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First Flight Crash

Joined
Nov 1, 2019
Messages
56
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Age
80
There are many things I might have done differently. To try out the Typhoon H, I chose a large parking lot near the local town beach (Oyster Bay, NY). AT this time of year it is usually devoid of cars. However I wanted to be sure that should cars arrive they would not drive too near so I choose a site near the perimeter--a bad choice. I had started the drone motors previously and noted that the camera controls were functioning correctly. I THOUGHT I thoroughly understood the controls which were in "mode 2 configuration" (Throttle and yaw on left stick; Left/right, forward/back on right stick). The flight mode was on "angle". All went well at first. 10 satellites were showing and I raised the drone to about 10 feet and let it hover. I did some maneuvers, forward and back, left and right tests. The drone seemed to be drifting slowly away and up and I had difficulty correcting this. Beyond my launch site was a railroad track with power lines above. I feared the drone was drifting that way. There was grass below it and it continued rising. I pulled the throttle back to lower the drone. It responded by going up. I let go the stick and it hovered. What to do? I should have lowered the gear but the drone was drifting upward and I feared the power wires. AT 12 feet the drone might have sustained less damage with the gear down but I did not make the right decision. I pushed the red power button and the drone fell to the ground, breaking off the camera and damaging three of the propeller arms (the mechanism that retains them in the "locked up" position no longer kept the arms up.
The factors that contributed to the crash included: My lack of flying experience, the too-close proximity to the RR tracks, my failure to lower the landing legs, my decision to abort the flight by depowering the drone, and possibly the failure of the controller throttle to lower the drone gently when I tried to throttle down. The drone is now being evaluated at a repair shop and I have not yet received the good or bad news regarding th extent of the damage. It is good advice to buy a cheap drone to start out with. I strongly agree. Thoughts anyone? Thanks.
 
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Hopefully it will be good news. I wouldn't take off without more Satellites. aquired At least you know where not to fly again. I don't think personally you need to get a cheaper copter, there quite easy to fly, read the manual, and leave the camera off til your confident, it's an expersive delicate item, practice practice.
 
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I think there are two separate issues here, one is you are a new pilot with an advanced drone so the pressure you felt while flying was aggravated but secondly, from your description, the controls were not responding correctly and this further added to the pilot load which as you describe led you to make what you felt later were bad decisions. So learning on a cheap drone will give you more confidence in the future but in this case you still had a drone that would not descend.

From your description, I am thinking of two possibilities, you may have had a dirty pot on the left stick - basically the signal from the movement of the stick does not match the actual position and therefore control does not respond as normal - this is a common occurrence and is an easy fix. Second we have seen were weird mixes between channels occur when someone gets into the channels menus and doesn't fully understand what they are doing and end up mixing channels together causing strange behavior.

Both of these can be determined by looking at the RC Monitor on the ST-16 and confirming each control input separately. You say your Typhoon is at a repair shop, do you know where it was sent?
 
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When you get it back, post your concerns, people on here will guide through with YouTube Vids and advice calibrations, hints and tips, so your in a better position for a successful flight.
 
The drone is now being evaluated at a repair shop. Thoughts anyone?

Did you send the controller to the shop along with the drone? If you still have the controller available, you can upload the flightlog directory to the forum. We can possibly find the cause of the event.
 
Sorry to hear of your bad look with your first flight . Hopefully I hope the cost of repairs won't be exorbitant. I am wondering do you come from a fixed wing model background? I myself flue fixed wing models for years and I had a similar experience to yours on my first flight with new H Pro. Now what I mean to say is I was trying to lower the throttle by pulling back on the left stick. This will make the drone drop fast but if you don't hold the stick back it will hover. Nabu just maybe is this what happened to you? :eek:
Regards.
Mike
 
I think there are two separate issues here, one is you are a new pilot with an advanced drone so the pressure you felt while flying was aggravated but secondly, from your description, the controls were not responding correctly and this further added to the pilot load which as you describe led you to make what you felt later were bad decisions. So learning on a cheap drone will give you more confidence in the future but in this case you still had a drone that would not descend.

From your description, I am thinking of two possibilities, you may have had a dirty pot on the left stick - basically the signal from the movement of the stick does not match the actual position and therefore control does not respond as normal - this is a common occurrence and is an easy fix. Second we have seen were weird mixes between channels occur when someone gets into the channels menus and doesn't fully understand what they are doing and end up mixing channels together causing strange behavior.

Both of these can be determined by looking at the RC Monitor on the ST-16 and confirming each control input separately. You say your Typhoon is at a repair shop, do you know where it was sent?
Sent to Carolina Dronz in Anderson, SC.
 
Sorry to hear of your bad look with your first flight . Hopefully I hope the cost of repairs won't be exorbitant. I am wondering do you come from a fixed wing model background? I myself flue fixed wing models for years and I had a similar experience to yours on my first flight with new H Pro. Now what I mean to say is I was trying to lower the throttle by pulling back on the left stick. This will make the drone drop fast but if you don't hold the stick back it will hover. Nabu just maybe is this what happened to you? :eek:
Regards.
Mike
No, I had no experience with fixed-wing flying. I was troubled by the very short history of the Ebay listing person. The actual listing was lacking important details normally found in other Drone Ebay listings. I communicated with him and he assured me the unit had never crashed although when I received it it included an extra black plastic shell for the CGO3 camera. It made me wonder. Ebay is great for certain items but there is always a risk with higher-end more fragile items--like drones. From now on I buy only from those listings posted by sellers with GREAT reputations addling history.
 
@Airyal did you see this question by @WTFDproject ? It's likely you sent the controller with the Typhoon but if by chance you have it we will be able to decipher a lot about it's history of your Typhoon.


Did you send the controller to the shop along with the drone? If you still have the controller available, you can upload the flightlog directory to the forum. We can possibly find the cause of the event.
 
Did you send the controller to the shop along with the drone? If you still have the controller available, you can upload the flightlog directory to the forum. We can possibly find the cause of the event.
I sent it along as one of the switches had been broken off by previous owner--the Object Avoidance Switch. I am still awaiting the cost estimate for repairs.
 
There are many things I might have done differently. To try out the Typhoon H, I chose a large parking lot near the local town beach (Oyster Bay, NY). AT this time of year it is usually devoid of cars. However I wanted to be sure that should cars arrive they would not drive too near so I choose a site near the perimeter--a bad choice. I had started the drone motors previously and noted that the camera controls were functioning correctly. I THOUGHT I thoroughly understood the controls which were in "mode 2 configuration" (Throttle and yaw on left stick; Left/right, forward/back on right stick). The flight mode was on "angle". All went well at first. 10 satellites were showing and I raised the drone to about 10 feet and let it hover. I did some maneuvers, forward and back, left and right tests. The drone seemed to be drifting slowly away and up and I had difficulty correcting this. Beyond my launch site was a railroad track with power lines above. I feared the drone was drifting that way. There was grass below it and it continued rising. I pulled the throttle back to lower the drone. It responded by going up. I let go the stick and it hovered. What to do? I should have lowered the gear but the drone was drifting upward and I feared the power wires. AT 12 feet the drone might have sustained less damage with the gear down but I did not make the right decision. I pushed the red power button and the drone fell to the ground, breaking off the camera and damaging three of the propeller arms (the mechanism that retains them in the "locked up" position no longer kept the arms up.
The factors that contributed to the crash included: My lack of flying experience, the too-close proximity to the RR tracks, my failure to lower the landing legs, my decision to abort the flight by depowering the drone, and possibly the failure of the controller throttle to lower the drone gently when I tried to throttle down. The drone is now being evaluated at a repair shop and I have not yet received the good or bad news regarding th extent of the damage. It is good advice to buy a cheap drone to start out with. I strongly agree. Thoughts anyone? Thanks.
I have had similar experiences with stick inputs, drone flying off doing its own thing , and crashing, 5 flights ,3 crashes mostly down to my inexperience of flying !!
 

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