My Longest RC Airplane Flight
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- čas přidán 31. 05. 2024
- I think this is the record for the longest battery only electric RC airplane flight, excluding the use of fuel, solar cells, or slope soaring. I am happy to answer your questions in the comments section. There is more detailed build info here: • Phoenix 2400 Second Au...
10 hours and 45 minutes
340 miles or 547km across the ground
Phoenix 2400
Matek F405 Wing with Arduplane code
12x12 APC propeller
Racerstar 4108 600KV motor
Turnigy Plush-32 30A ESC (LVC disabled)
50,000 mAh 4s Li-Ion battery pack that I made with LG M50 cells
Here are my STL files for 3D printing: www.thingiverse.com/thing:456...
0:00 Intro
0:51 Assembly
2:06 Arming
3:05 Launch
4:43 Condensed Flight
7:04 Landing
7:54 Touch Down
8:46 Airplane Tour
9:50 Summary - Věda a technologie
Don’t apologize for being excited! Anyone who sets such a record for themselves would surely feel the same!
Thanks! 😄
I set out in 2016 with a radian glider on a 3cell 2200 to do my longest flight, it was over 4 hours. It was extremely painful the last hour or so. I was in a lawn chair and got the worst sunburn I ever got. I kept getting thermal after thermal and hungout with birds most of the time but I pretty much used only servos the entire time. I’ll never forget that day.
That sounds awesome! (except the sunburn, haha)
Bro that's crazy I just got my radian yesterday and I'm gonna fly it on Sunday hoping for a long flight time but not that long XD I've got 4 1 cell batterys
Radians are fun.
Don't apologize for feeling joy! It's the most beautiful emotion and I petty the one's who judge people for that!
Thank you so much! 😄
Hi: full scale planes can drop their empty tanks in the military. I believe your plane can be more efficient if after a battery is depleted, the dead weight is dropped. The space shuttle has the same idea. Rocktes also utlize the same principle
Yeah, haha I’ve thought about this too. I’d love to have several batteries and safely drop them as they are depleted, but it seems tricky, managing the voltage and battery connections
Dropping LiPos around might be very, very dangerous unfortunately.
You can drop off package as long as you have an autonomous flights controller such as pixhawk
You ser up the waypoint ( specific location) and the pixhawk will send a signal to the servo to release the package
Rc Bomber
@@idiotequedwaal good thing it’s not a lipo😏
Ill be honest, when I first clicked the video, I wasn't really impressed. Once I realized how LONG you were flying - I am totally blown away. Really great work.
Many thanks! 😄
Holy moly! I did not think that was possible. It even flies pretty slow for such a heavy plane. Very impressive.
Crazy man. Almost 340 miles on a single flight. Good stuff
Many thanks! 😄
Wouldn’t it be cool to send it at a general heading towards another city 150 miles away where you have it land and drop off a usb and fly back . This would be supper cool . Probably 😢illegal
@@j.s3612i don’t think it would be illegal if you register the flight
Isn't 300 miles 482 KMs? That's more then this flight. Great flight but 2019 with an old Disco did over 300 miles. Good to see there's people striving to do long range though.
Under admittely somewhat optimal and given conditions, solar and batteries can already work quite well in planes, like surveillance drones, training and things like that. 10 hours of flight is really wow, when even one hour would have looked good. Cool!
Thanks! Have you seen the drones that perch on power lines and draw power to recharge?
That is freaking incredible!! Helluva lot of determination to make it through the flight! Awesome Engineering job 🤙🏼
340 MILES!!! That is some serious distance congrats
Many thanks! Sorry for the late reply. Yeah, a few days later I got on Google Maps and started drawing distance lines to see how far it could have gone on a one way mission.
Holy crap! That is fantastic! Congratulations & Hats off on 10h without solar power!
I really like your pragmatic approach. Instead of trying to work on some technological issues, you step back and realize that other (simpler) solutions appear. Well done
Well said! Thanks!
Crazy I just found this.. I'm gonna have to get back into this someday.
I have watched your video several times and I have to say, You did such a great job with this mission. I think I am going to go out and purchase the same plane just for soaring out in the desert. I subscribed for sure.
Thanks so much! It’s a fantastic plane!
This is an amazing channel! Nice video with very high production quality and great effort! This video taught me that putting solar cells on aerofoils is not a very good idea unless done properly! The bird chirping noises in the background is also nice to hear Thank you and all the best for your future endeavours!
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your encouragement! I plan to film a couple new videos this weekend. One about my Talon 250g and the other about my nano goblin. Both of them squeak in under the 250g limit. The nano goblin actually has HD recording too. Both of them are very amazing for their size and weight. I’m talking hour+ flight times if you’re cruising and 30 minutes of ballistic ripping.
One of the best videos I have seen in a while. Really inspiring. Would love to see a video about the auto pilot components you used
Thanks! The autopilot is nothin’ fancy, just a Matek F405-wing running arduplane 3.9.11
F405 wing is a fantastic product by maytec,I still use them with inav,great achievement there.
Fair play to you staying out in a field all day, takes some dedication!
Many thanks! 😄
Amazing, its look so stable to fly, gliding, and cruising. Love it 👌
Thanks! Arduplane flies really smoothly.
@@MatthewHeiskell yeahhh.. really is. Greetings from indonesia 🇲🇨
Now that's a calming hobby! Great.
Yeah, it was very relaxing to watch and check everything. 😄 thanks!
Thank you for taking us with you! @@MatthewHeiskell
Very nice achievement. Great video. Camera pan was awesome upgrade! KEEP EM FLYING!! 🛩
Thanks! Will do! 🛩🛩🛩
Yes, they can carry a lot of extra weight, especially with a high aspect long wing..
WOW what a result! would be neat to make a video talking about all of the arduplane settings, and why you chose each one.
I see you have comment from Andrew Tridgell. He's the lead dev. for arduplane. Having his compliment to your work is amazing. Great Job!
Hey Spike! Thanks! I bet that you noticed the square APC prop 😁. I've gotten a lot of use out of that info that you taught me (among the many other things)! Thanks again! That's a good idea to explain my arduplane settings. I figured that Andrew Tridgell was a dev, but I didn't know he was the lead dev! Very cool! How are your projects going?
@@MatthewHeiskell You should join Aerorozvidka fren. You will enjoy it.
@@MatthewHeiskell*arduplane works with American military questionable human right record ... droning people in the middle east comminuted a lot of war crimes stop supporting baby - killers*
incredible! I have no RC fixed wings but this is the motivation i need!
Multirotor can do very special things, but fixed wing is the king of staying in the air haha. I have both and I love both.
Excellent guys! What an effort! Excellent video!
fantastic! Getting that sort of flight time takes a lot of effort
Thanks! I tried iNav at first, then I flashed arduplane onto the FC. What a difference!
Did you tried to fly with inav?
@@sarantis2 Yes, iNav is more user friendly, but Arduplane is better in every other aspect, especially efficiency.
@@MatthewHeiskell I cannot agree more. After this video I order the same plane
Yes, and money (~$300 battery). Congrats!!! Comparing to gtrick90's 4h 100 mile flight on 4s-7000 with the z84, 7 times the Wh to travel 3.4 times the distance.
Great achievement. Will be a great success video or videos series you show how to use, configure and tips and trick with the Arduplane
You’re one patient dude. What a cool project. Congrats man!
Many thanks! 😄
Not embarrassing at all man, congratulations!!! You did a really nice job!!!!
Thanks Pedro! 😄
...Great Endeavor! I keep watching certain sections over and over. Impressive!
Many thanks! 😄 Glad that you enjoy this stuff too!
@@MatthewHeiskell yes!
In 1990 I found a model plane magazine from the 60s with a description of a 14 hour record flight, it was a huge glider with a 1.5cc motor.
Wow, that’s awesome! I’ve heard of an RC place that flew across the Atlantic too! Amazing!
Dude, you make some high quality videos. Incredible.
Thanks! It’s fun to make them, and pretty easy when I’m stoked to share the results of this cool project. Cheers! 😄
@@MatthewHeiskell now you need to buy a 03 airunit by dji digital camera or add a gopro on your plane and your videos are perfect !
Cool flight, very nice! Thank you!
Ahhh. The sweet smell of success. FYI. My throw......It would have nailed the fence. Love the
wing insert design. Great vid. 🏞
Try adding solar cells to the wing to see if it improves flight duration. Try adding ground object recognition via live video feed. Then add ground object location coordinate triangulation from the aircrafts GPS co-ordinates.
Very cool idea!
Not sure how you would do it, but with live video data you could capture the video frames as step 1. Then analyse the video frame image using some open source algorithm or even write something to analyse the pixels in the image. Might require some AI image recognition component. Step 2 use multiple image frames from multiple drone GPS locations, to try to triangulate the image GPS location based on the image pixel count distance from the edge of the identified image. If you can calculate the centre of the image ( after finding its edges ), even better. This might also need to take into account the orientation, direction and altitude of the drone. If the image is moving it would be more complex, but start with a stationary image. Some trial and error trigonometry might be required. You could use a test object with known GPS co-ordinates for your test image. Say for example start with something large like a small shed etc... Depending on your skills, you could possibly simulate the entire process in a 3D software environment or even in Microsoft Flight Simulator, using the the API programming functionality.
Spectacular. Congratulations!
Thank you so much 😀
Congrats for this, you make me and my kids dreaming !
Many thanks! 😄 that’s awesome! It’s a great skill set to teach to future generations!
Transatlantic flights soon. Phenomenal endurance and all nicely calculated and organized.
Thanks haha 😆
What a fantastic job! 😘👍
Awesome!
I really like your flight!
Thank you! 😄
Great project!
Absolutely brilliant man fantastic job congrats to you and your team
Great to see a different perspective on endurance flight. I had assumed solar is the only option. But you proved otherwise
Many thanks! Yeah, battery power is nice because it still works at night, or when it’s cloudy, or when the days are short. It is also pretty simple and cheap.
Wow that's amazing
That is the best video I have seen in years!Impressive!
Thanks!
wow! great stuff!
A significant accomplishment. Historic note, the League of Silent Flight accomplishment program required an UNPOWERED 8 hour flight.
Wow! The only way I can think to do that is to slope soar somewhere with really consistent winds!
Now THATS a battery!!! Amazing job dude
Many thanks! 😄
Great flight and project. Subbed.
Many thanks! 😄
"Noiiiice". Good job mate
Haha, many thanks! 😄
Great video! What a long flight. Super!
Many thanks! 😄
Why the .... do you need to apologise ... dude you are owed some ADRENALINE from all of us. that was just amazing.
Haha, thank you so much! 😄
Hey man. I m completely new to the UAV world. I was wondering how you managed to create such efficient aerodinamics. This is amazing. Keep up the good work!
It was not especially efficient, half of the endurance came from the Li-Ion cells that I used to build the battery pack. They have twice the energy density of a standard LiPo RC battery.
@@MatthewHeiskell oooh I get it. Do you think optimising the airplanes shape could have a major impact on flight duration?
Matthew:
This was a stellar accomplishment, extremely well photographed and explained. Truely a milestone to reset the bar for everyone.
I would appreciate a little more background on your system, perhaps with pointers to resources for the design of your Arduplane coding.
What is your next project from here?
Thanks. - Jim
PS: I just subscribed so I don't miss any more of your stuff!
Thanks James! I didn’t write the arduplane code. It is free and open source. It can be flashed to many different flight controllers. Just do a google search for “arduplane”. There is tons of info about it. I’m not sure of my next big project, haha.
Amazing accomplishment!
Thank you! I appreciate you taking the time to write your nice comment!
Dunwell mate good on your buddy
Thanks so much! 😄
I congratulate you!
damn that is so amazing! loved the video
Many thanks! 😄
Awesome effort. Well done
Thanks! 😄
You are a star.
Very good video!
I'll pass it on!!!
Thanks! 😄
Good job!
What do you think about making the battery shape fit into the fuselage? It's probably very complicated, but it would be interesting to know how it would affect efficiency. Or make some fairings on the back of the battery to minimize turbulence. By the way, where is the stats table at the end of the video? It would be very interesting to compare with your previous setups!
Good ideas! I bet a fully internal battery would improve the efficiency. Yes, even a faring would help too. I didn't update the data table because this is a different battery (4S 50Ah vs 3S 45Ah).
Excellent accomplishment! Excellent video! This is how you edit together 10 hours of flight video into something interesting and compelling. Thanks for sparing us the 10 hours of footage at high speed with a terrible sound track.
Thanks Brendan! I really appreciate hearing that! Cheers! 😄
Awesome job man 👍🤘
Thanks! I love your work too!
Absolutely sick video.
Thank! 😄
This is amazing! I’m gonna build I li-ion pack for my phoenix s 1600
Thanks! Yeah, switching to Li-Ion basically doubles your flight time for the same battery weight.
Hi Matthew. Thank you for your help. My plane can fly for 3hrs now. However It is still hard to launch. I wanna replace the motor form the 4108/600kv to a more fit in motor. So why do you choose the 4108/600kv? Is there any motor more powerful, which is still suitable for the long endurance flight? Thank you.
Incredible!
Thank you! 😄
Amazing.Thenks
Incredible job
Many thanks! 😄
its good to know that flight can be achieved with such weight
the next challenge is custom made solar panels that will compliment the wing span
then the next challenge will be the regenerating system whereby the solar panel charges the battery when the voltage drops to a certain level
the system will require one main battery and one redundant battery
when the main battery is low it triggers the solar panel charger
and the redundant battery is activated
when the main is fully charged the redundant battery is deactivated and also begins to cool while the main takes over
i believe this system than bring about limitless flight time in the future
i am very busy now trying to settle other projects however i will hope to realise this project in the future
sincerely
ejike
Congratulations, pretty impressive.
If you are going for highest efficiency, I highly recommend changing the prop.
A GM - folding prop (Georgi Mirov Propellers) is an affordable solution.
More efficient than APC, Aeronaut Cam Carbon or any random prop solution.
Between appr. 10 - 20% better efficiency.
Keep on flyin ♥
I'm surprised brother
It's unbelievable 👍😍🤩
Thank you so much! 😄
I loved and learned alot from this video
Many thanks! 😄
nice flight
Many thanks! 😄
Outstanding!
Thanks! 😄
Amazing!
That was pretty awesome, thanks for that video. I’d be interested in your tail camera pan until set up.
Thanks! It is just a cheap FPV camera glued onto a servo. And the servo is glued into the upper edge of the vertical stabilizer.
@@MatthewHeiskell Awesome, very simple thanks for the response. Happy flying
@@Joneszee1969 I show the pan servo in another phoenix video. Here is a link that will start you at the exact moment, but You might enjoy the whole walkaround section: czcams.com/video/M-j0khC0x80/video.html
Fantastic, with this type of planes
Many thanks! Yeah, I think that’s about as good as I can do with a 2.4 meter wingspan. Pretty amazing that you can just buy one off the shelf, swap the motor and prop and add a big battery and you’re good to go.
@@MatthewHeiskell
yes, I see, and thanks for sharing this.
Great job! This airplane is very good. I have one my version is 2000.
Thanks! Yeah, they made a fantastic design!
congratulations!!!
Thank you! 😄
Super cool stuff
Thanks! 😄
You know doggo wants to chew it!! XD
I was really worried about that, haha 😂
Liked all your RC videos and subscribed! Question about the battery if you would be so kind: I have researched all your replies to other people regarding the battery. I have seen your XUAV Talon battery overview. As a beginner, do you have a couple videos you could recommend to BUILD a similar battery? Or maybe a step by step with parts? So far I have gathered 1. Spot welder 2. Proper batteries 3. Connectors? 4. Load balance? Thanks for your awesome work, it’s inspiring.
Awesome! Here's a good video about pack building. The only difference for us RC people is that we don't need a BMS (battery management system). We just need the main positive and negative and the balance lead for balance charging the battery. czcams.com/video/tKg-jIrr_JE/video.html
Congrats, I never though this very long flight could be possible only with batteries.
Thanks! 😁
Beautiful setup! Can you please share the details of the current sensor that you've used? Is it the one that you get with cube?
Thanks! I was using the Matek F405 wing flight controller's built-in current sensor.
Superb !!!
Thanks! 😄
Thenks
That's amazing.
Thank you! 😄
Wow amazzingg
Holly S! that's a battery 🔋. Amazing what you can do with some extra amp hours. I'm just starting out but already had fun upping the battery on the cheapest planes fly's better and goes triple time
Haha yeah! Check out the Sanyo NCR18650GA cells. They are the best for this type of endurance flying. You can get an affordable spot welder that operates using a Lipo pack. IMO, the best way is to build your own packs, but the ZOHD LION packs use the same proper cells.
wow, only 70% throttle can launch successfully. kudos, amazing job.
Thanks! To account for the decreasing pack voltage throughout the flight, starting at 16.8V and landing at 11.3V, I had to over-prop the motor. So I had to limit the take-off throttle to 70% to prevent the motor from pulling too many amps and burning out.
Hello, Yesterday with the small volantex sky rangers 600 ..and 350 lipo ..with good condition 22 minutes ..on thermic .. for me it ll bee so good ..with the gyro assistance it s a good optimisation of the energy 👍
Wow! That’s awesome!
BADASS..........
*** RESPECT - GREAT JOB
Many thanks! 😄
This is amazing good job👍. Would like to see a video on how to improve rc plane effenicany and flight time.
Epic!
I see your big battery pack and as an experiment... What if you could have a lightweight mechanism that could select and discharge one cell (or 2s whatever) at a time and eject spent cells at a certain way point?
Even as a thought experiment... Would there be any benefits.
A use case would be longer loitering for a particular location for example.
Even though it is running on automatic flight plan, does it still require to have a connection to the controller? Or can you launch it, shut down your RC and just let it do its thing as programmed?
Good question! Sorry for the late reply. I didn't have a waypoint mission loaded into the flight controller, so turning the RC transmitter off, or losing RC signal would put it into return to home mode, which is what is was already doing. Super Safe. When you have a waypoint mission loaded, you can adjust the flight controller's response to a lost RC signal. You can make it return to home OR make it finish the mission.
Excellent excellent!!!
Thank you! 😄
Nice project!! Do you mind sharing more detail as to fc placement and battery cutout ?
Trying to add fpv gear as well !!!
I wonder about the discharge rate. How can you improve it, sir? The discharge rate I archive from LG mg50 is a bit low and your motor sometimes draws more than 10 A.
Good question! Each cell in parallel contributes to the discharge rate capability. Since there are 10 cells in parallel, and each cell can deliver 10A, the whole pack can deliver 100A.