RTL works well!

ArduPlane Plane 3.8
1

I recently bought a Taranis transmitter and had the first flight with one of my planes, a simple flying wing.

With the conversion to Taranis, some of the aerodynamic trims changed and after a hand launch the wing required up elevator trim.

I suppose I may have been unfamiliar with the feel of the Taranis: Instead of adjusting the elevator trim tab I pulled down on the on/off switch and turned the transmitter off!

I had a large degree of pucker factor when I detected that I no longer had control of the plane. But right after that realization sunk in the plane leveled out and began a circle out over the field.

Turns out the plane went into short failsafe CIRCLE mode, and then long failsafe RTL mode and was circling around the rally point I had added in anticipation of a short mission. As I contemplated how long it would circle until the battery ran out I realized the transmitter was turned off.

I turned the transmitter back on, switched to manual mode, regained control and brought the plane in without further drama.

That’s a gutsy fail-safe test!

Fortunately I set the failsafe strategy before the first flight.

Thanks ArduPlane engineers for a good job.

2

Hi Paul,

You can now check the box that says you tested failsafe mode. :slight_smile:

When using Plane v3.8, you can enable the SERVO_AUTO_TRIM feature to automatically find your level flight trim settings so no need to adjust the elevator or aileron trim tabs.

Cheers!

3

Thanks Greg. I’ll look into that that feature. In the meantime I may fabricate some kind of guard to prevent me from hitting the on/off button while in flight.

Update: Looked at SERVO_AUTO_TRIM and am intrigued. I usually launch in manual mode to see if the airplane is working properly, but I suppose I could launch in stabilized mode when using auto trim.

Paul