Walkalong Glider Flight School
Mission statement:
To bring the educational and entertainment value of sustained and controlled model flight to a wider audience.
Please see the following web site for how to get started:
https://sites.google.com/site/walkalonggliderflightschool/
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Model Log Book
Flew twice today. First with the quadcopter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy9zzSVvuHU
and then on a mission to fly as far down the street with the RC Helicopter (there were cross and head winds):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfHxsy1c5NI
This mission was trying to get as far as the walkalong glider in this video from years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBLERGHEz4Q
2015_03_09 flights:
Got over the trees:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StVXnp1TnvU
Not so much altitude but stayed out of the trees as the wind picked up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBW4AOOx3cE
tried speeding down the street:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBW4AOOx3cE
2015_03_10 flights:
Got stuck in a tree:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkC3lIh5UEY
Flew around and down the next street:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-wp3MXlLJs
2015_03_11 sunset flight:
Missed landing on car, fell into snow...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vchaeSceCR8
2015_03_14 Indoor quadcopter flights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m9iHEbnI0M
2015_03_17 House circuit flight by quadcopter (attempts) try to reproduce results using ultralight Walkalong Glider:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
and successful RC helicopter flight of house circuit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
quadcopter practice attempts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SAVoUgKk6c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJwosIau95c
2015_03_20 Flying in a light snow, getting used to flying forwards:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV0SZ9AFtSE
2015_03_21 Fresh snow blastoff did not create the desired effect as the snow was too wet. Flew around in the snow until caught in a tree. First 1 stop flight around house circuit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
...and the rest of the tries:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
2015_03_22 Turn the quad copter in the direction you want to fly and tilt forward, adjusting sideways as necessary. This keeps the flight controls orientation consistent with the direction of flight. Sometimes the general direction is the same with a diagonal side translation which does not necessitate turning in the direction of flight for the side translation leg. Got my first full nonstop flights around the house circuit landing and taking off from the stove top. Did not use video to concentrate on technique.
2015_03_23 Improving control. Need to slow down so if incorrect inputs happen they can be easily corrected to stay ahead of the aircraft. The usual narrow spots in the house circuit will command finer control to keep from bumping into the walls. Keep on flying, need the mileage.
2015_03_24 First flights around the house, takeoff/landing on front porch. Considerable variable winds, catabatic in nature, otherwise a temperature inversion in place. Note the editing of the videos where a lot of the flying time is spent orienting to which control to apply next and being careful not to go too fast: wrong inputs happen and need to be corrected. More mileage will result in more efficient flights (fewer spurious inputs) requiring less editing.
Around the house:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Sj8l4TtoVo
Along the sidewalk before running out of battery power:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkYR5FAKNP0
The low winds continued in the evening which allowed two more flights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
This flight involved an ascending spiral:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
2015_03_25 Reproduced walkalong glider flight down sidewalk with RC toy Chopper. The trick is to fly in ground effect. At altitude, the counter rotating blade system is very stable and resists movement. In ground effect, much more thrust is developed as the up-facing "tail rotor" tilts the main blades. Note the speed in ground effect and how the chopper slows down as altitude is gained. I think there was also a tailwind here but not much:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpD-urod7Vk
Got lots of mileage on the quadcopter, keeping out of trouble for now:
2015_04_14 Quadcopter flights around neighborhood:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
2015_04_26 quad flights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
2015_04_30 Learned about vortex ring state and its affect on recovery from descents in rotor craft including helicopters and quadcopters. I'd been experiencing problems recovering from descent in both helicopters and quadcopters: once they start going down they take an unexpectedly long time to slow their descent when full power is applied, sometimes impacting the ground before hovering. Turns out their own turbulence or downwash is causing trouble by reducing lift on the rotors which need "clean" air to work effectively. Thus a descent into the down wash causes the vortex ring state. Vertical descents should be avoided by adding a lateral component to clear the down wash area below the rotor craft.
2015_05_09 Flying forwards the camera is angled pretty much at the ground. One solution is to fly backwards where the camera is angled about horizontal and captures the vanishing point receding. To make a coordinated turn going backwards the yaw and pitch are cross controlled (need to be moved in opposite directions). The cinematic results are encouraging.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3BMJKa5nhQ
2015_05_11 Tried to slow down control inputs without much success. Velocity is too high. No real flight plan. Start with something simple: fly straight out and turn in a desired direction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CixsIAZEjGU
2015_05_12 A little too windy to fly today (Blue hill reports SWS@8mph). Spent most of the flying time flying upwind and crashing into my garden. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9q9Du--Rzo
2015_05_21 Paragliding at Morningside Flight Park from the 250' hill. Lifted by thermals the landing requires s turns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIGbzUh-cJM
0:08-1:18=1:10
2015_05_24 Walkalong Quadcopter exercise. Air is quietest in the Park:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZB9MM-UEqU
2015_05_25 Marathon Paragliding day at Morningside Flight Park. 10 flights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLrjys8qoUU
0:28-1:20=0:52 1:32-2:14=0:42 2:24-3:17=0:53 3:26-5:03=1:37 5:43-7:36=1:53 7:49-9:17=1:28
2015_06_03 Precision landings on a man hole cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty9--EmCYYw
2015_06_04 Paraglider inflations, just enough for a short glide:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP1olesHXdQ
(it's all ground handling in preparation for the bigger hills and more wind)
2015_06_16 Checked out other peoples' quadcopter videos and seems like just letting the quadcopter coast after getting it going in a line produces smooth footage. Adjustments are jarring.
2015_07_04 Selfies to practice smooth pointing of camera on a subject. The aiming of the camera is just bearly below the plane of the blades:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtUh-Gbxg5o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znjp_BMSqpU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy9zzSVvuHU
and then on a mission to fly as far down the street with the RC Helicopter (there were cross and head winds):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfHxsy1c5NI
This mission was trying to get as far as the walkalong glider in this video from years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBLERGHEz4Q
2015_03_09 flights:
Got over the trees:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StVXnp1TnvU
Not so much altitude but stayed out of the trees as the wind picked up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBW4AOOx3cE
tried speeding down the street:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBW4AOOx3cE
2015_03_10 flights:
Got stuck in a tree:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkC3lIh5UEY
Flew around and down the next street:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-wp3MXlLJs
2015_03_11 sunset flight:
Missed landing on car, fell into snow...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vchaeSceCR8
2015_03_14 Indoor quadcopter flights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m9iHEbnI0M
2015_03_17 House circuit flight by quadcopter (attempts) try to reproduce results using ultralight Walkalong Glider:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
and successful RC helicopter flight of house circuit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
quadcopter practice attempts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SAVoUgKk6c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJwosIau95c
2015_03_20 Flying in a light snow, getting used to flying forwards:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV0SZ9AFtSE
2015_03_21 Fresh snow blastoff did not create the desired effect as the snow was too wet. Flew around in the snow until caught in a tree. First 1 stop flight around house circuit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
...and the rest of the tries:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
2015_03_22 Turn the quad copter in the direction you want to fly and tilt forward, adjusting sideways as necessary. This keeps the flight controls orientation consistent with the direction of flight. Sometimes the general direction is the same with a diagonal side translation which does not necessitate turning in the direction of flight for the side translation leg. Got my first full nonstop flights around the house circuit landing and taking off from the stove top. Did not use video to concentrate on technique.
2015_03_23 Improving control. Need to slow down so if incorrect inputs happen they can be easily corrected to stay ahead of the aircraft. The usual narrow spots in the house circuit will command finer control to keep from bumping into the walls. Keep on flying, need the mileage.
2015_03_24 First flights around the house, takeoff/landing on front porch. Considerable variable winds, catabatic in nature, otherwise a temperature inversion in place. Note the editing of the videos where a lot of the flying time is spent orienting to which control to apply next and being careful not to go too fast: wrong inputs happen and need to be corrected. More mileage will result in more efficient flights (fewer spurious inputs) requiring less editing.
Around the house:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Sj8l4TtoVo
Along the sidewalk before running out of battery power:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkYR5FAKNP0
The low winds continued in the evening which allowed two more flights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
This flight involved an ascending spiral:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
2015_03_25 Reproduced walkalong glider flight down sidewalk with RC toy Chopper. The trick is to fly in ground effect. At altitude, the counter rotating blade system is very stable and resists movement. In ground effect, much more thrust is developed as the up-facing "tail rotor" tilts the main blades. Note the speed in ground effect and how the chopper slows down as altitude is gained. I think there was also a tailwind here but not much:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpD-urod7Vk
Got lots of mileage on the quadcopter, keeping out of trouble for now:
Walked with the kids to school and talked with a parent about my RC flight goals...
2015_03_27 Nice slow turning produces nice pan of view at 0:16 seconds into video:
Getting the hang of using both yaw and tilt for turns results in nice sharp turns:
2015_03_28 Hanging out with brother, figuring out yaw action and drift.
Quadcopter drifts to outside of turn which makes it appear that inside turn roll is needed for a coordinated turn, even with no forward motion. Therefor apply equal amounts of yaw and same direction roll:
Kitchen is too tight to execute turn (gotta get the same direction roll control). Fly to living room:
Fly back to kitchen:
round trip kitchen to kitchen via living room:
RC helicopter top rotor engine breaks, only bottom rotor works...
2015_03_29 flights: Windy conditions (NNW 4mph gust NW9mph http://www.bluehill.org/weatherdata/Current.html ) Had one big flight but got distracted after landing and forgot to turn off the video before turning off the power (video lost, sorry Jerri). Flights where video successfully taken:
On a later flight, in some wind conditions, lose control of quadcopter #1 at altitude. The copter falls behind Derik's house. A search lasting several days does not turn up any signs of the copter. May need to search the roof of one of the houses... RC helicopter problem is a disconnected wire. Resoldering is successful in restoring engine functionality (live to fly another day!!!!).
2015_04_02 flights of quadcopter #2:
Back in the air again with a new Dronium quadcopter. Here's a nice example of a hairpin turn:
Practicing cinematic flying... giving myself a buzz cut:
Still have problems keeping out of confined spaces to land successfully:
Getting used to cutting engines at altitude to descend without a crash landing:
Crash site of quadcopter #1 found! Appears to have embedded itself in a snow bank and was found upright on neighbor's lawn, the snow apparently having melted away in the warm spring weather. The data from the quadcopter's black box reveals the last flight before the crash:
The camera continued to record for another 45 minutes embedded in the snowbank pointing to a failure in the control link between the quadcopter and controller rather than battery exhaustion as the cause of the crash. Analysis of the black box data shows the trajectory in detail up until the final resting place:
Damage to the quadcopter is minimal and this aircraft, too, lives to fly another day:
2015_04_06 got stuck in a tree. East wind and it looks like the quadcopter got too high and out of sight (wrong control input) before landing in the high branches of a beech tree:
Rescued copter from the tree and flew successfully again:
Slow spiraling climbing turns to get a views from altitude, cut engine to drop altitude fast...
So how hard is it to look in the 2nd story windows?
Flight around the house:
How far down the driveway can I go?
2015_04_08 Flew paper airplane surfer for remake of paper airplane surfer construction video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uwz84GuPeVE
full remake video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwsHTAy_qsU
original flight down corridors:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYwbVVCVyg0
2015_04_10 THere was some wind which makes it harder to keep out of the trees:
2015_04_12 flights: Kited around with the paraglider:
got the quadcopter stuck in a tree again:
2015_04_13 Kited again... but the wind was too switchy to attempt a flight down the slope. There were thermalling raptors over the gas company parking lots upwind of the park:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5Fx_C-VQcU
2015_04_14 Quadcopter flights around neighborhood:
Flew RC chopper to the end of the street and back some! Got the technique of using ground effect to fly faster and more efficiently.
2015_04_15 Paraglider kiting. Wind too strong. Blue hill observatory showing 11 gust 14 early morning and point forcast was for NNW at 8MPH. lost control in high gusts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNQN5_d3a8s
Upon return, Blue hill observatory showing 14 gust 22 at 11AM diminishing winds. Milton showed 8MPH gusts to 18 MPH.
2015_04_16 Zero wind early morning flights at the playground. If there is too much stubble from mowed sapplings, the lines get caught and mess up the inflation:
Finding a grassy area to start from makes all the difference:https://www.youtube.com/watch?
2015_04_26 quad flights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
2015_04_30 Learned about vortex ring state and its affect on recovery from descents in rotor craft including helicopters and quadcopters. I'd been experiencing problems recovering from descent in both helicopters and quadcopters: once they start going down they take an unexpectedly long time to slow their descent when full power is applied, sometimes impacting the ground before hovering. Turns out their own turbulence or downwash is causing trouble by reducing lift on the rotors which need "clean" air to work effectively. Thus a descent into the down wash causes the vortex ring state. Vertical descents should be avoided by adding a lateral component to clear the down wash area below the rotor craft.
2015_05_09 Flying forwards the camera is angled pretty much at the ground. One solution is to fly backwards where the camera is angled about horizontal and captures the vanishing point receding. To make a coordinated turn going backwards the yaw and pitch are cross controlled (need to be moved in opposite directions). The cinematic results are encouraging.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3BMJKa5nhQ
2015_05_11 Tried to slow down control inputs without much success. Velocity is too high. No real flight plan. Start with something simple: fly straight out and turn in a desired direction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CixsIAZEjGU
2015_05_12 A little too windy to fly today (Blue hill reports SWS@8mph). Spent most of the flying time flying upwind and crashing into my garden. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9q9Du--Rzo
2015_05_21 Paragliding at Morningside Flight Park from the 250' hill. Lifted by thermals the landing requires s turns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIGbzUh-cJM
0:08-1:18=1:10
2015_05_24 Walkalong Quadcopter exercise. Air is quietest in the Park:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZB9MM-UEqU
2015_05_25 Marathon Paragliding day at Morningside Flight Park. 10 flights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLrjys8qoUU
0:28-1:20=0:52 1:32-2:14=0:42 2:24-3:17=0:53 3:26-5:03=1:37 5:43-7:36=1:53 7:49-9:17=1:28
2015_06_03 Precision landings on a man hole cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty9--EmCYYw
2015_06_04 Paraglider inflations, just enough for a short glide:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP1olesHXdQ
(it's all ground handling in preparation for the bigger hills and more wind)
2015_06_16 Checked out other peoples' quadcopter videos and seems like just letting the quadcopter coast after getting it going in a line produces smooth footage. Adjustments are jarring.
2015_07_04 Selfies to practice smooth pointing of camera on a subject. The aiming of the camera is just bearly below the plane of the blades:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtUh-Gbxg5o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znjp_BMSqpU
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Survival and Culture of Species
Some features of a species appear to be totally for survival but other features, to my untrained eye, appear to represent the culture of the species, growing out of the millenia of what looks or acts to motivate selection for reproduction (cosmetic). Then there is our imposition of our own culture on another species like breeding dogs or hybridizing plants, some attributes for survival such as expanding the range where a plant can survive like making a banana hardy so as to survive in a larger range of climates.
Nature loves experimentation of any type but it must survive the test of time and most innovations, no matter how the change came about, do not (that is no reason for not experimenting). So if you want an apple that doesn't turn brown and get the species to perform that way you are participating in the grand experiment with not the slightest inckling of what's to come, like so many, many experiments. To conserve and preserve, without change, is the exception and not the rule: a temporary equilibrium until the next change upsets everything.
Fun to let my thoughts run rampant in the vacuum that is my own experience...
Nature loves experimentation of any type but it must survive the test of time and most innovations, no matter how the change came about, do not (that is no reason for not experimenting). So if you want an apple that doesn't turn brown and get the species to perform that way you are participating in the grand experiment with not the slightest inckling of what's to come, like so many, many experiments. To conserve and preserve, without change, is the exception and not the rule: a temporary equilibrium until the next change upsets everything.
Fun to let my thoughts run rampant in the vacuum that is my own experience...
Live to fly another day...
Phil's axioms of locomotion through the air on planet earth:
1) The decision not to fly is generally a good one.
2) Controlled flight trumps sustained flight any day, especially when transitioning from being supported by the air to being supported by the ground: live to fly another day.
Phil's axioms of locomotion through the air on planet earth:
1) The decision not to fly is generally a good one.
2) Controlled flight trumps sustained flight any day, especially when transitioning from being supported by the air to being supported by the ground: live to fly another day.
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