Hybrid

[johnmc]

Seeing as my chopper to offshore has been cancelled again, I';ve had plenty of thinking time these last two days...and...
I was wondering if an aiop board could be used as a FC for a hybrid quadcopter/glider? My thinking....

A normal quadcopter connected to a glider/plank frame. Two servos on the plank, one to control up/down pitch and the other to control the yaw. The servos could be controlled using the Gimbal rc inputs, say by using a tgy 9x which has two dial knobs I think?
Take off with the quad, float around for ages using the plank, come in to land with the quad.
Two aircraft, one controller, oodles of flight time.
Has this been tried before because I can';t find anything with a quick Google?
Am I being too outside the box with this haha

Cheers, John.

[Cozp83]

im picturing something similar to an osprey. with pivoting wings and rotors....

[johnmc]

No, nothing as complicated as that. It would be a glider, so as to save battery. It would have to have decent fpv kit on if you wanted to do any decent distance from home. I was watching a video about a quad taking a glider up to release it, and thought, why not just combine them. Obviously the glider part would only have basic controls using ascend, descend and yaw.

Cheers, John.

[Cozp83]

gotcha

[guest325]

Take a look at this - only a matter of scale and very simple compared to what you';re thinking of.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK_-yTrwNtU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[teslahed]

http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/wingcopter-fixed-wing-airplane-quadcopter-fusion-vtol-uav

My feeling is the glider wont perform as well as a regular glider because of all that extra weight and drag, and the quad wont fly very well compared to a regular quadcopter for the same reasons.

I think a big slingshot is a better way to get yourself airborn with a glider from a flat field.

But it';s definitely doable.

[johnmc]

I';ve seen that vid Darrell, and it looks well twitchy! Maybe too twitchy for me seeing as I';ve only flown helis.

Definitely doable, that';s an invitation if ever I';ve seen one!! I don';t want to use the batteries once I get up to height, so it';s defo a glider

Cheers, John.

[guest325]

I';ve seen that vid Darrell, and it looks well twitchy! Maybe too twitchy for me seeing as I';ve only flown helis.

Definitely doable, that';s an invitation if ever I';ve seen one!! I don';t want to use the batteries once I get up to height, so it';s defo a glider

Cheers, John.

It works out the same with planes as it does with helis, bigger is more stable, that';s why I said it';s a matter of scale - my micro sukhoi is an absolute pig to fly compared to my crack yak profile foamy yet the crack yak is a full on 3D machine and the micro sukhoi is definitely not; if your prepared to experiment and have a go at making something yourself (perhaps out of Depron) you might just get something that works.
From the point of view of setup I';m pretty sure there is a FC specifically for this type of model.
Have a look here: http://transition-robotics.com/collections/quadshots

[johnmc]

I';ve had a chance to use the internet now I';m back at work, and I found this...

http://www.wingcopter.com/html/tech__daten.html

This is kind of what I';m thinking, but without rotating arms. I just want to cut the power and glide. That will make the build less complicated, I hope haha

[teslahed]

If you keep the props smaller and the motors high KV you will lose efficiency in the hover but you';ll save a LOT of drag when gliding. Assuming you only want to hover during take off and landing this might be ok.

[johnmc]

That';s what I was thinking.
I have a bit of news, of the good kind. I emailed the makers of the wingcopter about his machine been able to glide, here is his reply.........

Hi John,

yes, the Wingcopter can glide like a normal plane. It glides better when the arms are horizontal, because if they are vertical the props still rotate like a windmill and drag even the power is cut off.

Regards
Jonathan

......so, although I';ve been beaten to the post with this type of design, it does prove it can be done, and, from what Jonathan is saying, or the way I';ve took it is, it would probably be better if I didn';t have rotating arms on my design because of drag?
He has designed his for powered forward flight, mine only needs a little forward flight till it';s up to gliding speed


Cheers, John.

[guest325]

Looks like you';ve got a design answer there, sort of like my idea but in the opposite plane (no pun intended).
With my idea you can minimise drag by using folding props and utilising the brake on the esc, also you wouldn';t need SimonK firmware and no special FC, you could use a 3 axis gyro like some of the 3D fliers are using
but not really needed. My thoughts were based on the simplest design to get what you want - keep it simple as possible, less to go wrong!
For my own interest I';m going to have a go at this idea based on a simple flying wing like my Slope soarer (SAS Wildthing); all that I will need to do is to figure out a sensible 4 motor configuration and what framework it will need around it, control will be by the model';s normal elevon control surfaces, should provide adequate control.