MA2 Night Flying

[Usaf0789]

Hey everyone! I've flown my MA2 a few times at night and each time it seems to have a mind of its own as far as the controls go. Its quite dark in the rural area I live in but there are some lights around my house. It is so stable during the day and flies itself but at night it seems to fly all over without me giving any inputs. This is with a small breeze of maybe 4 mph. I do get the warning that says low light visibility. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[dawgpilot]

As long as you have a solid GPS lock, there should be no difference with flying it at night versus during the day.

If you upload a log file here from one of your night flights, I'm sure one of our resident gurus could give their opinion.

 

[spsphotos]

Sounds like it is going into ATTI mode. Wierd. Though only time I'm not flying GPS is in the house. LOL. Then it does seem to have a mind of it's own. Like it likes to backup for no reason...lol.

 

[maintenanceguy]

Mine does the same thing. At night, it's stable within two or three feet but in daylight, it's stable to within inches. I think it's the loss of the cameras used for positioning.

At night, I don't land in tight quarters.

 

[RupertPupkin]

Mine does the same thing. At night, it's stable within two or three feet but in daylight, it's stable to within inches. I think it's the loss of the cameras used for positioning.

At night, I don't land in tight quarters.

When low to the ground at night I get a similar drift but it stabilizes once I hit a certain height, so my assumption is that at lower altitudes it still tries to use the downward vision system to augment GPS, which for obvious reasons doesn't work as well.

 

[mfuller5117]

MA2 turn on the auxiliary light so the VPS can see

 

[Boyce555]

Have you got the Auxiliary light on auto? then it will come on when taking off and landing.