Hard Deck Function

[DominicD]

Originally Posted by nightflyr

And everyone is entitled to their opinion here, But I base mine on facts..

So how many potential crashes has the unit saved you from so far ?

[nightflyr]

I lost count when I passed 200 intentionals

[drdispatch]

Really need to be getting these in the hands of some stupid people for testing.

People that will shoot inverted rolling autos with it on...just to see what it does

[Cascade]

Originally Posted by drdispatch

Really need to be getting these in the hands of some stupid people for testing.

People that will shoot inverted rolling autos with it on...just to see what it does

I don't know who this rolling auto person is but I meet all your criteria for stupidity.
Maybe more.

[Navigator53]

I just started Buddy Boxing my 30 year old Son on his 450.

On my radio I just leave CP switched on so all I have to do is move the trainer switch when he trys to turn it into a lawn dart, works like a charm

Funny observation, in Multi-Rotor forums we're embracing:

Altiude hold

Return to Home

Gps tracking

Flying waypoints on Google earth,

Intelligent Orientation Control,

On Screen display,

Antenna tracking etc. etc.

Different crowd I guess in both worlds.

For those that don't trust or believe this technology, don't buy it, we enjoy the carnage videos

[DominicD]

Originally Posted by nightflyr

I lost count when I passed 200 intentionals

If you are beta testing for FMA you will have to put your association in your signature as per HF rules.

[nightflyr]

I give my thoughts and ideas and checked out there platform as a favor, on extreme helicopters which I do for many other manufacturers in the industry
If I had to list all that I have help check their hardware/software and flight platforms, you would be asking Will James to lift the size limits on the signature page.

Hence the reason I do not classify or ask to be classified as a "BETA" tester.
My flight rigs are slightly different than most fly.

[Rªzª]

WOW! I certainly hope they put more effort into the controller than they did that REALLY bad flash movie!!! OMG that was horrible.

[jdd1]

Originally Posted by Navigator53

I just started Buddy Boxing my 30 year old Son on his 450.

On my radio I just leave CP switched on so all I have to do is move the trainer switch when he trys to turn it into a lawn dart, works like a charm

Hi Navigator,
Using the CoPilot II as a bailout switch to initiate Emergency Recoveries does work great. However, the auto triggering of emergency recovery with the hard deck mod has some significant advantages.

With CoPilot alone you have to decide when to flip the switch and some times that decision comes too late. The hard deck mod will always make this decision for you.

Using the CoPilot II as a bailout switch to initiate Emergency Recoveries still allows the pilot to fly and possibly over ride the CPII's corrective inputs hence the pilot still caused the crash. Believe me, I have done this more than once. The hard deck mod takes control away for the pilot until the helicopter is level or two seconds elapse, which ever comes first. CoPilot HD will not take control indefinitely. Two seconds is the max emergency recovery will be active. You might say "I'm not sure I want CoPilot HD to take complete control away from me". But consider this, you have became disoriented while flying and the need for an emergency recovery. What are the chances you as the pilot will give the correct command/command sequence to recover. Most likely not very good. So letting CoPilot HD take over completely and give the right commands make a lot of since.

Using the CoPilot II as a bailout switch to initiate Emergency Recoveries if inverted only helps/assists the pilot in rolling or flipping the helicopter to level and can still be dampened by the pilot if he give the wrong/opposite command needed to the collective pitch. With CoPilot HD, 8 degrees of negative pitch is given until the main rotor is in a vertical orientation then CoPilot HD advances to 8 degrees of positive pitch until the helicopter is level.

Using the CoPilot II as a bailout switch to initiate Emergency Recoveries if inverted only helps/assists the pilot in rolling or flipping the helicopter to level as I mentioned above. With CoPilot HD, appropriate fore and aft cyclic command is given to begin bringing the nose-tail level to the horizon at the same time the helicopter is rolling. This horizontal leveling along with the 8 degrees negative pitch hastens or stops the descent toward ground. Not to mention the 8 degrees positive collective pitch that is applied as the main blades pass vertical. These two collective pitch input is what makes for a quick reversal of direction when headed toward the ground.

There are some other advantages of an CoPilot HD emergency recovery over a bail out using a standard CoPilotII emergency recovery that are not mentioned here but point is, the CoPilot HD's emergency recovery is far far superior to just the CoPilot II bail out.

I hope this helps to clear up some of the flight aspects of CoPilot HD compared to the CoPilot II alone and not muddy the water too much.
Jack

[belcom]

Is it going to be packaged in a nice small unit like an FBL controller? Or a spider web of wires and sensors througout the heli?

[Navigator53]

Pretty cool technology jdd1, now I want one

[jdd1]

Originally Posted by Navigator53

Pretty cool technology jdd1, now I want one

I have one but want more.
Jack

[Navigator53]

Originally Posted by jdd1

Hi Navigator,
Using the CoPilot II as a bailout switch to initiate Emergency Recoveries does work great. However, the auto triggering of emergency recovery with the hard deck mod has some significant advantages.

With CoPilot alone you have to decide when to flip the switch and some times that decision comes too late. The hard deck mod will always make this decision for you.

Jack

Ok Jack, I agree with what you are saying, I confess, I managed to have 2 crashes with CP II.

First one was 2 years ago, buzzing across the field doing rolls, they were a thing of beauty, I got mesmerized and forgot I was the pilot and on the 4 th roll it cut a swath in the tall grass inverted



2nd time was last year, got in trouble too close to the ground, hit the OMG switch just in time to see CP flip it over as it disappeared in the brush, as it came up it was spinning still upright so I hit th and gave full pitch, only damage was the tail got tweaked around



Night told me back then: Ya gotta leave some daylight under the skids to:

1 Realize your in trouble
2 Hit the switch
3 Give CP enough room to right the bird

I blame it on FMA.. ya see if HD would have come out sooner I could have gone 2 years without a crash

[bstanley72]

Originally Posted by Rªzª

WOW! I certainly hope they put more effort into the controller than they did that REALLY bad flash movie!!! OMG that was horrible.

Was exactly what I was thinking!

[Navigator53]

They did

[newblueshoe]

So can we stand on a hotel balcony 50 feet up and practice our 3d deck work at eye level? This was a hard thread to read - too much complaining over something you havent even seen yet!!!

[755 robert]

Why not have an adjustable hard deck.That way you can set it like gyro gain..You turn it down till the heli hits the ground,then back it off a little..

[Dan E]

Originally Posted by 755 robert

Why not have an adjustable hard deck.That way you can set it like gyro gain..You turn it down till the heli hits the ground,then back it off a little..

ahah, then you too can be the smack down king! If you can get it tuned in to 3mm off the deck.
I'm curious to see how low it can go and still be effective.

[Carapau]

I'm curious, any idea how it knows where the ground is?

[Mixmaster Pilot]

Originally Posted by Carapau

I'm curious, any idea how it knows where the ground is?

I may be wrong, but it goes of the elevation of the GPS signal when initialised I guess? As that's why they have suggested that 50 foot is the height, as it takes a while for the GPS to update the models position in relation to traveling 100mph straight down! So you cannot fly at the bottom of a 60 foot hill and expect it to adjust to the ground, it will fly right into the hill.

But I'm warming to the idea of flying it from an elevated flying site, like said in a previous post. This would be great from a spot (a cliff?) 60 foot up and flying at eye level. Of course the problem of it flying into your elevated position still exists then.