February 19, 2023 Frosted Flakes Validation

Owned by Dhruv Upadhyay, created
Last updated: 2023-02-19 by Daniel Puratich
6 min read

Make sure to update the Title following the format “Jan 01, 2020 Flight Test”

 Flight Preparation

Requested by:

Required Sub-teams

Mech
Electrical
EFS
CV
Operation
Sys-Int

Requested Date

Feb 19, 2023

Location and Time

WRESTRC, 12 PM - 5 PM

Summary & Goals

  • Verify Frosted Flakes behavior with 12S Power Architecture:

    • Up-Down motor thrust testing (Quad mode)

    • Transition to fixed-wing

    • Transition back to quad from fixed-wing

Approved?

Re-approved on Feb 18th Evaluation, All set to go

 Required Persons During Test

Name

Phone #

Role (Bolded means needed)

Reason

Name

Phone #

Role (Bolded means needed)

Reason

 @Dhruv Upadhyay

905-213-0704

Flight Test Lead

  • Creating documentation

  • Booking the test flight

  • Creating a thread in #flight-staging

 @Anthony Luo

613-618-5547

 Pilot in Command

  • Aircraft preparation

  • Filling out documentation

@Ayoung Eun

905-966-3530

Safety

  • Making sure everyone is safe

  • Bringing Med kit

@Megan Spee

 

Secondary Pilot

  • Act as help and assistance to PIC

  • Take control as required

  • Backup PIC

 Other Attendees

Name

Role

Name

Role

@Alison Thompson

Mech Rep

@Daniel Puratich

Electrical Rep

@R D

 

@Hardy Yu

 

@Aidan Bowers (Deactivated)

 

@Ethan Abraham

 

Drivers

Name

Phone Number

Vehicle

Passenagers

Name

Phone Number

Vehicle

Passenagers

@Conall Kingshott

 

Personal Vehicle

@R D @Aidan Bowers (Deactivated) @Alison Thompson @Daniel Puratich

@Anthony Luo

 

Personal Vehicle With Plane

@Dhruv Upadhyay

@Aidan Bowers (Deactivated)

 

Personal Vehicle

@Megan Spee @Ayoung Eun @Hardy Yu @Ethan Abraham

 Success criteria

Tests

Success Criteria

Requirements

Outcome

Tests

Success Criteria

Requirements

Outcome

  • Frosted Flakes quad mode and fixed-wing performance with 12S Power Architecture

  • Verify behaviour of new PDB

  • Frosted Flakes is able to fly in quad mode with relative ease and stability

  • Able to transition to fixed-wing without crashing or high level of instability

  • Works with new PDB

  • Frosted Flakes ready to fly from a mechanical, electrical (wiring + harnessing), and SysInt pov

Test Plan

  • Quad Mode Testing: While FF is in quad mode, control FF flies straight up and down for validation of the thrust system. Then, land the FF on the landing pad for ensuring FF responds accurately to the control.

  • Transition Testing: Take off FF into the air and slowly fly it to the transition minimum speed. Change FF from quad mode to fix-wings mode, and control the plane to hover for a couple of rounds checking its performance under fix-wings mode. Poilt will need to safely land FF on the landing track.

  • Huston Test: Test Huston after the flight test of FF. The test should fulfill the need of the CV team.

Testing Date Time Line

Time

Action

Time

Action

Feb 19, 2023

9 - 11:30 am

Pre-flight Preparation

Feel free to not come at 9 if you don’t have a lot workload

During this time get snack if needed

11:30 - 11:40 am

Flight brief from flight test lead

11:40 - 12:00 am

Loading materials onto the Car

Take your water bottle with you

Go washroom before we leave!

12:00 - 12:30 pm

Drive to the test ground

12:30 -3pm

Flight Testing

3:30pm

Debrief

Week-Before To-Do List

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.)

Day-Before To-Do List

Batteries Planned for (DON”T LEAVE CHARGING OVERNIGHT)
Drone batteries & spares
Transmitter batteries
On-site kit together
Flight Code Flashed
Ground station Software updated

Pre-Departure Checklist

Pre-flight Safety Checklist

Post-Flight Checklist

Item

Owner

Item

Owner

@Daniel Puratich & ALL MEMBERS PRESENT

 

 

Flight Test Post Mortem

  • Transitioned

    • We need to check logs to verify if it was in fixed wing only mode

    • We were at least partially into fixed wing mode

  • Control Over Aircraft in quad mode

    • New power arch seems powerful enough

    • 12S motors have a lot of thrust so it’s movable with wings on

    • Maneuverable enough to land on a landing pad theoretically

    • Had enough Thrust to pull out of first failed transition

    • We went very fast in fixed wing mode - good velocity

    • Good fly by wire into the wind

  • Most thorough test we have ever done of this ICARUS Class Aircraft

    • No sill mistakes in aircraft setup

    • We got useful data today

    • Successfully identified & resolved faults of previous flight test

  • Most electronics survived

    • Motors, wiring, frame, and batteries took the brunt of the damage

  • People knew what was happening on the flight line

    • We were organized

    • Nobody got hurt and we all were positioned desirably

    • Checklist and formalized process made everything very smooth

  • We got significant quantities of media

    • Having Anni’s camera helped us with this

  • We could’ve landed after doing one transition instead of going for more resulting in our crash

  • Yaw was slow on the aircraft

  • People should’ve brought gloves and had cold fingers preventing work

  • Doing a proper cite survey

    • We crashed near training firefighters

      • Some saw the light’s of their fire trucks but didn't communicate as we assumed it was also seen by the pilots

    • We shouldn't fly too far away from our area

      • This is tough to meet because our aircraft flies very fast

    • We thought we had the entire area booked, but there were others present

      • We should be more careful in the future

  • Checklist and steps for crash procedure

    • There was some debate over radio following the crash due to disagreement over how crashes should be handled

    • Formalized failure action plans

    • This is also safety critical in case things are on fire

      • Since we have batteries on the nose cone this is a real possibility in this type of crash, we just got lucky in this case.

    • Would be nice to have a fly away checklist or procedure documented (though this was not an issue in this case)

  • Landing when we have minor errors instead of continuing to fly

    • We continued to fly with incorrect pitch setting

  • Formalized walkie talkie radio procedure

    • Talking over each other, unclear who is talking to who

    • Document on radio guidelines

      • Say name of who you are trying to talk to

    • When we say we’re taking off over the radio (something we asked PICs to do) we should have a process for if and when radio holders need to respond to that giving a go ahead

  • We flew with pitch backwards in quad mode

RCA for Red Items

Create a RCA and keep it as a child page.

Action Items

Other Resources

Booking WRESTRC Field

WRESTRC