Summary

Objectives

• Long Range Flight Test - fly as long/far as possible with as little weight as possible- laps similar to how competition would be
• Flight Test with payload weight - laps similar to how competition would be

Secondary Objectives

• Get overhead footage for CV
• Test carrying payload with grabber.

Problems Encountered

• Weather, It was windy, cold kinda snowy, and got dark quickly.

  • Weather concerns caused delays in arrival

• Pi Camera did not function

• Grabber did not function

Notes

Retrospective

Andy:

• would prefer to have a laptop running mission planner next time (was able to get telemetry to phone but the app doesn't display all data)

• drone was surprisingly stable given the winds. gusts were hard to correct for and tbh my throttle control was not the best but it wasn't a huge deal. was in control at all times and was able to get it to go where I wanted it to go

• if we are flying line of sight, orientation markings on the drone would be nice

• other pilots to sub out would be nice as well

• should write up a pre-flight checklist

Aidan:

• Lights for orientation & better visibility may be a good idea

• We need a better battery monitoring solution (battery alarm & voltage readout or similar)

Shrinjay:

• Aircraft was remarkably stable, we established a good procedure for wind testing as well, and the big thing to celebrate is we're actually able to go out, fly and collect data. This is the most data we've had in the history of this team so far.

• Pre flight checklist, centralizing technical information about the aircraft (wind limits, current draw, battery voltages etc.)

• Doing a local flight the day before a flight test would be nice as part of the preflight test, better data acquisition. Mostly points others have mentioned.

• What does getting mission planner set up look like? We can get someone to just follow a how to guide.

Ryan:

• More intra-subteam communication/documentation on how camera is supposed to be mounted.

• More inter-subteam communication on mounting CV equipment for test flight (and competition).

• Earlier testing of Raspberry Pi camera recording.

• Possibly earlier testing of OpenHD (discovered that the Raspberry Pis do not currently transmit video when powered with the pins, need to investigate). - GoPro fallback "worked".

Kayla:

• Landing gear seemed surprisingly steady- feet seem like a good addition and this design would definitly work for competition. Legs wobble a bit but nothing that seems like they would fall off.

• Grabber did not work

  • Needs to be discussed with Frame and Electrical to figure out servo distances and power required

  • Flew steady enough that tilting/hovering with object should be ok- probably still better to land to drop pobject but we should test this

  • Need another test flight to determie what the maximum payload we can carry is- hopefully 2kg is safe

• Gimbal not mounted

  • Need to work with frame/grabber to figure out where the best place to mount is

  • Probably need to test again to collect adequate data

• More permanent orientation markers (instead of the temporary pink duct tape) to tel lwhich way is front would be ideal

  • Different color feet of landing gear?

  • Reflective Tape?

  • Reflective Tape on Landing Gear feet?

Tasks Before Next Test

• Develop fre-flight checklist & test plan

  • Week before, day before, hour before, minute before?

• Identify/License other pilots

• Develop techincal information around aircraft (wind limits, current draw, battery voltages, etc.) & place in a central location

• Identify future flight goals early, and communicate them early so that all teams have deadlines to get all of their systems ready for the next test

  • One of these goals is to create a proof of flight video for the competition organizers. (what are the requirements, etc.)

Videos (optional)

Should be on the google drive