Now I understand the "Fly Away"

[James (Randy) Smith]

Hey Pat, Im a newbe here but wanted to suggest you looking into your phone book for tree cutting companies. Just call one up and ask if they have a climber thats interested in making $100 for Christmas for a few minutes work. A good tree climber will go up the tree and use a rope to make a safety line they walk out on the branch to retrieve your drone for you. Even at a couple hundred dollars it would be worth it.

 

[RiverRunner]

Sorry to hear about your flyaway. My H has been rock solid (Knock wood) but I am always wary after multiple flyaways with early DJI quads. Some folks have used a bow and an arrow with a tennis ball and fishing line attached to shoot over a limb. You can then attach a rope to the fishing line and pull it up over the limb. Tug on the ends of the rope until the bird comes down. Hope you are able to retrieve it. Good luck.

 

[PatR]

Some good ideas popping up. Thanks.


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[Rayray]

You can tell them to blame KD0OAL.

I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore...

 

[CraigCam]

Than get rid of the gun and get a bow or a spear, always a way to make it more of a challenge. Thank you for your service!


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The way the antennae stick out by the gear...maybe the wires get pinched on raising?


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[PatR]

Who knows. It will be interesting to learn how Yuneec responds to this one. This H is past the warranty period so I have no reason to expect warranty type coverage. If I get it down will they want it back to assess the problem for product improvement purposes? We'll see how it goes.


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[RiverRunner]

Who knows. It will be interesting to learn how Yuneec responds to this one. This H is past the warranty period so I have no reason to expect warranty type coverage. If I get it down will they want it back to assess the problem for product improvement purposes? We'll see how it goes.


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I would escalate the claim higher up if they don't offer to cover it. You have been proponent of their product on several forums since the beginning. Maybe they will cut you some slack. You can always ask.

 

[PatR]

This would fall under corporate decision making. What corporate already has in place for something like this will establish what lower level employees have to follow. I doubt being a proponent carries any weight. In not actively selling product via a business website or store front there's nothing to indicate sales volume from efforts of product/company support. If they can't see actual $$ from product count private support means little or nothing. That position might be supported by the number of forums they provide a company rep to act as the face of the company. Aside from the Yuneec Facebook page I think that number of forums is zero.

Either way, every day is a new day and who knows what tomorrow will bring. The original post for this thread was my way of eating a little crow after a dose of "chit happens". Doesn't taste very good but as careful as I have been with the H it illustrates it can happen to anyone. Flip side of that is none of the consumer drones on the market are built to, or use, any kind of product standard. We get whatever they want to give us, take it or leave it. User manuals, autopilots, GPS, compass, motors, ESC's, transmitters, firmware validation, etc, there are no standards. This is where consumer drone buyer leverage needs to be applied, pushing for the development of an "industry standard" to assure the consumer will be provided a safe and reliable product from any manufacturer providing them. They don't have to be the greatest thing since sliced bread but they do need to have a minimum design standard and published anticipated life cycle under normal operating conditions, which also has to be defined.

I doubt it will be long before the feds see it the same way and impose some draconian level of compliance that will have to be met. If that happens before the makers develop and publish a standard all the multirotor makers will end up out of business due to the cost of achieving a federally imposed minimum standard. All the individual components would likely have to pass through some level of ASME testing and compliance to receive a blessing before it could be marketed to the public. I think the relationship between their government and ours is about to sour quickly so being proactive is in their best interest as well as ours.

 

[RiverRunner]

This would fall under corporate decision making. What corporate already has in place for something like this will establish what lower level employees have to follow. I doubt being a proponent carries any weight. In not actively selling product via a business website or store front there's nothing to indicate sales volume from efforts of product/company support. If they can't see actual $$ from product count private support means little or nothing. That position might be supported by the number of forums they provide a company rep to act as the face of the company. Aside from the Yuneec Facebook page I think that number of forums is zero.

Either way, every day is a new day and who knows what tomorrow will bring. The original post for this thread was my way of eating a little crow after a dose of "chit happens". Doesn't taste very good but as careful as I have been with the H it illustrates it can happen to anyone. Flip side of that is none of the consumer drones on the market are built to, or use, any kind of product standard. We get whatever they want to give us, take it or leave it. User manuals, autopilots, GPS, compass, motors, ESC's, transmitters, firmware validation, etc, there are no standards. This is where consumer drone buyer leverage needs to be applied, pushing for the development of an "industry standard" to assure the consumer will be provided a safe and reliable product from any manufacturer providing them. They don't have to be the greatest thing since sliced bread but they do need to have a minimum design standard and published anticipated life cycle under normal operating conditions, which also has to be defined.

I doubt it will be long before the feds see it the same way and impose some draconian level of compliance that will have to be met. If that happens before the makers develop and publish a standard all the multirotor makers will end up out of business due to the cost of achieving a federally imposed minimum standard. All the individual components would likely have to pass through some level of ASME testing and compliance to receive a blessing before it could be marketed to the public. I think the relationship between their government and ours is about to sour quickly so being proactive is in their best interest as well as ours.

I have found with many companies that there is some leeway in policy, especially if warranty has just expired. With Yuneec, I have talked them into cross shipping a replacement camera, which they normally say they can't do. You never know unless you ask.
On a similar note, more than once, I have talked credit card companies into dropping finance charges and late fees by asking for a manager and just saying I don't want to pay them.
Good luck.

 

[Vegasrobbi]

The way the antennae stick out by the gear...maybe the wires get pinched on raising?


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I'm taking my H apart to replace an arm clip that was damaged in the fall. I purchased the external antenna kit from Carolina Dronz that I will install at the same time.

My H flipped out the instant the gear moved so I'm taking a hard look for any interferences or other clues while I'm in there.

Yuneec CS says they haven't heard of this before and were very friendly; but, I remember reading some similar reports.

 

[PatR]

Pretty common with the European units from what I've read. Thinking back mine went cuckoo about the same time the gear started coming up. It does not make sense that compass calibration was lost between one week and the next in the environment I store it in. Fully assembled, 67*, and dry.

Well, she's down now, gently at that. Thanks to a much younger and and much more spritely next door neighbor that likes me, who is also part of the local emergency services team. He climbed the tree to retrieve it and lowered it down on some para-cord. Two broken landing gear, which were raised when it hit, 5 broken props, one broken motor boom locking pin, camera mount tore free of two mounting positions, one of which had the safety keeper broken out, battery is of course toast. No evidence of shorting inside the battery compartment. That's just the initial visual inspection.

Repaired or not I will never fly this one again. No trust. The amount of damage suggests it hit the tree at full GPS off speed so who knows what might be amiss on the PC boards. I'm hoping the camera is still functional. That was only on it's second flight. But hey, I got my Polar Pro ND8 filter and SD card back Fortunately it didn't snow or rain last night.

I've wanted to obtain another ST-16, I have another camera, and 5 more batteries so like as not I'll be obtaining another. Despite this event it truly has been an outstanding little camera ship for the money spent.

 

[Rayray]

Good news, and bless your neighbor. There's still a lot of good folks in this world.

 

[RiverRunner]

Glad you got it down. Very fortunate that it did not crash where it may have hurt someone or caused major property damage. If the camera survived then you are only out the cost of the bird and you have some spare parts.

 

[PatR]

Just noticed Carolina has a BNF H, less camera, battery, and controller. But I could use another ST-16....

RiverRunner,

You just pointed out the two extremely important reasons for consumers to be provided reliable systems. Had something really bad happened I can't imagine how ugly the situation might have become.

 

[Grimsin]

@PatR did you get it down? My friends got back to me, said yes they have access to climbing gear. If you still need help let me know.

Ah found the post where you did! Awesome! sorry it sounds pretty banged up

 

[PatR]

Banged up but parts cost would fall well under the incident reporting threshold.

A note about batteries. Seems they have a voltage limiter that cuts off discharge at 12.8v. That's where the battery ended up after being left on for a bit over 24 hours in 20* temps. This is the second time I've seen this voltage with the first in a used battery I bought from someone on this forum. My message here is to say if you get one down that low, it's done. Verify voltage level if buying a used battery before closing the deal. Make 15.2v the minimum acceptable and conditional to the buy.


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[Marnix Verschraegen]

So I've had my H since they first came out in May with only a couple of small issues. ST-16 lost calibration a few times, an easy fix, and a firmware update issue that was resolved without having to send anything back to Yuneec. I've held off on the last firmware update due to the 400' altitude cap. Since everything worked fine there was no reason to fix something that wasn't broken.

So it's like a winter wonderland here and thought it might be nice to do a second flight to capture what the are looks like right now. The first flight was last weekend to test out a new camera. It was pretty cold at about 25* then but aside from what I thought were some frame rate issues causing a little chop in the video it all worked pretty good. This morning was a new story. About 22*, thin overcast but otherwise no precipitation, lots of snow, 16.7v on the H battery, full charge on the ST-16, plenty of satellites and no indications of a problem. I was well more than far enough away so elected to launch in Smart mode. No problems. Raised the gear and started to move further away at about 75' of altitude and suddenly the aft red light illuminates and compass error is depicted on the -16. The H is now moving like a raped ape from right to left and before I can flip to Angle mode. Line of sight with the H is quickly obscured by a tall tree. After getting into Angle and reducing throttle to descend while trying to get clear of the visual obstruction it's still flying but I've lost sight of it. The plan was to fly out in front of me and remain well clear or anything that could limit a clear view of the H since I don't fly FPV, ever. Best laid plans and all that....

Next thing I know I'm getting both a compass and a 5 rotor warning and the video is not changing image. It's not flying any more. Still have a video link so i consider driving and tromping around the neighborhood in a foot and a half of snow to look for it. Took me a minute to figure out the telemetry was still working and to look at the GPS location on the -16 screen but I could not get the constantly cycling warnings to clear the screen while it was still linked to the H. Shutting down the -16 and re-starting it didn't help because it linked to the H again. It's very difficult to see the small GPS location numbers with warnings that can't be cleared. Yuneec, you folks need to set the warnings up where they can be acknowledged and cleared by the user.

Took a bit but managed to finally note the GPS location and perform a Google Earth search. It appears the GPS data is pretty accurate. It said it was 292' away and at 46' of altitude. Looking at the overhead view on Google Earth and I was able to track it down. Unfortunately that 46' is close to accurate. It's up in a tree that I have no hope of recovering it from.

No clue why things suddenly went from good to bad unless the temperature was lower than the H could handle. Perhaps the new camera had something going on within. Who knows. Now to figure out what to do next. I'll have to wait for the H battery to run down and self destruct before I can get into the -16 pad and pull the telemetry. What's really irritating is the H had the new camera on it, and I can see the **** thing but can't get there from here.

From the moment you saw the compass alert en the H was going APE you should have disabled the GPS.
In around 90% of the problems this could help bring the bird without too many problems down clean.

 

[RiverRunner]

From the moment you saw the compass alert en the H was going APE you should have disabled the GPS.
In around 90% of the problems this could help bring the bird without too many problems down clean.

I wish Yuneec would provide a direct switch to disable GPS/compass or map the Aux button to do this. I have never had an out of control situation with my H but I think it might take too long to switch modes with the current setup.

 

[PatR]

From the moment you saw the compass alert en the H was going APE you should have disabled the GPS.
In around 90% of the problems this could help bring the bird without too many problems down clean.

You must be faster than a cat with your reaction times. Factor the time for an alarm to occur, recognize the problem, initiate a change in state function, all while attempting to regain visual contact with the bird, and a few seconds are lost. The H was in a tree only seconds after the warning initiated. The speed it was moving indicated GPS was also not functioning. I'm good, but not as good as you.

Because of this experience I tend to agree with RR. Looking down to the screen to tap an icon and then activate a slider is both distracting and two slow. It needs to be on a switch or button function that one can become accustomed to,


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[liqrome]

You must be faster than a cat with your reaction times. Factor the time for an alarm to occur, recognize the problem, initiate a change in state function, all while attempting to regain visual contact with the bird, and a few seconds are lost. The H was in a tree only seconds after the warning initiated. The speed it was moving indicated GPS was also not functioning. I'm good, but not as good as you.

Because of this experience I tend to agree with RR. Looking down to the screen to tap an icon and then activate a slider is both distracting and two slow. It needs to be on a switch or button function that one can become accustomed to,


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Especially when you're panicking. I too agree about the aux switch, I don't even have much experience flying mine yet - other than taking off/landing, learning the controls/speed of it, too nervous to send it out too far or high. Got mine in late fall and now it's too cold. I'm learning to fly with GPS off/angle mode - but only in the Yuneec flight simulator, and also using a nano drone. In real flight, I still appreciate that GPS. Looking forward to spring. Flying in -25 deg C weather does not appeal to me. And if mine was to ever get stuck in a tree I couldn't climb, my next purchase would be a chainsaw. Sorry to hear about your disaster.