Getting ready for the "Its only a 1/2a contest" that is hosted by the Treetown modelers on the 19th of this month.  I decided to build a Rick Foch's "Student" (American Aircraft Modeler September 1973)



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Edit:  I was talking with a good friend of mine and mentioned it would be cool to make a trainer that would prevent a beginner from crashing by taking the control away from them when they get too close to the ground or too high in the air. 

He told me that it would be too difficult to build and being the stubborn person that I am I told him I could build one. 

He gave me 2:1 odds and I bet him $50 I could do it.  I have until the end of next summer to complete it or I lose.

Here is exactly what I have to do:
Build a airplane that can be flown without crashing by someone who is a absolute beginner
It does not have to stunt.
I cannot at any time during the flight touch the handle or take control via other means (RC)
I can offer verbal instruction to the beginner to help them fly the aircraft
I can steady them and prevent them from falling should (when) they become dizzy


I intend to accomplish this by implementing a fly by wire control system and a series of sensors
I will have a accelerometer to measure the angle of the plane
I will also have a range sensor that will be mounted on a servo.  This will be always pointing at the ground and will be used to prevent the pilot from getting too close to the ground.

I am using a Amtel 328 Microprocessor with a Arduino bootloader running at 16mhz.

The main goal of this project is to make it easier to bring people into our wonderful hobby. 

Update #1
I have mounted the servo for the elevator and the variable potentiometer for the bellcrank and tested the setup on my breadboarded arduino.  I am working on mounting the microprocessor and battery to the plane then I will be flight testing my setup.

After I flight test the plane the next step will be to work on the accelerometer and range sensor mounting and programming.  I am concerned that the vibrations from my engine will interfere with the sensors but I wont know for sure until I test it.   


 

Jeffrey, that's very cool!  What is the wingspan and what engine are you using?

Update #1
I have mounted the servo for the elevator and the variable potentiometer for the bellcrank and tested the setup on my breadboarded arduino.
The total weight is up to 6.5 oz (from 6 oz base weight)
I am working on mounting the microprocessor and battery to the plane then I will be flight testing my setup.

After I flight test the plane the next step will be to work on the accelerometer and range sensor mounting and programming.  I am concerned that the vibrations from my engine will interfere with the sensors but I wont know for sure until I test it.    









Here is my code for the micro processor so far.

// Fly by wire control line trainer project version 0.01
// Created by Jeff Olijar --- Jolijar@gmail.com

#include <Servo.h>
 
Servo myservo;                                 // create servo object to control a servo
 
int potpin = 0;                                // analog pin used to connect the potentiometer
int val;                                       // variable to read the value from the analog pin
 
void setup()
{
 // Serial.begin(9600);                        //  Used for debugging
  myservo.attach(9);                           // attaches the servo on pin 9 to the servo object
}
 
void loop()
{
  val = analogRead(potpin);                    // reads the value of the potentiometer (value between 0 and 1023)
  //Serial.println(val);                       // Used for debugging
  val = map(val, 200, 800, 0, 179);            // scale it to use it with the servo (value between 0 and 180)
  myservo.write(val);                          // sets the servo position according to the scaled value
  delay(15);                                   // waits for the servo to move
}

I want to go with glow power If I can but If all else fails I can use my 1/2e setup.