Micro Quadcopter Nomenclature
In my fleet of drones, I have four micro quadcopters whose instruction manuals still use the terms: aileron, elevator and rudder. Although I have never flown remote controlled airplanes, I am aware of where the terms come from and what they mean. I assume the transmitters for model airplanes are nearly the same as for drones, and so the terms were just carried over. In this sense the terms do have historical precedence. Drones obviously do not have ailerons, elevators or a rudder, but they can be made to rotate in a similar fashion as an airplane responding to these three controls. As any boy growing up in the 1960's and having an interest in space travel knows, the terms for the rotation of a space capsule around the three main axes are: pitch, roll and yaw. I hope all manufacturers of drones will use these terms and leave the others for the airplane people. Many instruction manuals can be difficult to understand in part because of broken English, and using inappropriate terms does not help with comprehension. In any case, I understand that many people may like the old terms from a nostalgic point of view, and that is fine with me. But, after this post they will never be used again in this blog.
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ReplyDelete:) I agree with you that the terms aileron, elevator and rudder should be used for RC planes only. And, actually, since I am a drone pilot, not an RC plane pilot, from the start I got familiar with the terms pitch, roll and yaw since everyone around me used those terms. To be honest, I rarely heard someone using the other terms. Now, you mentioned that you have a fleet of microdrones :) This is very interesting since I love those little speed demons and have a few of my own. What models do you have? Also, here is a great article that actually talks about some of the best micro drone models, check it out: http://mydronelab.com/best-pick/micro-quadcopter.html
ReplyDeleteHello James. Thanks for your comments and the tip on the web article. I already have the Hubsan H107L and hope to add the Holy Stone HS 170 and the Inguity Max Speed in the future. I have discussed all of my micro quadcopters on this site and will continue to update it as I acquire more of them.
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