Now that qualifies as "A TRIP"

jensenjim · Aug 14, 2021

received my ebay plus today and it looks pretty good . unit was listed with scratches but that's not what I received. missing the spare blades so i guess that means maybe the original ones were damaged. I flew for a few minutes to see if it would respond ok and it flew good. I have a spare st16s controller so I wanted to test that so I bound it to the newly required plus. Things were going pretty good, I was flying around 5 feet toward a garbage can to see if the obstacle avoidance would activate but it didn't do anything. Now I am a beginner and this plus is supposed to allow me some learning so I don't destroy my new 520e.
All of the sudden the thing went straight up, for a second i couldn't even see it for trees, when i got eyes on it it started bolting south, I was pressing the red button trying to get the thing to just quit and fall out of the sky. The unit then did a vertical drop and hovered above my boat, I think it hovered about 6 feet and i was able to position it to land safely on the font of the boat. (not the rush I was expecting)
Ok so this will take some self analysis at this point
did i select RTL and the unit went into that mode?
did the unit just have a software issue
Was it the st16s controller
anyone able to offer advice

Ty Pilot · Aug 14, 2021

Sounds like you activated RTH but there are some things you can check. First, both the ST-16 and ST-16S controllers are prone to getting oxidation on the potentiometers of the sticks. I have twice, had to clean mine on my ST-16S. Now every preflight after sitting more than a week I check all controls and switches with the hardware monitor (I think it is RC Monitor on the ST-16S). So I would suggest you verify that all controls of your controller work first.

Second, if you haven't already, make sure you fully understand how each flight mode works so you know what to expect. In fact I would say that you should do some research on the entire operations of the Plus so you're not caught off guard again. Did you download the User-created Manual from the stickies section? For instance, did you know that when RTH is started you can cancel by simply flipping into Angle or Sport Mode? Little operational tidbits like this could be the difference between a crash and a simple mistake that is quickly corrected.

If you like, you can upload the telemetry from that flight and I can tell you just what happened but it really sounds like you may have hit RTH.

Also, keep in mind that Obstacle avoidance on the Plus and 520 is very dated and very limited compared to what is out there today. If you constantly rely on it to keep you from hitting things rather than doing this yourself, you may at some point, find it's weaknesses and have a crash. I often fly in, and so near trees that I have simply never used OA.

jensenjim · Aug 14, 2021

Hey, Thanks for the pep talk. I definitely have some learning to do , thats why I bought a burner. And I agree I expect I put it into RTL but for some reason the unit didn't respond with my changing modes. Can't really remember I was stunned and in sheer terror, I thought the drone was gonna keep going south till rat ran out of gas. I dont think a telemetry review by you is warranted because I need to learn how to read the information for myself. It's just reading posts on this site you read about drones flying off, or at least I read one and I didn't expect it to happen to me. This is the reason for building flight time. I am a regular aircraft pilot and understand the need for training and lots of. The post was just a gas for other newbies on what could happen and to be read up on the results of flipping switches to see what happens. My Plus lives past Day1.

Ty Pilot · Aug 14, 2021

I hear you, when I got my Plus three years ago I was one of the first on this forum and every day I had to learn something new. Best of luck.

DoomMeister · Aug 14, 2021

jensenjim said:
received my ebay plus today and it looks pretty good . unit was listed with scratches but that's not what I received. missing the spare blades so i guess that means maybe the original ones were damaged. I flew for a few minutes to see if it would respond ok and it flew good. I have a spare st16s controller so I wanted to test that so I bound it to the newly required plus. Things were going pretty good, I was flying around 5 feet toward a garbage can to see if the obstacle avoidance would activate but it didn't do anything. Now I am a beginner and this plus is supposed to allow me some learning so I don't destroy my new 520e.
All of the sudden the thing went straight up, for a second i couldn't even see it for trees, when i got eyes on it it started bolting south, I was pressing the red button trying to get the thing to just quit and fall out of the sky. The unit then did a vertical drop and hovered above my boat, I think it hovered about 6 feet and i was able to position it to land safely on the font of the boat. (not the rush I was expecting)
Ok so this will take some self analysis at this point
did i select RTL and the unit went into that mode?
did the unit just have a software issue
Was it the st16s controller
anyone able to offer advice

Obstacle Avoidance Will usually not arm at less than 10 feet above takeoff.

Seeing the FlightLog would help us understand what occurred during this flight. To retrieve and post them follow Attachment 62 in this document https://yuneecpilots.com/attachments/wtfdproject-rev81-pdf.26203/. Do not open the .csv files with Excel, Word, etc. as it will tag them and make the program we use unable to read them.

Peter b · Aug 15, 2021

DoomMeister said:
Obstacle Avoidance Will usually not arm at less than 10 feet above takeoff.

Seeing the FlightLog would help us understand what occurred during this flight. To retrieve and post them follow Attachment 62 in this document https://yuneecpilots.com/attachments/wtfdproject-rev81-pdf.26203/. Do not open the .csv files with Excel, Word, etc. as it will tag them and make the program we use unable to read them.

There are mega videos also and some are hidden a bit so I finally watched as many as possible and found out about this forum. Have fun and bon chance.