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Re: [Paparazzi-devel] The Flyaway Club site launch & submission contest


From: Drone Savant
Subject: Re: [Paparazzi-devel] The Flyaway Club site launch & submission contest
Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2013 11:11:07 -0400

Forgive me for last nights choppy email! I am realizing the cut / paste that I did simply did not work properly. =] None the less the initial report is out is basically all I was saying. Christophe the detail you just provided is excellent! It may perhaps account for why we have literally 1 Paparazzi report. We did hear of another one second hand although we could not corroborate it it was ultimately tied to an auto mission that as left from a previous days flight. 

I have already tried to solicit Piotr, but I will ask the same of the rest of you. We totally over committed on the give away portion of our contest. It was literally THE incentive for some folks to post. This gentleman for example was literally run off the forum he posted to with ridicule. He went into hiding for a few days. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xn-XrWKdzts we coaxed his story out and video out of hiding with a Millswood failsafe. So if any of you have flightworthy gear that you are not using, we are looking for donations to help keep folks incentivized. Donations have been very useful in encouraging folks to post. 

Thank you guys kindly for participating and allowing me to speak here. 

-KF


Christophe your added detail here 
On Mar 22, 2013, at 3:52 AM, Christophe De Wagter <address@hidden> wrote:

Hi DroneSavant,

In the first years of paparazzi I know of 1 report of a flyaway (due to stuck ailerons). The plane was never found though. To avoid this in the future, the same day a whole set of strict safety rules were added, with one being the HOME_RADIUS, the max distance allowed. If beyond this limit all navigation is overruled. If even further (HOME + 50%) the power is cut. Combined with a good GPS heartbeat mechanism, that also triggers landing it pretty much rules out longdistance fly-aways. This way you always know where your drone will end up landing. It is set in the flightplan. I have not heard of any flyaway since (2005), but I'm also interested in more stories. 

-Christophe 


On Sun, Mar 17, 2013 at 6:48 PM, Drone Savant <address@hidden> wrote:
Some of you have likely seen this already... I wanted to make sure we didn't leave you guys out. At this point we have Zero paparazzi reports FWIW. 

Thanks! 

<FlyawayClub.jpg>
Paging Dr. Flyaway! http://www.flyawayclub.com

Well folks the day has finally come Zen[1] and DroneSavant[2] of DIYDroneSafety[3] would like to present the community with The Flyaway Club. The "fly-away" phenomenon is not specific to any particular community. In fact some of the earliest reports can be attributed to Parrot A.R.Drone owners experiencing an issue with the ultrasound sensor[4]. The constant in all communities is that there is not enough data on hand to help understand what causes them. 

To an end user a "fly-away" can be embarrassing, scary, and eye opening all at the same time. As a first hand witness to one I can also attest to the fact that there is a certain helplessness felt as you watch a bird liberate itself to the heavens. In that split second, your heart sinks, your copters life flashes before your eyes and you go into instant panic mode wondering where it will land. Zen and I wish that feeling upon no one and as such we want to help get a handle on what causes these events. 

One thing that we noticed is that there seemed to be no community neutral ground for reporting "fly-away" occurrences. In various forums users that have lost control of their gear are often ridiculed by their RC peers or encouraged to remove what they share for the good of the community. Oddly enough often "safety" is cited as a reason to temper this type of post. We really feel that this behavior is  in general counterproductive to the community at large. If we as a community do not collect data on the common causes of "fly-away" gear there is no way we will ever get to the point of understanding them. 

As a result of this we would like to present The Flyaway Club. The goal is go begin collecting some empirical data on the subject of "fly-away" drones and RC craft. We plan to create a public interface to our data collection in the coming months so that we may share the information with everyone. In the few days that the site has been up even before release we have received several excellent submissions! We've seen everything from pilot error to autopilot lockup on everything from Attopilot to WooKong. We are really excited to share what you guys are sharing with us. Keep an eye out for our reporting interface, it should be available soon. 

Now this is where things get fun for everyone. To help encourage submissions we will be giving away two prizes to a few lucky folks in our first 100 submissions. After the first 50 submissions we will be doing a drawing for the original mythical unicorn board aka the OpenPilot CC3D[5]. Out of the next batch of 50 submitters we will be giving away a Millswood Failsafe device[6]. To us these devices represent quality and safety, two things that this community needs a lot more of. A chance to win the Millswood is in and of itself is WELL worth posting a submission since it remains one of few devices that offer real flight termination options to help save "fly-away" craft. The CC3D's reputation precedes itself so comment is not necessary, the quality is simply understood. Between the two we hope that one will encourage you to submit what you know about your own fly-away occurrence so it can be shared with the rest of the community.  

Best of probability, luck, and randomness to you all! 


Full Disclosure: DiyDroneSafety is helping design a variant of the Millswood Engineering Failsafe Device that is targeted specifically to the DIY Drone making community rather than the original Australian UAV Outback Challenge audience. As such this could be considered a "marketing stunt" on the part of DIYDroneSafety.

Note: We are aware of a few issues with mobile based browsers and certain Windows browsers. We are working diligently to rectify them, in the mean time the site is best viewed in Firefox or Chrome (if you are experiencing issues). 

The Flyaway Club would like to welcome you! Stop by and see us to secure your chance to win a Millswood Failsafe or OpenPilot CC3D!


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