Estimating Altitude

[docramage]

Does anyone have any "rule of thumb" method of estimating the altitude of our toys? I realise there are many technical solutions such as loggers and range-finders - which I don't have. It is also possible to program the birds not to exceed a given ceiling - but it would be helpful to discover if there was an easy empirical solution just using eyesight and some simple rules.

Distance (range) could perhaps be roughly estimated using a simple home-made viewer with a selection of different-sized thumbnails of the quad - but you would have to do some in-the-head trigonometry to convert this to height.

Why? - just for interest . . .

 

[Hughie]

IOSD-mini ?

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[750r]

Like above iosd cheapest way . Other than that it's pretty hard

 

[landmannnn]

Does anyone have any "rule of thumb" method of estimating the altitude of our toys? I realise there are many technical solutions such as loggers and range-finders - which I don't have. It is also possible to program the birds not to exceed a given ceiling - but it would be helpful to discover if there was an easy empirical solution just using eyesight and some simple rules.

Distance (range) could perhaps be roughly estimated using a simple home-made viewer with a selection of different-sized thumbnails of the quad - but you would have to do some in-the-head trigonometry to convert this to height.

Why? - just for interest . . .

Actually it doesn't need to be so complicated.

Put the Phantom on the ground and walk 40' away Reach out your arm and "pinch" the phantom, you now have the apparent size for that distance - probably a couple of inches.

Do it again at 80', maybe 120' and you have a simple ready reckoner...

 

[IflyinWY]

Actually it doesn't need to be so complicated.

Put the Phantom on the ground and walk 40' away Reach out your arm and "pinch" the phantom, you now have the apparent size for that distance - probably a couple of inches.

Do it again at 80', maybe 120' and you have a simple ready reckoner...

Yea, what landmannnn said.

You could also calculate the height of nearby obstructions, trees, hills, building, power poles, and compare how the bird looks when at approximately the same height.

This one is my favorite.
You can get into the NAZA assistant and change the limits. Right now, mine is set at 75 meters for the height, and 300 meters on the radius. After making a number of flights in varying terrain, I am starting to get an eye for what it looks like out there.

 

[Hughie]

Another one. You know what rate the aircraft climbs. So, at a given distance away from you (say 50m) start it climbing at full speed for say 10s and then make a mental note of what it looks like at that height/distance.

 

[ianwood]

Here's a handy lookup table

Actual size = < 20 ft
Half-sized = 50ft - 75ft
Miniature = 100ft - 150ft
Pretty tiny = 150ft - 200ft
Really really tiny = 200ft to 250ft
Itty bitty white dot = 250ft to 300ft
Crap, where did it go = >300ft

 

[docramage]

Yep - I like all those. Keep them coming . .

 

[Hughie]

Go to the hardware shop and buy a really really really...



big ruler.