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Introduction | |
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Acknowledgments | |
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Get Your Stuff | |
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Introducing the Flack | |
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Parts and Materials | |
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Flight Simulator Controller | |
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Radios | |
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Motors | |
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Batteries | |
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Battery Connectors | |
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Chargers and Power Supplies | |
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Power Supplies | |
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Servos | |
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Airframe Materials | |
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Tape | |
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Cable Ties/Zip Ties | |
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Conclusion | |
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What Do All the Parts Do? | |
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The Flight Cycle of a Flack | |
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The Pilot | |
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The Builder | |
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The Airframe | |
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The Wing | |
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The Elevons | |
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The Stabilizers | |
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The Deck | |
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The Transmitter | |
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How the Transmitter Works | |
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How to Control the Sticks | |
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Mixing | |
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Throttle | |
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Rudder or Yaw Control | |
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Trim Tabs | |
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Rechargeable Batteries | |
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The Receiver | |
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How Servos Get Information | |
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What the Radio Channels Do | |
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Electronic Speed Control and the Battery Eliminator Circuit | |
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Power Limitations of ESC and BEC | |
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The Flight Battery | |
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The Motor | |
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Conclusion | |
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Building the Deck | |
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Tools and Supplies | |
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Charge Your Battery | |
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The Deck | |
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Fabricate the Deck | |
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Attach Servos | |
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Create the Motor Mount | |
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Mount Propeller | |
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Attach the Motor Mount to the Deck | |
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Solder the Speed Control | |
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Power Up the Airplane | |
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Powering Down the Airplane | |
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Securing Parts to the Deck | |
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Conclusion | |
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The Airframe of the Flack | |
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The Airframe | |
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Attaching the Control Rods to the Elevons | |
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Attaching the Deck | |
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Centering Controls | |
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Establish Elevon Trim | |
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Final Cleanup | |
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Conclusion | |
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Learning to Fly One Crash at a Time: The Splinter Method | |
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Safety | |
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The Cone of Crashing Potential | |
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Trim | |
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Adjusting Trim | |
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Flight Simulator Setup and Training | |
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Incrementally Learning to Fly | |
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Get a Helper/Partner/Friend to Help Out | |
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Control Sensitivity | |
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Crashes | |
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Approach the Field Ready to Fly | |
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Launching without Power | |
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RC on Launch to Landing, No Power | |
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RC on Launch and Landing, Low Power, Cut Throttle | |
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RC on Launch and Landing, Increasing Power | |
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Turning | |
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The Wind | |
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Overall Good Strategies for Learning to Fly | |
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Skill Building | |
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Precision Landing | |
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Hit the Balloon | |
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Fly in Stressful Situations | |
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Aerobatics | |
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Conclusion | |
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Keeping You and Your Airplane Alive: Diagnostics and Repair | |
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Preflight Checklists of Use | |
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The Brief Preflight in 3 Seconds: Servos, Up, Down, Left, Right, Power, Launch | |
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More Complete Checklist for Aircraft of Questionable Integrity | |
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Crash Kit | |
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Basic Crash Kit | |
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More Complete Crash Kit | |
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Kinds of Repairs | |
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The Big-Crash Postflight Inspection | |
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More Specific Fixes | |
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Completely Dead Airplane | |
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Completely Dead Airplane: Rebind the Receiver | |
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Completely Dead Airplane: ESC Not Sending Power to the Receiver | |
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Completely Dead Airplane: Receiver/Servo | |
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Completely Dead Airplane: Transmitter | |
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Water Immersion | |
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Servos Operate But Motor Does Not | |
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Evaluating Motor Damage | |
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Symptom: Motor Has Weak Thrust | |
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Motor Vibrates | |
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Motor Gets Very Hot | |
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Motor Doesn't Work at All | |
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Battery Damage | |
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Highly Suspect Battery | |
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Check Battery Pack | |
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Battery Disposal | |
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Servo Damage | |
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Servo Not Moving | |
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Servo Arms Are No Longer Vertical When Trim Tabs Are Centered | |
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Busted Servo Arm | |
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Broken Propeller | |
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Kinds of Prop Damage | |
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Flutter | |
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Poor Radio Connection | |
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Conclusion | |
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Make Your Plane Look Good for Day Flying | |
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General Considerations to Keep in Mind | |
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Examples | |
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Mouse: Avery Stick-on Labels and Sharpies | |
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Purple Monster: Wrapping Paper | |
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Big Pink Angst: Fresnel-Lens Plastic | |
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Silver Shark: Plastic Film 2 | |
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Brooklyn Aerodrome Orange Plane (BAOP) Paint on Foam | |
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Blue Angel and Others in Printed Tyvek | |
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Flying Heart: Sign Vinyl | |
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Firefly: Balloon Film | |
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Decorating with Tape | |
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Conclusion | |
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Make Your Plane Look Good at Night | |
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Overall Considerations | |
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Major Ways to Illuminate Aircraft | |
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Color at Night | |
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Electroluminescent Wire | |
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How El-Wire Works | |
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Powering El-Wire | |
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Soldering an Inverter for BEC Power | |
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Soldering El-Wire | |
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Stripping the El-Wire | |
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Soldering the El-Wire to Male Header Pins | |
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Simple Decoration | |
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LED-Based Approaches | |
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Single-Point LEDs | |
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Strip LEDs | |
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High-Power LEDs and Fiberoptics | |
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Other Illumination Options | |
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Weight Considerations | |
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BEC-Powered Lighting | |
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Robustness | |
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Conclusion | |
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Other Shapes | |
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Inorganic Produce | |
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Banana | |
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Carrot | |
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Strawberry | |
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Flying Heart | |
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SketchUp Is Your Friend | |
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Travel Flack | |
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Bat | |
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Crystal Towel | |
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Semi-Circle | |
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Manta Ray | |
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Design | |
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Evolving the Moving Fins | |
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The Radio | |
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The Build | |
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Flying | |
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3D Banana | |
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Conclusion | |
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Aerodynamics for the Hacker | |
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Lift | |
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Conditions for Lift: Positive Aerodynamic Angle of Attack and Airflow | |
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Lift, Part 1 | |
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Lift, Part 2 | |
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Pitch, Roll, and Yaw | |
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Center of Gravity (CG) | |
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Reflex and Flying Wings | |
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Reasoning about Lift | |
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Drag | |
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Glide Ratio | |
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Conclusion | |
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Hack the Flack: Make and Fly Your Own Design | |
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Getting the Idea | |
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Prototyping | |
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A Plank | |
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Designing and Building a Novel Design | |
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Blinding the Powered Version | |
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Scaling Up from the Glider Proof of Concept | |
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Structural Considerations | |
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Placing Equipment | |
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Flight Testing | |
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New Shapes by Morphing Old Ones | |
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Incremental Refinement | |
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Conclusion | |
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Simulators, Autopilots, Video, and Buddy Boxing | |
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Flight Simulators | |
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Flying Model Simulator (EMS) | |
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CRRCsim | |
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Autopilots | |
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Copilot CPD4 | |
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Full Autopilot | |
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Video from the Air | |
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Passive Video | |
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First-Person Video (FPV) | |
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Buddy Boxing a.k.a. Student Driving for Pilots | |
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Hacking the Transmitters for Buddy Boxing | |
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Conclusion | |
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Index | |