically as it approaches the ground and land softly. The final part of the idiot proofing is Return to Home. If you lose sight of the helicopter, or get disoriented, just flick a switch and it will climb/descent to about 20ft and return to above the point it took off from and then land gently.
Of course, all this computerised control makes for boring flying, but at the same time provides a great training tool. A simple flick of a switch put the machine into stable mode, where the pilot has far more control, but the computer still aids in stability. Flicking another switch removes all computer assistance, and aerobatic flight becomes possible. I started playing around with the second mode for a few minutes before quitting. A good start to the day.
Back at the trailer it was warm enough to wash some more of the trailer, so another 1/3 was completed, no point in rushing these things!
After lunch I dug out an old project I had brought down from home. Lyn has an older sewing machine that was misbehaving, it was one of the earlier computerised models, and was having issues with patterned sewing. Let’s just say the afternoon was an exercise in frustration!