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Controlling your drone when it gets out of control

Joined
Dec 13, 2018
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Age
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This came to mind as I was flying my H recently. The drone was toilet-bowling pretty bad and I tried everything to get it to stop but nothing worked. So it really took some major stick control on my end to land it without hitting anything or rolling over. The strong breeze didn't make it any easier either. I managed to get it on the ground and shut down safely without any issues, thankfully.

Before I bought my H, I learned how to fly on a really cheap plastic "made in China" drone. Even the slightest breeze would get that thing out of control, so learning control on that thing has helped me as I fly my H in times where it toilet bowls or gets out of control. I fly FPV too so that helps as well.

I think practicing flying on a really cheap drone can be useful to help you learn stick control... In case something goes wrong on your expensive drone and you need to get it back in control. Better to crash your $40 drone than to crash your $1000 drone, right?

Just something to chew on. Happy flying, all.
 
This came to mind as I was flying my H recently. The drone was toilet-bowling pretty bad and I tried everything to get it to stop but nothing worked. So it really took some major stick control on my end to land it without hitting anything or rolling over. The strong breeze didn't make it any easier either. I managed to get it on the ground and shut down safely without any issues, thankfully.

Before I bought my H, I learned how to fly on a really cheap plastic "made in China" drone. Even the slightest breeze would get that thing out of control, so learning control on that thing has helped me as I fly my H in times where it toilet bowls or gets out of control. I fly FPV too so that helps as well.

I think practicing flying on a really cheap drone can be useful to help you learn stick control... In case something goes wrong on your expensive drone and you need to get it back in control. Better to crash your $40 drone than to crash your $1000 drone, right?

Just something to chew on. Happy flying, all.
On this forum it is strongly advised for any person new to drones to get themselves a low cost simple drone to practice with before taking to the air with a costly drone and to also practice with the available simulator too. Too many new pilots crash their expensive drones on the first few flights because of a lack of experience...running before they can walk, so to speak. Much better to crash an aircraft that you haven't invested too much money into.

Good post, @JMolter . By the way, have you resolved your toilet bowl issue?
 
This came to mind as I was flying my H recently. The drone was toilet-bowling pretty bad and I tried everything to get it to stop but nothing worked. So it really took some major stick control on my end to land it without hitting anything or rolling over. The strong breeze didn't make it any easier either. I managed to get it on the ground and shut down safely without any issues, thankfully.

Before I bought my H, I learned how to fly on a really cheap plastic "made in China" drone. Even the slightest breeze would get that thing out of control, so learning control on that thing has helped me as I fly my H in times where it toilet bowls or gets out of control. I fly FPV too so that helps as well.

I think practicing flying on a really cheap drone can be useful to help you learn stick control... In case something goes wrong on your expensive drone and you need to get it back in control. Better to crash your $40 drone than to crash your $1000 drone, right?

Just something to chew on. Happy flying, all.
All GPS stabilized planes rely on the compass to know which way to fly to get to the next desired GPS location.
If the compass calibration is bad, or there is magnetic interference, or the compass mount fails, the plane will miss the next GPS location and start to circle.
Structures with big steel are a common cause (buildings, bridges, towers, vehicles.)
If the plane is more than 50ft away form magnetic interference it should be stable.
Walking around with a pocket compass will show any hidden magnetic fields.
Here is an example of a crash landing near structural steel.

So, If your GPS positioning fails for whatever reason, you can turn it off and use you manual flying skills.
 
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On this forum it is strongly advised for any person new to drones to get themselves a low cost simple drone to practice with before taking to the air with a costly drone and to also practice with the available simulator too. Too many new pilots crash their expensive drones on the first few flights because of a lack of experience...running before they can walk, so to speak. Much better to crash an aircraft that you haven't invested too much money into.

Good post, @JMolter . By the way, have you resolved your toilet bowl issue?

My H will toilet bowl every once in a while, I think on this flight in particular it was doing it because I was flying in a park with a lot of trees around me, so I'm guessing that probably messed with the compass a little bit.
 
My H will toilet bowl every once in a while, I think on this flight in particular it was doing it because I was flying in a park with a lot of trees around me, so I'm guessing that probably messed with the compass a little bit.
Generally, trees shouldn't mess with your compass. I get toilet bowl occasionally but I can always rectify it with a compass calibration. As @Sureshot 's text. Switch off GPS and bring it in manually. Land and do the calibration. I'm careful not to fly around magnetic sources that I know of.
 
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I’ve experienced “toilet bowling” with an H-480 just once, on a flight immediately after I securely linked the two forward booms together with a solid carbon rod spanning them. It would handle directional flight just fine but any attempt to hover in a static position was not possible. Removing the spreader bar linking the booms resolved the issue.

A point of note is the drone was controllable in directional flight but any type of hover demonstrated toilet bowling, starting with small deviations that progressively amplified, that could not be effectively mitigated with control input, but it handled directional flight paths just fine. So flying the aircraft out of hover and returning for a relatively quick hand catch before toilet bowling becomes severe might be an acceptable method of avoiding a crash instead of trying to land with a toilet bowling aircraft.

The OP’s recommendation to learn how to fly using aircraft lacking sophisticated stabilization systems is a very good one. Basic “stick and rudder” skills should be learned with entry level aircraft before attempting to fly advanced level systems to prepare operators for those times when advanced systems fail.
 
I spent a lot of time troubleshooting the Toilet Bowl issue and I learned one very important thing: If you turn the GPS off, the Toilet Bowl syndrome will stop instantly -every time- and the aircraft will respond to control inputs normally.
 
Here is a classic example of what happens if the compass mount comes loose.
Or if maybe you had a magnet in your pocket when doing the calibration.
crazy compass- flight path.png
 
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Hi All fellow members,
I cut my teeth flying Syma x5 and x8 quads before they had barometric altitude hold, then progressed to the state of the art ones with a barometer and thought that it was CHRISTMAS. Then to a WL toys Q303 with a tilting camera to start inspecting roofs and buildings 6 years ago. So now you know why after them and on old phantom that I love everything about the H480. I still go and fly the old girls for fun and dusting purposes and an over all appreciation of our fantastic MACHINE the H 480. I think that it is mandatory that you should have some sort of experience at flying without GPS assistance. My CASA license was conducted out in a field where I had to fly in ATTI mode around field lighting poles as if I was doing an inspection. The examiner said if that is going to be your future OCCUPATION then should know how to control it in all situations. The other students did not get that test and the wind started to blow at about 15 MPhil when I started it. Obviously got through that OK , but if I did not have that previous experience I may not have passed . Now I will step down off the soap box and go and charge up a few of the old girls and have some fun this arvo.
Johnno Hennessy. Keep flying on the green side of the grass.
 

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