aid to orientation

[marc rothenberg]

I fly r/c planes and helis, but wnen I went to drones there is really no way to be sure of orientation at any distance. another member of my r/c club had this set up on his drone and it is great, so I added it to mine. all you need is 2 wire clamps (nylon). an arrow shaft with threaded head, aluminum is the lightest, and a bolt the same size as the arrow thread, in my case 6/32. attach the clamps to the legs of the drone with tie wraps, and secure with a drop of CA adhesive. align the clamps by putting the arrow shaft through them before glueing. put the screw and nut on the front clamp ( you may need washers as I did, use nylon washers). cut arrow shaft to a visible length, mine is 24 inches, and glue a ping pong ball to the end. now you have a removeable "tail" for your drone. makes it very easy to see where it is pointing in flight. see attached pictures to see how it looks when completed. this should help most people keep track of orientation

 

[eBird]

Huh. Interesting. I bet that does aid in orientation. Seems like it would affect the flight and yaw characteristics somewhat. Have you noticed any change to the yaw rate or level flight? I don't seem to struggle too much with orientation, and if I do I just glance at the radar.
Perhaps this would be a great countermeasure for bird attacks, you could fling that ball around and whack the bird!

 

[marc rothenberg]

Huh. Interesting. I bet that does aid in orientation. Seems like it would affect the flight and yaw characteristics somewhat. Have you noticed any change to the yaw rate or level flight? I don't seem to struggle too much with orientation, and if I do I just glance at the radar.
Perhaps this would be a great countermeasure for bird attacks, you could fling that ball around and whack the bird!

I haven't noticed any performance differences. so far have not experienced any bird attacks. but with the drone up high or far away I can still tell which way its facing,

 

[Reed L]

What's wrong with just using the arrow in the go app when it gets out to far to see? It always shows the direction.

 

[Sotiris Boutsis]

Exactly what's wrong with the arrow in the go app? I am also long time RC heli/airplane pilot flying all styles (3D/F3C) but drone orientation never was an issue to me since the go app makes it so simple that even my wife managed to fly it within 5 mins practice.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Not to mention the green tail lights that cannot be turned off, which turn to red, after 20% battery...