One Way to Avoid Disorientation

pdmike

pdmike

Extremely Popular Member
Most of you guys probably know this already but for those who don't, I hope it is helpful. It sure helped me once I discovered it.

So you're flying your quad and you decide to get a little daring. Let's fly the sucker out of sight and then bring her home. How far away can we go? Well, you can go REALLY far away if you want to, but getting it back isn't always that easy. More than once, I have had to hit the Return to Home button because I became disoriented and was not able to figure out which direction to fly to bring the quad back to base.

I would fly it in my neighborhood, figuring if I it was outbound along a straight street, all I needed to do was make it do a 180 (by watching through the FPV) and then bring it right back. But when it's up high in a densely populated neighborhood with lots of streets, it isn't so easy to get lined up back on the same street you went out on.

In the lower, left of the app is a compass with a red arrow on it. It shows the direction the quad is headed at the moment. Assuming that the quad has been flying on a straight line away from you, all you need to do is rotate the quad while keeping your eye on the compass arrow. It's very easy to see when you have, in fact, done a true 180 and then just bring her home.

I guess this is a fairly obvious thing, but I never noticed it until now. Just thought I'd toss it in. (And I know we aren't supposed to fly out of sight. Let's let that be our little secret, OK?)
 
pdmike said:
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I would fly it in my neighborhood, figuring if I it was outbound along a straight street, all I needed to do was make it do a 180 (by watching through the FPV) and then bring it right back. But when it's up high in a densely populated neighborhood with lots of streets, it isn't so easy to get lined up back on the same street you went out on.

In the lower, left of the app is a compass with a red arrow on it. It shows the direction the quad is headed at the moment. Assuming that the quad has been flying on a straight line away from you, all you need to do is rotate the quad while keeping your eye on the compass arrow. It's very easy to see when you have, in fact, done a true 180 and then just bring her home.

I guess this is a fairly obvious thing, but I never noticed it until now. Just thought I'd toss it in. (And I know we aren't supposed to fly out of sight. Let's let that be our little secret, OK?)
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You have a ton of orientation options with the Go4 app. First, map view shows orientation relative to the home point, along with a track back to home at all times. Second, the lower left view is usually referred to as the "radar view" and can always be used to check your orientation while using the FPV view. I keep the C1 button configured to map view so I can keep track of where I am and shift quickly between map and FPV view.
 
When I'm too far out and lose orientation, I go right to RTH until I can reacquire my visual then repeat the process. It's just too easy to lose track when you fly high and out. Without RTH I'd be losing a lot of drones !!!! Just the second my drone looks like a house fly or small insect I'm returning to home to get my bearings !!! I'm working on being more self disciplined with line of sight but it's easy to lose LOS and I hit the RTH panic button !!! RTH is my best friend and always there when I need it ! I hope my best friend is always there !!! I'm trying to become less dependent on RTH but pressing the limits is addictive to me !!! I'm going to Stupidly Anonymous Meetings to help me with me with LOS issues. So I'm just guessing but suspect that most Droners love things that fly and the thrill of the flight and how far and high they can go without losing their drone or crashing it ????
 
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Excellent comments, John. Couldn't agree more. Just yesterday my quad disappeared from view and I hit RTH until it was back in my sight. I do use RTH almost every flight at one time or another.
 
LoneRCRanger said:
Another good way of limiting disorientation is to not drink that case of beer before you fly...
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Or you could just start off while already disoriented, then you don't (and won't) hafta worry about losing
it because it was absent from the beginning. :p
 
I'm a long-a-go R/C airplane flier, and was very used to flying the airplane any direction it pointed. But now I find I'm USUALLY disoriented. Whether I'm flying or not.
 
pdmike said:
Excellent comments, John. Couldn't agree more. Just yesterday my quad disappeared from view and I hit RTH until it was back in my sight. I do use RTH almost every flight at one time or another.
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I call it the oh crap button
 
I always push down on the nose to get a directional, seems to work pretty good. I remember when we used to fly sailplanes up high, the argument was always "it's coming back, no its getting further out!" right up until it disappeared.
 
Having high brightness LEDs that are different colors on each side helps a lot when flying LOS. Personally don't fly around neighborhoods I have plenty of good parks in walking distance and prefer to fly acro so the chances of a rapid disassembly after a high speed deceleration involving someone's property or person are high. My first quad was a 3d printed frame with the bare minumum needed to fly strapped to it, have never tried one of the GPS based ones, think if I was part 107 certified and doing commercial work it'd be worth having.

I don't really get the obsession with flying high but I like high speed proximity flying and I'm sure that's not everyone's cup of tea.
 
I'm happy just to get the damned thing off the ground into a hover. Most of the time, even before I get the thing trimmed out, it's slamming into something, a tree, my car, the house. I should really give it up and stick with my fixed wing aircraft. At least I know which way it's going.
 
I fly airplanes as well, I invested 5 years and learned how to fly glow powered collective pitch heli' a while back and it really helps with the quads. If you get into a pinch with the quads the LOS skills will save you. I'm amazed at the ease of the technology now, people without any rc flying get a high end quad, and fly fpv a mile out. Quads clicked with me one day when I pushed the nose down and poured on the coals. I see they are now coming out with att. hold planes as well.
 
Regaining orientation when you're flying LOS is a matter of practice and kinda muscle memory. Giving it forward pitch will usually orient you, but if you can't tell direction from forward pitch, you're either traveling directly away from you or directly toward you. A little left or right yaw will make it clear which. I lost orientation 2-3 times this morning just because I was in the mood to fly higher than I usually do LOS.
 
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