Waypoint Heli?

[electricsceadu]

with reference to the lama on my last post the owner who wasn't short of a few bob or two admitted himself that he was at best a very poor heli pilot
watching others fly his machine and seeing the gps system fly it was his enjoyment

[Grumpy]

with reference to the lama on my last post the owner who wasn't short of a few bob or two admitted himself that he was at best a very poor heli pilot
watching others fly his machine and seeing the gps system fly it was his enjoyment

I've nothing against GPS and autonomous flight systems, if it helps bring more people into the hobby then it's a good thing. What would worry me a lot though is if people were using these systems without learning enough basic flying skills to be able to at least bring the heli home safely if/when the autonomous system craps out or was programmed incorrectly.

[Peteski]

I think basic GPS hold and homing should be standard features on FBLs at this point. The fact that they aren't shows how niche this market really is! A friend of mine just bought a DJI Spark for photography and I showed him how to fly it the other day. The GPS hold was excellent and it took him just a couple of flights to get the hang of moving it around. It also had a hard deck, GPS homing function etc. All things that any beginner would want in a heli too. But all they get is basic rescue functionality if they are lucky. Adding GPS hold makes it a lot easier to take a quick break while getting your bearings without the heli drifting away. Even as a pretty experienced flyer I've had the odd moment where I've lost orientation at a distance and would have welcomed a GPS homing button to bring it back safely. The cost of adding GPS would be trivial today, but the market is obviously not worth tapping into.

[electricsceadu]

I have seen a helicopter that had a DJI system in it
the demo was the heli in a stable hover and the tx placed on the floor with the pilot walking away from the flight line
the extent of the system and programing levels I have no idea about

having flown amulti rotor with gps hold and return to home are in themseleves a good feature
if the demand and or the gyros can be made common to various model types with the same soft and hardware then in the future maybe we will see these in a helicopter/fixed wing, rc car etc
everything is possible we just need to find the solution to achive it