06-May-2020, 07:41 AM
Well, I do think that the airspeed sensor is either not well calibrated, or not well placed (or both). I think it's reading a bit lower than what the real value is.
But having said that, I still think that it's working well enough as an additional indicator to prevent the stall. Here's why:
In the maiden video, there was pretty much steady wind blowing from the west. And you can in fact notice, that when I fly west, the airspeed and groundspeed are quite close to each other (about 10 km/h difference), while flying east, the groundspeed is significantly higher (more than 30 km/h) - so that does make sense and works as it should.
In the second video, there was close to no wind, with occasional but quite weak gusts. So that day, there was almost no upwind or downwind direction existing.
I've also noticed that the indicated airspeed varies from the groundspeed quite a bit while pitching up or down - I guess that's because of the angle of the pitot tube against the air during those manuvers.
So to sum it up - the airspeed sensor I have, placed where it is, I think that it doesn't really read the correct value, BUT it reads the value reliably enough that once I find the lowest possible value for the plane to stall, I can reliably use that value as a threshold I have to stay away from.
But having said that, I still think that it's working well enough as an additional indicator to prevent the stall. Here's why:
In the maiden video, there was pretty much steady wind blowing from the west. And you can in fact notice, that when I fly west, the airspeed and groundspeed are quite close to each other (about 10 km/h difference), while flying east, the groundspeed is significantly higher (more than 30 km/h) - so that does make sense and works as it should.
In the second video, there was close to no wind, with occasional but quite weak gusts. So that day, there was almost no upwind or downwind direction existing.
I've also noticed that the indicated airspeed varies from the groundspeed quite a bit while pitching up or down - I guess that's because of the angle of the pitot tube against the air during those manuvers.
So to sum it up - the airspeed sensor I have, placed where it is, I think that it doesn't really read the correct value, BUT it reads the value reliably enough that once I find the lowest possible value for the plane to stall, I can reliably use that value as a threshold I have to stay away from.