RC Flight Assist - F3A training and learing system
 

Hi!

I would like to present and interest you in a new invention that is a system designed for practicing Pattern Flying skills (it is called: RC Flight Assist or RCFA). In a nutshell the RCFA includes two electronic devices that work together as a radio telemetry system. The idea behing it is to monitor position of the aircraft in real-time and send the data to the pilot's receiver. The Receiver can generate certain tones that clearly indicate if the airplane is in proper position on the sky. According to the tones the pilot can maneuver so to stay in flight area. It would be worthly to mention that the system was tested in cooperation with best Polish F3A pilot how have won 2015 trophy (nonetheless it stays unclear if he did that thanks to practicing with RCFA:))

The system has also another features which are described on a project's homepage that is: www.littlecircuit.com, where I humbly invite.

One movie can replase thousand words so here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0nCrscLPIs I'd like to hear from you if it would be interest for you and if you would find it useful and other comments are welcome.
Hope you like it :)
Best Regards

Wow, love it. CRAZY how the flight path is almost always a wandering S!

Been dreaming of this for years but I think the visual aspect shown in the video has been available for some time with GPS loggers but I haven't seen it with the "box" inscribed in the air, and tones are an interesting idea.

Regarding the tones, would be nice if you'd show a video with the sound of the tones. Are you aware of the LFR navigation systems for aircraft in the 1930's-40's? Wonder if your tones are similar. It seems to me that the important thing would be for the audio information should audibly change with the severity of the deviation (as I'm sure you're aware). If the sound is simply on/off, it would be very hard to smoothly adjust course by reference to the sound. In any case, happy to see new tools emerge!

Nice to hear you like it - thanks :). The tones change accordingly to distance to the Flight Line, of course, so the pilot can smoothly fly into the "Green Zone". The tones were simplified to be not disturbing or annoying but at the same time the pilot knows exactly how far the airplane is from the flight line. There is a headphones port that can be used instead of speaker - it disables speaker and allows to hear tones loud and clear in case of disturbing noises around (like flying drones). There are separate tones to indicate out-of-area or other information (like gps fix lost etc.) - it can be configured though. I wasn't aware of LFR or anything like it. The sound patterns were "composed" by myself from scratch but in cooperation with F3A master pilot so I can say that it works :)
I will try to record the tones soon.

Sure there are GPS loggers but the RCFA along with additional drawings in Google Earth has build-in high quality altimeter that extends the functionality of common GPS Logger. You can watch screens at http://www.littlecircuit.com/gallery/ and see it for yourself if you could recognize some figures (like 5-poited star) :)

Show us more.

Here you can find a demo Flight Area at Mount Everest that can be oppened in Google Earth:
http://www.littlecircuit.com/download

Looks like you have put a lot of work into this it looks very useful! I sent an order through your website and anxiously await the opportunity to try it out.

Hi,
Here are the sound patterns as promised:
http://www.littlecircuit.com/sound-patterns

Hello,
Few changes comes to RCFA. The most important is implementation of the Frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS). This makes using RCFA radio system legal in most countries (including EU, US, Australia/NZ). The preffered frequencies are: 433/868 for UE and 915 for rest of the world.

Here's a demo fly path recorded with RCFA. It includes GPS Logger (red line), Real-time record (yellow line), Flight Area (rectangles). It is a free flight as I'm not a F3A pilot (yet - maybe). It is easy to calculate radio range which was about 450 meters in this case with about 95-99% packets received. Unfortunatelly it was hard to fly further because of lost of sight.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2152552
I'll send above kml on demand as a replay to order form at www.littlecircuit.com/order

I'm glad that one of RCFA's users has mounted a nice "beeper-station :) Well done on that :)
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2152553http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2152554http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2152555

Best Regards

Artyum, congratulations to an interesting project!

A couple of years ago I asked (pleaded) Jeti to develop exactly this feature for their GPS module (to work in combination with the transmitters speech output), but I was told it was too specific for them to be interested in it. I'm glad to see someone else has gotten this idea. I think it is the right way to use GPS information for F3A training. Basically GPS trail is not accurate enough to evaluate the geometry of the flown maneuvers. However, it is good enough to support the pilot with real time information of the aircrafts depth, high etc. I think your product is GREAT, but I think it would be even better if it was developed as a sensor for existing telemetry systems. Make the GPS unit in the plane process GPS data into height, distance relative to "flight plane", angular position in the flight sector, and downlink this data to the transmitter on its own telemetry protocol. Then it's is just to use the transmitters built in telemetry warning functions and speech output to set up the training support.

Wow,

Fantastic, I think it is the best idea specially for those who fly alone!

Regards

Alejandro

Hi Alejandro,

99% of my practise is done alone plus I am the only F3A flyer in my state, so I thought that it would be very beneficial.

Even for those that do fly with others, I think it would be useful as you still can't tell if you are flying exactly straight. I think it will be extremely helpful for verticals and the top line.

Mine arrived yesterday, so I'm looking forward to trying it out. Might be a few weeks though as I am away at work 'till Wednesday, then go away for a 5 days and then back at work for another week.

Scott

There is no doubt that GPS is a system bottleneck, however, during last year's tests, it turned out that the accuracy is very sufficient to fly F3A. GlobalTop modules have admittedly slight delay readings (0.5-1 sec), but after a few flights the pilot is able to compensate for the delay by faster reactions. You can feel it in the air, it is hard to explain in writing :) The best among the tested modules were u-blox 8, for which the delay was minimal.

As for the height indication, only u-blox 8 gaves measuring accuracy of 10-20m. The height given by the other modules was completely unusable. RCFA system is equipped with an altimeter, which indications are incomparably better than any GPS. For those who want to verify GPS altitude accuracy, the build-in altimeter can be disabled.

Another problem is loosing GPS fix during aerobatics when direction of the GPS antenna changes, but this is rather rare situation (1/10 flights). In most cases, the fix is recovered after a few sec during the flight. You have to remember that the GPS signal is strongly dependent on weatcher conditions and available satellites. Sometimes when fix is recovered the position is far from correct a few dozen meters, which is definitely confusing to the pilot, who suddenly hears the sound "outside the area" while the plane can be perfectly in the "line of flight".

These types of problems are natural. They can be reduced but they can not be effectively eliminated.

Thank you :) You were not alone who asked recognized producers to develop this kind of system. I also was thinking of using existing telemetry but came to the same conclusion as Jeti :)

Thank you :) Actually we didn't make tests with multiple persons indication position in the Flight Area. It would be interesting.

Has anyone got this to actually work yet?

Well, I'll answer my own question.

I used it today successfully. I had 5 flights and each flight was recorded onto the SD card. When I got home, I opened each flight and it displayed in Google Earth.
I was in the box most of the time, just a bit far out. Probably around 180 -190 metres.

Hi Arek,

I've been trying to email you since yesterday, but it keeps bouncing back.

Scott

Hi Scott, I have some email problems. Please post to [email protected].
I'm happy that you manage to run the system. When you fly a bit more with it, could you write some thoughts here on forum. I hope it would be good, but I never can be sure :)

Somebody could also post some screens of recorded kmls in spare time :)

Best reagards
Arek

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2161777

Hi Arek,
I'm still surprised how many errors can be seen by analyzing the kml. RCFA is great help for me, especially because I fly alone.


Adam