Neo Discoveries.

[NeoNeo]

1st on the ice Neo session this afternoon. Over the past few winters Lake Superior ice at best was minimal and marginal regarding safe. Today was about as nice a day in Feb for FPV you can hope for. Safe ice. Sunny and relatively "warm" at +1C/34F. Minimal wind.

Usually Manual mode flying has been low and slow around the house or at the local sports field. Manual mode for me is a high probability of at least one crash or need to bailout of M mode per session. Held true today.

Discovered the obvious. It is significantly more difficult to find Neo when you auger it into the snow v. crash on a nice green grassy field. For whatever reason the Find My Drone feature was not working due to loss of connection with the Neo. Area flown has weak to no cell signal. Resorted to using the last 30sec video recording. Had a image of relative position before loss of control and distance(130 meters) from Home at impact. Bit of walking around and I found the crater with Neo in it upside down.

Discovery #2. More of a confirmation. Flew high enough to avoid crashing into the surface. Hard and high speed yaw input results in significant washout. Typical of every "duct" / prop guard style quad I've flown.

Discovery #3. Opportunity to fly high. Hit the 120 meter max and Neo auto switched from M mode to N mode. Warning box pops up noting you cannot fly M mode due to reaching max altitude. Bit irritating. Not that I need to fly any higher than 120 meters, but instead of a hard altitude limit and leaving you in M mode it switches to N mode.

 

[NEO 317]

Thanks for sharing your observations.

 

[Chrislaf]

Re: Discovery #2. What do you mean by “washout”? I haven’t flown FPV yet so just inquiring.

Chris

 

[NeoNeo]

Flying into your turbulent air if you yaw hard in a hard banking turn. Basically stalling out a motor or two resulting in shake, drop, flip or worst case like the original Avata crash if not enough time, altitude allowing for the quad to recover.

Similar issue as a straight down descent from a hover. You fly into your turbulent air resulting in a bit of shaking and wobbling. N and S modes stabilization reduces the feeling. Why I wimp out and switch to N mode for landing. In M mode the instability and then closer to ground the backwash has me missing the landing pad. Rather be a wimp than replacing propellers or worse.

Not a fault. Just the reality of flying. Need to get a feel for limits of every model. Some models are just real bad like apparently the original avata. Neo is not bad. Just a bit of shake and drop. Quick flick of the rocker switch to N or S modes or tap the Brake/Pause switch in worse case can save Neo from crashing if you have enough altitude.

The RC Model Review Ytube video of couple years ago was enough to not consider the Avata original. IIRC, the presenter is from New Zealand. Over the years have found his videos interesting. Bit geeky.

Gale force winds today. Bummer. Sunny, +5C at sunrise. The good will be the snow melting on the ice. Will be easier to find a downed Neo. Bad news is no snow to cushion any crashes.

 

[Chrislaf]

Flying into your turbulent air if you yaw hard in a hard banking turn. Basically stalling out a motor or two resulting in shake, drop, flip or worst case like the original Avata crash if not enough time, altitude allowing for the quad to recover.

Similar issue as a straight down descent from a hover. You fly into your turbulent air resulting in a bit of shaking and wobbling. N and S modes stabilization reduces the feeling. Why I wimp out and switch to N mode for landing. In M mode the instability and then closer to ground the backwash has me missing the landing pad. Rather be a wimp than replacing propellers or worse.

Not a fault. Just the reality of flying. Need to get a feel for limits of every model. Some models are just real bad like apparently the original avata. Neo is not bad. Just a bit of shake and drop. Quick flick of the rocker switch to N or S modes or tap the Brake/Pause switch in worse case can save Neo from crashing if you have enough altitude.

The RC Model Review Ytube video of couple years ago was enough to not consider the Avata original. IIRC, the presenter is from New Zealand. Over the years have found his videos interesting. Bit geeky.

Gale force winds today. Bummer. Sunny, +5C at sunrise. The good will be the snow melting on the ice. Will be easier to find a downed Neo. Bad news is no snow to cushion any crashes.

Thanks for clarifying.

Chris

 

[NeoNeo]

Just in from an afternoon session on the ice. Real pretty ice patterns after now 3 days way too warm (+4 to 5C highs) days.

Discovery #4: Pushed Neo a little too hard and far. Manual mode down the beach to a river mouth. ~1.8km, but full throttle and not paying attention to the % capacity. Reached the river mouth and did a loop around it. RTH Battery warning flashed on the OSD. Down to 51%. Normally I like landing with ~30% capacity remaining. Maybe half way back. BMS reduces the throttle power available in M mode. Switched to S mode. Another red warning box regarding low battery appears. Few meters from landing pad. Another red warning box. Battery temperature warning. Landed with 12%. Hopefully no serious damage to the battery. Total flight time was a few seconds over 5 minutes. With gentle manual mode flying outside of a few loops and rolls. Flight times were back to my normal +7minutes in manual mode.