Fell victim of the smart circle of death :/

[JulesTEO]

Here's my sad experience I just had earlier (110% my error, luckily minor damage to the aircraft):

So I had planned a flight today at a very nice park on my city, its a very popular recreational park that was built around a *** at the outskirts of the city, there's excercise machines, running/bicicle tracks, a zip line frome one side of the water body to the other, you can rent boats, water motos or use your own boat, you name it..

I looked for a nice spot, I asked the security staff if it was ok to fly the drone at the park and they were absolutely fine with it. (I was worried I wouldn't be allowed to fly at all)

Took it out, calibrated compass and accelerometer, I was so excited that I didn't notice I made a Major mistake, and took off on smart mode while standing close to the H. I don't know how I missed it, I've got to say I'm pretty mad at myself right now.

Anyway the H immediately became irresponsive, I had it just lifted it over a couple meters as I always do to check it's stability and responsiveness before sending it away.

I kind of kept a bit of control, but since I freaked out I didn't notice the bright green light that anyone would assume is the first thing I sould've noticed. I guess that since I never fly on smart mode my brain some how overlooked it (also since I immediately got my memories from my nasty last crash I wasn't thinking right)

Anyway, It started moving away from me, until it got just a couple of inches away from a steel post nearby.

At that moment I got close to it and trying to get ahold of it on the air to pull it and kill the motors, when it slowly came in contact with the post.

Long story short: it fliped and fell from the "platform" I was standing into the grass below, busted 2 propellers, 3 dampers popped out (luckily the gimbal rails held fine this time) but unfortunately 2 wires from the camera pulled and broke. It did enter 5 motor mode, however the ship was built so that she would stay afloat with 5 operating propellers, not 4 (excuse the lame titanic reference)

I'm pretty sure I hit the record button when I took of, so its possible that the footage is in there.

I have to be honest I broke the rules after that ; one of the propellers broke very symetrically, and since there was no visible vibration from that motor I tested it and I got to fly normally after my mishap, however it was a cameraless flight, (I've got to say though that the battery lasted a very long time without the extra weight and the camera feed)

Sadly I no longer have prop spares so I'll have to order some (pay an unfair shipping cost all the way to mexico) and wait to fly again

Right now I'm in the process of soldering back those loose wires, hopefully I'll be able to share this sad incident with you, and HOPEFULLY it will serve to me as a reminder of that dreadful smart circle of death.

As you can see the flight path is absolutely ridiculous, anyone who could've seen me would've tought it was one of the most ridiculous crashes. But it was the smart circle doing its weird job.

Luckily I chose a good location without any bystanders, later when I flew it (with a damaged propeller) the H did draw some attention of people who got close to watch the H soaring through the sky.

Greetings!

 

[Brian Mackey]

Great job of documenting the event. Sorry for the loss -- Next time one good rule to keep in mind is if your in panic mode (GO UP!) get that sucker up in the air to give yourself a chance to recover your composure

What is this about? (pay an unfair shipping cost all the way to mexico)

 

[KBflyer]

Pre fight check list. If you had one you would have caught your mistake.
Hopefully your back in the air soon.

 

[PatR]

You have some gonads buddy. Many have danced with the circle but few admit it, and fewer still have been willing to share their tale of woe. Hope it all works out and you're back in the air soon.

 

[Typhoon Charlie]

Sorry for your crash, I cannot believe Yuneec allow the H to arm if you are standing within the circle. That is such poor design in their part. The first thing I did to my ST16 was to stick a piece of plastic blocking the switch from going to smart mode. I don't use smart modes but if i ever want to I can just peel the tape off.

 

[JulesTEO]

Update on this... It seems the camera sustained larger damage than I thought, this time resoldering the cables on the contact board didn't do anything, I believe it couldve shorted during the crash or simply the impact damaged the internals.

Too bad since I've already voided my warranty when I refocused, this was a definitely co$tly mistake

 

[JulesTEO]

What is this about? (pay an unfair shipping cost all the way to mexico)

Last time I order one landing gear and the CGO3 mount from Horizon Hobbie, both parts totaled about 12 usd, however shippment was around 40 usd, I assumed it was so expensive because I live in mexico, or is it that costly for US residents as well?

 

[JulesTEO]

Sorry for your crash, I cannot believe Yuneec allow the H to arm if you are standing within the circle. That is such poor design in their part. The first thing I did to my ST16 was to stick a piece of plastic blocking the switch from going to smart mode. I don't use smart modes but if i ever want to I can just peel the tape off.

I agree, if only the H would give you the same descending 3 beep sound just not only when there's no gps lock but also when you're standing within the "smart" circle these situations wouldn't happen.

Pre fight check list. If you had one you would have caught your mistake.
Hopefully your back in the air soon.

Exactly my thoughts after this incident.. I've learned my lesson not to trust myself. However the H is still flying, I did a very nice flyaround after this, it's the camera that looks like didn't survive.

You have some gonads buddy. Many have danced with the circle but few admit it, and fewer still have been willing to share their tale of woe. Hope it all works out and you're back in the air soon.

Well, I don't understand why someone wouldn't admit it was a pilot error I don't have anything to hide, I messed up real bad knowing about the circle but not following my pre-checks as I should. The H still flies, it's the camera that didn't make it

 

[JulesTEO]

You have some gonads buddy. Many have danced with the circle but few admit it, and fewer still have been willing to share their tale of woe. Hope it all works out and you're back in the air soon.

Great job of documenting the event. Sorry for the loss -- Next time one good rule to keep in mind is if your in panic mode (GO UP!) get that sucker up in the air to give yourself a chance to recover your composure

Ok, so now I'm ready to really embarrass myself.

I was able to pull the backup video from the ST16, and did a very simple overlay from the flylogparser

Please note:

1) I was at rabbit speed, that's why the joystick movements are very subtle at first.
2) Why did I stop descending half way? I dont know! I was freaking out!
3) After the H hit the ground I tried to kill the motors but it flipped and it shut off itself
4) The video is unlisted so it wont show on youtube search results, the H doesn't need any more negative publicity and this was my error, the machine did what it's supposed to do.

Anyway, please enjoy my disgraceful flight:

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[Tuna]

I feel for you. That moment of brain freeze when it all goes wrong is terrifying. If it helps, I drove an ex girlfriend's car into a truck when the clutch failed... those seconds where you can see what's going to happen, but carry on doing the same (wrong) thing sure stick with you

 

[JohnL]

I feel for you. That moment of brain freeze when it all goes wrong is terrifying. If it helps, I drove an ex girlfriend's car into a truck when the clutch failed... those seconds where you can see what's going to happen, but carry on doing the same (wrong) thing sure stick with you

Makes me think about the time I wrecked my flight club's Cessna 172 landing in a strong cross wind (this was the late 70's). Thank goodness for insurance!

 

[DroneClone]

Sorry for your loss in the dreaded "Twenty six foot circle of Death", what makes me scratch my head, is your decision to fly it with a broken prop, that was another recipe for disaster, especially as you stated , people gathered to watch ! Hope you get your camera situated soon , Fly safely !

 

[K3CFPV]

Since there is a GPS in both the ST16 and the H, it's feasible for it to be able to recognize when you are too close to the H to safely take off in Smart Mode. Why not override Smart Mode until it gets far enough away and then default back to Smart Mode? That would help prevent these types of situations. Also, I wonder what happens if you disable Smart Mode, take off (home is now close to you), then enable Smart Mode, then trigger RTH? Does it react unpredictably when it tries to land at the Home position in Smart Mode but Home is too close to you?

 

[DroneClone]

Since there is a GPS in both the ST16 and the H, it's feasible for it to be able to recognize when you are too close to the H to safely take off in Smart Mode. Why not override Smart Mode until it gets far enough away and then default back to Smart Mode? That would help prevent these types of situations. Also, I wonder what happens if you disable Smart Mode, take off (home is now close to you), then enable Smart Mode, then trigger RTH? Does it react unpredictably when it tries to land at the Home position in Smart Mode but Home is too close to you?

Don't try it! It does nasty things !

 

[JulesTEO]

Since there is a GPS in both the ST16 and the H, it's feasible for it to be able to recognize when you are too close to the H to safely take off in Smart Mode. Why not override Smart Mode until it gets far enough away and then default back to Smart Mode? That would help prevent these types of situations. Also, I wonder what happens if you disable Smart Mode, take off (home is now close to you), then enable Smart Mode, then trigger RTH? Does it react unpredictably when it tries to land at the Home position in Smart Mode but Home is too close to you?

I honestly have yet to test RTH, I really don't trust automated flights, let alone experiment switching between them, (I've tested though CCC, and POI without any problem)

I did once disable GPS mid flight and reenabled it and it twitched for a second and flew a couple of meter back (very fast!) to a random position, it was enough for me not to try it again.

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

Ok, so now I'm ready to really embarrass myself.

I was able to pull the backup video from the ST16, and did a very simple overlay from the flylogparser

Please note:

1) I was at rabbit speed, that's why the joystick movements are very subtle at first.
2) Why did I stop descending half way? I dont know! I was freaking out!
3) After the H hit the ground I tried to kill the motors but it flipped and it shut off itself
4) The video is unlisted so it wont show on youtube search results, the H doesn't need any more negative publicity and this was my error, the machine did what it's supposed to do.

Anyway, please enjoy my disgraceful flight:

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Love the music. Question for you... Even since the September firmware updates the Yuneec Flight Log App no longer works, it just crashes. You appear to have played back the video from it as the top portion on your video is the App. How did you get it to work.... or are you running old firmware?

 

[JulesTEO]

Love the music. Question for you... Even since the September firmware updates the Yuneec Flight Log App no longer works, it just crashes. You appear to have played back the video from it as the top portion on your video is the App. How did you get it to work.... or are you running old firmware?

I'm running the firmware from Sept 1st (I believe 2.21), since it's been flying perfectly and all the problems reported on both 2.24 and 2.25 have kept me from upgrading under the philosophy of "if it isn't broken dont fix it"

The App did crash the first time I tried to run it after I updated to this firmware, the solution was to tap the 3 dots on the top right corner (not visible in my photo) then configuration, and select aMap instead of google map.

I remember having gone to that configuration before and aMap was the only option, seems that in September google maps was added as default, but it doesn't work, it crashes every single time.

I've also come with a couple of corrupt.csv files that crash the app, but if it crashes all the time, then try this and it will run as it did before.

greetings!

 

[ArnhemAnt]

Here's my sad experience I just had earlier (110% my error, luckily minor damage to the aircraft):

Dude - so sorry to hear about this and I really hope you can get your camera sorted out so you're back up in the air and filming again soon.
Huge thanks for posting this though, as it may help to remind other members to be very aware of this and always have a solid pre-flight check.
I also agree that there should be something done in the FW so that you cannot arm when you are within the 'smart circle'. Be nice if there was a way to disable this mode or even move it to another switch or button on the ST16 - maybe the Aux button as I don't think this does anything at the present time.

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

I'm running the firmware from Sept 1st (I believe 2.21), since it's been flying perfectly and all the problems reported on both 2.24 and 2.25 have kept me from upgrading under the philosophy of "if it isn't broken dont fix it"

The App did crash the first time I tried to run it after I updated to this firmware, the solution was to tap the 3 dots on the top right corner (not visible in my photo) then configuration, and select aMap instead of google map.

Perfect! Works great. Thanks!

 

[Chris McMillan]

Sorry for your crash, I cannot believe Yuneec allow the H to arm if you are standing within the circle. That is such poor design in their part. The first thing I did to my ST16 was to stick a piece of plastic blocking the switch from going to smart mode. I don't use smart modes but if i ever want to I can just peel the tape off.

Hi TC, could you please post a pic of your setup with switch blocking?
Cheers.