Landings techniques

JLO

Member
I would like to open a discussion on successful landings, techniques with cameras under the crafts, with no cameras, the differences in landing gear designs what works better etc. one common aspect of this crafts they have to come back to earth at some point hopefully on a soft landing
thanks to all
 

+1 on this subject. I do not have anything like the right experience yet to inform a discussion on landing techniques with or witout cameras. I guess a heavy landing (I'm quite good at this though) doesn't care too much about the cost and quality of the camera(s) slung underneath. It would be interesting to find out what people see as good landing gear designs as many of the currently available designs appear to be expensive clones of each other. I personally have experience of a couple of different gears based on these designs. Both were carbon based and unreasonably expensive and didn't really last too long. Other than a nice soft landing created cracks in the carbon and so weakened the structure. I decided to fabricate my own (poor) design from 6mm dia. ali tube. It hasn't fixed my landing abilities but at least I can bend the tube back as required. Unfortunately the use of ali tube, although very cheap, certainly very strong and easy to work with, can be diificult to source suitable main-body connection clamps and of course has weight issues. There must be many very clever people in this forum that know how to overcome these difficulties and find a way out of the fixation with carbon 'everything'...or am I 'talking' niaively' here ?
 

Bartman

Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
Hi Guys
It's a great topic of discussion since there really isn't much for comparison in full scale or model aircraft.
Most all of the landing gear designs require you to simply take off and land vertically. Whatever skids are on a kopter they aren't really skids for sliding across grass or whatever, they're just there to give the kopter something to sit on.
not all flight controllers handle the odd flight dynamics of ground effect very well and some will simply flip over if you keep the craft just barely on its gear while trying to play with the flight controls. the original X650's were notorious for this, they'd just flip over if you didn't just power up and fly off the ground. for the new folks, ground effect if the cushion of air that is created when the kopter is close to the ground and the airflow from the props has no where to go. it's like the craft is sitting on an invisible platform and it will hover in it with less power than it would take to hover at higher altitudes. it's very noticeable when descending to land. the kopter will be slowly and steadily descending but as it gets closer to the ground it will just stop coming down and hover.
As for landings, I find it best to fly down close to the ground and then hover a foot or two above the ground. I try to get the kopter stable and hovering over one spot (there will be some control inputs held to correct for wind drift) before reducing power and letting it come down slowly. As you reduce power you have to continue to hold your wind corrections in so the copter won't be moving across the ground as it touches down.
Two things to keep in mind, if the kopter begins to settle too quickly as you near the ground you have to ease a little power in to slow it's descent but as it touches the ground it's best to turn the power to the motors off completely. with MK you just go full back and to the left with the left stick. I seldom land and leave the motors running. This habit has saved my props a few times as my habit of killing the power makes it automatic for me to kill power on bad or jumbled landings where I might put a prop or two into the turf.
Hope that helps!
Bart
 

mbsteed

aerial video centric
Bartman,

Great description of landing procedures. I think each landing is slightly different. I try to eliminate horizontal movement down at about 4-6 feet off of the ground. Then start a slow descent. Once about a foot off the ground I will sometimes have to throttle up just for second or two to slow the descent. For those unexperienced or just tuning a new ship, grass is actually an enemy because it can catch the landing gear and cause it to flip if you you haven't eliminated horizonal movement or if your ship is slightly out of control because it is out of tune (gains or trims are not set properly), so it might help to have a smooth surface like a gym floor or sheet of smooth plywood, or something in those situations until you have enough experience or get the settings dialed in.

With my camera landing gear I have put foam (found foam swords at the dollar store and took those a part and used the handles) over the landing bear helped to absorb some of the shock and actually made for a smoother landing because there is more surface area and dampens the shock landing. ...just watch what your onboard camera does when it lands to get a sense for the impact of even a relatively good landing. Really that should be part of the camera landing gear kits but I haven't seen one with it yet.
 
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