Can you arm the Iris motors without a R/C Controller

ArduCopter Copter 3.1
1

I’d lake to make the Iris truly autonomous so that after the safety button is pressed it would

  1. Fly to a predetermined altitude
  2. Wait for a GPS fix
  3. Once a fix is received complete it’s preprogrammed mission file
2

Sure this is possible with an APM. But flying without RC is NOT recommended. RC (tx) should be your main tool in case of failsafe. And of course all your tuning before any fly (even for RTF model) need an RC.
And you need to change the order: Wait for GPS fix should be the 1st step, before takeoff.
The are people take-off automatically and then execute pre-programmed mission.