1. Executive Summary
September was the first month of the phased roadmap and the first month under the new compensation model. The phased project proposal for September through November was published and passed Snapshot. The six commitment grant streams ended September 1, the July and August back pay went out on September 21, and the priced task board went live on GitHub on September 9. The first task was accepted and paid on September 30.
In the air, the obstacle avoidance campaign moved from sensing to behavior. The aircraft flew fourteen flights across four field days between September 1 and September 10. Twelve of them closed the sensor characterization, flew the first active avoidance flight on September 3, and then validated combined stop, combined slide, a passage between two trees, and the same maneuvers with a payload attached. Zeynep ratified each step and cleared the autonomous phase, which is the last part of the campaign. The other two, free flights on September 1, raised the endurance record from 20.7 to 25.2 minutes and produced the data behind the battery failsafe posture approved at month end.
Phase 1 closed on September 30 with two of its five exit criteria met. The task board is live and the August retroactive grants were distributed. The first avoidance enabled flight flew on September 3, but the campaign grew an autonomous phase and stays open for one open field test. The documentation backlog is in review rather than merged, with five pull requests in review as of September 30, and the GPS interference investigation did not reach a measurement. All three carry into October with named next steps. The approved $35,520 treasury transfer has not reached the project multisig yet, so the back pay was fronted from the bounty reserve and the September lead retainer is unpaid. The transfer request follows this report.
2. Project Progress
Team Formation
The team is the same and the structure changed. From September 1 the Project Lead is the only retained contributor, at 20 hours per week. All other contributor compensation runs through the priced task board, paid in USDC on acceptance, and through monthly retroactive grants in $ARROW.
| Member | Role |
|---|---|
| errrks.eth | Project Lead (retainer) |
| Julius | Core Contributor (task board) |
| Zeynep | Core Contributor (task board) |
| alperenag | Core Contributor (task board) |
| Dow Fisher KBM | Core Contributor (task board) |
| 21stCenturyAlex | Core Contributor (task board) |
Progress Summary:
Proposal, vote, and restructure: The phased project proposal was posted on September 3 with a Snapshot vote the same week. It passed on September 11 with 4.08M votes cast, 3.02M For and 1.05M Abstain. The vote approved a $35,520 USDC treasury transfer (July and August back pay plus three months of the lead retainer), the move from six retainers to one, and the consolidation of $6,480.21 of idle bounty allocations into QGB-FLEX. The six LlamaPay streams were cancelled on September 1. The August retroactive distribution executed on September 9. The July and August commitment grants, $17,520, were paid as direct transfers on September 21, fronted from the bounty reserve because the treasury transfer had not arrived.
Task board: The board went up as GitHub issues on September 9, #248 through #264, each with a scope, a price, a funding line, an owner or open status, a deadline, and a definition of done. Assignments made during the month: the battery failsafe review and the Ethernet GPS replication flight to Julius, the endurance study to KBM, the QuiverHub bring up on the Houston unit to Alex, and the Attachment Developer Guide to an outside contributor after a vetting call. The first completion came on September 30, when Julius answered the battery failsafe review and the $75 payout executed the same day. The open issues also drew a wave of automated and low effort applications, more than twenty comments from fifteen accounts within a week. The response was a vetting call before any assignment, and Discord presence and onboarding became a requirement for every task. Additionally, the $ARROW held on the project multisig as retro reserves can pay board tasks at the lead’s discretion, and open tasks will be repriced in $ARROW in October.
Obstacle avoidance (QGB-02): Zeynep’s review of the August flight cards arrived September 2, and the campaign flew on her recommendations the next day. Four flights on September 3 closed the sensing phase. A 0.5 m minimum range floor removed the forward radar’s zero range returns completely, from 8.6 percent of samples in August to zero, and both the radar alone and the combined radar and lidar configuration passed. The same day flew the first active avoidance flight. The aircraft stopped and held against full forward stick three times, at 4.18 m from a tree on the first flight and at 4.16 m and 4.01 m on two approaches at 0.4 m/s on the second, all outside the 4 m margin. Zeynep then redirected the campaign from subsystem qualification to system level testing with both sensors. Three flights on September 9 covered combined stop through about 1 m/s, combined slide on oblique approaches, parallel passes, and all sectors around the aircraft. Five flights on September 10 covered a passage between two trees 8 m apart and a 1 kg payload. The gap could not be entered at a 4 m margin, as expected, and passed three times at a 3 m margin with no oscillation and no pilot rescue. With the payload attached and the margin set to 4 m, stopping distance did not change measurably, 3.61 m at both 0.5 and 1.0 m/s against 3.60 to 3.82 m with no payload. Zeynep ratified the results, adopted 3 m as the baseline margin, and cleared the autonomous phase.
The autonomous phase is where the campaign slowed. A parameter set for path planning in AUTO was cut on September 17 and the first waypoint practice runs flew that morning, with a pole on a ladder recognized as a target. The planner began rerouting well before the obstacle, and the backyard does not have the clearance for the lookahead distance intended for open terrain. The second half of the month went to finding a site and to a separate dense environment parameter set with a shorter lookahead, which Zeynep keeps in the documentation as a reference set. Two candidate sites near Houston were identified on September 29. On October 1, one day after the phase closed, the aircraft flew an autonomous mission in the backyard on the dense environment set, with the second waypoint placed between two trees, and returned to launch through obstacles on several flights. Zeynep reviewed the first log and called it very successful. The remaining test is an open field flight against set obstacles, after which the bounty closes.
Endurance and battery failsafe: Two free flights on September 1 ran the pack to its capacity warning and set new endurance records of 24.1 and 25.2 minutes, up from 20.7 in July. Both ended on the Battery 2 capacity stage with the first failsafe stage set to warning only. The flights also settled a question about the battery monitor. The BMS reported 25,476 mAh consumed since charge and the charger restored 23,889 mAh, 93.8 percent, which is normal charge efficiency. The BMS count is accurate, it sees the avionics load that the ESC sum misses, and voltage cannot lead capacity as the first failsafe stage on this pack. That evidence became a proposed failsafe posture based on BMS capacity, low at 25 percent remaining, critical at 15 percent with a landing, and an arming block below 9,000 mAh. Julius reviewed and approved it on September 30 as task T-01, and it is written into the Pilot’s Handbook and the configuration guide in the open pull requests.
GPS interference (open item): This gate did not close. The September 1 flights flew with the Ethernet switches installed on standoffs and recorded no velocity glitches on the M9N for the first time, with the second flight at parity with the primary receiver. Acquisition from a cold start stayed slow, so the working hypothesis is residual interference that affects acquisition more than tracking. The September 9 and 10 sessions flew on the primary receiver alone. A spectrum analyzer and near field probes arrived on September 17 to measure the emissions directly, and no measurement had been taken by month end. Three fix paths are on the table, relocating the M9N on a longer cable with an updated cradle, shielding the switches on top of the standoffs, or a PCB revision. Julius is replicating the Houston operating setup on his own build as task T-13 to give a second data point. The team named GPS interference and obstacle avoidance clearance as the two gates on shipping dev kits.
PCB sources corrected: A review of the first Attachment Developer Guide submission surfaced that the PCB sources on GitHub were the first PT3 revision from September 2025. The boards that actually fly, Main PCB V1.2 and battery PCB V1.3, had never been pushed. PR #271 replaced them on September 25, reviewed by Alperen, and it was the first merge to main since July 15. Anything derived from the repository’s PCB files before that date described the wrong board, including parts of the guide submission, which is one reason its first milestone moved.
Attachments: The CAD files for the meetup attachments went to the payload-systems repository on September 9, and the V1 information notes for the payload latch and the multispectral camera followed on September 17. They are the framework for the V2 work, which sits on the board as two tasks that each start with a paid scope milestone. The granular dispenser moved to Javelina Propeller Laboratory and left the Quiver board. The Attachment Developer Guide was assigned on September 22 at $500 in two milestones. Its first milestone went through three review rounds and was not accepted by month end. On the October 1 call the team agreed the next hardware step is a Dev Kit v1.1 rather than a final version, with the attachment interface replacement as its main item, since the current connector sticks in the field and is no longer manufactured.
Regulatory and the road to sales: The FAA returned the Remote ID Declaration of Compliance submission asking for additions, including a permanent compliance label on the aircraft. Thomas made the label and resubmitted, and final approval is pending. This workstream runs under Javelina Propeller Laboratory. Thomas listed what stands between the project and US sales: FAA approval, foam inserts for the transport case, and the two shipping gates above. Sales will run through the Arrow store with fees to the DAO, with a local Texas landing page alongside the standard store funnel.
Community and prospects: Two Lagos operators approached the project during the month, one for medical delivery between warehouses and institutions and one for food delivery to lockers. The team’s position, set on the September 24 call, is that no aircraft and no DAO funds go directly to operators the project does not know well. A node on the ground would hold the aircraft and lease dev kits, and no Quiver ships until support, training, and service exist. KBM demonstrated a 3D flight log viewer on Quiver logs and brought a PCB supplier lead. Gavin fixed the README links to the live documentation site in PR #272.
3. Documentation:
Merged in September:
- Dev Kit Main PCB V1.2 and battery PCB V1.3 sources (PR #271), replacing the PT3 files.
- README links to the live documentation site (PR #272).
Published outside the main repository:
- V1 payload latch and V1 multispectral camera information notes, with CAD, in the payload-systems repository. Review pending.
In review as of September 30:
| PR | Content | Reviewer |
|---|---|---|
| #273 | Baseline parameter files: arming checks fully active, forward radar proximity instance, FC TCP server, and 22 navigation lines renamed to the 4.8 metric names | Zeynep |
| #232 | Initial Configuration Guide, brought current through September 30 with the approved battery failsafe posture | To be assigned |
| #274 | Pilot’s Handbook first field pass (all ten backlog items) and the First Flight Checklist | Zeynep |
| #275 | Dev Kit Engineering Report corrections and the network table | To be assigned |
| #276 | SDK guide network map and CubeNode addressing, Ethernet setup note | To be assigned |
Still to come: the Manufacturing Guide update and the obstacle avoidance campaign record. The campaign record publishes as one master document when the campaign closes: the original test intents, how they changed and why, and the results, with only the most relevant evidence linked.
4. September Goals:
The phased proposal listed sixteen goals for Phase 1 and five exit criteria. Status of the exit criteria first.
| Exit criterion | Status |
|---|---|
| Avoidance enabled flight flown |  Campaign open. First active avoidance flight flown September 3, combined stop, slide, gap, and payload validated by September 10. The campaign grew an autonomous phase, flown October 1, and one open field test remains |
| GPS interference characterized and dual GPS restored |  Not met. Instruments on hand since September 17, no measurement taken, fix path undecided |
| Documentation backlog merged to GitHub | In review. PCB sources merged, five pull requests in review as of September 30 |
| Task board live |  September 9 |
| August retro distributed | September 9 |
| # | Goal | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Resolve the flight card review, fly the first avoidance enabled flight, upload the campaign logs (QGB-02) | Review resolved and first active avoidance flight flown September 3. Campaign expanded, autonomous phase flown October 1, one open field test remains. September logs uploaded to the flight tracking platform |
| 2 | Close the GPS interference investigation and restore dual GPS | Analyzer and probes on hand, no measurement. Replication flight assigned (T-13). Carried to October |
| 3 | Formal heat testing with thermal imaging |  Deferred out of September |
| 4 | Land the repository sync | PCB sources merged, five pull requests in review, Manufacturing Guide and the campaign record still to come |
| 5 | Publish the patched baseline parameter files | In review as PR #273 |
| 6 | Stand up the task board and make the first assignments | Live September 9, first assignments made, first payout September 30 |
| 7 | Battery failsafe source design review and restore point | Reviewed and approved September 30 (T-01, Julius), documented in the Handbook and guide pull requests |
| 8 | SSR auto engage script into the baseline | Adopted as doctrine in the Handbook, the parameter and script changes ride the deviation pull request, which opens in October |
| 9 | Publish the latch and camera info notes and design files | Published September 9 and 17, review pending |
| 10 | Starlink Mini retest with a different regulator (Thomas) | No result yet |
| 11 | Configuration guide review and the first time setup line (QGB-01) | Consistency pass run September 10, 156 findings. Redefined as task T-02, due October 15 |
| 12 | Flight test campaign payment mechanics and the operator onboarding fund | Not delivered (T-17), carried to October |
| 13 | Gimbal return path and QGroundControl video stream | No movement |
| 14 | File the marketing discovery deliverable | Not filed, carried to October |
| 15 | Scope the flight data logging for the endurance study (QGB-03) | Replaced by task T-03, a six flight payload matrix flown by the lead with the study by KBM, starting after the avoidance campaign closes |
| 16 | Distribute the August retroactive grants | Executed September 9 |
5. Goals for Next Month:
October is Phase 2, Attachments, and it starts with the three Phase 1 exit criteria that did not close. The October report doubles as the roadmap checkpoint.
- Close the obstacle avoidance campaign: fly the open field test against set obstacles, settle the QGB-02 payout terms, and publish the campaign record as one master document.
- Take the first spectrum analyzer measurements, complete the replication flight on Julius’s build (T-13), consult the outside GNSS specialist, choose between relocation, shielding, and a PCB revision, and restore dual GPS.
- Merge the five open documentation pull requests, open the deviation and Manufacturing Guide pull requests, and finalize the configuration guide (T-02, October 15).
- Receive the approved treasury transfer, refill the bounty reserve, start the lead retainer stream, and book the QGB-FLEX consolidation.
- Publish the flight test campaign payment mechanics (T-17) and make the first payments from the pool.
- Fly the endurance payload matrix and deliver the endurance study (T-03, QGB-03).
- Accept or bounce the Attachment Developer Guide milestones (T-05), and reprice the open board tasks in $ARROW.
- Bring up QuiverHub on the Houston unit (T-18, October 10) and scope its next milestones (T-12).
- Set the attachment interface requirements (Thomas), collect the Dev Kit v1.1 improvement proposals, and hold the design review.
- Scope the V2 latch and V2 camera from the V1 notes (T-06, T-07).
- File the marketing discovery deliverable, carried from September.
- Run the roadmap checkpoint in the October report: exit criteria against the record, the next retroactive grant request, task pool replenishment, and the wind limit study renewal.
6. Budget & Resource Allocation:
Team Members Compensation
September is the first month under the restructure approved in the phased proposal. One retainer, a priced task board paid on acceptance, and monthly retroactive grants.
September 2026 - Total Budget: $6,000 USDC + 16,400 $ARROW, plus task board draws from funds already on the multisig
| Category | Budget |
|---|---|
| Project Lead retainer | $6,000 USDC (approved September 11, unpaid, waits on the treasury transfer) |
| Task board | Funded by the bounty reserve already allocated to the multisig, no new ask |
| Flight Test Campaign | 10,000 $ARROW (carried from April) |
| Retroactive Grants | 6,400 $ARROW from the 18,100 held in reserve, no new ask |
Disbursement status: Four payment transactions executed from the project multisig in September and all four reconcile against the ledger line for line. The August retroactive distribution, 6,750 $ARROW, on September 9 (
0xf1bb991ec37b8b30e50edb965086dae590658321022df8d5374d6e75c352fc19). The July and August commitment grant back pay, $17,520 USDC, on September 21 (0x3453586cb488b1ec195ca1daaba5439e2c013653e6bc7a8bf32236ab5ab94726). A meetup expense reimbursement to Alperen, $852.50 USDC, on September 24 (0x48cd7e8a62247b5a655c4dfd36b81fbfc3bea912a9d28fe6abaa00fc1326be0e). The first task board payout, $75 USDC to Julius, on September 30 (0x56df6ec96b9ab5daeb3130647ddbfc6668db1b152d139f1dd8a05034c75bb21c). On October 1 the multisig holds $339.33 USDC and 28,100 $ARROW, matching the project ledger to the cent.
Treasury transfer — $35,520 USDC approved, not yet received
The Snapshot vote approved $35,520 on September 11: $17,520 of July and August back pay and $18,000 for three months of the lead retainer. No transfer has reached the multisig. The back pay was owed for work performed two months earlier, so it was paid on September 21 from the bounty reserve, the same treatment as the May commitment grants. Until the transfer lands, the bounty reserve stands at $17,859.33 on paper and $339.33 in cash. When it lands, $17,520 refills the reserve and $18,000 funds the retainer stream. The September retainer is unpaid.
Commitment Grant Back Pay — $17,520 USDC (paid September 21)
| Contributor | July + August (USDC) |
|---|---|
| Erick | $6,000 |
| Julius | $2,560 |
| Zeynep | $2,560 |
| Alperen | $2,560 |
| KBM | $1,920 |
| Alex | $1,920 |
Expense Reimbursement — $852.50 USDC (paid September 24)
Alperen’s documented costs for the US meetup in August were reimbursed from QGB-FLEX under the bucket’s standing discretionary purpose, the same line as the August 31 reimbursements. Receipts are itemized in the compensation spreadsheet.
Grants & Bounties — the Task Board
The March allocation of $26,240, plus the $726.94 surplus folded into QGB-FLEX in August, funds the board. $9,107.61 has been paid to date and $17,859.33 remains. The table shows the buckets after the consolidation approved by the vote, which moved $3,000 from QGB-04 and $3,480.21 of unassigned QGB-01 funds into QGB-FLEX.
| ID | Name | Reward | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| QGB-01 | Documentation Wrap Up | $6,519.79 | In Progress — $3,969.79 paid, $2,300 open as priced tasks, $250 folding into QGB-FLEX at the checkpoint (see breakdown) |
| QGB-02 | Obstacle Avoidance System | $4,000 | In Progress — active avoidance validated in September, autonomous phase flown October 1, one open field test remains. Payout terms settle at campaign close |
| QGB-03 | Endurance Metrics Study | $600 | Assigned — study to KBM at $150 (T-03), flights by the lead paid from the campaign pool. The $450 not used folds into QGB-FLEX at the October checkpoint |
| QGB-04 | Wind Limit Study | $0 (was $3,000) |  Consolidated into QGB-FLEX. Renewal decided at the checkpoint |
| QGB-05 | Attachment Development | $3,000 | In Progress — V1 notes published, V2 latch and camera open as tasks T-06 and T-07 with $100 scope milestones |
| QGB-06 | Transport Case | $1,000 | Paid April 20 |
| QGB-FLEX | Open Bounty Bucket | $11,847.15 | $4,137.82 paid, $2,875 earmarked, about $1,130 priced or committed (T-13, T-16, T-18, test instruments), about $3,704 unassigned |
| QGB-FLEX | T-01 Battery Failsafe Review | $75 | Paid September 30 — Julius |
| QGB-FLEX | T-13 Ethernet Build GPS Test | $150 + one campaign flight | Assigned — Julius, test flights logged October 2, issue open |
| QGB-FLEX | T-16 Configure a Unit From the Guide | $200 | Open |
| QGB-FLEX | T-18 QuiverHub Bring Up | $100 | Assigned — Alex, due October 10 |
| QGB-FLEX | Test Instruments | about $680 | Analyzer and probes received September 17, oscilloscope also in hand. Reimbursement not filed yet |
| QGB-FLEX | Operator Onboarding Fund | $1,500 | Earmarked |
| QGB-FLEX | Commercial Readiness | $1,000 | Earmarked — reliability page (T-14) and sales page (T-15), scoped at the checkpoint |
| QGB-FLEX | Marketing & Sales Page Discovery | $375 | In review before filing |
| QGB-FLEX | Expense Reimbursements | $2,982.82 | Paid — Fusion 360 $649.50, August $1,480.82, September $852.50 |
| QGB-FLEX | QuiverHub V1 Completion & Release | $1,080 USDC + 600 $ARROW | Paid — Alex, closed in April |
QGB-01 Breakdown
| Item | Allocation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Dev-Kit Information Notes | $775 USDC | Paid |
| Liquidity Pool Seeding | $994.79 USDC | Paid |
| Manufacturing Guide — Alperen | $1,000 USDC | Paid June 26 |
| Manufacturing Guide — Erick | $700 USDC | Paid June 26 |
| Engineering Report — Erick | $500 USDC | Paid June 26 |
| First time Setup, configuration guide finalized (T-02) | $300 USDC | In Progress — due October 15 |
| Pilot’s Handbook field edition (T-04) | $1,000 USDC | Open — opens when a second operator has flown |
| Attachment Developer Guide (T-05) | $500 USDC | Assigned September 22 — first milestone in review. Repriced from $750, the $250 folds into QGB-FLEX at the checkpoint |
| Platform Engineering Report (T-09) | $500 USDC | Open — applications require cited sample rows |
| Developer SDK | Unpriced | Next scope written after the QuiverHub bring up (T-12) |
| Maintenance Guide | Unpriced | Merged — field driven updates pending |
Retroactive Grants
The August distribution, 6,750 $ARROW across seven contributors, executed on September 9. Held retro reserves stand at 18,100 $ARROW.
The September distribution below draws from the held reserves and executes after this report is published.
| Contributor | Amount |
|---|---|
| Thomas | 1,750 |
| KBM | 1,500 |
| Alex | 750 |
| Alperen | 750 |
| Zeynep | 650 |
| Julius | 650 |
| Gavin | 350 |
| Distributed | 6,400 |
| Held in reserve | 11,700 |
Flight Test Campaign — 10,000 $ARROW
The pool stays held on the multisig, undistributed. The payment mechanics (T-17) were due September 30 and carry to October. The first draws are already named, the endurance matrix flights and the T-13 replication flight.
Total:
The multisig holds $339.33 USDC and 28,100 $ARROW on October 1, with the $ARROW split across 18,100 of held retro reserves and the 10,000 flight test pool. $18,447.50 USDC left the multisig in September: $17,520 of back pay, the $852.50 reimbursement, and the $75 task payout. The bounty reserve is $17,859.33 on paper against $339.33 in cash, with $17,520 fronted for the back pay. The approved $35,520 treasury transfer restores the reserve and funds the lead retainer through November. No new funds are requested in this report. The September retroactive distribution draws on the held reserves. The next retroactive grant request and any task pool replenishment come with the roadmap checkpoint in the October report.