I recently attempted an autoland with my fixed-wing aircraft, and while the approach phase went very smoothly — good alignment with the runway and a gentle descent — something went wrong during the final moments.
At around 3 meters above ground level, the autopilot suddenly considered the mission complete and switched to RTL. This resulted in a sharp right bank that almost led to a crash.
I’m using both a Lidar for altitude and an airspeed sensor, and as far as I can tell, both are working correctly. There were no obvious failsafes or anomalies reported during the flight.
Has anyone experienced a similar issue or have suggestions on what might have caused this behavior? Any help would be appreciated!
WP 13 was at 0m AGL -- Was this supposed to be LAND?
WP 14 was at 100m AGL. -- Perhaps this should have been a Land command at 0m, rather than another waypoint.
The plane finished it’s last waypoint and because there was nothing else it began the RTL.
If you will be regularly flying auto missions you can use ARMING_MIS_ITEMS to make sure you always have a landing or RTL set as required.
Thank you again for your help. One thing I still don’t understand is why the autopilot considered it had reached WP14, even though it was actually 41 meters away from the waypoint. The waypoint radius was set to 25 meters, if I remember correctly.
Aside from that, I really appreciate all your support!