What to do when your TYPHOON H suddenly FLYS AWAY!!!

[Frankie]

First let me say to YUNEEC... You have a "flyaway" problem with the Typhoon H.

My Typhoon H did what many others on this forum have been saying... It literally flew away out of control!!!! I'm running the latest Firmware.

I have the flight data and when you replay it, you can clearly see that the Typhoon H does not have a clue where it is. Each time I switched it into RTH it was like it went through a time portal and appeared elsewhere.

Here is what happened, and here is what I did to save it:

1. Travelled to 4 separate areas about 10 km apart from each other. Flew a battery at each location and everything was as it should be.

2. Arrived at fourth location. 4th battery inserted. Camera connected, plenty of satellites with screen showing READY. Took off in ANGLE mode (I never fly in SMART MODE). As the Typhoon H raised up between trees it was drifting to the left so I gave it full power to rise above the trees before it crashed into one. At about 30 meters it immediately QUICKLY started drifting to the left. All yaw & directional stick input had ZERO effect.

3. I could tell that the Left stick to ASSEND or DESEND was working, but with slow results. The Right stick input DID NOT produce desired results. It was as if the right joystick was not working.

4. I switched it into Return To Home (RTH) mode and it shot off at a 90 degree angle AWAY from me. It did not perform any of the RTH movements (i.e., rise and turn around, etc). I noticed that by hitting RTH it would cause the FLY AWAY to go in a different direction, so I kept flicking in and out of Angle mode and RTH mode.

5. Since there were people, cars, trees, swamp, water all around I kept the Typhoon H above the trees so that it would not crash. If you panic and bring it lower to the ground while it's out of control, it will crash.

6. Finally after a few minutes of flicking in and out of the modes it began to fly less erratic at HIGH SPEED until finally it just flew erractic at a SLOWER SPEED and began to drift. I finally was able to get it to begin a true RTH process where it rose up and came to my location (slower than normal). I put it back in Angle mode and landed it safely. As it was coming down it was flying perfectly as if nothing was ever wrong.

If any Typhoon H pilot encounters their Typhoon H doing the FLY AWAY thing, then I suggest to do the following:

1. Don't Panic
2. Raise it above all objects surrounding you (the left joystick hopefully will work to raise it)
3. Keep trying to regain control by switching between RTH and ANGLE & SMART mode (but don't leave it in SMART mode)
4. Try the RIGHT joystick and expect it to not produce the desired results, but keep trying as you don't want it to keep flying in the same direction or you may never see it again.
5. It may take two minutes for the Typhoon H and ST16 to begin to work as per normal.
6. Once you regain control and all is well, crack open a cool one.... You deserve it!

Yes I'll be in touch with Yuneec this week to advise them that they have a problem.

Here is the video of the incident:

CAPTAINDRONE

I came across your video a couple days ago on YouTube, and I have to say I am very grateful that you posted it because for the first time I experienced a flyaway incident with my Typhoon H Pro. My experience seemed to be very similar if not identical to yours, and your advice on how to eventually gain control of the Typhoon H may have just saved my drone a trip to Yuneec for repairs.

Like you, I keep all my equipment up to date and on the latest firmware, I always make sure to recalibrate the drone according to “Yuneec” guidelines if needed, and I’ve also never had any signs of a malfunction during the previous 80 or so flights I’ve logged with this drone.

Below I’ve attached a short video that records the first 30 seconds of this erratic flight, which actually ended up lasting around two or three minutes in total. This was my first flight of the day, but I had been filming in this same area the past two days without any issues. Basically I’ve just been flying the drone straight up and then straight down to get some quick shots for that new monthly competition on here, but as the video shows this flight path had quite a different trajectory. Luckily I was able to control the drone and safely land after a few minutes, but that time in between was very nerve racking.

Typhoon H Pro Flyaway Path:


I’ll definitely be calling Yuneec sometime tomorrow to get their thoughts on the matter and to see if the telemetry data can give them any information as to why this happened all of the sudden. I’m curious to know though if you’ve had a chance to recalibrate and take your drone out for a test flight yet with good results, because I would like to get back to flying sooner than later but I don’t want to risk damaging this $1,900 investment, especially since I’ve already had the advanced version which regretfully crashed into a wall due to compass/GPS issues.

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

CAPTAINDRONE

I came across your video a couple days ago on YouTube, and I have to say I am very grateful that you posted it because for the first time I experienced a flyaway incident with my Typhoon H Pro. My experience seemed to be very similar if not identical to yours, and your advice on how to eventually gain control of the Typhoon H may have just saved my drone a trip to Yuneec for repairs.

Like you, I keep all my equipment up to date and on the latest firmware, I always make sure to recalibrate the drone according to “Yuneec” guidelines if needed, and I’ve also never had any signs of a malfunction during the previous 80 or so flights I’ve logged with this drone.

Below I’ve attached a short video that records the first 30 seconds of this erratic flight, which actually ended up lasting around two or three minutes in total. This was my first flight of the day, but I had been filming in this same area the past two days without any issues. Basically I’ve just been flying the drone straight up and then straight down to get some quick shots for that new monthly competition on here, but as the video shows this flight path had quite a different trajectory. Luckily I was able to control the drone and safely land after a few minutes, but that time in between was very nerve racking.

Typhoon H Pro Flyaway Path:
View attachment 3743

I’ll definitely be calling Yuneec sometime tomorrow to get their thoughts on the matter and to see if the telemetry data can give them any information as to why this happened all of the sudden. I’m curious to know though if you’ve had a chance to recalibrate and take your drone out for a test flight yet with good results, because I would like to get back to flying sooner than later but I don’t want to risk damaging this $1,900 investment, especially since I’ve already had the advanced version which regretfully crashed into a wall due to compass/GPS issues.

Yup.... your video shows 100% what a fly-away take off looks like. Yikes! You were in one of the worse places to experience a fly-away.

Initially when I sent my telemetry logs to Yuneec of my flight they responded within a day that with the limited info it looked as if the Typhoon was at an angle in strong winds (i.e. being blown all over the place). I advised them to have a look at my video and note that there was no wind and the strong angle issue was due to what we all call a "flyaway".... when the Typhoon takes off it does it at the fastest speed possible in more than one direction so the lean angle is significant. They asked for my entire FLIGHT LOG folder, which I've sent them. With the info in that folder you can then get a really good idea of exactly what is happening. I have not heard back as of yet, but I'll prompt them this morning.

As for flying it since the incident, I have not. Not because I'm worried of it crashing, but because I live in Canada and it's fall where the sunset is much earlier in the evenings. So getting home from work and flying does not leave much time. As long as there is no rain this weekend, I'll take it out for a flight. I'll just give it a compass calibration before the flight, then upon the takeoff I'll go straight up 30 or 40 feet and it should just hover.

One thing similar between your flight and mine is that cars were nearby upon takeoff (in my case, just my car). Several people on this forum and my video have commented on this. I've flown near cars before and never had a problem, but that was with the first firmware, not the current firmware. Does the current firmware cause a problem with metallic objects nearby only upon take-off but does not report this on the controller?

You can see in my video that as soon as I hit the START button, the compass suddenly became off... Do the motors of the Typhoon H and metallic objects near by suddenly become amplified? And then in my video you can see that upon leaving the location of the metallic objects the compass again was out of whack & we had a flyaway. Even more odd was that once I had my Typhoon under control I brought it back to me and hovered it several feet above power lines which caused no effect and it hovered perfectly. Then I brought it back down beside my car, which again had no effect and it landed nicely.

In your video you're between cars but also on a cement pad which has metal rebar going through it, yet your ST16 made no mention of a compass problem prior to takeoff. If I had placed a DJI Phantom in the same location, it probably would have given me a compass error warning due to the metal in the cement. And to make matters more strange, you indicated that you've flown there before without incident.

All I can say is that I'm guessing there is a problem in the last few firmware updates regarding the compass.

Glad you got yours back safely! And YES, open a Case Number with Yuneec on this.

 

[Gregbebs]

First let me say to YUNEEC... You have a "flyaway" problem with the Typhoon H.

My Typhoon H did what many others on this forum have been saying... It literally flew away out of control!!!! I'm running the latest Firmware.

I have the flight data and when you replay it, you can clearly see that the Typhoon H does not have a clue where it is. Each time I switched it into RTH it was like it went through a time portal and appeared elsewhere.

Here is what happened, and here is what I did to save it:

1. Travelled to 4 separate areas about 10 km apart from each other. Flew a battery at each location and everything was as it should be.

2. Arrived at fourth location. 4th battery inserted. Camera connected, plenty of satellites with screen showing READY. Took off in ANGLE mode (I never fly in SMART MODE). As the Typhoon H raised up between trees it was drifting to the left so I gave it full power to rise above the trees before it crashed into one. At about 30 meters it immediately QUICKLY started drifting to the left. All yaw & directional stick input had ZERO effect.

3. I could tell that the Left stick to ASSEND or DESEND was working, but with slow results. The Right stick input DID NOT produce desired results. It was as if the right joystick was not working.

4. I switched it into Return To Home (RTH) mode and it shot off at a 90 degree angle AWAY from me. It did not perform any of the RTH movements (i.e., rise and turn around, etc). I noticed that by hitting RTH it would cause the FLY AWAY to go in a different direction, so I kept flicking in and out of Angle mode and RTH mode.

5. Since there were people, cars, trees, swamp, water all around I kept the Typhoon H above the trees so that it would not crash. If you panic and bring it lower to the ground while it's out of control, it will crash.

6. Finally after a few minutes of flicking in and out of the modes it began to fly less erratic at HIGH SPEED until finally it just flew erractic at a SLOWER SPEED and began to drift. I finally was able to get it to begin a true RTH process where it rose up and came to my location (slower than normal). I put it back in Angle mode and landed it safely. As it was coming down it was flying perfectly as if nothing was ever wrong.

If any Typhoon H pilot encounters their Typhoon H doing the FLY AWAY thing, then I suggest to do the following:

1. Don't Panic
2. Raise it above all objects surrounding you (the left joystick hopefully will work to raise it)
3. Keep trying to regain control by switching between RTH and ANGLE & SMART mode (but don't leave it in SMART mode)
4. Try the RIGHT joystick and expect it to not produce the desired results, but keep trying as you don't want it to keep flying in the same direction or you may never see it again.
5. It may take two minutes for the Typhoon H and ST16 to begin to work as per normal.
6. Once you regain control and all is well, crack open a cool one.... You deserve it!

Yes I'll be in touch with Yuneec this week to advise them that they have a problem.

Here is the video of the incident:

My dear, did you made a compass calibration each time that you changed your location..?

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

My dear, did you made a compass calibration each time that you changed your location..?

No cuddle cakes I did not.

Have a look at the vid, I mention that this was battery #4 and I had just flown 3 batteries in three different locations (each location without a compass calibration) and all was perfect.

Oddly, the last compass calibration was done a week prior exactly 5km south of where the Typhoon went bezerk.

 

[Rayray]

Hilarious. Two lashes with a wet noodle,

 

[JohnL]

Hilarious. Two lashes with a wet noodle,

LOL! Was wondering to myself how that exchange would be interpreted.

That a Mustang rear end in your meme? Used to be the proud owner of a 1969 Z28 when I lived in the States. She's all gone now.

 

[Jean-Claude Picard]

Sorry for your bad experience, I understand the frustration for it happen to me with my H that I had just received from repair job at Yuneec in California, after over a month of waiting, When I tried to fly the craft, it raised normally, but when I tried to have it move left it suddenly went right, and hit a big maple tree, felt down on the street and broke one landing gear 4 propellers, the mounting gimbal plate of the camera that took of from the craft a locking plate that lock one of the propeller arm...I decided not to return the H to Yuneec and fix it myself, so I bought the replacement parts from Carolinadronz, along with a set of antennas (for the craft) that I will instal when I crack off the craft for replacing that locking plate. Although I think the H is a very interesting piece of equipment , I must admit I've never had a real pleasure using it since I bought it this past may, on a third flight it lost one side of a propeller (????) I use the RTH and it came down on five propellers, was afraid it would crash, I was asked to return it to Yuneec, so I did right away, but unfortunately it stayed a whole month at the UPS depot for they couldn't delivered it to Yuneec on account there was a missing paper for the custom regulations, then it was returned to me unopened one month later, had to refill those papers ( I live in Quebec City Canada) and send it back, another waited month to get back my H. I'm not complaining about the excellent service from Yuneec peoples, but I think it a shame that I have to send that craft so far away from my hometown when troubles occurs. I own two Q5004K, one I repaired myself after a bad crash, when the RTH seem to have not worked properly, I bought the replacement parts, the whole body, one motor controller and a motor, replaced everything (quite some work) and everything worked fine. When I asked Yuneec to sell me the parts for fixing my H they preferred to have it check themselves, and they paid shipping cost both ways and repaired the craft free of charge, and at the same time updated the firmware, maybe that's why I've got that problem the first time I've tried to fly it . Now I'm afraid to try it again when I'll have everything hooked up, I downloaded the last firmware (end Sept) and from what I read on the forum, there's still some problem with this last one. Cross my fingers.

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

Sorry for your bad experience, I understand the frustration for it happen to me with my H that I had just received from repair job at Yuneec in California, after over a month of waiting, When I tried to fly the craft, it raised normally, but when I tried to have it move left it suddenly went right, and hit a big maple tree, felt down on the street and broke one landing gear 4 propellers, the mounting gimbal plate of the camera that took of from the craft a locking plate that lock one of the propeller arm...I decided not to return the H to Yuneec and fix it myself, so I bought the replacement parts from Carolinadronz, along with a set of antennas (for the craft) that I will instal when I crack off the craft for replacing that locking plate. Although I think the H is a very interesting piece of equipment , I must admit I've never had a real pleasure using it since I bought it this past may, on a third flight it lost one side of a propeller (????) I use the RTH and it came down on five propellers, was afraid it would crash, I was asked to return it to Yuneec, so I did right away, but unfortunately it stayed a whole month at the UPS depot for they couldn't delivered it to Yuneec on account there was a missing paper for the custom regulations, then it was returned to me unopened one month later, had to refill those papers ( I live in Quebec City Canada) and send it back, another waited month to get back my H. I'm not complaining about the excellent service from Yuneec peoples, but I think it a shame that I have to send that craft so far away from my hometown when troubles occurs. I own two Q5004K, one I repaired myself after a bad crash, when the RTH seem to have not worked properly, I bought the replacement parts, the whole body, one motor controller and a motor, replaced everything (quite some work) and everything worked fine. When I asked Yuneec to sell me the parts for fixing my H they preferred to have it check themselves, and they paid shipping cost both ways and repaired the craft free of charge, and at the same time updated the firmware, maybe that's why I've got that problem the first time I've tried to fly it . Now I'm afraid to try it again when I'll have everything hooked up, I downloaded the last firmware (end Sept) and from what I read on the forum, there's still some problem with this last one. Cross my fingers.

When it comes to shipping from Canada to the west coast in the U.S. (DJI, Yuneec and GoPro too I believe), it takes a minimum of 10 calendar days to get from point A to B, if you live in central to eastern Canada (Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec). I live in the province of Ontario. Normally when Yuneec sends a shipping label there should be two documents for locations outside the U.S., but sometimes they goof up and there is only one document & you have to complete the second one at UPS (this happened to me when I returned the camera on the H).

If you're worried about flying your H, that could be a problem. It's a drone and is meant to be enjoyed without worry. My advice would be to fly several times in a large open area so that if you have any issues or get nervous about the flight, it won't run into anything. When you take off.... give it ****... make sure you lift it right up to above tree height so all is well if it begins to drift. I've been flying drones for awhile in all types of locations/situations. Sometimes they misbehave for whatever reason, but the large majority of times they fly well, so go out and have fun.

 

[Michael Brown]

First let me say to YUNEEC... You have a "flyaway" problem with the Typhoon H.

My Typhoon H did what many others on this forum have been saying... It literally flew away out of control!!!! I'm running the latest Firmware.

I have the flight data and when you replay it, you can clearly see that the Typhoon H does not have a clue where it is. Each time I switched it into RTH it was like it went through a time portal and appeared elsewhere.

Here is what happened, and here is what I did to save it:

1. Travelled to 4 separate areas about 10 km apart from each other. Flew a battery at each location and everything was as it should be.

2. Arrived at fourth location. 4th battery inserted. Camera connected, plenty of satellites with screen showing READY. Took off in ANGLE mode (I never fly in SMART MODE). As the Typhoon H raised up between trees it was drifting to the left so I gave it full power to rise above the trees before it crashed into one. At about 30 meters it immediately QUICKLY started drifting to the left. All yaw & directional stick input had ZERO effect.

3. I could tell that the Left stick to ASSEND or DESEND was working, but with slow results. The Right stick input DID NOT produce desired results. It was as if the right joystick was not working.

4. I switched it into Return To Home (RTH) mode and it shot off at a 90 degree angle AWAY from me. It did not perform any of the RTH movements (i.e., rise and turn around, etc). I noticed that by hitting RTH it would cause the FLY AWAY to go in a different direction, so I kept flicking in and out of Angle mode and RTH mode.

5. Since there were people, cars, trees, swamp, water all around I kept the Typhoon H above the trees so that it would not crash. If you panic and bring it lower to the ground while it's out of control, it will crash.

6. Finally after a few minutes of flicking in and out of the modes it began to fly less erratic at HIGH SPEED until finally it just flew erractic at a SLOWER SPEED and began to drift. I finally was able to get it to begin a true RTH process where it rose up and came to my location (slower than normal). I put it back in Angle mode and landed it safely. As it was coming down it was flying perfectly as if nothing was ever wrong.

If any Typhoon H pilot encounters their Typhoon H doing the FLY AWAY thing, then I suggest to do the following:

1. Don't Panic
2. Raise it above all objects surrounding you (the left joystick hopefully will work to raise it)
3. Keep trying to regain control by switching between RTH and ANGLE & SMART mode (but don't leave it in SMART mode)
4. Try the RIGHT joystick and expect it to not produce the desired results, but keep trying as you don't want it to keep flying in the same direction or you may never see it again.
5. It may take two minutes for the Typhoon H and ST16 to begin to work as per normal.
6. Once you regain control and all is well, crack open a cool one.... You deserve it!

Yes I'll be in touch with Yuneec this week to advise them that they have a problem.

Here is the video of the incident:

You were smart to raise it above any obstructions. I've had similar occurrences from time to time, I regained control, landed it, turned it off and rebooted it, then it was fine. Scary stuff though.

 

[Mirko H.]

Hello
I am writing for first time and I am beginer with 8 flights only. Because last week I saw instructions to dissable GPS, when flyaways happens. I decided to try how to fly without GPS. But I had problems how to switch GPS off. Display on ST16 was showing like GPS is already off, but in fact it wasn't. I repeated 4 or 5 times and finnaly happens. Same happened when I was trying to switch it on again. Did anybody have similar issue. Of course I have last update of firmware.

 

[Rubik]

When it comes to shipping from Canada to the west coast in the U.S. (DJI, Yuneec and GoPro too I believe), it takes a minimum of 10 calendar days to get from point A to B, if you live in central to eastern Canada (Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec). I live in the province of Ontario. Normally when Yuneec sends a shipping label there should be two documents for locations outside the U.S., but sometimes they goof up and there is only one document & you have to complete the second one at UPS (this happened to me when I returned the camera on the H).

If you're worried about flying your H, that could be a problem. It's a drone and is meant to be enjoyed without worry. My advice would be to fly several times in a large open area so that if you have any issues or get nervous about the flight, it won't run into anything. When you take off.... give it ****... make sure you lift it right up to above tree height so all is well if it begins to drift. I've been flying drones for awhile in all types of locations/situations. Sometimes they misbehave for whatever reason, but the large majority of times they fly well, so go out and have fun.

Thanks, Captain for the upbeat advice to Picard. After reading this thread top to bottom, it's easy to get worried about flying. That's no fun. I've been flying my TH in many different locations around Washington and Oregon since June without incident. Well, except for that crash last week where I flew into a tree that I should have seen on the display. After installing over $200 worth of parts, it flies again without problems. BTW, Vertigo Drones provided all the replacement parts very quickly.
One thing I've been doing lately after all calibrations are complete, is letting the ST16 and TH sit on the ground for several minutes all powered up and ready to fly while make notes in my log book. I'm also flying the latest firmware.
Thanks for sharing your experience. If a flyaway happens to me, hopefully I'll know how to react.

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

One thing I've been doing lately after all calibrations are complete, is letting the ST16 and TH sit on the ground for several minutes all powered up and ready to fly while make notes in my log book. I'm also flying the latest firmware.

Thanks! The sad thing is that we are almost in the year 2017 where new drones are starting up almost instantly (acquiring sats/compass) that it just seems odd to allow the Typhoon to sit for awhile after it's already given the OK on the ST16 for flight. In the "old days", which is drone tech speak for 3 years ago, it was very common to let a drone sit and acquire sats for a period of time. Letting the H sit certainly can't hurt and perhaps there is a glitch in the GPS/Compass system that sorts itself out if it is just left sitting and acquiring sats for awhile. Your guess is as good as mine.

Happy flying!

 

[Batfire]

Question, at any of the other three sites did you have power lines in close proximity to you as in this flight?


Cheers

 

[Dive4060]

Here is a snapshot of all the objects around me during the FLYAWAY. There was no place to land except the dirt road. I'm at the arrow. I started by the red car and was flying towards the planes, but the Typhoon ending up flying in the total opposite direction.

View attachment 3607

I think it was the sea port that cause the problem! The is one by me that every once an awhile **** like that happens to me! but not as bad. thank god. lol

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

Question, at any of the other three sites did you have power lines in close proximity to you as in this flight?


Cheers

No power lines on all 3 flights.

Also, the power lines question is pretty much a dead issue because you can see in the video that the only time the Typhoon H was close to the power lines is when it finally began working normally (i.e. when I was bringing it in for a landing). If power lines were of concern it would have freaked out at that point.

 

[Chukky]

Hi guys of the forum writers the fly always that have happened have they been before or after any updates, I have not an issue with mine and haven't done any updates and was wondering wether I should, appreciate any info.

 

[QuadBart]

Just like many of the early adopters, I've been around this section of the forum (Typhoon H) since even before it was available. I've read with interest the good and bad. What I've seen in that time (really only, what 5 months?) I've noticed that there are indeed fly-aways that can't be explained by anything obvious, environment factors or pilot error which leaves it to be an issue with the H.

I personally believe early H's have issues with the GPS Board/Module which manifest itself from being bad from the get-go (like my first H), to my second one which was initially good, but over time with the firmware upgrades developed issues.

I think Yuneec knows there is an issue with early GPS boards, but for financial and publicity reasons won't "recall" (I used that term realizing that "recall" deals with automobiles/vehicles that pose potential injury or death if not addressed). When I called Yuneec, frustrated with my 2nd H's inconsistent behavior, they asked my a couple basic questions, then asked; "Does the one you have include the "free" wizard"? After that question, the discussion immediately went into the RMA and returning the H. Its back now, (Tuesday this week) with the repair order stating the GPS module was replaced.

I've yet to fully put my repaired H through my usual "check-out" flight(s) which ensures everything functions as it should. That'll be today. I also always record these flights to prove show conditions in case something bad happens...

 

[FlushVision]

Hi guys of the forum writers the fly always that have happened have they been before or after any updates, I have not an issue with mine and haven't done any updates and was wondering whether I should, appreciate any info.

Mine is one of the early ones and is still running on the original firmware. Having read of all the issues around the updates I'm reluctant to update mine at the moment. I suppose I will update it eventually but I still feel the need to wait until there is an update that doesn't seem to have issues.

 

[Tony Johnson]

My H was flying funny drifting to the right skipping across the parking lot when I try to land every once in awhile and what I found was this here you'll see in the video

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

My first "H" - received in May 2016 - flew out of control on day two. It went back to Yuneec.

In June, Yuneec exchanged my 1st unit for a 2nd unit. They later also exchanged the camera for me.

That "exchanged" Typhoon H is the one I've been flying ever since and is the one that had the recent fly-away shown in this video. Does it also have a replaced GPS module.... don't know. The funny thing is that my 1st Typhoon H that I sent back to Yuneec, was giving a GPS module replacement. I know this because they email'd me the no-cost invoice on the first unit.