losing orientation while hovering

[eagle4]

Hey gang, I finally got my TBS discovery into the air, and it flew great, (even though i wasnt doing much more than just simple hovering) but i found that when I had it in the air, at a distance of probably 20 metres from myself while just hovering in one spot i suddenly felt that it was pointing down towards me and i had this urge to start pushing the sticks to try to correct it, however the logical side of me knew it hadn't changed attitude. so it was still hovering nicely.

losing orientation like that while hovering was scary, cause it shows how easy it'll be to lose orientation while flying.

The arms on my quad are black and white, so when its nearby i can easily tell the front and the back, but at a distance my mind started to play tricks on me. I think it doesnt help that the discovery isnt a straight X quad.

The way my mind would play the trick on me was similar to this spinning dancer gif illusion, where it looks like its spinning clockwise, but if you think about it, you can make it look like she;s spinning anti clockwise
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Spinning_Dancer.gif

Have any of you had this before and know how to easily deal with it? When I finally get to FPV it'll be much easier, but still, I'd like to be able to fly my quad LOS too.

Dave

 

[Cyberdactyl]

I have had the "spinning dancer" issue many times. But ...primarily... only happens to me when my tri or quads are considerably more distant. . .like >200 feet or so, AND I'm somewhat close to the plane (in-line with the prop disks) of the MR. It usually happens when I look away from it for more than a couple of seconds and it's moving radially, in or out. I found if I keep it in a 'proper motion', it's much easier to keep orientation/perspective.

But I have to admit, I have had it happen very close when I'm not paying attention.

 

[Mustang7302]

On the HAL frame I had put a strip of LED lights on it to be able to help with picking up orientation.

 

[Craftydan]

Happens all the time at long range on my V-tail. Don't think any airframe is immune to it, but fixed wing have the advantage of a natural direction. Lights, frame asymmetry and frame colors help, but get it far enough away against a bright sky and you're only keeping the orientation by what's in your head, not what you see.

When that happens to me, a wing-waggle will sort it out. If I give left aileron, what does it do? Right aileron? With a bump on the controls and seeing which way it moves, I can recalibrate the orientation in my head, and I'm good.

In all fairness, the effect is useful -- it's telling me I've flown far enough, time to come back.