Hello Fellow Yuneec Pilot!
Join our free Yuneec community and remove this annoying banner!
Sign up

And just like that, POOF, it flew into a tree

Joined
May 10, 2016
Messages
1,645
Reaction score
685
Age
68
Location
Melvin Michigan, In the thumb
So this last Saturday, I was out at the flying field playing with the Wizard. I thought I had the Follow me/ Watch me thing all figured out. So I decided to put the wizard on top of the wings to my Apprentice fixed wing and see how well the H could keep up.
First flight was just with the Wizard to see how well the Apprentice would do. The Apprentice is a high wing trainer type aircraft, not overly fast, can do mild acrobatics. She flew like the Wizard wasn't even there.
Second flight, used the Wizard to launch the H, had her about 20 feet in the air, and about 50 feet away.
Put the Wizard on top of the Apprentice checked I had watch me/ follow me turned on with altitude tracking. Took off and the H followed right along, that is until I climbed up to about 100' and made a down wind turn. The H was keeping right up with the Apprentice, and on the down wind leg we both were picking up a lot of speed. But I also noticed the H never climbed up with the apprentice. Before I could make another turn away from the tree line I was flying over, I heard that gut wrenching sound of crack, crack, THUD. Yup just like that the H flew full throttle right into the tree line. I was actually amazed at how fast she was going.
Have a look.
crash1.jpgcrash2.jpgcrash3.jpg

Good news she is repairable, soon as I find someone who has all the parts in stock. I don't want to order from multiple vendors.
Broken parts are:
1) "A" motor arm snapped in half
2) "B" motor arm broken that the hinge point (will replace anyway)
3) One landing gear torn off and not recovered, my spotter thinks I lost it when I hit the first tree.
4) One landing gear leg very loose in mount, will fix or replace.
5) One of the CGO3+ mounting pins is lost, rest of the camera is intact (YEAH)
6) Filter on front of the camera scratched.

I was lucky. 10 more feet and it would have been in the creek. Once I get it repaired, I will figure out why the altitude follow did not work. I was also surprised at how fast the H will go in a follow me mode.
Going to mount the wizard on a 20' pole to raise and lower, figure out the button presses from there. For the short duration of the flight, I can say the H is pretty capable of keeping up and following turns, and become a speed demon.
 
Hopefully you can get it figured out without another crash
I know how you feel Good luck getting your parts and repairing your h
 
Ouch. Sorry you crashed.

I'd like to admire your ambition / adventurousness - no way would I have had the balls to strap the wizard to another flying thing, let alone one that can't stop in mid-flight !!

What would you have done, just out of interest, if the H had lost GPS at any point, and started drifting in the wind towards trees / obstacles etc ? Would you have had to land the plane, and retrieve the wizard from it before you could affect anything about the H ? And were you happy with that risk ?!! :eek:

I'd have been supremely worried about doing this (to the point where I would have considered it unsafe to fly), given the inaccuracy of GPS, the extremely limited range of the Wizard and not having any control of the H for emergencies or otherwise once the wizard left my hands.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: AeriaL
Being that we were at an AMA flying field, thing were pretty open with the exception of the tree line that runs along one side of the field.
I am sure I misread the indicator lights on the wizard that would have told me it was in ALTITUDE follow mode as well. Once repaired I will try it on a pole to make sure I have mastered the correct settings. I can raise and lower the pole to see if it follows.
I can get 15+ minutes flying the Apprentice, I had set a timer for 8 minutes which was going to be my land and land the H. It was working beautifully until the tree jumped out. I am not sure if obstacle avoidance is on/off or even available with the wizard, it may have saved me from the trees. Well I have a repair project to keep me busy the next few days.
And yes, I will give it another go.
 
So sorry for your accident.
When i first bought the Typhoon H i was thinking to do exactly the same with wizard and my Ex Ranger plane.What stopped me, was the fact that the wizard doesnt have a "sophisticated" type of GPS(like an M8N for example) and when moving fast on a plane would make it lose the GPS signal. And as AeroJ said about not having any control for emergency.
 
Being that we were at an AMA flying field, thing were pretty open with the exception of the tree line that runs along one side of the field.
I am sure I misread the indicator lights on the wizard that would have told me it was in ALTITUDE follow mode as well. Once repaired I will try it on a pole to make sure I have mastered the correct settings. I can raise and lower the pole to see if it follows.
I can get 15+ minutes flying the Apprentice, I had set a timer for 8 minutes which was going to be my land and land the H. It was working beautifully until the tree jumped out. I am not sure if obstacle avoidance is on/off or even available with the wizard, it may have saved me from the trees. Well I have a repair project to keep me busy the next few days.
And yes, I will give it another go.
Obstacle avoidance is only working in Angle mode with the latest update.Had a conversation with YUNEEC about this.
 
I chose the apprentice because it is slow, and the least expensive if I had to crash it to keep the H away from people.
I would like to put it on my Ranger, but time wise the ranger can way out fly the H.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AeriaL
Figures, Vertigo has all the parts but the landing gear strut. Will have to get them from B&H.
I am replacing the motor arms with new motors as well. Although they rotate fine, they took a big hit, can use them for another project.
 
Been there, done that crashing the H. Unfortunately, you do have to order from various shops as they don't have everything you need in stock. Let's see now, in my case, A arm from ebay, gimbal lock and strut from midcityhobby in ebay, gimbal top, latches, dampers from vertigo dronz. In your case it will just take you 3 days tops since you're stateside, but out here in a tropical island soon to be battered by a cat 4 typhoon, the courier must have been using an ultralight to cross the pacific pond. Good luck and happy repairing! Wishing your H a get back flying soon greeting.
 
Ordered everything from Vertigo Drones. The landing gear T is on back order.
I forgot to order a new lens cover/filter, but also need an additional part for the camera. It is like a screw on wire guide at the very top.
Will take a picture and post it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Steve Carr
Ordered everything from Vertigo Drones. The landing gear T is on back order.
I forgot to order a new lens cover/filter, but also need an additional part for the camera. It is like a screw on wire guide at the very top.
Will take a picture and post it.
Lucky you times two. You're H will be in the air sooner than mine.
 
As the saying goes, "there are two kinds of pilots. Those who have crashed and those who are about to"

Yes, I had one that took me a while to put humpty dumpty back together again but it wasn't as bad as I feared. I just had to order a bunch of parts.

The other I thought might be a total disaster as it gnawed on a tree about 50' above the ground and returned to earth a day later. But.... it resulted in just one single broken prop and a couple of hours of getting pine sap off the H. After @Steve Carr analyzed the telemetry and it showed the GPS just dropped out causing the flyaway though I replaced the GPS module.

Very, very, very few pilots don't have a crash or two in their closets.
 
Still need a part.
This is a bearing keeper that screws down on the top of the camera gimble.
Anyone seen one in repair parts?20180911_115610.jpg
 
I found out the part is not available. Was suggested to just use a piece of zip tie for it. Why didn't I think of that.
Parts should be here tomorrow. May paint my shell a bright color since I will have it all apart.
Going to name it GEORGE, after George of the jungle. Watch out for that Treeeee. Let the fun begin.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rubik
Still need a part.
This is a bearing keeper that screws down on the top of the camera gimble.
Anyone seen one in repair parts?View attachment 11309
@BobW55
Bob I repaired mine when the wires ripped out, it took about 3 to 4 hours.

Picture 01 shows a blue coax striped from wire,

Oh, you need the screws.:oops:
 

Attachments

  • DSC_0001.JPG
    9.6 MB · Views: 31
  • DSC_0012.JPG
    8.1 MB · Views: 24
  • DSC_0022.JPG
    14.4 MB · Views: 18
  • DSC_0025.JPG
    6.8 MB · Views: 15
  • DSC_0028.JPG
    6.7 MB · Views: 16
  • DSC_0031.JPG
    8.3 MB · Views: 14
  • DSC_0032.JPG
    9.2 MB · Views: 13
Last edited:
Lol man!
Paint it bright fire red. I ve seen that somewhere and it was beautiful.

YUNEEC give us a firmware with wizard tracking/following, but same time to be able to take control with st16! This should be fantastic for adventure guys!
 
Last edited:
Picked out some dayglow orange/red.
I never had trouble seeing it, but it will look nicer when done. I just hope I didn't kill the camera. None of the wires pulled loose so I should be good to go.
 

New Posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
20,955
Messages
241,599
Members
27,284
Latest member
csandoval