Deathcopter 5000

[eti]

Would you get in this? Surely you'd have to be a little INSANE...

https://www.reddit.com/r/dji/comments/v5eduv/to_fly_or_not_to_fly/

[tom66]

How on earth do you control such a monstrosity?  The gentleman in the video surely understands that every engine will produce varying amounts of thrust -- are there drone controllers that can account for the natural instability of combustion engines (torque regulation is poor; response time even more so.)

[TimFox]

It's OK:  he's wearing a safety vest.

[tom66]

It's also good that he's got the tent pegs to make sure it won't take off.  Given my tent lost two pegs in a 20 mph breeze this weekend whilst camping, I have the upmost confidence this will not cartwheel off into oblivion.

[jpanhalt]

Just be sure not to wave at the crowds, particularly if you have/had long arms.

[james_s]

How on earth do you control such a monstrosity?  The gentleman in the video surely understands that every engine will produce varying amounts of thrust -- are there drone controllers that can account for the natural instability of combustion engines (torque regulation is poor; response time even more so.)

Sure, technologically it's no problem, it can be tuned and made to fly, although it will probably not fly as well as an electric multirotor this is not the first fuel powered one that has been built and flown. There is no way I would get on board though, those little engines are not known for being extremely reliable, those at least appear to be spark ignition but even so deadstick landings of fuel powered RC airplanes are not uncommon.

[LaserSteve]

Hand start the engines, with a starter motor,  then climb in to fly. Unguarded propellers without thrust augmenting shrouds.  Bodge tape holding the tach sensors on.  Lovely way to create a widow. Ouch.

Steve

[janoc]

Hand start the engines, with a starter motor,  then climb in to fly. Unguarded propellers without thrust augmenting shrouds.  Bodge tape holding the tach sensors on.  Lovely way to create a widow. Ouch.

Steve

Well, at least he got the center of gravity thing (mostly) right. I have seen such contraptions being built with the pilot sitting on top of the thing! 

[eugene]

I might consider flying it around very close to the ground. I've seen motorized devices with much less thought put into them.

[Domagoj T]

Well, at least he got the center of gravity thing (mostly) right. I have seen such contraptions being built with the pilot sitting on top of the thing! 

You have fallen for the rocket pendulum fallacy.
Placement of the propulsion system is irrelevant for the stability in flight. That being said, propellers should be placed up high, but only because you might wish to minimize foreign object ingestion, and delay self decapitation.

[MT]

Would you get in this? Surely you'd have to be a little INSANE...

https://www.reddit.com/r/dji/comments/v5eduv/to_fly_or_not_to_fly/

Insane? Not even close compared to this:

[bd139]

There is a history of people killing themselves with home made helicopters. Someone's going to get hurt.

Example - don't watch it. The dude dies

[james_s]

Aviation development has always been dangerous, lots of professional test pilots have died testing new aircraft prototypes designed by experienced engineers. Technology has improved to the point that it is less dangerous now than it used to be but there is still risk, that doesn't mean people should stop trying. That accident can be a teaching experience on the importance of a helmet among other lessons.

[rob77]

How on earth do you control such a monstrosity?  The gentleman in the video surely understands that every engine will produce varying amounts of thrust -- are there drone controllers that can account for the natural instability of combustion engines (torque regulation is poor; response time even more so.)

Sure, technologically it's no problem, it can be tuned and made to fly, although it will probably not fly as well as an electric multirotor this is not the first fuel powered one that has been built and flown. There is no way I would get on board though, those little engines are not known for being extremely reliable, those at least appear to be spark ignition but even so deadstick landings of fuel powered RC airplanes are not uncommon.

no, it can't be easily "tuned" to fly...    look closely at every DIY combustion engine multirotor , they're either unstable or the control is extremely sluggish to account for the response time of the combustion engine.  with combustion engines you would need variable pitch propellers in order to control thrust with immediate response, but you would be even better with gimbaling the engines (aka thrust vectoring) to control direction (every VTOL in production is using thrust vectoring for a reason)

 

[james_s]

no, it can't be easily "tuned" to fly...    look closely at every DIY combustion engine multirotor , they're either unstable or the control is extremely sluggish to account for the response time of the combustion engine.  with combustion engines you would need variable pitch propellers in order to control thrust with immediate response, but you would be even better with gimbaling the engines (aka thrust vectoring) to control direction (every VTOL in production is using thrust vectoring for a reason)

I didn't say it was easy, or that it would fly well, but it can be tuned to fly. It's not a good solution but that doesn't mean it can't be made to work to some degree without huge effort. I agree that variable pitch props is a far superior solution.

[Red Squirrel]

As a dude with long hair I don't know I like the proximity of those props to my head.