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Make sure to update the Title following the format “Jan 01, 2020 Flight Test” |
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Date/Time | Action |
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Mar 29, 2023 | Aircraft Assembly If aircraft assembly is complicated, outline dates of various milestones that should be met to ensure we don't rush to complete work at the last minute. |
Mar 31, 2023 | Pre-flight Preparation |
Apr 1, 2023 Afternoon | Cornflake Validation Flight Test This test will aim for validating cornflakes' normal behaviour under cold weather Testing under normal quad module Testing new VN300 module to replace gps This can reduce the preparation time for Apr 2 since we can get ardupilot configured and system ready
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Apr 2, 2023 9:00 am | Required persons for preflight preparation show up at bay Flight test lead breifly assign task for preparation work Feel free to not come at 9 if you don’t have a lot workload. During this time get snack if needed |
Apr 2, 2023 11:15am | Flight brief from flight test lead |
Apr 2 2023 11:30am | Loading onto the Car Take your water bottle with you. Go washroom before we leave! |
Apr2 2023 11:45am | Drive to the test ground |
Apr 2 2023 12:00 - 3:00pm | Flight Testing |
Apr 2 2023 3:30 pm | Debrief |
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| title | Pre-Departure Checklist |
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- Take the 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
- 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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Didn’t crash! Collect sufficient footage for proof of flight Range testing on 1.3GHz was successful with stable video @ 150m altitude Smart about taking risks, made sure to investigate any problems, were cautious with any issues Staged testing approach was effective Batteries did not sag, at the end we were close to 7% capacity Used custom WARG hardware (michael’s buck converters) for the ground station! Effectively communicated with other people at WRESTRC Verified ground video station Got ample footage for CV training with landing pads
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RCA for Red Items
Create a RCA and keep it as a child page.
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Radio protocol usage can still be improved Communication before taking off could be better Priority of flight test: Cornflakes shouldn’t necessarily have to wait for other drones (e.g. the DJI) to get ready Practice with DJI drone usage Communication after landing on next steps Forgot nuts for wings, had to drive back (add to checklist) Radio chatter during Houston flights was a slight problem for PIC Almost forgot Houston props (again) Make sure checklists get published on confluence Servo trims did not save (potentially done by clicking extending trims) All of these items were rectified, but could have likely been rectified beforehand 1.3GHz vtx wire was loose on Houston Ground lead on the video relay was loose at the bay Props were loose on Cornflakes were lose before first flight RFD Harness was loose
Fish-eye perspective on Houston downwards facing camera is difficult to perceive distance 4:3 and 16:9 causes image to be stretched on monitors Batteries were almost not charged before we left due to being unbalanced Car battery charger is roughly useless - faster to charge by driving Communicate at least one other person if leaving the group, even if you’re wanting ‘to go’ High vibration on Cornflakes as reported by the flight controller Avionics platform is all on one single platform that’s not really stiff Telemetry wiring was not ready for the flight test Back third of the cabin was destroyed on the flight line, was successful but was necessary Diagnosed an issue last flight test that was only partially addressed Did not test the Vector-Nav. Did not test waypoint following Did not test autoland
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No discussion on action items if crashes, Did not achieve 20 m/s transition speed Reached 15 m/s with tailwind (12 m/as TAS) Potentially want to fly on 17 inch Add airspeed sensor to aircraft
Signal wire on motor 5 / pusher motor was poor and disconnected during/before flight and was only found out in the sky
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RCA for Red Items
Frying Baby Ratel camera
Battery testing using the E-load
| Create from Template |
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| spaceKey | FT |
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| templateName | 2184183815 |
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| title | @currentDate - RCA for xxx |
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| templateId | 2184183815 |
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| buttonLabel | Create a RCA |
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| Child pages (Children Display) |
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Action Items
Mech team to come up with solutions for poor thrust Conall Kingshott Megan Spee
Telemetry wiring from ESCs Ethan Abraham
Update checklists as in Yellow/Red items Dhruv Upadhyay
Address signal wire issues that we faced on the ESC
Other Resources
Booking WRESTRC Field
How to Book the Flight Grounds