Fly safely by remaining in the line-of-sight (LOS), while staying aware of your flight environment.
See Flight Controls
See Mission Planning
WARNING: Don’t fly your Vision Aerial UAS indoors. Always fly outside in
clear, open areas at a safe distance from yourself, other people, power lines,
obstacles, and buildings. As the pilot, you are responsible for navigating the
UAS to avoid obstacles.
CAUTION: Don’t fly within 5 miles of an airport or any airspace restricted by your local, state, or national airspace authority without proper authorization. As the pilot, you are responsible for knowing and understanding the regulations that govern small unmanned aircraft like the Vision Aerial UASs in your jurisdiction (check resources like the B4Ufly app).
CAUTION: Don’t fly Vision Aerial UASs in extreme weather conditions such as rain, high winds, snow, or fog. Extreme weather conditions can permanently damage the Vision Aerial UAS or cause instability in flight.
CAUTION: Determine safe flight boundaries at your location. Be aware of any risks, including bodies of water, structures, trees, power lines, etc, and designate a few areas where you can land the Vision Aerial UAS in case of an unsafe situation. Throughout your flight, be prepared to recover the UAS manually or use an emergency procedure if the UAS flies outside the safe flying area.
Once a suitable environment is selected, prepare the UAS for flight.
Connect Battery and Power the UAS
Power on the Ground Control Station (GCS)
(See Ground Control Station)
1. To power up the GCS, press and hold the power button on the Herelink controller for 5 seconds.
The Herelink battery level can be checked in the upper right corner of the powered GCS in the Control Center.
WARNING: Ground controller power level should not be less than 25% for flight. An auxiliary power source may be used during operation to supplement the controller battery.
Power Up the Aircraft
1. Place the battery on the battery plate and securely attach with the Velcro strap. Apply tension to ensure battery is firmly attached.
2. Power up the aircraft by plugging the battery connector in.
3. Leave the aircraft motionless for 10 seconds to allow the gyroscopes to calibrate. (Indicator light will flash red/blue during calibration.)
LED Indicators
When the vehicle is powered the GPS antenna will display various LED light colors:
Flashing red and blue: Initializing gyroscopes. Hold the vehicle still and level while it initializes the sensors.
Flashing blue: Disarmed, no GPS lock found.
Solid blue: Armed with no GPS lock.
Flashing green: Disarmed (ready to arm), GPS lock acquired.
Fast flashing green: Same as above but GPS is using SBAS.
Solid green, with single long tone at the time of arming: Armed, GPS lock acquired. Ready to fly.
Double flashing yellow: Failing pre-arm checks (system refuses to arm). Please check the pre-arm error message.
Single flashing yellow: Radio failsafe activated.
Flashing yellow, with quick beeping tone: Battery failsafe activated.
Flashing yellow and blue, with high-high-high-low tone sequence (dah-dah-dah-doh): GPS glitch or GPS failsafe activated.
Flashing red and yellow, with rising tone: EKF or Inertial Nav failure
Flashing purple and yellow: Barometer glitched
Solid red: Error. Usually due to cannot detect SD card (please try to re-plug or replace SD card), MTD device, or IMU sensors. Analysis can be found in BOOT.txt in SD card.
Solid red with SOS tone sequence: SD Card missing (or other SD error like bad format etc.)
Not lighting up: No firmware detected or firmware corrupted.
NOTE: Vehicle will not arm unless GPS status is a pulsing or fast flashing green LED.
NOTE: With Remote ID equipment, both the drone and operator need a clear view of the sky to acquire a GPS lock prior to allowing aircraft to arm.
Verify Remote ID is Functioning
See Flight Deck for initial setup instructions.
1. Look at the Herelink screen to confirm Remote ID is operational. You should see a green exclamation mark in the bottom right corner.
Perform Visual PreFlight
Perform a visual survey of all electrical & mechanical connections to ensure proper connection.
See Checklists for more information.
Arming & Takeoff
- Arm the aircraft by holding the left joystick at the bottom right position for 5 seconds. When it arms an audible cue will be initiated stating “Arming.”
- Gently bring up the throttle (left joystick) and initiate take-off
NOTE: In colder temperatures, the IMU may take more time to warm up. This is normal.