Tested and Impressed?

[R12NDS]

I have owned my H for several months and now i am preparing for my PfCO flight test i needed to truly test the capabilities of the aircraft in the event of emergencies.

Non-GPS Flight:
A noticable difference in flight characteristics, but more than an emjoyable and capable flight.

Return to Home - GPS:
The H returns home exactly as intended. It rises to the specified height, returns home, drops the legs, lands and turns off.

Switch off ST-16:
I was seriously worried about this...i flew the H about 50m away and at a height of about 10m. Turned the ST-16 off and within about 5 seconds the H turned to face me and rose to 20m. It then flew home, dropped the legs and hovered. I switched the ST-16 back on, regained control and landed the aircraft. It was a shame it didnt land itself, but it did at least come back.

RTH in non-GPS mode:
I flew the H in non-GPS mode to a distance of about 150m and clicked RTH. The H did nothing apart from drift because of the lack of GPS. I turned GPS on and clicked to RTH again and the H rose to 20m and came home, landing safely.

I felt it was important to know what happens when and my confidence is 100 percent in the H. Those who claim fly-aways may benefit from knowing the procedures and relaxing...they work!

Hope this post helps someone.

 

[Typhoon Charlie]

I wish more pilots would do this. It would definitely lower the panic meter knowing what to expect. Good job and good luck on the test.

 

[BobW55]

In the Turned off ST-16 mode.
They need to fix the firmware. I had my ST-16 die mid flight ( bad battery).
As you described, the H did a RTH, but does not descend or land. I am assuming it would just hover at the RTH altitude and finally crash when the battery runs out.
Would much rather see it RTH and land, just hope the last known position of the ST-16 is not in the middle of trees or over water.

 

[Photo]

In the Turned off ST-16 mode.
They need to fix the firmware. I had my ST-16 die mid flight ( bad battery).
As you described, the H did a RTH, but does not descend or land. I am assuming it would just hover at the RTH altitude and finally crash when the battery runs out.
Would much rather see it RTH and land, just hope the last known position of the ST-16 is not in the middle of trees or over water.

Why not (pre flight) plan NOT to run out of power in the ST16 - use a Powerbank -

 

[R12NDS]

Why not (pre flight) plan NOT to run out of power in the ST16 - use a Powerbank -
View attachment 6476

This is sooooo not needed! You can get a full day of commercial flying from the ST-16. It's a fantastic controller.

 

[R12NDS]

...and if you'd read the post nobody ran out of power - i was testing the H!

 

[Photo]

This is sooooo not needed! You can get a full day of commercial flying from the ST-16. It's a fantastic controller.

Full day? How many H batteries do you fly on a ST16 battery? How comes: You had your ST-16 die mid flight due to a bad battery)"

 

[R12NDS]

Full day? How many H batteries do you fly on a ST16 battery? How comes: You had your ST-16 die mid flight due to a bad battery)"

Think you should ask BobDW55 about that? ;-)

 

[R12NDS]

In the Turned off ST-16 mode.
They need to fix the firmware. I had my ST-16 die mid flight ( bad battery).
As you described, the H did a RTH, but does not descend or land. I am assuming it would just hover at the RTH altitude and finally crash when the battery runs out.
Would much rather see it RTH and land, just hope the last known position of the ST-16 is not in the middle of trees or over water.

I agree...but when the H runs out of battery it is in a physical state suitable to land or be caught. I would prefer it landed too.

 

[R12NDS]

People are too quick to dismiss the Typhoon as a serious contender to the DJI...but i believe they just dont understand their aircraft!

Look on YouTube for DJI failures...after a view videos would you buy an Inspire? 4 rotors with no redundancy? No thanks.

 

[Rayray]

Let's kindly not argue over personal preferences and viewpoints. Stay on topic.

 

[PatR]

The H was designed to auto land if depleting the battery after hovering in place waiting for lost signal that was not regained. Like the OP I have tested all the automated features...except running the battery down below safe levels with the ST-16 telemetry mode disabled by putting it in Pad mode. The reason for not testing that particular feature is because I believe it to be a foolish risk action. Having flown as many as 12 batteries in a day, with the H within sight at all times, it was apparent it is not difficult to maintain awareness of the battery state and return to change batteries before they are depleted. I have not ever lost link with the aircraft unless I forced it to happen.

Sure, I had a flyaway event last December but that turned out to be a hardware failure that negated the firmware safety programming. In that event the low voltage fail safes would not have activated regardless. Some seem to think because they spent a grand onsomething they are entitled to perfection. Sorry, but that doesn't happen even if you spend a million $. There is always a failure rate of some percentage. General engineering practices typically only design to an 80%-85% reliability factor and then it gets further refined in pre-production testing to a level determined to be acceptable by the manufacturer. Further improvements, that still don't equal 100% reliability, occur over time. Nothing is designed to a 100% reliability level.

What I find amusing is the number of people that almost have panic attacks if they ask a question that isn't answered, when all they need to do to obtain the answer is walk out the front door and perform a simple test themselves. The fear level they must experience every time they fly must be almost unbearable. For those in that position I'll suggest you are playing with things you really can't afford to be involved with. Get out of it now before you crash because I assure you, there will come the day you will crash. If what you see is $$ signs and not the H when it is in the sky you should not be flying.

 

[m5zealot]

I have owned my H for several months and now i am preparing for my PfCO flight test i needed to truly test the capabilities of the aircraft in the event of emergencies.

Non-GPS Flight:
A noticable difference in flight characteristics, but more than an emjoyable and capable flight.

Return to Home - GPS:
The H returns home exactly as intended. It rises to the specified height, returns home, drops the legs, lands and turns off.

Switch off ST-16:
I was seriously worried about this...i flew the H about 50m away and at a height of about 10m. Turned the ST-16 off and within about 5 seconds the H turned to face me and rose to 20m. It then flew home, dropped the legs and hovered. I switched the ST-16 back on, regained control and landed the aircraft. It was a shame it didnt land itself, but it did at least come back.

RTH in non-GPS mode:
I flew the H in non-GPS mode to a distance of about 150m and clicked RTH. The H did nothing apart from drift because of the lack of GPS. I turned GPS on and clicked to RTH again and the H rose to 20m and came home, landing safely.

I felt it was important to know what happens when and my confidence is 100 percent in the H. Those who claim fly-aways may benefit from knowing the procedures and relaxing...they work!

Hope this post helps someone.

I was flying my H Pro the other day within 5 miles of a major airport to shoot engagement photos for a friend. I have software from Yuneec to allow me to fly up to 35 feet only which was fine for my shoot. I also called the tower to let them know. When I told then my H is restricted to 35 feet they basically laughed at me and said thanks for calling. In the excitement and distractions, I accidentally shut off the ST16 when I actually wanted to stop video recording! I panicked! It did hover up to my preset 60 feet RTH altitude but did not descent. It just froze at that altitude! I crapped my pants and cursed for being so stupid! After the switched the ST16 back on I was able to land the H but with much difficulty! It descended very slowly and had no yaw control. I had to hand catch it. I have a feeling this was due to the 35 feet restriction confusing itself by ascending to RTH 60 feet height. I'm never going to do this again until I get my 107 and get full NFZ software. Whew. Things could have been worse like a fly away huh?

 

[samsflite]

RTH in non-GPS mode:
I flew the H in non-GPS mode to a distance of about 150m and clicked RTH. The H did nothing apart from drift because of the lack of GPS. I turned GPS on and clicked to RTH again and the H rose to 20m and came home, landing safely.

Hope this post helps someone.

I was made to switch my controller off with the H in non-GPS mode for my PfCO. It drifted with the wind for a good minute before the controller switched back on, which was very scary.

Subsequently found (with Yuneec UKs help) that if you take-off with GPS enabled, then disable whilst in flight and switch off controller, the H will return back no problem. It should be added to anyone's ops manuals that they MUST take off in GPS mode (even if planning to fly with GPS disabled) if they want the aircraft to RTH upon a transmitter failure. Here in the UK this is a CAA requirement to ensure these failsafes are correct before taking off.

 

[PatR]

Makes sense. If GPS is turned off before launching how can it establish a home point? It is not possible. Best one could hope to do after launching with GPS off would be to put the -16 in Pad mode and wait for it to return to the last noted position of the -16.

In the U.S., commercial operators are required to perform full system checks as well.

 

[samsflite]

GPS still functions even though it is disabled I believe (you still get full location telemetry after the flight even if GPS was disabled), it just doesn't influence the flight controller. And as you say, it knows where the ST16 is so could at least take that last known location as home point, but it's just a quirk of the firmware (one that my examiners were not too keen on).

Anyway, it's just a heads up really. Here in the UK to satisfy CAA's criteria or RTH upon loss of link you must take off with GPS enabled on the H, even if you then disable it for the rest of the flight.

 

[JulesTEO]

@PatR I agree with your post 100%, but this is my personal favorite quote:

... Some seem to think because they spent a grand onsomething they are entitled to perfection. Sorry, but that doesn't happen even if you spend a million $.... Nothing is designed to a 100% reliability level.

That type of reasoning is beyond me.

 

[Rubik]

Switch off ST-16:
I was seriously worried about this...i flew the H about 50m away and at a height of about 10m. Turned the ST-16 off and within about 5 seconds the H turned to face me and rose to 20m. It then flew home, dropped the legs and hovered. I switched the ST-16 back on, regained control and landed the aircraft. It was a shame it didnt land itself, but it did at least come back.

I had the same thing happen when I suddenly lost video and flight control at what should have been a safe distance out. The ST16 was still ON but had switched to the Systems Settings screen. I engaged the RTH switch. The TH flew back to me at the preset RTH height and started descending. When I finally figured out that I needed to return to the flight control screen, I was able to manually land safely, but still no video. Rebooted TH and ST16, everything back to normal. The fault had occurred while I was adjusting the white balance during the flight. That might have been a coincidence but it didn't feel that way. There's actually a 3-1/2 minute gap in the telemetry file while it was returning to overhead!

 

[PatR]

@PatR I agree with your post 100%, but this is my personal favorite quote:



That type of reasoning is beyond me.

It's just the way it is. Consider what a Space Shuttle costs yet they put two with crew in the ground because of a component failure.

 

[R12NDS]

I had the same thing happen when I suddenly lost video and flight control at what should have been a safe distance out. The ST16 was still ON but had switched to the Systems Settings screen. I engaged the RTH switch. The TH flew back to me at the preset RTH height and started descending. When I finally figured out that I needed to return to the flight control screen, I was able to manually land safely, but still no video. Rebooted TH and ST16, everything back to normal. The fault had occurred while I was adjusting the white balance during the flight. That might have been a coincidence but it didn't feel that way. There's actually a 3-1/2 minute gap in the telemetry file while it was returning to overhead!

Same with mine. Testing the emergency procedures for 18 minutes produced flight logs for only 6 minutes. At least the H cane back! ;-)