Flight Test 5.27.15

Flight Test
5.27.15
Time: 3:20 PM (1.5 hours)
Location: La Crosse Logan HS
Temp: 82 degrees
Wind speed: 9 mph

The purpose of this short flight test was to test the replacement props, range and quality of the FPV system and the recalibration of the motor controllers.

We are also going to begin documenting temperature and wind speed to see what impact is has on battery life. Today we started with a full battery charge and after 3 min. of flying with the FPV system wired to our battery, it still metered at 15.2 V. As a result, we feel we can begin safely moving the UAV farther away from our take off point. We also reset our battery threshold warning at 12 Volts. If the battery sensors indicate the UAV has drained the battery down to 12 V, regardless of where the UAV is at, it will return to the launch point. We had the threshold at the default 11 V and when our battery ran down, the UAV began to RTL, but landed hard because it did not have enough battery left to support a slow and soft landing. We felt increasing the threshold would better support the distance the UAV had to travel back to the RTL if it hit the battery threshold.

We had to replace two props. One was badly damaged, (as you can see in the previous post) the other had minor damage and was replaced as purely a maintenance issue. The UAV performed well with the new props installed. The motor controllers also seem to be calibrated correctly.

The FPV system has been tested for function but not for distance as we did in this test. We found as we flew in any direction under power, the live video on our tablet began to get distorted. When the UAV would loiter (hover) in the air, the picture would become clearer. It could be that when under load, the motors are generating more radio frequency interference which may be distorting the signal slightly. We do not feel our FPV setup is going to support a great distance for video. We would need to invest in a high gain antenna.