Rookie Mistake or Malfunction

scottw1972 · Dec 18, 2016

Need help from people with experience...I am new to this sport and tried to learn on my own how to fly this drone. I live on a lake and was flying my drone over water and back to the patio ect....I was flying over water about 1/8 out over the water. When my drone would not fly up go RTH, or respond.....I was in shock and it just fell down into the water after 10-15 seconds....GONE, LOST ! ! !

After sending Yuneec my flight log they said it was out of battery and would just land itself. Since I was over water a disaster !

1) Can someone please tell me what happens ? I did not pay attention to the battery...Rookie mistake.....
2) Yuneec said it will cost me $699 or $999 for the pro. Drone only (any place to get a replacement cheaper)

Thanks for any help.....Still in shock

QuadBart · Dec 18, 2016

Wow, that sucks. I don't know how we can help.

The ST16 vibrates and displays a low battery indicator with around 14.4 volts remaining. At that point I'm usually already close to me and ready to land.

All I can suggest in the future it to have some sort of alarm set so after about 12 or 13 minutes it alerts you to start heading back or at least looking at the battery indicator...

scottw1972 said:
Need help from people with experience...I am new to this sport and tried to learn on my own how to fly this drone. I live on a lake and was flying my drone over water and back to the patio ect....I was flying over water about 1/8 out over the water. When my drone would not fly up go RTH, or respond.....I was in shock and it just fell down into the water after 10-15 seconds....GONE, LOST ! ! !

After sending Yuneec my flight log they said it was out of battery and would just land itself. Since I was over water a disaster !

1) Can someone please tell me what happens ? I did not pay attention to the battery...Rookie mistake.....
2) Yuneec said it will cost me $699 or $999 for the pro. Drone only (any place to get a replacement cheaper)

Thanks for any help.....Still in shock

Average Joe · Dec 18, 2016

I thought I read somewhere that when critical battery level is reached the TH autonomously switches to RTH or tries to directly land immediately - I can't recall for certain, but, it seems that would be a nice redundancy feature regardless. I've been reading so much that I could be completely incorrect, but it seems like Yuneek wouldn't just let the H fall from the sky, so maybe it tried to 'land' over water, maybe on it's way home? Bad situation either way, and not really something you can blame Yuneek for - you said yourself, " I did not pay attention to the battery...Rookie mistake".

That's cool that you are out a good ways over water like that, I am not that comfortable to get out that far just yet but have done some fly-overs the pool

Sorry for the bad luck and keep that secondary timer in mind that QuadBart mentioned.

Rayray · Dec 18, 2016

scottw1972 said:
2) Yuneec said it will cost me $699 or $999 for the pro. Drone only (any place to get a replacement cheaper)

Thanks for any help.....Still in shock

A rotten bit of bad luck. Price-wise, check with Frank at Carolina Dronz (tell him what happened), watch our Classifieds, or check Ebay (carefully!).
Try to recover the drone if you can. That will at least give you more spare parts.

PatR · Dec 18, 2016

My H would provide the first low battery indicator at 14.7v. I never flew it down to a critical warning level. At critical battery the H is supposed to lower the gear, if raised, and land. At that point it doesn't have enough energy remaining to fly back to anywhere.

Listen to what RayRay said about Carolina. They have a bind and fly H option for $499 or so. No camera, battery or ST-16. Unfortunately your camera took a swim and is likely not salvageable. If that's the case it would be better to buy another full kit, or something a lot cheaper to learn on before stepping up again.

Stop watch type timers can be had at places like WalMart for under a buck. A little bit of Velcro lets you stick it to the controller. They can be pretty handy both for setting up a flight time alarm or for tracking flight time to track battery use. Sure, we all have clocks/timers on our phones but most nobody remembers to pull it out of their pocket and use it, right?

scottw1972 · Dec 19, 2016

Thanks guys for the help.....I will watch the battery levels more and stick over land. When it needs to land it will land on the ground and I will still own it LOL.....Was thinking it had 18-22 mins of flight time and would return home. I KNOW IT DOES NOT KNOW I'M OVER WATER.

I should invent a flotation device...

liqrome · Dec 19, 2016

scottw1972 said:
Thanks guys for the help.....I will watch the battery levels more and stick over land. When it needs to land it will land on the ground and I will still own it LOL.....Was thinking it had 18-22 mins of flight time and would return home. I KNOW IT DOES NOT KNOW I'M OVER WATER.

I should invent a flotation device...

Someone within a FB page had a picture of his Typhoon H - he attached some kid-sized floaters to it somehow to the landing gear. And had video of it landing and taking off from water. I'd still be worried about splashes or a bonehead in a motorboat going by and it tipping over from the waves.

Aussiejay · Dec 24, 2016

scottw1972 said:
Thanks guys for the help.....I will watch the battery levels more and stick over land. When it needs to land it will land on the ground and I will still own it LOL.....Was thinking it had 18-22 mins of flight time and would return home. I KNOW IT DOES NOT KNOW I'M OVER WATER.

I should invent a flotation device...

Hi Scott. This a very late reply. I have a small digital kitchen timer that I attach to my controlller with velcro. I usually have that set to 12 minutes. When the alarm goes off it ensures that I have a look at the battery levels. That gives me time to head home. Hope this will help.