Monday, October 05, 2009

Testing 1..2.. smack

We flew twice today. We smacked the forklift again, we are climbing too high , its now jumping off the ground going to the proper altitude sitting there for awhile then slowly ever so slowly climbing up up and away. I need to spend some time reviewing data and trying to understand whats going on.

On the last abort we smacked the forklift and tore off a landing gear.
We were really hoping to get some in flight performance measurements.
No such luck. About all we know is that its performance is better than the blue ball.
Is it enough better to do 180 seconds? That's the $1M question.

We will probably go out again Wednesday night or Thursday morning.

We were testing some new wide angle video and while the picture is not perfect (Its facing the sun) we got some really spectacular smack the forklift video. (The HD stuff takes to long to process on the computer I just don't have time.) This post was written in the car so the MiFi is working while enroute, and the laptop just does not have the cajones to edit video.

I'm really looking forward to Nov 1st.

6 comments:

William said...

Keep on keepin' on, Paul. Your work is really an inspiration. We're all very excited by your progress, and grateful for this quick updates!

David said...

I am with William on this. There is always something to learn. It will just come together - hopefully on time. Wish I was there.

BTW: Hows the warranty on the Video camera(s)? Mr Sales man - I dropped it...really. :-)

heroineworshipper said...

Maybe the throttle controller can't keep up with the decline in weight from fuel consumption.

Looks like another camera is about to die.

Paul Breed said...

Reviewed data the problem is due to integral term windup during the start of liftoff. I now understand both the problem and its solution.
Once we get the gear fixed we will try again.

Anonymous said...

your employer ought to be sponsoring you regardless of outcome. you rock. keep with it.

Unknown said...

Paul has his own business, so "his employer" is already sponsoring this.. :)