Dead Simple Human Powered Aircraft model v1.0

[ggg]

The Dead Simple Human Powered Airplane (DaSH PA or "DaSH") project is using FlightGear to help train the "DaSH pilots" with a DaSH model constructed by Marshall Gusman. Download "dash_v1" model from:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-4Q5D ... sp=sharing

I have three requests:
(a) get feedback on the model (does it work for you? What needs cleanup? I just discovered http://wiki.flightgear.org/Modelling_guidelines)

(b) Instructions on how to contribute and maintain this model to/in the FGFS repository. http://wiki.flightgear.org/Portal:Developer/Aircraft didn't help me and neither did searching the forum. "Howto:Understand_the_FlightGear_development_process" is getting closer but still doesn't give me a recipe to follow (where to post, where to store, etc).

(c) Where is the preferred place to host "3rd party" aircraft if getting this into the main repository isn't feasible?

I've set up an Asus Chromebox ($180) running Ubuntu 14.04 linux and a Logitech Extreme 3d-pro as control device. I was able to follow instructions to install dg101g sailplane and additional terrain (that was easy!).

More Info on the DaSH project: http://dashpa.blogspot.com/

Locals (San Francisco) can see Alec Proudfoot's next DaSH presentation November 9th, 2014 at Hillar Aviation Museum (must pay admission):
http://www.hiller.org/dash_project.shtml

cheers,
grant

[someguy]

It flies. Rudder only, no ailerons? The rudder responds to the roll axis, not to the expected yaw axis.

Disappointingly, I couldn't quite pull off an Immelmann. See what happens when you turn an innocent, unsuspecting model loose on degenerates like us?

[legoboyvdlp]

Wow, I hope it's not a REAL plane that flies in the air is it? Rather dangerous. If you get tired *crash*

[Hooray]

try any glider, and you will see that an unpowered aircraft will not just "crash" but simply glide - even helicopters will, via autorotation...

[legoboyvdlp]

Yes, and therefore it better have ultra long wings to glide.

[someguy]

Download it and find out for yourself.

[VicMar]

I couldn't get the aircraft off the ground. Is there some trick control (other than the mouse) which enables up/down movement?

<EDIT> If I start my flight at 100 feet the aircraft acts like any other glider.

It just seems very/too hard to get to takeoff speed when trying to commence your flight on the ground. </EDIT>

Vic
FlightGear version 3.0.0
iMac 21.5-inch screen Late 2012 
Processor  2.7 GHz Intel Quad Core i5 
Memory  8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 
Graphics  NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M 512 MB
Software  OS X 10.8.5

[hvengel]

removed incorrect info.

[tikibar]

See also this forum topic: Aircraft are now hosted on SVN

[Gijs]

That is actually no longer the standard procedure Hal. Except for base package aircraft, all aircraft have been moved to the new SVN repository at https://sourceforge.net/p/flightgear/fgaddon/ There are still copies in fgdata, but those will be gone before 3.4.

So, to get your aircraft in the official repository, setup an account at SourceForge, ask Clément (http://sourceforge.net/u/f-jjth/profile/) for access and then push your aircraft to the repository. If you are uncomfortable with using SVN, you may just post a release version of your aircraft here and ask one of the other developers to commit your work.

Cheers,
Gijs

[hvengel]

I guess I missed the announcement about this being moved to SVN on SourceForge. SVN will make user testing of aircraft between releases much easier since individual aircraft can be checked out. One of the issues with git fgdata was the need for users to clone all of fgdata in order to test a specific aircraft. So this will be a huge improvement as it will likely result in more user testing of aircraft leading up to releases. From personal experience one of the bigger issues I have had as an aircraft dev was the difficulty of getting users to test things between releases.

I just converted from git/fgdata to svn/fgaddon. Fairly easy to setup and getting a local copy of fgaddon was much faster than cloning fgdata. I more or less started from scratch since I was only setup for git (which I also use for work) and to get everything installed and ready for the first clone took perhaps 30 minutes and much of that was figuring out what software to download/install.

[wlbragg]

Wow, you certainly don't want any wind with this one, do you?
I was able to take off from the ground and go for quite some time. Although go where was the question. I lost more ground than I ever gained. But it felt like it behaved just like the video from the website showed.

You can see wind reference in background smokestacks.

[ggg]

I couldn't get the aircraft off the ground. Is there some trick control (other than the mouse) which enables up/down movement?

"thrust" control (small lever on the base of Logitech 3-d Pro Extreme joystick) is supposed to give up to 600W of power.

I start the flight with this command line to start me above Moffet Field, CA:
/usr/games/fgfs --aircraft=dash --altitude=100 --fov=80 --enable-hud --enable-fullscreen --heading=0 --glideslope=0 --vc=15 --lat=37.415 --lon=-122.0483 --wind=0@0

cheers,
grant

[ggg]

It flies. Rudder only, no ailerons? The rudder responds to the roll axis, not to the expected yaw axis.

Disappointingly, I couldn't quite pull off an Immelmann. See what happens when you turn an innocent, unsuspecting model loose on degenerates like us?

Heh...the real thing is only designed for 2.5G. If any real pilot manages to pull that off with this plane, I _really_ want to see that on youtube.

And correct, no ailerons. pilot will fly with one joystick and that will be transmitting to beefy RC servos in the elevator and rudder. My understanding is this is typical setup for RC models that only have 3 channel controls (thrust, rudder, elevator). I've built exactly that before: "Tape and Foam Cub" by Carl Rankin - excellent, excruciatingly detailed plans are available on http://www.flyingpuppets.org/ .

cheers,
grant

[ggg]

Wow, I hope it's not a REAL plane that flies in the air is it? Rather dangerous. If you get tired *crash*

yes, it's under construction now. We successfully load tested the main spar at Hillar Aviation museum a few weeks ago.

All the potential pilots can sustain 200W-300W (depending on body weight) for at least 10 minutes and several can sustain this output for hours. "Only" need 220-280W (130-180lbs) to maintain level flight per Alec Proudfoot's computation.

cheers
grant