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Flyaway

Joined
Jun 7, 2016
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Age
65
Location
Peak District, UK
I had an interesting flyaway yesterday with the H on a job.
We were filming over a road construction project in several locations and all had been fine.
Moved to the last location of the day.
I flew the H which behaved fine apart from an occasional Compass Calibration warning.
So when I landed I though, hmmm one more flight only with the H shall I just fly without calibrating.
New battery, warning went off continuously so decided on a calibration. This took the usual couple of mins though like an idiot I forgot to leave it for 10 mins or so switched on.
I took off and immediately a couple of crazy wiggles and she was off, no control whatsoever, crash landing about 200 yards away fortunately with no witness ;)
It's the only time it has ever happened to me and the feeling of helplessness as off it goes with a suicidal mind of it's own is quite frightening.
Anyway, it turns out I was on a road bridge which of course is full of steel and our client was flying their a little while back with an inspire 2 and had exactly the same issue though I found out too late to save what looks like a totaled Typhoon H :(

I flew the H920+ straight after thinking it was my poor calibration technique and still not realising I was on a steel bridge and it flew flawlessly.
 
Steel bridges can absolutely be a problem..

Let's see what the damage is!

I may be able to help you bud
 
I had an interesting flyaway yesterday with the H on a job.
We were filming over a road construction project in several locations and all had been fine.
Moved to the last location of the day.
I flew the H which behaved fine apart from an occasional Compass Calibration warning.
So when I landed I though, hmmm one more flight only with the H shall I just fly without calibrating.
New battery, warning went off continuously so decided on a calibration. This took the usual couple of mins though like an idiot I forgot to leave it for 10 mins or so switched on.
I took off and immediately a couple of crazy wiggles and she was off, no control whatsoever, crash landing about 200 yards away fortunately with no witness ;)
It's the only time it has ever happened to me and the feeling of helplessness as off it goes with a suicidal mind of it's own is quite frightening.
Anyway, it turns out I was on a road bridge which of course is full of steel and our client was flying their a little while back with an inspire 2 and had exactly the same issue though I found out too late to save what looks like a totaled Typhoon H :(

I flew the H920+ straight after thinking it was my poor calibration technique and still not realising I was on a steel bridge and it flew flawlessly.
Sorry for the crash but what is the conclution? Not waiting/idling 15min after calibr. or the steel-bridge?
 
I’ve learned to avoid flying around lots of steel or iron with the H as it can become unpredictable. Steel hulled ships and low along rail road tracks have generated control issues with mine. Rail road tracks have a signal running through the rails though. OTOH, mine have done fine at a couple of relatively small car exhibitions.

I’ve also experienced loss of control with a Pixhawk controlled system when close to the side of a train engine that was just starting to move forward. With the exception of the rail road tracks every problem occurred when the H or Pixhawk with an older UBLOX GPS unit was close to a metal object or structure that was taller than the H was high. Was your H between a steel lattice bridge support structure when it flew away?

Interesting you mention the Inspire had problems in the same location. As for the 920, I have yet to experience a compass warning at any time with mine. I’ve had a couple brief GPS lost warnings with it but there were no indications they had any affect on control function. It presented zero issues when flown low, but slightly higher, between rows of cars at a large car show while within 100’ - 200’ of high voltage transmission lines.
 
Not sure how to describe the bridge, it is a very open bridge, flat and concrete with asphalt surface, all the steel is hidden underneath, it was all underneath the H, but I remember it being installed and it is a lot of steel on a wide flat span. I forgot I was on a bridge as it doesn't really look like one.

Whenever I boot up the 920 I get GPS lost warnings for a few seconds until it connects, not sure if this is normal but I have never had it or compass warning in flight.
 
This took the usual couple of mins though like an idiot I forgot to leave it for 10 mins or so switched on.
Allowing the extra time for GPS to update on the H is only for the first flight of the day. It's not necessary on every flight.

I ignore compass warnings close to the ground unless they are continuous. In your case I presume the warning was persistent. Re-calibrating near steel would seal the fate of the next flight. That would throw the calibration way off.

The H seems to be much more sensitive to the compass than the Q500 or the H920. I'm fairly confident you could have flown without issue at this location by turning off the GPS even though the warning suggests a compass problem.
 
Whenever I boot up the 920 I get GPS lost warnings for a few seconds until it connects, not sure if this is normal but I have never had it or compass warning in flight.

That occurs with mine as well. Until proven otherwise I view it as normal.
 
Allowing the extra time for GPS to update on the H is only for the first flight of the day. It's not necessary on every flight.

I ignore compass warnings close to the ground unless they are continuous. In your case I presume the warning was persistent. Re-calibrating near steel would seal the fate of the next flight. That would throw the calibration way off.

The H seems to be much more sensitive to the compass than the Q500 or the H920. I'm fairly confident you could have flown without issue at this location by turning off the GPS even though the warning suggests a compass problem.
Yes I dare say it would have worked without GPS, although once she was away there was no chance of me switching over to non GPS flight even if it had responded to the command. A physical switch and I may have had time but it is surprising how the brain locks up once you hit panic mode, I have to confess all I could do was flick the sticks around hoping for some response, tried RTH and tried to bring her down but there was maybe 7 seconds and it was all over.
 
Yes I dare say it would have worked without GPS, although once she was away there was no chance of me switching over to non GPS flight even if it had responded to the command. A physical switch and I may have had time but it is surprising how the brain locks up once you hit panic mode, I have to confess all I could do was flick the sticks around hoping for some response, tried RTH and tried to bring her down but there was maybe 7 seconds and it was all over.
Yes, I understand completely. Some pilots have found left stick max throttle has worked to gain altitude to buy enough time to turn off GPS even though the other sticks don't respond. I cannot verify that. The event is so startling there is little time to react.
 
I had an interesting flyaway yesterday with the H on a job.
We were filming over a road construction project in several locations and all had been fine.
Moved to the last location of the day.
I flew the H which behaved fine apart from an occasional Compass Calibration warning.
So when I landed I though, hmmm one more flight only with the H shall I just fly without calibrating.
New battery, warning went off continuously so decided on a calibration. This took the usual couple of mins though like an idiot I forgot to leave it for 10 mins or so switched on.
I took off and immediately a couple of crazy wiggles and she was off, no control whatsoever, crash landing about 200 yards away fortunately with no witness ;)
It's the only time it has ever happened to me and the feeling of helplessness as off it goes with a suicidal mind of it's own is quite frightening.
Anyway, it turns out I was on a road bridge which of course is full of steel and our client was flying their a little while back with an inspire 2 and had exactly the same issue though I found out too late to save what looks like a totaled Typhoon H :(

I flew the H920+ straight after thinking it was my poor calibration technique and still not realising I was on a steel bridge and it flew flawlessly.
Oh no
 
I had similar experience with my I2,
Learned on my own mistakes and now I always have the scenario in the back of my mind while in flight..
The solution is quick thinking, left stick up and to know where the manual override switch is without having to think twice. A quick switch takes seconds to happen that way, in addition to gaining altitude is an improved probability of saving your gear instead of crash.
This little trick can save you $$$
Hope it helps and sorry about your crash
 
I had similar experience with my I2,
Learned on my own mistakes and now I always have the scenario in the back of my mind while in flight..
The solution is quick thinking, left stick up and to know where the manual override switch is without having to think twice. A quick switch takes seconds to happen that way, in addition to gaining altitude is an improved probability of saving your gear instead of crash.
This little trick can save you $$$
Hope it helps and sorry about your crash
What manual override switch? Do you mean switch GPS off? If it was a proper switch it would make life easier.
 
so did you find out for sure if it was the metal bridge or something else? sorry to hear about your H
Not for sure yet not had a chance to look at the telemetry yet, but as I said the client had their Inspire 2 do exactly the same thing in the same location and that's what they put it down to. Only theirs didn't crash it recovered and they managed to land it.
 
What manual override switch? Do you mean switch GPS off? If it was a proper switch it would make life easier.
He said his experience was with an I2, presumably an Inspire 2. I'm not familiar with those platforms but having read his post it would seem that Inspire 2s have some sort of override switch.:)

Why on earth can't we have that button on the top right of the ST16 act as a GPS on/off button is beyond me...it does nothing else at the moment.
 
He said his experience was with an I2, presumably an Inspire 2. I'm not familiar with those platforms but having read his post it would seem that Inspire 2s have some sort of override switch.:)

Why on earth can't we have that button on the top right of the ST16 act as a GPS on/off button is beyond me...it does nothing else at the moment.
I missed that he meant with an I2 as I was in work and read in a hurrythanks for pointing this out, I agree I think about the Aux button
 
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Apologies for the confusion, yes "manual override" as for no GPS.
and Yes my experience was with Inspire 2, but I had a Q500 and sort off remember a switch on the remote to toggle between different modes, one being no GPS.
I only assumed as I do not own H yet that this option is also available on all new Yuneec drones
 
Yes, you can turn off GPS on a TH. It's a menu item. It takes a couple of seconds to open up the menu and turn off GPS. I had a flyaway where there was simply no time for me to do that. By the time I realized the TH was not responding to the sticks it was too late to turn off GPS. It was already 50 ft up a pine tree.

I replaced the GPS module which also includes the compass and I've not have a problem since but there's no guarantee it won't happen again.

I'm much attentive since then and know I can turn GPS off quicker if needed. In the meantime I take a great deal of care on the first flight of the day. Now I always calibrate the compass and let it sit 13-15 minutes gathering GPS info before the first flight of the day. That seems to have made for smooth flying. Yes, its probably overkill but I'd rather be flying than repairing my drone.
 
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