Almost had a flyaway.. Could someone look at my telemetry data?

[uidzero]

I was down in Modesto this week when I took my drone for a flight over my Uncle's farm. The first flight went pretty much as expected. I saw no unusual behavior from the drone. It appears to do everything exactly as it should and landed fine.. I took a few minutes of overhead video.. it was pretty much a good flight.

However on the second flight (same battery - only a couple of minutes later) shortly after taking off, my drone suddenly veered south toward a large tree on my uncle's ranch without any warning. I quickly started trying different moves on the control stick and managed to get control of it again, but it kept trying to continue the direction it was in the entire time.. it resisted landing too. I say 'resisted' in that it's decent was about half of what I normally observe and it *seemed* to keep trying to move back upward.. like some kind of radio issue was occurring that interfered with the base station.

If you can see anything from looking at this data please let me know.. I might also open a case with Yuneec too. Thanks.

 

[Steve Carr]

A couple of things that may help......
1) When you get ready to start the H, set it on flat ground after everything is ready, press the power button and then don't move it until you are ready to take off.
2) If you haven't flown in awhile or change locations by a couple of hundred miles, let the H sit with the power on but the motors off, for about 13 minutes to allow the GPS to update.
3) Turn off any flight modes you have turned on before trying to land. That includes follow me, watch me, orbit or any others.

Other than that I don't see anything that should be a problem. I'd follow those steps and try another flight.

 

[Wingshooter]

I looked at your Telemetry Data. It looks like you switched in and out several times from Smart Mode to Angle Mode. While in Smart Mode if it was inside the Safe Circle it would have tried to move away from you without any stick input. That is normal behavior while in Smart Mode. The file also indicates Smart Mode - Camera Tracking several times. I am not familiar with the H so don't know what that behavior would be. I would suspect it would try to keep the Safe Circle Distance also. Best I could see.

 

[uidzero]

If you haven't flown in awhile or change locations by a couple of hundred miles, let the H sit with the power on but the motors off, for about 13 minutes to allow the GPS to update.

Interesting.. I was about 800 miles from where I normally am when I fly.

Turn off any flight modes you have turned on before trying to land. That includes follow me, watch me, orbit or any others.

I was fairly certain I had.

It looks like you switched in and out several times from Smart Mode to Angle Mode. While in Smart Mode if it was inside the Safe Circle it would have tried to move away from you without any stick input.

I thought when I had done that it was while the H was on the ground.. I noticed and odd behavior where the camera was panning suddenly when I was changed modes. However you make a good point about the Safe Circle.. given the quarters I was in I should have just stuck to angle mode.

The file also indicates Smart Mode - Camera Tracking several times.

That was probably when I was tinkering with Smart node and saw the camera suddenly turn away from me. Thank you for that additional input.

 

[Jester]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe we found a winner. The OP placed no blame on the H, and had the files loaded and ready for critique before even being asked, and admitted to every fault that may have been his/her own.
It seems there's a few/month that blame the H and then don't upload the files no matter how much they are asked.
Bravo!

 

[uidzero]

It seems there's a few/month that blame the H and then don't upload the files no matter how much they are asked.
Bravo!

The H is a pretty advanced piece of machinery. While I'm sure there are times that defects occur and will contribute to problems I wanted to eliminate all other possibilities first. Follow-on test flights were completely uneventful. I put it up in the air.. flew it all over a middle school athletic field.. ran tests with two batteries.. everything "just worked".

Question for @Steve Carr

That includes follow me, watch me, orbit or any others.

I'm not sure how to turn them off completely. By going into Angle / Pilot mode before landing? I don't see an option to turn them off completely in Smart mode.

 

[CraigCam]

Smart and watch me don't function in angle. You will see that that follow me is ready but not active. The section in the manual about this is very poorly written and it takes about three reads to get the it's white or grey meaning for follow/watch me mode. Also, besides the compass change, it may not be a good idea to double fly the battery. I get that it should be fine but lipos discharge in batches and I don't trust a battery for any real flight away from me if it's below 50%. The battery "recovers" when idle and gives false voltage levels when not under load. I've got some Q500 batteries I just replaced because all mine after a year of use had pretty much lost any punch or storage. What was my best one would drop to 10.7 during ascent at full throttle and you could here the lack of real power as it strained to go up. A good battery has reserves to punch it when in trouble and after any use of over a couple of minutes, you've lost that full power punch and that combined with any flight confusion is a recipe for a bad experience. Glad you figured it out and understand what really occurred. It's funny how at the time it seems all wrong and then you watch the footage and realize it was actually working properly based on your settings and location. First time I did an RTH with the updated firmware and the whole go up turn and face you bit I thought I was having a fly away mainly because I was disoriented to the H location relative to me. I panic less these days and even yesterday saved my Q from a nose dive (GoPro and gimbal are too forward so you got to fly easy) during a reverse shot by just relaxing and letting it level and then goose it up before it hit the ground. It was very instinctive and my hours of having ST controllers under my thumbs paid off. Yuneec drones by design want to find a safe hover when no input is given even without GPS. Confidence in your bird and your own skills takes time to develop and unfortunately, crashing can be part of the learning so it's good you saved it.

 

[Steve Carr]

I don't see an option to turn them off completely in Smart mode.

I wasn't very clear in my post. @CraigCam has it right. When you switch to Smart mode you are automatically in follow-me mode. Go to Angle mode to cancel.
The safest way to land.....go to Angle mode, rotate the H so the nose is pointing away from you. That way you won't get confused on orientation.

 

[uidzero]

Confidence in your bird and your own skills takes time to develop and unfortunately, crashing can be part of the learning so it's good you saved it.

Oh I did my crash time with my Phantom 3 Advanced.. fortunately it was only into some evergreen branches so the damage was cosmetic..