Question regarding altitude and hovering

[Buckaye]

Hey there,

I have had a couple altitude situations in the past two days that have caused one minor and one medium intensity crashes. So I have a question regarding the best way to get to altitude using GS. I know I could just fly the heli up to 100 or so feet and then press "go" to go to way points, but I am curious as to getting the GS to automatically get you there in tighter situations

Specifically -

If you set a way point that is, say 30 yards away, and you want to be 100 ft before you make your next turn:

1. I am assuming that from launch to the first waypoint the Phantom will not get to 100 ft within 30 yards of travel.
2. If I use stop and turn - and set the hover of the first waypoint to 30 seconds - will the phantom then use the "hover" time to rise to 100 ft?


It's pretty clear (from my second crash specifically) - that if you don't give the craft any time between way points and it hasn't hit altitude by waypoint 1 it will continue to waypoint 2 in a straight line trying to climb to waypoint 2's height. (this is where I ran into trouble - I was lower than desired altitude at waypoint 1 - because there wasn't enough distance to get to altitude in 30 yards - and when it turned to waypoint 2 there was a tree in the way (because I was still too low)

so the above question is really whether setting time to hover at first waypoint will allow the craft to rise to the desired altitude?

 

[tbwester]

I never takeoff with ground station autopilot. Always manually flight to altitude (100 feet above everything at least). Then press go. Don't ever seen a reason to do otherwise.

 

[Buckaye]

I never takeoff with ground station autopilot. Always manually flight to altitude (100 feet above everything at least). Then press go. Don't ever seen a reason to do otherwise.

Thanks - I have heard that is an approach. However, I am specifically wondering if adding in the hovering time on a close first waypoint will actually allow it to get to altitude properly.

 

[ChuckMRN]

my experience is that if the waypoint is a "stop and turn" and going to a "stop and turn" it will not depart until it has gained the elevation set for the point. It will fly thru a point with out the set elevation that is set for "bank of adaptive" YMMV..
Good Luck
Chuck

 

[Buckaye]

my experience is that if the waypoint is a "stop and turn" and going to a "stop and turn" it will not depart until it has gained the elevation set for the point. It will fly thru a point with out the set elevation that is set for "bank of adaptive" YMMV..
Good Luck
Chuck

Ok - thanks... I'll give it a shot in a place with no trees and see if that's the way it plays you!

 

[RipperFox]

Have you tried changing the speed for the initial leg? i.e. Give it more time to get to elevation while linear motion is slower on the shorter runs.

 

[Buckaye]

Have you tried changing the speed for the initial leg? i.e. Give it more time to get to elevation while linear motion is slower on the shorter runs.

I haven't tried anything under the default speed... I could give that a try too... thanks

 

[Suwaneeguy]

I've found that it will climb to the set altitude based on the angle from the starting point.
If waypoint 1 is 30 yards away and 200 feet, then it will calculate the needed angle to get to that 200 feet height.
Think of it as a triangle. The base line is the distance from starting point to set point.
Height line is what you set it at.
Then the hypotenuse line is calculated and off it goes.
(aa)(bb)=(cc)

 

[Buckaye]

I've found that it will climb to the set altitude based on the angle from the starting point.
If waypoint 1 is 30 yards away and 200 feet, then it will calculate the needed angle to get to that 200 feet height.
Think of it as a triangle. The base line is the distance from starting point to set point.
Height line is what you set it at.
Then the hypotenuse line is calculated and off it goes.
(aa)(bb)=(cc)

Yeah I got a chance to play with it more and I think this is generally right, though it does seem to be something that could be limited by it's max climb rate. I did figure out that the safest bet is to not use any modified turn modes at all for the first to second waypoint if there are trees (or any other objects in the area) - the Phantom does take some pretty significant shortcuts if you use the banked turn or adaptive turn model and doesn't seem to care if it is at altitude or not.

Live and learn on that one

This weekend had several flights without any significant altitude issues though because i was overkilling it