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Fly-away and Flight Log analysis help needed

Joined
Jan 16, 2019
Messages
11
Reaction score
10
Age
71
Location
Grand Haven, MI
My "H" tried to take off in a random direction on its own as I was descending to land. The only control I had was up/down (climb/descend). To avoid losing the whole craft in the lagoon of a nearby marina, I forced it into the ground. Here's what happened.

About eight weeks ago I had my Typhoon H (with RealSense) out at the local State Park on the Lake Michigan shoreline. Great for photography of the pier and lighthouse, etc. It was on a beautiful CAVU day, chilly with a light onshore breeze. The space is wide open with few obstructions. Of course, there are no campers to contend with in February. It was my first (and only) flight of the day. The park is about 8 miles from where I usually fly. I've flown there maybe 8 times in the past 16 months, always without any problems. In fact, I've never had a serious control issue since buying this in late 2018. Historically. I've flown my "H" as long as 17 minutes on factory batteries, had it out to distances of 5,000 feet with stock antennas (patch type 5.8 GHz), and to altitudes that shall remain "classified", not all at the same time. Never a glitch. My experience: Although only a drone flyer since 2017, I've flown RC model sailplanes intensively for 30+ years as well as full-size sailplanes.

This flight proceeded fine and I flew out past the lighthouse (~2,000 from the ST-16). Being a cold day, the battery life seemed reduced and I came back to land after only 8 minutes or so. I never exceeded 100 feet of altitude. I never received any system warnings except for "Low Battery" as I was headed back. I brought the "H" overhead at about 60 feet, lowered the gear, and descended toward a landing. At about 20 feet I let it hover while I removed my FPV headset. Here's where the problems began. The "H" began drifting SIDEWAYS, slowly at first and then picking up speed. I tried to correct but the undesired motion continued. No transmitter inputs affected its horizontal motion. Since it was headed for the channel and marina lagoon I tried vertical... and I got a response! By this time I was at about 10 feet altitude, just 75 feet away or so, but going sideways at what seemed 15 to 20 mph! My reaction was to put it down to avoid the water (40 degrees F and 25 feet deep in the channel). When it touched the parking lot going sideways it tipped over and slid - into a concrete curb.

Does anyone have opinions/input/critique? The whole flight was uneventful until the last 15 seconds or thereabout.

I can post the video and the logfiles if helpful. BTW, should the 4k vid be converted to HD for posting size?

My thoughts:
Solar flares?
Low voltage?
Compass cal issues?
Someone with a drone-zapper?
Karma?

DJD - 25 April 2020
 
The video will need to be uploaded to YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, etc. and then a link posted in a reply.

From this link Way To Fix Drones project download the document and look for directions to retrieve the flightlogs. The zip file can be uploaded using the Attach files button.

The battery voltage getting too low can make for some unpredictable actions in the aircraft especially in cold weather. It is best to always err on the extreme side of caution in colder temps.

Once you upload your flightlogs we can try to determine what occurred. The telemetry, remote , and remotegps .csv files are needed for each flight. Just having telemetry file only tells part of the story.
 
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My "H" tried to take off in a random direction on its own as I was descending to land. The only control I had was up/down (climb/descend). To avoid losing the whole craft in the lagoon of a nearby marina, I forced it into the ground. Here's what happened.

About eight weeks ago I had my Typhoon H (with RealSense) out at the local State Park on the Lake Michigan shoreline. Great for photography of the pier and lighthouse, etc. It was on a beautiful CAVU day, chilly with a light onshore breeze. The space is wide open with few obstructions. Of course, there are no campers to contend with in February. It was my first (and only) flight of the day. The park is about 8 miles from where I usually fly. I've flown there maybe 8 times in the past 16 months, always without any problems. In fact, I've never had a serious control issue since buying this in late 2018. Historically. I've flown my "H" as long as 17 minutes on factory batteries, had it out to distances of 5,000 feet with stock antennas (patch type 5.8 GHz), and to altitudes that shall remain "classified", not all at the same time. Never a glitch. My experience: Although only a drone flyer since 2017, I've flown RC model sailplanes intensively for 30+ years as well as full-size sailplanes.

This flight proceeded fine and I flew out past the lighthouse (~2,000 from the ST-16). Being a cold day, the battery life seemed reduced and I came back to land after only 8 minutes or so. I never exceeded 100 feet of altitude. I never received any system warnings except for "Low Battery" as I was headed back. I brought the "H" overhead at about 60 feet, lowered the gear, and descended toward a landing. At about 20 feet I let it hover while I removed my FPV headset. Here's where the problems began. The "H" began drifting SIDEWAYS, slowly at first and then picking up speed. I tried to correct but the undesired motion continued. No transmitter inputs affected its horizontal motion. Since it was headed for the channel and marina lagoon I tried vertical... and I got a response! By this time I was at about 10 feet altitude, just 75 feet away or so, but going sideways at what seemed 15 to 20 mph! My reaction was to put it down to avoid the water (40 degrees F and 25 feet deep in the channel). When it touched the parking lot going sideways it tipped over and slid - into a concrete curb.

Does anyone have opinions/input/critique? The whole flight was uneventful until the last 15 seconds or thereabout.

I can post the video and the logfiles if helpful. BTW, should the 4k vid be converted to HD for posting size?

My thoughts:
Solar flares?
Low voltage?
Compass cal issues?
Someone with a drone-zapper?
Karma?

DJD - 25 April 2020

Wow
Darn interesting.
I am sure it was not
a good feeling.
I hope you get this resolved.
Keith Kuhn
 
Wow. Sorry to hear that. How much damage? 5000 feet unreal. I live just north of you between Lud. and Manistee. I often go to Manistee beaches. I keep eying the pier. Someday. I have never flown farther than 1800 feet out and stay below 400 ft. I am going to fly thepier someday. it's apparently only 1200'. I guess it's a fear of water thing. I'v got the goggles but not done that yet. Have an H pro with latest firm,software,whatever you call it. You will be amazed surprised at what several of the experts will find on here after you upload as asked. Please do it. I am very interested to see what happened. I have had mine go down twice,very close to me,,EHEM! I have learned so much from this awesome group. Both times when I crashed I found several of my answers in downloading the extended H user manual from this forum ,for this forum, by this wonderful Forum. Stay with it, hope you can fix it soon. Keith C.?
 

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