HI,
All our landings are with Parachute, we do it with manula parachute, we have few questions before we switch to do it via Arduplane and PH1:
This is a list of some features, we don’t know if they are already there or how it works Parachute in Arduplane:
1- Delay: When the parachute switch is manually switched from the mission planner or Radio, the engine should turn off then the door of the parachute opens.
2- Control Surfaces: Based on more than 100 parachute landing, we found if we open the parachute in manual mode (control surfaces disable) the plane land very calm, because if the control surfaces are still enable, the plane will try to fix itself on the first few seconds after parachute releases which makes the plane unstable when it is landing. So, even if the parachute release in Auto mode, it should turn off the motors and disable the control surfaces for better landing
3- Safety: To prevent any issues if the parachute did not release (Door locked, Servo problem), the surfaces will be reactivated when we press the throttle to take over the plane.
4- Auto-parachute RTL: When the missions finish or when we press RTL, the plane will come back RTL and do X turns then open the parachute at the altitude of the RTL.
5- FailSafe Parachute: If there was no connection and enter the failsafe mode, the plane will come back and do X turns then open the parachute.
6- POI Parachute: We can define a certain GPS Point when the parachute should open. (I guess it is there already)
7- Stall: If the plane starts to dive, even if the motor still active, the parachute will be released after a specified dive speed (Xm/s) and tilt the vehicle over by at least X degrees. I guess it is available in copter, have to check if it available in plane also.
8- Battery: If the battery is about to finish at 100%, the parachute will be released. (We don’t know yet, if there will be faulty errors but if it is doing Failsafe and the battery is about to finish as total, the parachute should be released to save the plane).