Plane that flies itself

[Dave Hess]

I bought a HobbyZone Carbon Cub S+ because I hadn't flown for 15 years and I wanted something that would help me back into it. The setting up for the beginner mode is pretty complicated, so I skipped that and just flew it in expert mode as a normal plane. It really flies well, and I was soon doing all the aerobatic routines that I used to do, so I quickly progressed onto other planes, though I always take this Cub in case of problems with my other ones.

I was telling people at the club that this plane can fly itself, but as you can imagine, they were a little sceptical, so for the purpose of experimentation and demonstration, I did the whole setup routine and put it to the test.

I have to say that I've seen many demo videos on Youtube, which all seemed to end in disaster, so i was a little sceptical myself and a little worried.

I put the Cub on the strip and pushed the throttle forward with one finger, then kept my fingers away from the sticks. The plane took off perfectly, gained height and then flew from one side of the field to the other and back again , still gradually gaining height. It was a little high for me, so I held full down elevator for about a minute to get it to come down a bit, then I pushed the auto-land button and we watched as the plane continued to fly this way and that, gradually losing height until it was positioned above and slightly upwind of the strip, when it started flying circles, gradually reducing height until it decided to make its final approach. It was quite gusty, but the plane lined up and made a perfect approach and landing into the wind within about 3 feet of where it took off from. You could hear the throttle adjusting itself to get the perfect descent. The moment it touched down, there were about 6 jaws that hit the ground simultaneously. Most of them from very experienced pilots.

We wondered whether it was a fluke, so the experiment was repeated, only shorter. This time I hit the auto-land as soon as it got to a reasonable height. the landing was an exact replica of the first one. and the touch down was more or less in the same wheel marks of the previous.

I can only guess that the guys on Youtube didn't use the correct initialisation procedure or they didn't understand how the geo-fencing works.

I know some of you are going to say what's the point of that, but I think that it's just amazing to have that level of accuracy in a toy's control system. Also, you can take full control yourself at any time, do low knife edge and inverted passes over the strip whenever you want, and if at any time, you get blinded by the sun or a bit of dust in your eye, you can switch to safe mode and let the plane fly itself for a bit or auto-land in the knowledge that it can probably do it better than you. I think this plane must be the perfect beginners plane and when you've mastered all the basics with it, it can take you way beyond that.

Has anybody else seen or tried other automatic Rc planes?

[Peter Miller]

Atthe moment I have having a bit of trouble when Ilose sight of my model. I usually hand over to another club member. (Waiting for cataract operations).

This would be great for flying alone. Fly until I lose it and get the model to come back into view.

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Andy G.]

I was doing that 30 years ago, only then we called it Free Flight!! LOL

[Peter Miller]

Posted by Andy G. on 06/09/2018 07:29:41:

I was doing that 30 years ago, only then we called it Free Flight!! LOL

And if that landed anywhere close to you it was a miracle.

On the other hand control line models always landed within 50 (or 60) feet of you!!!

Edited By Peter Miller on 06/09/2018 08:38:18

[Cuban8]

I've just watched a few videos on this model and I reckon that it's a fantastic thing for rank beginners. For under £250 it's a way to get the thrill of flying without much of the worry of smashing your pride and joy to matchwood after a couple of seconds. .

[Frank Skilbeck]

Yep we had a newbie come along to the club last year and we were amazed how well he could fly, but he had stablisation and self leveling aids turned on. He's now learning to fly on conventional models and had to unlearn flying with bank stablisation and self leveling!

When I first flew the model (an EFlite Apprentice) if felt as though I was flying through treacle the plane was so slow to respond and having to hold the stick over to keep it turning was quite strange, but it did stop you from getting into trouble.

[Peter Miller]

Yes, we had a chap a couple of years ago turned up with the apprentice. Said he had had a couple of buddy box flights a year before. GThen insisted on flying his aprentice.

He flew it perfectlyand even did a perfect landing.

I am all in favour. It saves the two mo=emebers who normally get lumbered with teaching flying.

[Dave Hess]

Some of those replies made me chuckle. I've been there and got the tee-shirts for freeflight and control line. I can remember the exhilaration after weeks of building when my new freeflight plane flew beautifully, only to turn to despair when I realised that it was flying rather too well, when the plane exceeds the boundary of the flying area. I have a theory that trees and buildings have a special force field around them that's generated by any model plane is in the vicinity. If the plane comes within 100 meters, it gets sucked in.

One thing that people seem to be missing about this particular plane mentioned in the OP: The stability modes are optional. You can switch them on and off with a simple switch on the transmitter. There's absolutely no downside to it as far as I can see. With it off, the plane flies like any other sport flier and you have full normal control. I would liken it to an AI buddy box. At any time under your own control, you can pass over the control to the AI, who can fly the plane like any experienced pilot, or maybe better.

Talking of AI better than a normal pilot, I see you can buy stability devices for any plane. They don't cost much more that a tenner. Some of them have a hover button, which will keep the plane perfectly upright and free of roll while you only have to control the height with the throttle. They can do the same for knife-edge. has anybody tried them?

Edited By Dave Hess on 06/09/2018 11:38:58

[Cuban8]

One of the videos that I saw described the system as having a 'buddy box' but without the buddy, which is very much what Dave is saying. I suppose you could just be satisfied with setting the model off on its own and simply watch it bounce off the geofenced limits, but clearly, the option to gradually take command of the machine until one can fly it without any assistance is the way to go.

I can see this technology finding its way into all sorts of models, not just small sport foamies - I find the notion of switching it in and having it 'in command' of a nice scale model attractive and simply another aspect of the flying part of the hobby to explore. Something that younger people my well find attractive as well, especially a more sophisticated unit that could be programmed to follow a course (within sight of course) perform an aerobatic sequence, who knows?

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Nigel R]

It's amazing stuff, particularly for the cost.

Certainly a brilliant learner aid when set up right. Sun in eyes, messed up a maneuver, just plain disorientation? hit "recover". Can't land it yet? hit "land". Going a bit too far away? Geofencing brings it back round. Oh, and, windy conditions? Not a problem.

Just a thought - playing Devil's Advocate for a moment, I think the perceived issues with drones right now, are largely due to them doing much the same thing, i.e. flying by themselves to predetermined locations, and programmable as such by a rank beginner - I wouldn't be surprised to see 'auto pilot' facilities being one of the things that puts you in the 'drone user, must file flight plans, etc' box at some future date.

[The Wright Stuff]

Please can I ask a potentially daft question?

Presumably the model can 'know' its groundspeed via GPS, and it can know its attitude via gyros. But how does it 'know' its airspeed when it's landing itself? Without an external airspeed sensor, how can it compensate for a steady wind?

[Nigel R]

it obviously has no idea of actual wind speed.

alternatives?

a) sense an impending stall pattern (via the gyros) and add a bit of throttle

b) adjusts throttle down until it gets a predetermined rate of sink with constant elevator

out of the two, (b) looks easier to implement

[J D 8]

Perhaps it has seen the weather forecast and looked at the wind sock

[Dave Hess]

Posted by The Wright Stuff on 07/09/2018 09:23:07:

Please can I ask a potentially daft question?

Presumably the model can 'know' its groundspeed via GPS, and it can know its attitude via gyros. But how does it 'know' its airspeed when it's landing itself? Without an external airspeed sensor, how can it compensate for a steady wind?

That's a good question. When we tested, it was a little breezy. The Cub made a perfect approach, like a 747, and you could see/hear the servos and throttle making constant adjustments. We thought it might have been a fluke, which is why I repeated it. If I had videoed both landings and shown them to you, you would say that I had copied the video rather than done two landings, they were that similar. That's what amazed all those watching the most. What algorithms it uses are a mystery, but they certainly worked in those conditions.

As I said, I've seen Youtube videos that weren't as successful, but they never showed them doing the complicated initialisation procedures. Maybe the algorithms work better when it's a bit breezy. I'll do some more tests to see what happens in different conditions.

Posted by Nigel R on 07/09/2018 08:51:09:

I wouldn't be surprised to see 'auto pilot' facilities being one of the things that puts you in the 'drone user, must file flight plans, etc' box at some future date.

There are youtube videos of guys flying their FPV planes more than 10 miles using 4G to send instructions to the plane and video back to the pilot so that he can see what's happening. Along with that, they have GPS, telemetry, stabilisation and autopilot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuYeJ5dss60

Flighttest put an Airsoft gun on they're FPV plane and were using it to shoot at another plane in real-time in mid-air. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what happens if you add the controls from the one that flies by 4G and add a real gun. Itshouldn't be surprising that new regulations are coming:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O_pbKjoQZw

Edited By Dave Hess on 07/09/2018 12:19:46

Edited By Dave Hess on 07/09/2018 12:23:19

Edited By Dave Hess on 07/09/2018 12:24:05