As a beginner multirotor pilot, I quickly found out that it was hard to determine the exact orientation of the quad when far away. I couldn't tell if it was perfectly level or angled slightly due to the symmetry of the quad. Yes, I do have different colored blades for the front of the quad, but these are hard to distinguish at a distance.
As a solution, my Dad suggested I "break the symmetry."
Here is what I came up with first.
This is a 3" diameter styrafoam ball attached to a coat hanger. This places the ball about 15" behind the center of the quad and a few inches above the propeller hubs.
This improved visibility greatly, as you could interpret the quad's orientation from the position of the white sphere relative to the frame. However, the flexibility of the coat hanger induced oscillations in the quad. This made flying tricky and required some stable hovering to let the small oscillations dissipate. In order to improve this, I switched to a 1/4" x16" sqare wooden spar. I attached it at an angle with some CA.
As it turns out, the spar works as a good visual aid without the styrofoam ball. However, with the addition of the ball, orientation is greatly improved!
I still did encounter some induced oscillations, so I am planning to swap the large ball for a ping pong ball. This ought to minimize the issue.
A very important step with this modification is to check the balance of your quad. A heavy spar can cause the cg to shift back a decent amount, so make sure to move your battery forward!
With this modification, I was able to fly my quad quite high without FPV:
Hope this helps some beginners and experts out!
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