How do I automatically turn off the engine kill switch whenever I switch the flight mode from FBWA to QLOITER?

ArduPlane Plane 4.4
1

Hello everyone,

Our team has developed a VTOL UAV with a maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of 25 kg that uses a gasoline engine for forward thrust. After taking off in QLOITER mode, we transition to FBWA mode for horizontal flight, and then switch back to QLOITER mode to land. Every time, we have to instruct one of our pilots to manually shut off the engine, when the plane switches back to QLOITER mode to land.

We do not use an engine starter; instead, we rely on an engine kill switch to manually turn the engine on and off. We would like to ask if there is a way to automatically disable the engine kill switch (i.e., shut off the engine) when the flight mode transitions from FBWA to QLOITER, so that we no longer need to issue a manual instruction to the pilot each time.

Thank you all in advance,

Sincerely.

2
  1. you can write a lua script to do exactly that. Though it is a really stupid idea as if you ever experience a need to hover during mission you will lose ability to go back to horizontal flight.
  2. You may use existing Ardupilot ICE control to kill the engine when landing.
3

Thank you very much for your response.

Since I don’t know how to use LUA scripts, I will try using ArduPilot’s ICE control instead. Our aircraft is still undergoing performance testing, so I will pray that I can provide good feedback in the future.

Once again, thank you very much.