Flight Log

This section records some of my early flights where I was trying to work out how to properly configure the MC and the transmitter as well as learn to fly the drone.

26/12/2015

This flight was just trying to get the thing off the ground so I could say I had made some progress. I had no idea what mode it was in (I think it was in manual). I had previously checked that the motors were

I managed to get it off the ground and up to about 3 metres high. I very gradually manoeuvred it around and then brought it down thankful I hadn’t crashed it.

28/12/2015

This flight was aimed at testing the GPS Attitude mode. By this time I had finally configured the transmitter to be able to set the NAZA MC into GPS Attitude mode. I plugged in the battery and got the ESC tune. I observed the LED flashing green and red giving me an indication that it was in GPS mode. After a little while the red flashed disappeared indication a good GPS signal by staying green.

I then tried to slowly increase the throttle in an attempt to take off but the drone seemed very unstable and was making a weird whistling noise that I did not recall from the first flight. I tried a few times to increase the throttle but the instability and noise remained.

Eventually the drone tilted too far and then flipped over. Nothing was broken but I think I’ve got some investigating to do.

29/12/2015

I tried to fly the drone again but the wobble remains. As I power up the motors the struts begin to wobble and the strut holding motor 1 get quite violent. I’m not sure if it is cavitating. It looks like there is some kind of resonance that builds up and reinforces the wobble. Some internet searching indicates that it might be related to the flexible DJI legs connected to the bottom of the drone. I’ve taken these off and will try to fly it again.

30/12/2015

Success, I got it flying. There was still a bit of a wobble on take off. It’s like the M1 strut takes off first which tilts the craft a bit. If I slowly increase the throttle it seems like it will flip over. If I really commit and push the stick up quickly it takes off and levels out. It’s probably a mixture of inexperience and me not wanting the smash that drone before I’ve had a chance to fly it around. The longer legs definitely increase the wobble.

Now that I’ve got it flying I’ll spend a bit of time doing lots of take off and some simple manoeuvring to get used to it. Then I’ll begin testing out the capabilities of the MC and checking that the Failsafe works. Once that’s done I guess I’ll start flying it a bit higher and a bit further away.