Testing flight Stabilisation on my 4 channel Frankenplane.
Having seen this extra around on this web site, I thought I’d give it a go on what I intend to be my FPV platform – my Baby Blender based Frankenplane.
Flying with and without the stabilisation was a revelation. This plane has long wings so when turning ‘off’ the wind (without the stabilisation) the wings would flick up as soon as the wind got under them. There's a fair bit of turbulence comes off the top of the trees around my flying area and the plane was very busy in the air. OK it was manageable, but it was a lot of work, and definitely took some of the fun out of the flying. Stabilisation on - like being on rails.
By the time I'd used-up all my batteries I was getting ground wind speed readings of almost 15mph, and I was in the shelter of that line of trees! Likely it was a bit stronger up in clear air. The other planes I had with me were dancing on the ground and threatening to set off on their own across the field. I don’t normally consider flying in this kind of wind, but with the stabilisation on, these conditions were manageable, though I did have to keep the airspeed up - which is why I was doubling up my batteries.
One interesting and significant change with the stabilisation on was rolling. Without stabilisation the roll-rate is much faster. However, even though it was pretty slow, the plane didn’t seem to lose much altitude through the manoeuvre. There must have been a bit of extra rudder input from the stabilisation unit that I definitely can’t manage at present!
Watch the video;
To be honest, I was so quick to turn on the stabilisation there's really no video footage of before to compare with after. But once I was flying with stabilisation I was reluctant to switch it off - it made that much of a difference! My verdict - thoroughly recommended! This has opened up new flying opportunities.
Alibopo.
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