Cruise / Maneuvering in flight
Last updated
Last updated
The aircraft is designed to perform the pre-planned mission autonomously. However, the telemetry data should be monitored throughout the mission as stated in the previous section. It is important that the pilot is vigilant for any unexpected behavior and is ready to take manual control of the aircraft. If needed follow the instructions below for manual control override.
Auterion Mission Control significantly improves the safety and ease of manual flight.
Mission Control can be used to:
Fly using two physical joysticks.
Configure the controller mode (choose what functions are assigned to different stick movements).
(including its state) using the map and vehicle telemetry.
Take off, return home, and land using automated modes. These can be triggered from the fly tools or by assigning the actions to physical buttons on the controller.
Transition the aircraft between multicopter and fixed-wing modes using the VTOL status icon.
Track a particular target with the camera (region of interest).
Mission Control allows you to select either of the two safest and easiest flight modes supported by PX4: Position mode and Altitude mode.
Always prefer Position mode for manual flight. It is the easiest and safest manual flight mode, especially for new operators. It uses GPS to provide stable and predictable movement and is suitable for a wider range of applications and weather conditions.
Ensure that the sticks are centered before enabling manual modes!
The manual modes can be enabled using the mode selector as shown.
Two control sticks control the aircraft's movement during manual flight. The action of each stick in a particular flight mode depends on how the actions are mapped to sticks/stick movements (controller mode).
Position Mode and Altitude modes have the same intuitive flight controls, which make it simple to understand how the vehicle is expected to move. The controls make it impossible to flip or roll the aircraft, and easy to recover stability in the event of any problem. The only difference between the modes is the behavior when sticks are centered.
An overview of the default Position mode stick functions for multicopter and fixed-wing are provided below. The Firebird™ uses both mappings, depending on whether flying as a rotor or fixed-wing vehicle.
Centered sticks: The Firebird™ under multicopter mode will actively brake, level, and be locked to a position in 3D space — compensating for wind and other forces.
Centered sticks: The Firebird™ under fixed-wing mode will level out and hold its straight-line path. It will resist being moved off this track in order to compensate for wind and other forces.
The aircraft has moving parts that are potentially dangerous when powered, in particular, motors and propellers! Therefore, to minimize the time when a landed vehicle has powered motors PX4 supports the concepts of explicitly arming a vehicle before takeoff and disarming it shortly after landing.
Arming/disarming may be triggered in accord to the following methods:
Takeoff and arm using the Takeoff button: Fly View > Fly Tool.
Select the Armed/Disarmed status indicator in the Fly View > Vehicle Status Indicators.
Use a dedicated arming button on the controller (if assigned).
Use a stick gesture (if the arming button is not defined). For mode 2 controllers this is:
Arm: Left stick at the bottom right.
Disarm: Left stick at the bottom left.
Takeoff mode can be triggered using:
Takeoff tool: Fly View > Fly Tools.
A dedicated button on the controller (if assigned).
Alternatively, you can use Position Mode to take off manually:
Use the VTOL button in the left toolbar to toggle between multicopter and fixed-wing flight.
Most of the time you will want to use Return Mode to fly back to the launch point and land.
Return mode can be triggered using:
Return tool: Fly View > Fly Tools.
A dedicated button on the controller (if assigned).
Users can set a Point Of Interest (POI) on the map in fly view. The camera will then track this ROI when flying in position mode (only).
To set the POI:
Ensure you are flying (the POI cannot be set when landed)
Press the POI button on the left Toolstrip.
Select the target location for the POI on the map.
Acknowledge the confirmation prompt
Mission Control will then add a POI marker at the selected position, and mark the POI status icon (application top bar) green ("enabled").
For more information see (PX4 User Guide)
The easiest way to take off is usually to use the automatic . The aircraft will simply take off to a preset altitude and loiter.
