Flight Testing Report

March 2015

ME3616: Flight Testing and

Analysis Report

Raghav Dave

STUDENT ID: 1119394

1 Introduction of the remote controlled aircraft

This report contains flight testing analysis of a flight circuit carried out. The RC aircraft used for the

flight testing is Extreme flight Extra 300. The aircraft is capable of undergoing extreme levels of

aerobatics. Carbon fibre is used as a structural component and aluminium as main gear. The aircraft

is powered electrical driven by propellers which allow the aircraft manoeuvrability to gain maximum

GPS altitude of 70m. The flight pattern includes take-off, a circuit of four turns and landing.

Figure 1: Picture of aircraft

The main specification of the aircraft is as follows (Extreme Flight RC):

Specifications:

Wingspan:

78 inches

Length:

76 inches

Wing Area:

1225 sq. in.

Weight:

11.5 - 13 lbs.

Power:

1.20-1.80 glow engine,

30cc-40cc gas engine,

2600-3000 Watt electric power system

Radio:

modern computer radio with high torque metal geared servos

(200 oz./in minimum)

2 Data collected for flight analysis

From the data obtained, initially the circuit graph was plotted and start, end and the four turns of

the circuit were identified. The plot of the circuit is shown below. Please note that the data of takeoff and landing is excluded from the plot.

Flight Circuit

-0.468

51.525 51.525251.525451.525651.5258 51.526 51.526251.526451.526651.5268

-0.4682

-0.4684

GPS Longitude

-0.4686

First Turn

-0.4688

Second Turn

-0.469

Third Turn

-0.4692

Forth Turn

-0.4694

-0.4696

-0.4698

GPS Latitude

Figure 2: GPS Longitude vs Latitude of the aircraft during circuit

The average altitude of the circuit was calculated and hence rate of climb for the aircraft was

calculated as follows:

=

ℎ −

(⁄ )

Similarly the rate of descend was calculated as follows:

=

(⁄ )

ℎ

The following plot illustrates...