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Vortex ring state is an extremely real danger with these craft, the computer is what stands between the occupant and a fiery death. Hence the concierge treatment.

There's no manual mode per se with something like a quadrotor, even a simple one requires really unintuitive applications of thrust to affect things like yaw. You could fly one in 'rate' mode though - where the stick deflection commands pitch/roll/yaw rates directly.

Unlike a 172, it's pretty unstable flown like that, and most people would turn such a craft into a smoking crater shortly.



Vortex ring state has killed more then one of my quad copters.

When you are flying a quad with a lot of power, it is fun to zoom up vertically, cut the throttle, and drop.

Normally, the motors have enough power to arrest the fall before you hit the ground but if you get into VRS no amount of power will save you.

If you realize you are in VRS before it is too late, apply forward thrust and fly out of it.


I have crashed an experimental heavy lift multirotor (80kg payload on board) due to VRS. Was maybe 30 feet off the deck, no time or altitude to recover. That was a fun one to explain.




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