Aaaaand into the trees it went

WanderLust68 · May 29, 2017

long story short, about 30 seconds after takeoff my H backed itself into a tree and fell about 15ft.
Casualties include:
1 landing gear snapped off
1 land gear mechanism broken (will retract and lower gear but will not lock in place)
1 snapped prop
camera gimbal ???

the landing gear I know I can fix, its now the picture quality that has me concerned.

I recalibrated everything, checked everything over and took it out again tonight, flew perfectly from what I could tell. 2 issues with the camera/video: 1. the camera will not follow as I rotate the drone, no setting on the transmitter will lock the camera in place. 2. the video is bad - jello ripples across the frame.

Not being able to lock the camera and rotate with the drone makes me think the gimbal was damaged, but the jello video could either be a bad rotor-arm or damaged gimbal.

I guess I have little choice but to send it to Yuneec for repairs....any ideas what this could end up costing? I don't want to spend so much that I could just as easily buy another H.

CraigCam · May 29, 2017

WanderLust68 said:
long story short, about 30 seconds after takeoff my H backed itself into a tree and fell about 15ft.
Casualties include:
1 landing gear snapped off
1 land gear mechanism broken (will retract and lower gear but will not lock in place)
1 snapped prop
camera gimbal ???

the landing gear I know I can fix, its now the picture quality that has me concerned.

I recalibrated everything, checked everything over and took it out again tonight, flew perfectly from what I could tell. 2 issues with the camera/video: 1. the camera will not follow as I rotate the drone, no setting on the transmitter will lock the camera in place. 2. the video is bad - jello ripples across the frame.

Not being able to lock the camera and rotate with the drone makes me think the gimbal was damaged, but the jello video could either be a bad rotor-arm or damaged gimbal.

I guess I have little choice but to send it to Yuneec for repairs....any ideas what this could end up costing? I don't want to spend so much that I could just as easily buy another H.

A camera is cheaper then the whole package. I don't see anyway to just get a gimbal either. So first check all mounting parts and then spin the gimbal around without power. The 45 degree bend in the gimbal arm can collapse inward in a crash throwing everything out of whack. If its not level it will not know where center is and be constantly correcting. It's unfortunate that the luxury of retractable gear also leaves the camera so vulnerable to impact. I feel your loss. The fact it still works is pretty great. I'm sure it looks better than this.

PatR · May 29, 2017

Backed itself?

Murray Martz · May 30, 2017

CraigCam said:
A camera is cheaper then the whole package. I don't see anyway to just get a gimbal either. So first check all mounting parts and then spin the gimbal around without power. The 45 degree bend in the gimbal arm can collapse inward in a crash throwing everything out of whack. If its not level it will not know where center is and be constantly correcting. It's unfortunate that the luxury of retractable gear also leaves the camera so vulnerable to impact. I feel your loss. The fact it still works is pretty great. I'm sure it looks better than this. View attachment 6105

Sweet....spare parts!

WanderLust68 · May 30, 2017

CraigCam said:
A camera is cheaper then the whole package. I don't see anyway to just get a gimbal either. So first check all mounting parts and then spin the gimbal around without power. The 45 degree bend in the gimbal arm can collapse inward in a crash throwing everything out of whack. If its not level it will not know where center is and be constantly correcting. It's unfortunate that the luxury of retractable gear also leaves the camera so vulnerable to impact. I feel your loss. The fact it still works is pretty great. I'm sure it looks better than this. View attachment 6105

Wow, that camera was smashed....at least overall my drone and gimbal/camera LOOK and behave somewhat functional. I will need to do some more testing as you suggested.

Just powering on the drone doesn't cause the jello-effect on the video, I would think if one of the motor mounts was damaged that even idling the props would cause enough vibration in the video.

Depending on what repairs would cost, I'm guessing that I could buy a whole new H (and then I'd have a second ST16 for video controls)....didn't they go on sale last summer for like $799?