Tricopter Nerves

Number one son was around over Easter and spent quite a chunk of time building a tri-copter. This is like a quad copter, but operating in reduced circumstances as far as rotor count is concerned. However, in some ways it is more interesting to fly, because the third rotor is pivoted so that you can use it to vector the thrust in a way that quad copters can't. 

Anyhoo, he started with just three bits of wood and a bag of motors and controllers and stuff, and I printed some parts to help hold it all together. By this evening he was ready to take it out into the field and see what happens. 

The answer, on this occasion, is not much unfortunately. Although the good news is that everything is plumbed together fine and it all worked as expected, the bad news is that a different kind of propeller will be required. I'm a bit sad that I won't be able to see the maiden flight of the device (it goes back down south tomorrow), but I think there is a good chance that it will come back to Hull in one piece at some point in the future. And I'm seriously tempted to have a go at building one myself.