I was going to wait until Yuneec contacted me, but apparently they are swamped with tech support issues via email and I'm getting impatient.
I have ~20 flights (not sure didn't count) since getting the H back with a new camera earlier this month. It seemed to work well aside from the "twitch" in GPS modes, which isn't a big deal, more annoying than anything although I think it can be better. Otherwise it's a beautiful flying machine as long as GPS doesn't glitch.
Saturday was gorgeous weather with calm winds so I took 2 copters to Lake Huron; one quad copter and the H. First I flew out with with the X4 for some aggressive flying and then flew a mission quite far out.
Then I took the H out for some video tests and such; used 3 batteries conservatively. Lots of fun, flew excellent, very pleased. It was getting dark quick, so packed up and went home.
Monday I went to the the fairgrounds to practice using CCC, POI and Journey.
CCC: very good and one big reason I bought the H. This is where the 360 degree camera really comes in handy. No issues, ran 2-3 missions.
POI: worked like a charm. After completing 2 circles I landed with the camera facing me to set up for Journey.
Journey: It worked successfully before, so figured it should this time. Followed the on screen instructions, pressed Start(?), then the slider(?) on the screen. I was ~15 ft away in Angle mode. The motors started, but then the H began acting strangely right out of the gate, barely came off the ground after doing the bounce routine and began to yaw. I tried cutting the motors with the Big Red Button......didn't work. If it had, I wouldn't be posting this today. At that point it began to ascend but not at the correct angle and the camera was facing the wrong way. It then moved out and did not go above 5 ft. AGL (that's five feet), stopped approximately the correct distance out (maybe not, didn't measure), hesitated like it didn't know where it was, turned around then began to descend and move back toward me.
Thinking it may be a GPS glitch or more I didn't think it was a good idea to switch into RTH; no telling what it would do. Not even sure that can be done anyway. Can't turn off GPS while in flight IIRC (would be PITA in emergency situations), so I just stood there helpless waiting for the inevitable. About 1/3 of the way back the landing gear caught the ground and the H went end over end violently.
I calmly walked over, glanced at it and noticed one clearly broken arm, two broken props and the camera dangling by two of the dampeners; didn't even care to look at anything else. I packed up, went home, grabbed the telemetry log, sent it off to Yuneec and loaded it into Exmaps to watch the cartoon. The modes during the Journey run were 3 (Angle mode), 27 (Journey mode) then 12 (crash). The rest is goofy as ****.
Absolutely nothing makes sense examining the log; it's pretty simple to follow. It's almost as if the H lost its mind and freaked out. KP was 2, 20 sats.....everything looked good to go.
This is my first crash in two years out of the three I've been these things (many hundreds of flights), and the last was due to a hardware bug in the AUAV-X2 FC (Pixhawk variant) I wasn't aware of, fixed with an update the next day. Fortunately no damage. Prior to that was totally my fault for entering an incorrect parameter setting for the compass orientation.
This would never have happened with my Arducopter machines because I could easily switch out and take control. Yuneec relies heavily on GPS and doesn't give the pilot much choice unless you lose GPS signal. If that doesn't happen and it glitches, you're pretty much screwed.
Could I have exited out of Journey? Not sure and it didn't cross my mind. Why should it? Something was malfunctioning and since there's no way to turn off GPS in flight, it is playing Russian Roulette flipping switches and such. Angle, Smart, RTH.....all GPS dependent.
I impatiently await Yuneec's response, and expect a brand new copter, not a repaired jalopy. There's no telling how many stress cracks are in the body/arms etc., or damage to the electronics and I won't ever trust it. I really like the H, but am very much concerned the FC code has a bit to be desired compared to what I'm used to and needs more failsafe redundancy.
If this is determined to be pilot error, I already have decided what to do.
