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Requested by: | Aidan Bowers (Deactivated) |
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Required Sub-teams | - Mech
- Electrical
- EFS
- CV
- Operation
- Sys-Int
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Requested Date | |
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Location and Time | WRESTRC, 12:00-6:00pm |
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Summary & Goals | Validate fixed wing flight control and stability Validate basic RTL functionality. Verify transition Collect Preliminary data on battery life. Houston setup validation and control validation
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Approved? | Yes ✅ |
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👥 Required Persons During Test
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🚗 Drivers & Seat Distribution
📊 Success criteria
Tests | Success Criteria | Requirements | Outcome |
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Fixed Wing Flight | Aircraft is able to fly in a fixed-wing configuration without issue | Cornflakes should be ready to fly, as outlined by all pre-flight checks | Did not execute |
Quad-to-Fixed transition | Aircraft is able to successfully perform the transition from quad to fixed wing flight, and back. | Cornflakes should be ready to fly, as outlined by all pre-flight checks | Did not execute |
Battery Life | Information on battery voltage/capacity is collected throughout the flight | Proper battery capacity recording and monitoring | New batteries remained balanced, but we didn’t fly too much to measure this |
Quad Yaw Authority | Aircraft is responsive to yaw input in quad mode | Minimum yaw rate of 90deg per second | Was Tested. |
Houston Setup Validation | Validate Houston has the correct setup after crashing from last flight test | Components on Houston are working and Houston is responsive to the control | Did not execute |
⏲️ Testing Timeline
Date/Time | Action |
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(due) | Aircraft Assembly: Alison Thompson Subframe assembly Wing assembly
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(due) | Aircraft Assembly: Alison Thompson |
(due) | Electrical Repairs: Daniel Puratich Replace/fix damaged PDB Fix/Replace damaged ESC
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(due) | Harnessing: Daniel Puratich |
| Pre-flight Preparation: Aidan Bowers (Deactivated) / Hardy Yu Ensure Incident Procedures, driver lists, etc. are completed Ensure all items in Week-Before and Day-Before checklist are complete
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| Pre-Flight Systems Review: |
9:00am | Pre-Departure Preparation: |
11 10:15am45am | Flight brief from flight test lead Outline what is being tested, responsibilities of all participants, incident procedures, and general coordination.
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11:30am | Loading onto the Car Take your water bottle with you. Go washroom before we leave! |
11:45pm | Drive to the test ground |
12:00-3:00pm | Flight Testing |
Test #1 | Quad mode takeoff/landing w/ flat mounts? |
Test #2 | Quad mode YAW control w/flat mounts Test to see how much yaw control we have., which is basically the drone correctly responds to our left/right instruction Success if drone give correct respond and appropiate yaw throttle The test is first done without wings then with wings
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Test #3 | Quad mode takeoff/landing w/angled mounts |
Test #4 | Quad mode yaw control w/angled mounts |
Test #5Battery V | Buddy box control handover in all altitude both pilot have the control to the rc link After one pilot delivers the control, the other pilot should has the control of the drone
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Test #6 | Battery VS Flight time measurement. Recharge batteries if neededTest #6 Measure the amount of the time the batteries were used in the previous tests and come out with an estimation of batteries life we probably need to go back to bay in this process to recharge batteires for an hour since we don’t have spare ones🫠
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Houston Test | While batteries are under charging, the group of ppl on wrest rc can conduct the test for Houston |
Test #7 | Transition & Fixed Wing Flight (brief, 1 circle)Test #7 Trasition will take place in a straight line After the trasition is done, the drone should fly in fixed wing for one circle, the return to quad mode during this process, making sure the drone maintain altitude and flight forward while avoid other people TODO: the flight path needs to be determined
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Test #8 | Transition & Fixed Wing Flight second pilot |
Test #8#9 | Fixed wing “waypoint” navigation |
Test #9 | Fixed wing to RTL |
Test #10I suppose this should be quad. drone maintain altitude all the time TODO: the waypoint needs to be determined
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Test #10 | Quad Mode RTL |
Test #11 | Fix wing in a whole circle |
Test #12 | Transition to fix wing then RTL Fly the drone away-> transition to fix wings-> RTL we expect the drone transition to quad and autoland but this is risky and we don’t know what’s gonna happen. Also the batteries may not support us to do this test, so this might move to 18th flight test
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3:30pm | Debrief |
🔧 Week-Before To-Do List
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| title | Week Before Checklist |
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- Drone Registration
- Flight test location booked
- Pilot scheduled
- Test Plan (What we are testing)
- This should also include the flight path where applicable
- Subteam action items (for flight readiness)
- Transportation logistics finalized
- Booking SDC vehicles
- Assigning drivers
- Renting any needed equipment (trailer? generator? etc.)
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| title | Day Before Checklist |
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- SDC Vehicle key collected (if required)
- Batteries Planned for (DON”T LEAVE CHARGING OVERNIGHT)
- Drone batteries & spares
- Transmitter batteries
- On-site kit together
- First Aid Kit
- Ground station / Laptop
- Antenna / Receivers
- Transmitter
- Extra Water
- Power cords / Extension cables
- Wrenches
- Allen keys
- Knives
- Tape
- Rope/string
- Zip/Velcro ties
- Radios
- Safety goggles
- Fire extinguisher
- Airfame assembled
- ESCs/flight controller wired
- Radio equipment tested
- Channel mappings
- Flight modes
- Motors tested
- Wiring secured (Harnessing)
- End to end test (neglecting props)
- Check the center of gravity
- All components not on the airframe that are required should be in the flight box (e.g. props & prop nuts)
- Airfame payload
- Spare parts
- Props
- Airframe components (landing struts, arms, etc)
- Hardware to assemble these components
- Electronics
- ESCs
- Motors
- Flight controllers
- Receiver
- Flight Code Flashed
- Ground station Software updated
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| title | Pre-Departure Checklist |
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- Take WREST RC entrance card
- Check battery status
- Charge if required, otherwise place into flight box
- Systems test
- Check flight controller orientation
- Check motor spin & rotation direction
- Check transmitter mappings
- Verify communication links (VTX/RX, Controller, Groundstation)
- Verify the mission planner is logging data
- Airframe shake testing
- Only attach props directly before flight (keep off at all other times)
- Get snacks
- Mission Briefing
- Read the flight plan to the team (that was made a week ago)
- Purpose of flight
- Plan of action
- Success criteria
- Delegate and brief on flight line roles
- Safety Briefing
- Key flight characteristics to observe
- Key system characteristics to observe
- Measurements to be made
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Flight Test Post Mortem
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Flew and didn't crash Angled Motor mounts We addressed issues on the stop Radio earpiece was swag as fuck Aircraft wasn’t damaged We did a single trick Didn’t forget the plane (W ? ) Nolan felt like he learnt a lot about the system No major unsafe incidents (Daniel was looking swag carrying the first aid kit) We got footage for competition proof of flight (we may refilm this to get better next week so we can show competition people we can fly fixed wing) buddy boxing  New batteries have very tight cell voltage balances Angled motor mounts did help with yaw New motor mounts were very strong
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| Note |
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A lot of the checklist was not completed. We need people going to comp (which we currently don’t have a list of) to get a feel for the competition stuff so we dont screw it up at comp Anni laptop battery was dead Throttle was touchy (fix in software later) Pitch was touchy (fixed in software, but possibly not a complete fix) The servo connection was intermittent Seemed fine in the bay, didn’t work when we got to setup (Daniel is suspecting this is due to poor connection on the servo wiring wise, possibly we use better connectors ) Anni’s opinion is we need more slack on the wires
Control surfaces are pretty stiff Control rods bent while control surface doesn't move too much check “bullet proof control rods” youtube video tape outside of control surface, fold over, and then tape inside of control surface at max deflection. leave a bit of a gap.
Anni / Megan giving taping tips to improve this in the future We will improve for next flight test
Talk loudly into the radio Communication default action should be to not do anything acknowledgement of receiving instructions Some sort of radio standard or be clear on it in flight brief
It’s rough when someone is working on drone and other people are offering opinions and repeatedly offering help Give people that are doing things space in most circumstances If the people that are doing something need help they’ll ask for help. This needs to be clearly communicated to people so we don’t bombard people
Early before flight test in the bay We kind of forgot about Houston ? The project manager should be in charge of a lot of these bits Filter things through the correct channel to get it done Pre-brief people on things before the flight test Don’t want to spend a lot of time explaining what needs to be checked on day of flight test
Initially we saw some oscillations in the first flight, but not that bad
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| Warning |
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No RCA since no crashes and major damage. Servo was not Servoing for elevator prevented us doing a lot of our tasks Daniel suspects bad connections on the wires to the servo and will debug We managed this failure very well in the sense that we still did some things, but didn’t rush into the major things
Trouble with angled motor mounts
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RCA for Red Items
Create a RCA and keep it as a child page.
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| Child pages (Children Display) |
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Action Items
- Mech Alison Thompson to delegate- stiffen the 3D-print insert tail extender, re-design and print out of CF PETG
- Get Battery performance data documented Anthony Luo
- Get the yaw control data written into this document ( Nolan Haines to assign this task out, it’s pretty much looking through the video)
- Review the videos Anthony Luo to get data on yaw and oscillations
- Mech - Alison Thompson Remove gorilla tape on underside of control surfaces, different tape instead to allow better control surface flex
- Alison Thompson Control rods should have no interference with the foam when fully deflected/retracted
- Alison Thompson Improving angled motor mounts?
- Fix servo Nolan Haines Ethan Abraham Daniel Puratich (One of them, right rudder was producing audio and feeling the vibes)
- Consider overvolting servos or using higher torque servos
- Anthony Luo determine Ardupilot reaction to pitch/roll/yaw
- Anthony Luo continue to setup buddy boxing?
- Alison Thompson Possibly make another cool instagram videos
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Other Resources
Booking WRESTRC Field
How to Book the Flight Grounds