Xeno7

Since for some weird reason this forum did not save that I unfollowed this post I will answer what you said quickly Firstly, Ardupilot is used commercially. It is very reliable if you set it up correctly. Secondly, @Ernie, that scenario you posted just now is rare, a bit stupid to worry about it, and I am not going to be over a motorway, the nearest motorway to my flying location is about 3km away (google maps). No insurance is needed for under 20kg - it is optional. And honestly nobody I have heard of flies with insurance (my friends). Thirdly it is a bit stupid to say that Ardupilot has range limitations. In general if you are going long range you kind of need Ardupilot to avoid that situation @Erniepointed out. Telemetry can be sent long-range to around the world using a satelite telemetry module (although it kind of costs an awful lot and the data transmission rate is slow, and telemetry via my rx/tx seems to be far faster and cheaper. Plus its very reliable) You can call it hobby grade equipment but people have done impressive stuff with this hobby grade equipment. If you can fly manually, you can just turn on manual controls and save your plane if stuff goes wrong with your Ardupilot configuration although that is likely caused due to lack of skill or caution in setup. I have flown Ardupilot enabled planes before and they have been extremely reliable with one exception - and that was my fault for trying to repair a plane that was clearly too far gone and since has been decommissioned. Now I will actually leave this post. I don't see the point in answering autopilot related questions any more in a post that I created to ask about li-ion batteries and upgrading a motor on a plane

When you do long range you sort of accept that you are flying in a high risk scenario and if something goes wrong you might not get the plane back. Then again the above mentioned scenarios are rare, and if you lose pitch you likely will lose your plane anyway, or get it back in too many pieces for repair. Anyway, leaving this post. I got the info I need and if anyone has any more Ardupilot questions go ask them in https://discuss.ardupilot.org

No power - unless you have wired it up for backup power, it will sort of not know. At that point it's like unplugging a battery. UNLESS you are lucky, and it's the ESC side of things that has failed, at which point you have lost power and kept your servos active. I think if configured correctly it will pitch down and start to glide when speed starts to drop to avoid stalling. You'd have to take control to glide it to a safe landing. If the elevators are gone we've talked about this. Your plane kind of drops out of the sky because no pitch control. There is nothing the Ardupilot (or you) can really do. Although maybe you will get lucky with where it ends up and how it crashes. It's a stupid and rare scenario to happen unless doing things you should not do like acrobatics with a glider that is flying above recommended take off weight.

well honestly you'd lose the plane no matter what if the elevator falls off unless you get very lucky with an elevator-less landing which in my opinion is likely impossible and this isn't really specific to Ardupilot but you can have a backup BEC wired to the servos and autopilot - maybe that will let you glide to a safe landing you check this stuff preflight

It can also be programmed to land your plane if worst case scenario your RC fails. Although this should be tested by entering RTH mode via a switch/Mission Planner because auto-land is not 100% accurate

It... goes wrong? Ive never had a flight without some issue. Ardupilot has a warning system where if you have telemetry to your RC, Mission Planner or OSD set up, it can try detect obvious issues and warn you (like a battery cell deciding to abandon life) Depends on the issue, give me an example. Obviously Ardupilot will not save your plane if the servo powering ailerons or elevators fail, at that point you have to switch to manual. But that is kinda rare @Ernie

Flying without RC link? Almost certainly illegal. Although I don't live in UK I don't know whether a 4G telemetry link counts as an RC link. Also, if you need a 4G link you are probably BVLOS, at which point go look up the UK bvlos laws because I don't know them

@Frank Skilbeck simple solution. If SOMEHOW after putting 10000 mAh in it still needs weight, put in another 10000 mAh of batteries in! Although I have done the math and I am fairly sure I can balance the plane with 2x 4s 5000 mAh li-ion packs. If my math is wrong the only thing that can happen is that this plane gets more flight time than expected (I intend to get 4x or 6x 5000 mAh packs. They can do more than just power this plane) @Ernie Ardupilot. You get a flight computer (FC). Then you wire up everything (servos and ESC) to it. Then you get a GPS + compass, barometer (most flight computers have a barometer built in, there is no reason that I know of to use a separate one unless you want more redundancy), a telemetry radio, and you wire it up to your FC. If you also wire it up to your FPV camera and VTX, you get OSD with all the info from all the sensors the FC has access to on it (customisable, but direction to home + distance, or wind direction, is useful stuff to have when flying FPV). If you wire up your RX to the FC you can also control your plane like a normal one, and use your RC's switches to control the autopilot features. Your RC can also get telemetry if you want on its screen if supported (no clue how this works, I get my info via OSD or Mission Planner). The telemetry radio can communicate with your laptop, phone, etching a second telemetry radio. THat way you can upload waypoints to your plane and it flies itself following the waypoints. The Ardupilot system does cost a bit but it unlocks so much info midair. It sounds complex but I recently found out that almost everything works with everything, with few exceptions. You can often get your RX/TX to also act as telemetry radios. Altho without RX/TX or telemetry, your plane 50 miles away is just following waypoints you gave it via Mission planner - the software running on a laptop or PC to control Ardupilot. https://ardupilot.org/ardupilot/ Although if you DO want to control your rc plane from 50 miles away without a rx/tx you can put in a 4G telemetry module. A raspberry pi can do this and also send FPV stream via 4G although not the best quality. Then you (sort of) can tell your plane where to fly. Although this is not the best idea to do due to input lag and poor video @leccyflyeryou answered while I was typing this so I am going to send this anyway

For my specific situation li-ions are simply both lighter and more energy dense, and also cheaper, smaller, etc. I can put more of them in my Ranger without it getting too heavy compared to li-po. Plus I can choose how many batteries I want to put in by splitting them into "packs" in order to choose whether I want to fly lighter, maybe catch thermals, or heavier, with more flight time. You can do that with li-po too though. And finally the Ranger doesn't draw that much power when cruising, making li-ion viable.

Good news, I found someone nearby me (quick car journey) which can make li-ion battery packs for me

li-ion are more energy dense than li-po and lighter, but lower voltage and less amps @Simon Chaddock

wait you were doing tricks with a ranger? I always thought this was a long range cruise sort of plane. Maybe if I keep it light I can do fun stuff @Frank Skilbeck

Ive heard of the Ranger's elevators falling off if you fly them a long time. Which is why I am thinking of putting hinges onto it. Or clear tape (you don't want to see my Tundra's elevators/ailerons after its very last flight and last crash)

I admit I am better at the more technical side of things like autopilot, mission planner, Ardupilot, etc. You ask me what servos to use and I am clueless (apart from metal > plastic for gears)

Im mildly confused on what you are thinking. Ever heard about Ardupilot? It allows you to do fairly insane things. Like fully automate almost any flight you can think of - whether it is stunts w a 3D plane or flying further than your signal range (for obvious reasons, don't do this! Ardupilot is an autopilot it cannot react to unexpected things) on an automated waypoint mission. Im just using it to do some auto missions and (more importantly) have a failsafe in case something goes wrong with my remote control. It also can send telemetry to a laptop (or pc, or mobile device, or one guy trying a steam deck) so you can monitor every aspect of your plane, and more importantly for me, see your plane on a map. It can fly better than me which is mildly infuriating. Also this plane is really good for what I want, but I doubt it is really extraordinary. This type of plane has dominated my (tiny) hangar (garage/attic). (edit: Ardupilot is not that insane, but it lets you do so many things without having to land your plane first. You can live without it for short to medium range flying )