RTL and Autopilot, My FPV phylosophie

When I went to the New York maker fair for the Aeroquad group, The most common question people ask me was, "How far can it go?" or "How high it can go?" to what I was always answering "What is far for you?" or "What is high for you?"

The thing is, my current limitation is not related to radio link limitation or video link limitation. My limitation is more related to the batteries and how long I can fly with them. Also, I have to keep in mind that I need to get it back, if I go, I need to make the craft come back. So, here are a couple of stat I did personally.

On quad, I went to 1.7km that we can see here when I'm the other side of the bay

Here, I was at about 1000m high, on quad.

and here with a plane, I went to 10km

And, this is not that far compare to many people, but, this is still quite good for me. 

Then, people was asking me, do you have GPS support, do you have RTL (Return to launch) and navigation. And then, I was asking them, why you need that, and most people was answering, well, if I loose radio signal or video signal! To what I was answering... if you thing that you will loose radio signal or video signal, then, why are you going that far? or, why don't you build something reliable? Don't rely on the computer to make your work, but, make sure that you won't reach the limit of your toys. Those can be quite expensive, so, if you are not confident that the craft can't do something... don't do it. Don't you put some gaz on your car before it get stock on the side of the road?

Don't get me wrong, As the software architect of the group, Aeroquad will have GPS support, I'm currently working on it! We will have a position hold (loiter), RTL and navigation, of course. The engineering challenge is great and it's fun to do.  

But, personally, when I fly, I want my craft to be reliable, I want to know if I'm gonna reach the radio limit, and video limit is quite easy to know since video will have some snow more and more you get far. I want to know my battery consumption and distance from home to know when it's time to get back. And also want to have the home direction on plane. But, I don't want to rely on an autopilot to get back home.

What I say is, don't try to reach the limit of your system. Just play safe. 

So, if you want some little advise, here are some, but most are just common sens.

If you use 2 batteries, 1 for video and 1 for the craft, then, make sure that they are fully charged at EACH flight. Also make sure that the video battery will last longer than the craft battery. 

If you don't have OSD to know your battery, use a timer and fly 7-8 minutes when you are sure that the craft can fly 9-10. Make just sure to fly less longuer than the craft flight time.

If you don't have RSSI information in an OSD, Don't go far... Stay in a close range. If you have a normal receiver like spektrum or futaba... stay close, real close, if you have some UHF one that can do many km, don't care, stay close, and by that, I mean, less than 500m. Even with the UHF one cause you don't know if that UHF will have some trouble or interference that will reduce the normal range. If you don't have the information in real time, don't try to know by putting the craft at risk. Just wait to have the information and make sure you can push it to that limit and make those limit less big than the system spec. 

Make your craft reliable. if you buy cheap servo, motor... well, you running after trouble. They may work well, but, they may fail and if a motor or a servo fail in the air, there won't be any autopilot to save your toys. 

Keep in mind that if you go far, you will have to come back... Check your battery consumption, make sure your battery will have enough power to get back. 

Start smaller and reliable. More you had feature, more you add some point of failure. Rely on the quality of your build and good practice, then, you won't need any RTL and autopilot.

And the most important thing... have some real good time!