Octocopter - This guy will likely get killed

[obelixtim 100]

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>As long as he is ready for it and has a contingency plan that he instantly enacts....He
>could easily shut down another one by mistake, if he tries to rectify the situation in a
>sudden panic.

Even with purely mechanical controls (as long as they're integrated) he shouldn't need to do anything unusual.

The most straightforward way to implement the control system is to copy a helicopter. Forward stick increases power to the 6 o'clock engine, reduces power to the 12 o'clock engine, and increases and decreases power to the 1:30, 4:30, 7:30 and 10:30 engines proportionally. (Doesn't affect the 3 or 9 o'clock engines.) Side stick does the same thing, but rotated 90 degrees.

For yaw you control the relative thrust of the counterrotating engines. Pedal left increases power to all the clockwise engines, pedal right increases power to all the counterclockwise engines.

In a scheme like that one you do exactly what comes naturally to counter an engine failure. Nose dropping? Pull back. Left side dropping? Roll right. Sudden yaw left? Right rudder.

(Of course with computerized controls it's even easier than that.)

Well for his sake, I hope he's thought all that through...

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[billvon 2,384]

>This guy needs to be mocked until he can prove to us he knows what he's doing and
>hopefully before he kills somebody.

I admire the people who just do things, as opposed to people who do little but mock on the Internet.

[BobMoore 0]

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This guy needs to be mocked until he can prove to us he knows what he's doing and
hopefully before he kills somebody.

Do you know how many times Igor Sikorsky crashed before he figured out how not only to build a helicopter but teach himself to fly it? Well, I don't either because the documentaries of him shown on the History Channel only showed successful test flights. But he is thought of as a really intelligent man who invented a safe and fun way of flying. Who's to say that the guy in this video won't be featured on a U.S. postage stamp when he is in his 70's? He's testing his idea. He built it and is trying to fly it. I don't think he is very interested in proving anything to anonymous internet surfers.

"For you see, an airplane is an airplane. A landing area is a landing area. But a dropzone... a dropzone is the people."

[maxmadmax 8]

LMAO....looks like an industrial vega-matic.

Here's a website from a few years before this guy.


http://www.gluhareffhelicopters.com/

And many moons ago, me and my brothers built one of these.

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1963/1963%20-%201096.html

Don't go away mad....just go away!

[grimmie 173]

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The amount of people on web forums that can type vast quantities of text and yet display very little in the way of intellect or rational thought is staggering, this site seems to be over supplied

Really? I hate to burst your humanitarian bubble, but you realize the reason the video ever made it anywhere on the web, let alone to this site, is because it's a goof. Nobody is watching it and swelling up with pride because of the guy's triumph over adversity to build a revolutionary flying machine. Nobody.

As previously stated, the design is an enlargement of a very popular RC aircraft that's being sold by the millions all over the web. It's nothing new and he didn't think of it.

Beyond that, the underprivledged third-world builder somehwo got access to 8 motorcycle engines, 8 wooden props, 8 electronic tachs, what looks like a couple hundred feet of sqaure tube and a welder. It would be one thing if they guy built it all out of bamboo and cocconut shells like on Gilligans Island, but it's clear that while the guy is not an aeronautical genius, he's obviously got no shortage of fabrication skills or acees to raw materials.

For you to overlook that, and then comment on others lack of rational thought is, well, irrational.

It's strange that you think the builder is underprivlidged. He might be the wealthiest dude in his town. Maybe he could care less if it got higher than a few inches. Maybe he had a bet with a buddy that said he couldn't make this stuff work. Maybe he saw the RC model and thought, hey, let's make a big version.
Maybe he wants his own reality show, a sort of "Top Gear" for flying stuff.
He isn't doing anything dumb like jumping out of an airplane or off of a cliff at least.

We cheer for the underdogs. Everyone remembers ski jumper Eddie the Eagle from the 1988 Olympics. Does anyone remember a single other participant that year? Or the Jamaican bobsledders.

Most skydivers and pilots dreamed of building stuff like that as kids. I think that contraption he made is kinda cool.

[quade 3]

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This guy needs to be mocked until he can prove to us he knows what he's doing and
hopefully before he kills somebody.

Do you know how many times Igor Sikorsky . . . But he is thought of as a really intelligent man who invented a safe and fun way of flying.

Right. With the rotating blades above the head of the user and with considerably more inherent stability.

This isn't about "inventing" a better flying machine. It's about this guy clearly adapting a less safe for human flight one.

The reasons the little model drones work is because they're fly-by-wire and computer controlled. They have automatic programming that kicks in at the slightest issue to compensate for the loss of power in one of the motors. The motors are electric which means they're also vastly more controllable.

Watch what this guy is doing in the video. He's attempting to control the vector of the thrust by moving cloth ducts attached to a control stick.

He's not moving toward good; he's moving toward disaster.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[BobMoore 0]

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We cheer for the underdogs. Everyone remembers ski jumper Eddie the Eagle from the 1988 Olympics. Does anyone remember a single other participant that year? Or the Jamaican bobsledders.

Most skydivers and pilots dreamed of building stuff like that as kids. I think that contraption he made is kinda cool.

I don't remember Eddie the Eagle at all, but I do remember that ski jumper from Slovenia (I think) who went down in history as "the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat" guy.

Am I old, or what?

"For you see, an airplane is an airplane. A landing area is a landing area. But a dropzone... a dropzone is the people."

[david3 0]

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The amount of people on web forums that can type vast quantities of text and yet display very little in the way of intellect or rational thought is staggering, this site seems to be over supplied

Really? I hate to burst your humanitarian bubble, but you realize the reason the video ever made it anywhere on the web, let alone to this site, is because it's a goof. Nobody is watching it and swelling up with pride because of the guy's triumph over adversity to build a revolutionary flying machine. Nobody.

As previously stated, the design is an enlargement of a very popular RC aircraft that's being sold by the millions all over the web. It's nothing new and he didn't think of it.

Beyond that, the underprivledged third-world builder somehwo got access to 8 motorcycle engines, 8 wooden props, 8 electronic tachs, what looks like a couple hundred feet of sqaure tube and a welder. It would be one thing if they guy built it all out of bamboo and cocconut shells like on Gilligans Island, but it's clear that while the guy is not an aeronautical genius, he's obviously got no shortage of fabrication skills or acees to raw materials.

For you to overlook that, and then comment on others lack of rational thought is, well, irrational.

You are one up-tight mother fucker. Take a few deep breaths and step away from the coffee maker. It's going to be okay.

[BobMoore 0]

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This isn't about "inventing" a better flying machine. It's about this guy clearly adapting a less safe for human flight one.

Isn't there a guy who strapped a big fiberglas wing on his back with two jet engines and is flying it around, most recently in the Grand Canyon?

You may think it is less safe for human flight, by your standards, but think of all the blue-haired grannies who think pond swooping is less safe for human flight.

You have no idea what someone may come up with in 50 years, the genesis of which may be before us right now.

For the guy who mentions how close those propellers are and what might happen when they break off, the next time you climb into a Twin Otter take a look at the plane of the propeller blades. There are several skydivers who will be missing body parts if that blade decided to come into the cabin. And don't think that wall you're leaning against will stop a projectile like that.

"For you see, an airplane is an airplane. A landing area is a landing area. But a dropzone... a dropzone is the people."

[quade 3]

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Isn't there a guy who strapped a big fiberglas wing on his back with two jet engines and is flying it around, most recently in the Grand Canyon?

And guess what, he had a parachute in case there was an emergency. In fact, that's how he lands.

Sigh. Look, no matter what happens in aviation there is a failure mode. How precisely would this guy get out of one?

Redundant back-ups are kind of a standard in aviation.

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For the guy who mentions how close those propellers are and what might happen when they break off, the next time you climb into a Twin Otter take a look at the plane of the propeller blades. There are several skydivers who will be missing body parts if that blade decided to come into the cabin. And don't think that wall you're leaning against will stop a projectile like that.

Which is why military planes have red lines painted inside and out of the fuselage to show where bad stuff can happen. Sure, airplanes lose props, but they lose a lot fewer of them now that they aren't made of wood.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[BobMoore 0]

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Sigh. Look, no matter what happens in aviation there is a failure mode. How precisely would this guy get out of one?

Just for the sake of argument, what is the response required if a helicopter blade departed in flight? And it has happened. Some helicopter blades are composite design and delamination has sent at least one that I know of to the ground. That is no less catastrophic than the failure modes you can come up with for this guy and his invention.

As far as metal propellers, there are tons of aircraft out there that are flying behind a wooden prop. And they are not falling to the earth with great regularity. We (skydivers) see metal propellers on our jump planes because the technology is available to machine complex airfoil shapes to them, but the biggest reason that our beloved Otters don't use wood propellers is because the Otters (and many other aircraft) use variable pitch propellers. It isn't easy to design a wooden propeller to work on a variable pitch mechanism.

"For you see, an airplane is an airplane. A landing area is a landing area. But a dropzone... a dropzone is the people."

[Trafficdiver 8]

The guy looks like he bites heads off cobras.

I'd be willing to bet this is who Charlie Sheen goes to for fresh tiger blood.

If anyone can fly the octochopper and survive...he can.

[JackC1 0]

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This isn't about "inventing" a better flying machine. It's about this guy clearly adapting a less safe for human flight one.

It's ironic that people who jump out of planes and off stuff, relying on nylon and string to swoop in as fast as they possibly can or maybe fly a squirrel suit strait jacket, can complain about someone choosing a less safe mode of flight.

[jrmrangers 0]

No where in there does he say how long it takes to get to altitude, how many jumpers it holds and how much are the jump tickets going to be! This story sucks!!

Wait , I pull what first?

[piisfish 135]

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Isn't there a guy who strapped a big fiberglas wing on his back with two jet engines and is flying it around, most recently in the Grand Canyon?

it is carbonfuckingfiber, and 4 engines
www.jet-man.com

congrats to Octocopterman. I guess many of us wish they had the courage/time/balls to try to build and fly a different proto aircraft

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[JohnMitchell 14]

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It's ironic that people who jump out of planes and off stuff, relying on nylon and string to swoop in as fast as they possibly can or maybe fly a squirrel suit strait jacket, can complain about someone choosing a less safe mode of flight.

Well, if we're still here and alive, maybe that means we might have a good eye for what works and what probably won't work.

[piisfish 135]

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Well, if we're still here and alive, maybe that means we might have a good eye for what works and what probably won't work. you might want to reformulate that... If we all had to design and build our own parachutes (and jumpships), Bill Booth would have revolutionized coronering (if the word exists)

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[JohnMitchell 14]

Gotcha. I didn't say I was going to build my own stuff, but I sure as hell take a good look at the stuff I'm jumping.
It doesn't take a PhD in Aeronautics to see the Octocopter is a sketchy beast.

[piisfish 135]

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It doesn't take a PhD in Aeronautics to see the Octocopter is a sketchy beast.

still looks safer than the JCR Technology flapping wing design

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[grimmie 173]

Not as sketchy as Octomom tho...

[billvon 2,384]

It's been interesting watching the reactions that people are showing here and in the Reno air races thread. In this thread, a guy who has built an unusual working aircraft (and has tested it, so far successfully) is being attacked - "Darwin award" "this guy needs to be mocked." Apparently his crime is trying to do something strange and dangerous. Or more accurately, who is starting to succeed at doing something strange and dangerous.

In the other thread people have nothing but sympathy for a guy whose heavily modified airplane failed and killed 10 spectators. "My heart goes out to all." "he was one of the best known pilots."

Interesting perspectives from a bunch of people who (theoretically) do something strange, unusual and dangerous for fun.

[grimmie 173]

I'm just glad that octopilot wasn't wearing a GoPro

[billvon 2,384]

>I'm just glad that octopilot wasn't wearing a GoPro

On the minus side his next octocopter will be 97 square feet.

[quade 3]

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It's been interesting watching the reactions that people are showing here and in the Reno air races thread. In this thread, a guy who has built an unusual working aircraft (and has tested it, so far successfully) is being attacked - "Darwin award" "this guy needs to be mocked." Apparently his crime is trying to do something strange and dangerous. Or more accurately, who is starting to succeed at doing something strange and dangerous.

In the other thread people have nothing but sympathy for a guy whose heavily modified airplane failed and killed 10 spectators. "My heart goes out to all." "he was one of the best known pilots."

Interesting perspectives from a bunch of people who (theoretically) do something strange, unusual and dangerous for fun.

Bill, while it's "interesting" you're really comparing apples and oranges here.

Skydiving, as performed by the vast majority of participants isn't really doing anything all that new. The technology is proven and tested by the manufacturers and FAA to pretty precise standards. Further, there are back-up systems. We even have a back up system designed to deploy a reserve parachute if the skydiver himself is incapacitated. Again, all designed by experts and blessed by the FAA.

Likewise, airplane racing, no matter how modified you'd like to say the aircraft are, are still required to be blessed by a separate entities with long histories of what works and what doesn't as far as being airworthiness is concerned.

The "octocopter" is not simply "strange and dangerous." It doesn't appear to adhere to even the most basic of aeronautical safety design principles. In fact, it doesn't appear to even follow the design principles of the successful devices it appears to be trying to emulate other than the simplistic number of propellers being used.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[1969912 0]

Just for the record, I think what the guy is doing is really cool. Pretty dangerous though. Who knows, he might be working up a computer controlled throttle system with gyro's and/or accellerometers. A machine like that can fly. A fully mechanical throttle system would be pretty complex, but could be done.

"Once we got to the point where twenty/something's needed a place on the corner that changed the oil in their cars we were doomed . . ."
-NickDG