Fly inside cooling tower
- Thread starter ernst
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I for one wouldn't try it. Not just that it will probably throw all your instruments off but is it active? I'm sure the company that runs it wouldn't take to kindly to a quad flying in the tower.
Hy Waternut,
thanks for the reply, the tower is been out of service for many years.
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Errrrrr...No and yes.
You have the added complication in that you are highly likely to lose both 5.8ghz video feed AND 2.4ghz control link.
Yes, i will be inside but the opening of the tower is 50meters in diagonal, could it be possible to get an GPS lock?
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Ahhhh......in that case your rf link should be robust enough (I thought you were talking about being out side and flying into the Tower and then ascending or decending.
As Kilrah says atti only, GPS will be too flakey with that much obstruction to the sky.
Ok sorry for not being clear,
the idea is to start inside the tower, then while continuously rotating the camera 360 degrees ascend to almost the top with the camera facing down.
the idea is to start inside the tower, then while continuously rotating the camera 360 degrees ascend to almost the top with the camera facing down.
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Remember what a cooling tower is for. Inducing a strong upward air current to cool the water. You will experience strong turbulence and upward air currents. I don't think my flying skills would be adequate to fly in ATTI inside the tower.
My guess... some airflow but not much...
When in use... the hot water spraying around added heat which drove the draft...
Even then... airflow speed was only concentrated at the throat up top...
Just sitting there... air temp difference inside top to bottom will cause some flow...
My guess is it varies during the day as air and structure heats and cools at different rates...
I would take my bird out there and see what GPS and compass signals do while carrying it around inside... hold it up over my head at various points... use what I see along with my ATTI skills to decide if this is an "ok" idea to try or a very bad one...
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From my experience in flying inside full steel structures -
Fly in ATTI mode only. Depending on the design of the cooling tower, you should have no GPS, and your pilot skills will be tested. This is a 100% manual flight, and you will have to keep constant visual line of sight and give yourself a 30% reserve on battery to land. This is critical as to not kick-in your RTH while inside the tower.
The environment I had was completely painted black, so the vision system on my INSP1 was nulled out. I created a landing pad that was 3' x 3' for landing safely. This was a life saver.
Get lots of rest before that flight, because you will use most of your energy.
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