Can someone please tell me what i did wrong? (Fly Away)

[JohnYuneec]

This morning i had a successful flight. Found a nice spot, did all the checks and calibrations, took of and had really fun flying the H. After 10 minutes is landed the bird, took it to my office and recharged the battery and checked the footage.

When i went home i decided to do another flight and did the same procedure at another location. Again in a avery open area with no (high) building, trees, steel, etc. etc.

After all the checks and calibrations i started the motors and took of. Let it hover at +/- 6ft and noticed it drifted a bit. As i didn't trusted it, i landed the H and started over with the procedure. After i had this issue i decided to go to another location and try it again.

On the other location, started again with the procedure and started the motors, took of and let it hover at 6ft again for a short moment. I wanted to check how the H responded to the joysticks and put the right joystick forward in turtle mode. It flew for a few meters and then all of a sudden took of.

I didn't had much altitude, approx 6-10ft so there was little time. The H took of full throttle and was descending during the fly-away. I tried to push the left joystick forward to gain altitude but nothing worked. My only luck was it crashed right across a small river and into high weeds. It had minor damage but it was enough for me....

I hope you can explain me what went wrong.

Thanks

 

[Steve Carr]

Thank you for posting your telemetry. That is a tremendous help.

I see a compass error which was longer than normal and also the GPS went to False for some time even thought it shows 20 satellites.
The first thing you should check is the ST16. Go to the Hardware Monitor and check the responses from the sticks. Move them slowly and in all directions and make sure the readout is consistent and always returns to zero when the sticks are centered. Let us know what you find.

I would do the calibrations one more time. Do the compass in an open field. Then leave them as they are. Re-calibrating the compass before flying is not required and can actually cause problems. Do it once and leave it unless you have a very good reason to do it again.

Did you see any warning messages on the controller?

 

[JohnYuneec]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your reply.

Checking the stick was a pre-flight check which i also did this time. I checked if there was no green bar in neutral position and check how it responded when i did move both sticks. Before the flight, there was no single problem.

I did calibrated the compass for the reason i thought it was a part of the pre-flight check. Also, on a short flight 15 before this one i started noticing a drift when hovering. After a very short flight i saw i reacted weird a bit and drifted more during flight. For security reasons i shutted down GPS and flew back manually and landed successfully. (I have a video of this).

I can't remember very clear if i got i warning on the ST16. It all happend so fast, the moment from fly-away to crash was 3 seconds max. Obviously i do got warnings when the crash happend ;-).

At this point i don't know if i want to fly it again. Two rotors and one leg broke and the camera has some minor but fixable damage.

 

[Steve Carr]

Ok, the drifting and the telemetry certainly indicate some kind of problem. You should contact Yuneec and send them the entire flight log folder. They can analyze the data much more efficiently. At this point I would not fly again until you have talked to them. I understand you have very good customer service in the Netherlands.

The compass calibration should not be a part of the preflight. Once you have a good calibration just leave it alone. It is stored and rarely needs to be re-done. It is always possible to get a bad calibration if you do it frequently.

 

[wings]

I have been reading this Forum for several days and have noted how many fly always have been reported. This is rather disconcerting to someone who has been thinking about upgrading to an H model. At this time I have decided to wait and see if Yuneec can figure this out. I don't want to go through the negative experience so many H owners have had.

 

[Steve Carr]

I have been reading this Forum for several days and have noted how many fly always have been reported. This is rather disconcerting to someone who has been thinking about upgrading to an H model. At this time I have decided to wait and see if Yuneec can figure this out. I don't want to go through the negative experience so many H owners have had.

You will always read about problems in forums because that's the main reason people join. If you don't have a problem then you probably won't look for any information on the internet. If you go to any forum site for any model of copter you will find exactly the same.
I see problem posts mainly from people who are new to this hobby. Starting out with the H as a first UAV in a daunting experience. This is a complicated bird to learn and it's possible to miss the finer points. Get distracted and crash. Bump a switch and crash. Loose orientation and crash. Take off with a low battery and crash. Fly into a canyon and crash. Ignore a warning message and crash.

It's really all about getting experience much more than the equipment you fly. So if you are comfortable flying non-gps quads then you should be able to transition to the H as long as you understand the learning curve.

 

[JohnYuneec]

But i know this wasn't a failure from my side. I did flew the H manually, without GPS successfully before, learned landing, learned to land it in my hand, kill the motors, studied video's, manuals etc. etc. Still things go wrong and i would love to know why!

Why feels the H so hard to handle to me? Like said before, i've seen people flying other birds easier and with less problems...

 

[h-elsner]

There is nothing special visible in the telemetry file until motor 3 was cut and the FC goes to emergency mode. This is the moment where it switches off all motors. After that pitch, yaw, roll went crazy and GPS is off.

Before that the speed is constantly increasing. Don't know why. Can you please post also the Remote_00049.csv ?

Also I noticed a abnormal amount of Compass_calibration_Warnings during initialize phase on the ground. This happens before the first flight and also before the second. Can you check startpoints if there is a lot of iron or cables in the ground?
Was the compass calibration successful and in a magnetic field free area?

br HE

 

[Rayray]

Wings, have you been able to get your Q500 working properly? The H is more sophisticated and requires more care and attention to detail.
I have no problems with 3 of them, flown many times under varying conditions at different places. I had one early crash which was my bad.

Hope you have better luck in the future.

 

[JohnYuneec]

Is an interesting thing to investigate but since there where only 2 or 3 farms around and for the rest nothing but grass and some small rivers i doubt it. I will certainly try to find it out!

I attached two files, thanks!

The location of the flight was right here -> Google Maps

 

[Tuna]

I have been reading this Forum for several days and have noted how many fly always have been reported. This is rather disconcerting to someone who has been thinking about upgrading to an H model. At this time I have decided to wait and see if Yuneec can figure this out. I don't want to go through the negative experience so many H owners have had.

There are thousands of Typhoons out there now, and more being sold every day. Against that number we see a tiny handful of crashes or fly aways.

It's distressing when a drone doesn't behave properly, but unfortunately it does happen - for all manufacturers and all models. If it didn't, we wouldn't need all the regulation around UAVs.

@JohnYuneec At this stage, there's nothing obviously wrong in the telemetry, which points to a hardware error. Posting your Remote telemetry should confirm that. Talk to Yuneec and they should be able to sort you out.

 

[Steve Carr]

Is an interesting thing to investigate but since there where only 2 or 3 farms around and for the rest nothing but grass and some small rivers i doubt it. I will certainly try to find it out!
I attached two files, thanks!
The location of the flight was right here -> Google Maps

I am not suggesting there was any pilot error nor do I see any indication of such. I see things in the telemetry that should be looked at by Yuneec. Only they can make a definitive determination of what is going wrong. We can only speculate but it is my opinion there is a problem with the H and you need to get them the flight log folder as soon as possible.

 

[JohnYuneec]

I just opened a ticket, i'll keep u updated! Thanks for the reply's!

 

[h-elsner]

Let's see, what Yuneec says. The pittch stick do not match the to tas, but throttle meets the resuts in altitude.
At the end there comes an Motor off command from ST16 and it switches off. But this explains not, why motor status goes to 251 (motor 3 off). Motors off should take 3 sec until it cuts the motors, not 200ms.
So far not a clear picture for me.

br HE

 

[Steve Carr]

Let's see, what Yuneec says. The pittch stick do not match the to tas, but throttle meets the resuts in altitude.
At the end there comes an Motor off command from ST16 and it switches off. But this explains not, why motor status goes to 251 (motor 3 off). Motors off should take 3 sec until it cuts the motors, not 200ms.
So far not a clear picture for me.

br HE

I'm of the understanding that mode 12 is an Emergency shutdown by the FC as opposed to a shutdown by the stop button. If a motor had quit functioning the FC should have gone into 5 rotor mode. The sudden change in pitch and roll occur at the same time as the motor 3 error and mode 12 shutdown. (It's almost like a bird strike.)
Is this different than your understanding?

 

[Mrdronenut]

That's what I'm leaning towards. There was something that happened that shut down motor3. Something more likely than not had a hit.

 

[crussellgo59]

This morning i had a successful flight. Found a nice spot, did all the checks and calibrations, took of and had really fun flying the H. After 10 minutes is landed the bird, took it to my office and recharged the battery and checked the footage.

When i went home i decided to do another flight and did the same procedure at another location. Again in a avery open area with no (high) building, trees, steel, etc. etc.

After all the checks and calibrations i started the motors and took of. Let it hover at +/- 6ft and noticed it drifted a bit. As i didn't trusted it, i landed the H and started over with the procedure. After i had this issue i decided to go to another location and try it again.

On the other location, started again with the procedure and started the motors, took of and let it hover at 6ft again for a short moment. I wanted to check how the H responded to the joysticks and put the right joystick forward in turtle mode. It flew for a few meters and then all of a sudden took of.

I didn't had much altitude, approx 6-10ft so there was little time. The H took of full throttle and was descending during the fly-away. I tried to push the left joystick forward to gain altitude but nothing worked. My only luck was it crashed right across a small river and into high weeds. It had minor damage but it was enough for me....

I hope you can explain me what went wrong.

Thanks

True is, I have been flying my H since February and find almost every flight a white knuckle experience. Recently crashed my H and the camera was damaged. All was fine then it drifted into a trees and bush area, while attempting to maneuver out as I could not land, it hit a tree and then the ground. Looking at the Telemetry it lost GPS even though I had 16 Sat's. Drifting and lost GPS is a regular experience that I have always been able to overcome. My previous fights within in the hour with two batteries resulted in several instances where I could not land as the H would not stay still. Ok, let me keep it in the air and grab the leg to prevent a tip over on landing, no joy as I couldn't manage the controls to prevent it from drifting and grab the leg at the same time.

 

[Steve Carr]

True is, I have been flying my H since February and find almost every flight a white knuckle experience. Recently crashed my H and the camera was damaged. All was fine then it drifted into a trees and bush area, while attempting to maneuver out as I could not land, it hit a tree and then the ground. Looking at the Telemetry it lost GPS even though I had 16 Sat's. Drifting and lost GPS is a regular experience that I have always been able to overcome. My previous fights within in the hour with two batteries resulted in several instances where I could not land as the H would not stay still. Ok, let me keep it in the air and grab the leg to prevent a tip over on landing, no joy as I couldn't manage the controls to prevent it from drifting and grab the leg at the same time.

Start a new thread with your information. You will get a much better response by doing so.

 

[Rubik]

Ok, the drifting and the telemetry certainly indicate some kind of problem. You should contact Yuneec and send them the entire flight log folder. They can analyze the data much more efficiently. At this point I would not fly again until you have talked to them. I understand you have very good customer service in the Netherlands.

The compass calibration should not be a part of the preflight. Once you have a good calibration just leave it alone. It is stored and rarely needs to be re-done. It is always possible to get a bad calibration if you do it frequently.

Steve, I agree but with qualifications. I believe that compass calibration is required for at least 3 specific situations:

1. You are flying in a new location that is some distance from your previous calibration location (50 miles?, 100 miles?) It may depend on whether you have moved east/west or north/south as for most of us, the compass direction to the North Pole changes more rapidly in east/west moves.
2. You have just updated the firmware. That requires deleting flight data.
   
3. If the compass module has been replaced.

Are there any other situations where compass recalibration is required?

 

[Steve Carr]

Steve, I agree but with qualifications. I believe that compass calibration is required for at least 3 specific situations:You are flying in a new location that is some distance from your previous calibration location (50 miles?, 100 miles?) It may depend on whether you have moved east/west or north/south as for most of us, the compass direction to the North Pole changes more rapidly in east/west moves.You have just updated the firmware. That requires deleting flight data.If the compass module has been replaced.
Are there any other situations where compass recalibration is required?

There are other times you may want to cal the compass.
1. If you see the orange status light frequently.
2. If you experience unusual flight behavior you may want to calibrate everything to eliminate the compass as the cause.
3. After a crash.
4. The H was exposed to a strong magnetic field.