Here at AutonoSky, our flight tests are a crucial part of our process. We recently went to the Model Aircraft Academy in Stellenbosch where we witnessed Autono1’s maiden flight. We caught up with the AutonoSky team to find out more about this momentous flight test.

Q1: Where and when did the flight test take place?

A: The flight test took place at Stellenbosch's Model Aircraft Academy on 15 July 2022 on a crisp Friday morning.

Q2: What did you test?

A: We tested and tuned the controllers on our octocopter and quadcopter and successfully achieved our maiden flight of our heavy-lift hexacopter, Autono1.

Q3: What was the highlight of the day?

A: The highlight, hands down, was seeing our dreams become a reality as the heavy-lift prototype hexacopter, Autono1, took to the sky on its maiden flight.

Q4: What did you learn?

A: Patience and perseverance were the key takeaways from Friday's test flight. Being able to sit and debug an issue until the problem was resolved was a true show of communication and commitment from the team to achieve everything that was set out for the day.

Q5: What was the funniest moment of the day?

A: There were quite a few funny moments!

• Almost getting sideswiped by a drone with reversed stick inputs. (This is not good from a safety perspective though.)
• Watching one person grab a slice of pizza and the rest flocking to join.
• Everyone standing in silence and bewildered as Autono1 safely touched down after the maiden flight.

Stay tuned for our next flight test update!