turdsurfer
Junior Member
I fly FPV in rural places where it's often very rocky, hilly, with trees or other obstacles everywhere. That means it's very hard to find a flat open place to land a plane, especially the somewhat larger ones (Skywalker, Mini Talon, etc).
Some ideas I have in descending order of expected viability are:
1. Mount a thin foam mattress on it's side with the top corners attached via rope to 2 tent poles, and just fly the plane into the foam. I think this is the most reliable idea. Alternatively, perhaps there are other soft and elastic nets that one can buy.
2. An arrestor system: Span an elastic cord between 2 pegs, about 1ft high, and drop a short line with a blunt 3 pronged hook from the plane.
3. Use an ESC with propellor reversal, enabled by a transmitter switch, to swoop in over/between obstacles and then stop rapidly in the small landing spot. It'll still require more space than idea 1 though, but it saves carrying a thin mattress around.
4. Use a small toy parachute with a servo release attached to the the bottom of the plane to achieve the same as in 3. This This may cause unexpected pitch ups or pitch downs though and it has a weight and drag penalty.
Some ideas I have in descending order of expected viability are:
1. Mount a thin foam mattress on it's side with the top corners attached via rope to 2 tent poles, and just fly the plane into the foam. I think this is the most reliable idea. Alternatively, perhaps there are other soft and elastic nets that one can buy.
2. An arrestor system: Span an elastic cord between 2 pegs, about 1ft high, and drop a short line with a blunt 3 pronged hook from the plane.
3. Use an ESC with propellor reversal, enabled by a transmitter switch, to swoop in over/between obstacles and then stop rapidly in the small landing spot. It'll still require more space than idea 1 though, but it saves carrying a thin mattress around.
4. Use a small toy parachute with a servo release attached to the the bottom of the plane to achieve the same as in 3. This This may cause unexpected pitch ups or pitch downs though and it has a weight and drag penalty.
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