Recent content by Mission North

The only giveaway that it is a drone is when the menu on the table wobbles in the downwash. Beautifully done.

It is in a graveyard. Probably a zombie or something.

Does the telephone still work?

Without a GPS position the "distance meter" will not work. If you still have a video feed you should be able to fly back by eye. Of course if you stick to the law and stay within VLOS you won't have a problem.

I used to have a part share in a Turbo Discus glider with a retactable self-sustaining engine. The prop on that was an amazing piece of engineering. Seven blades, each a different length, different pitch, and different spaces between them. Oh, and it folded too. The blades all resonated at a...

Longer propellors are not necessarily quieter. The linear tip speed would increase with length, but the lower angular speed may cancel this out. But if you add more propellor blades you can lower both the angular and linear tip velocity without the problem of the the blades hitting the drone...

It would be great if it could say where the traffic was. Unfortunately a lot of the traffic we need to know about doesn't broadcast its location. Most airliners do, but they are generally too high to be a problem to us. Light aircraft and military generally do not, for different reasons. But...

The flight alarm is coming along slowly when I have spare time. Finished building the latest version this morning and used it this afternoon. I ditched the epaper display as it was too expensive and not reliable. I am now using a small OLED display which updates faster but is not as easy to read...

There's a section in Ernest K Gann's autobiographical book, Fate Is The Hunter, where due to a misunderstanding over fuel levels Gann almost demolishes the Taj Mahal with an overweight C-87. If you have any interest in flight I can highly recommend the book. It is my all time favourite...

It is suggesting that you may wish to press the C1 button to enter 'fixed wing mode'.

An extra 400 feet of height should make a huge difference to line of sight 3g signals. Once, many years ago, I was working on a live insert into a TV programme from the middle of a field in a valley. Power from generator, mobile satellite uplink for outgoing vision and sound, but no incoming...

I have a need for a temporary internet connection out in the wilds where there's no phone signal. I have designed and 3d printed a simple holder for a 3g hotspot on top of the Mavic. Ground tests so far show no interference with gps, compass or control signals. The centre of gravity is about...

Indoors?

Manic Crow

Gimbal reset. Exactly the same happened to me yesterday. It happens occasionally and though it is rather unnerving it doesn't usually cause major problems. I think it's something we just have to live with.