Remote Landing and Launching

[GadgetGuy]

He will get some exercise ;-)

Oddly, though, he wants to land, turn off motors, and then re-arm remotely, and fly back. No exercise that way, unless it gets stuck and won't fly back!

 

[Jammer]

We run a pre touchdown checklist that works most of the time.

TOUCHDOWN AREA CLEAR AND SECURE
1) Level surface (or you will have to do a Neil Armstrong ;-)
2) Confirm telemetry signal strength at 1m
3) Check no compass errors at 1m
4) Rotate camera to horizon level at 1m
5) Confim rotor stop and disarm after contact.

Camera level to horizon for the final segment is for same reason you look at the horizon when you land a helicopter.

J

 

[GadgetGuy]

We run a pre touchdown checklist that works most of the time.

TOUCHDOWN AREA CLEAR AND SECURE
1) Level surface (or you will have to do a Neil Armstrong ;-)
2) Confirm telemetry signal strength at 1m
3) Check no compass errors at 1m
4) Rotate camera to horizon level at 1m
5) Confim rotor stop and disarm after contact.

Camera level to horizon for the final segment is for same reason you look at the horizon when you land a helicopter.

J

Cool!
I'll use that on my next drug run!
Seriously, though, I am intrigued.
How is this capability being used, where you want to fly it to a remote location, and within the battery life, relaunch, instead of just delivering the payload and immediately returning another payload (say payment)? Or, is the battery swapped out at the remote location for a fresh one by each recipient, allowing a relay route of deliveries to be run around a central control point by the pilot?

 

[Jammer]

For the “prison run”, a short 5min flight in and landing in a discreet location means you can sit quietly with a video feed for half an hour before departing....

 

[GadgetGuy]

For the “prison run”, a short 5min flight in and landing in a discreet location means you can sit quietly with a video feed for half an hour before departing....

Interesting. Any other applications?
With most drones, the noise factor would seem to be a detraction to remaining discreet while arriving and departing at the remote location. However, perching a remote controlled video camera on top of a telephone pole for surveillance in advance of a known meet could prove very useful.

 

[Jammer]

The Spark is VERY good for this application and doesn’t have a rollover risk. It’s pretty quiet too...

 

[GadgetGuy]

The Spark is VERY good for this application and doesn’t have a rollover risk. It’s pretty quiet too...

It would be. So what are we watching at the remote location for half an hour in stealth mode?

 

[Jammer]

Haha..... that’s as far as my NDA will allow....

 

[GadgetGuy]

Haha..... that’s as far as my NDA will allow....

It's an interesting proposition. I'll have to experiment with the P4P to see exactly how long it is capable of recording in stealth mode, after a 5 minute flight, while still leaving 6 minutes of flight time to fly back, for a margin of safety. I would expect more than 30 minutes at the remote location, but I believe there is also an upper recording limit of roughly 28 minutes, at which time the recording would have to be manually restarted remotely, when it shuts off. At least it works that way on the Osmo+ when I use it for continuous recording. Have you done this with the P4P, too? Is 30 minutes the upper limit?

 

[Jammer]

Better to record the live HDMI feed at the base station than record onto aircraft SD card. That way if the aircraft is discovered there is no recorded material on it ;-)

(You also save a tiny amount of fuel by not recording to the SD)

 

[Jammer]

Turning off the front LED's saves a tiny bit more fuel too...

 

[African wildlife]

007: Our terrain is more rocky than where you're flying, but generally similar in some respects. And there have been some good points raised above, so I won't repeat too much.

The three main issues I would be concerned about - assuming you've accepted the initial "Why?" as necessary for your project - are as follows:

1. Wind gusts. Wherever there are mountains or hills, you can get dramatic changes in wind speed - especially "just round the corner". We've been surprised. And landing/takeoff can be especially challenging.

2. I would carefully check the proposed LZ from both above (as you did) and from a 90 degree different angle so as to properly assess perspective. A small rock in the wrong place, or severe tilt in an otherwise free surface - combined with the risk of wind - could cause the drone to tip over.

3. As we always fly in mountainous conditions, we immediately identified a clear risk to scratching/damaging a filter or the camera. We've never landed with the camera facing downwards (appreciating that you might have to do so). But our P4P+ legs are standard. (If extended, is there a greater risk to tipping over because the centre of gravity has changed?)

All the best as usual. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

[Jammer]

These help with point 2 and 3.

DJI Phantom 4 Landing Gear

If you land with a tree or bush in the frame you can get a sense of wind before departure..

Good discussion guys!!

 

[JaredReabow]

The biggest concern with landing is DJI's incredibly stupid feature of denying takeoff is specific parameters are not correct.
Lets say you land on something full of metal you may get an IMU error because the compass has gone nuts which results in no takeoff.
Lets say you land somewhere cold and don't take off for a little while, it may deny takeoff because your battery temp is too low.
Lets say you land somewhere and DJI pushes an urgent update, fingers crossed you still have battery to takeoff.
Lets say DJI updates no fly zones...
Lets say your drone starts sliding, no takeoff due to movement error or tilt error
etc

 

[Jammer]

Most of those are boot checks. As long as the aircraft remains powered on and the RLS is reasonably level, you won’t have IMU reset etc.
If you land at at a site that has magnetic interference then that’s different.

 

[OOO]

This is a very good discussion and I’m learning a lot from your comments. Thank you for contribution.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Turning off the front LED's saves a tiny bit more fuel too...

They are off all the time anyway. They interfere with video at dusk and provide no useful information to me.

 

[GadgetGuy]

These help with point 2 and 3.

DJI Phantom 4 Landing Gear

If you land with a tree or bush in the frame you can get a sense of wind before departure..

Good discussion guys!!

My biggest concern about them is increased footprint size needed for landing and the four points of contact with the ground, instead of the two skid rails. Probably wouldn't work well on top of a telephone pole. If one point of the four points of contact was over the edge or on a pebble, it wouldn't turn out well.

Then there is the minor extra weight and shape, increasing drag and slightly reducing flight time. Still, a good option on a large enough surface.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Better to record the live HDMI feed at the base station than record onto aircraft SD card. That way if the aircraft is discovered there is no recorded material on it ;-)

(You also save a tiny amount of fuel by not recording to the SD)

Or you at least have a lower resolution backup of it! The drone is then expendable.

 

[Jammer]

Our RA doesn’t cover landing on telephone poles. I certainly wouldn’t authorise this with our aircraft. The landing area has to be a 1 meter diameter flat space. Pilots who train for this have to do 25 approaches into a 3 meter concrete pad before than can reduce to the minimum landing area of 1 meter