Caution launching from the Inspire 1's case

JimPA · Jul 11, 2015

So, today while giving a demo flight at a family picnic, I was not able to calibrate the gimbal because of the grass being a bit too high and interfering with the camera. I decided to use the Inspire's case to launch from as I have done that several times in the past w/o problems. Well, today was a bit different. When I armed the motors the vibration caused the Inspire to slide forward and start to tip forward. This was because there was a very slight slant to how the case was sitting and the yard must have also had a bit of a slant to it.

I notices this happen and was afraid of the Inspire flipping and damaging the front two rotors. I decided to go full up throttle and that was the correct decision because the inspire recovered very nicely. I was actually pretty proud of myself too. I was at probably 45 degrees with the nose of the craft off the front of case and almost ready to flip. Once I went full up it took off and righted itself. I'm guessing I got pretty lucky.

Not I'm going to be adding some anti slip rubber pads to the top of the case for the feet have a place to grip and this never happens again.

John Alan · Jul 11, 2015

Nice save...

I lug a 4ft square of plywood out myself as a launch and landing pad...

steve2909 · Jul 11, 2015

Glad you saved her Jim. I've put little rubber pads on my landing gear feet (used the small pads you can buy that stop furniture scratching floors and cut each one perfectly to size after sticking them on each foot). They work a treat and yesterday I had to take off from a shiny wooden board which was on a slight incline and she remained well planted after switching the motors on and on landing. Good thing is you can buy a pack for only a few bucks and change them as often as needed. They are only a few millimetres thick and I haven't had a problem during an IMU calibration as all the feet remain perfectly level.

Scotflieger · Jul 12, 2015

I use a heavy rubber horse stable mat 1m (3ft) square to flatten any grass. It rolls up nicely for the car. The gimbal is too fragile and expensive to replace to risk it.