Well, I ordered a tray, but it will arrive about 3 days too late. I have never liked the attachment points on the controller for the neck strap as I thought they were too close to the controls and yesterday, due to my brief inattention, poor decision making and a bit of bad luck, it bit me in the ***. I am a firm believer that there are no Lone Rangers out there and if I can do it, someone else will or has.
Because I don’t like the attachment points for the neck strap I often have flown the typhoon without using it. Yesterday a pilot friend of mine came by as he has become interested in UAVs and wanted to see how it flew. He is a flight instructor, charter pilot and all around excellent pilot with whom I have flown many times. We both believe preflight briefings are critical and in that vein I took the time to explain the different components of the controller and the Typhoon.
As I intended to let him fly after demonstrating its flight characteristics I thought it would be better for him to have the neck strap, so I put it on.
The departure point was my hospital parking lot. We were standing in front of the front door of the hospital, just in front of the overhang over the door. I lifted off and hovered about 15-18 feet in the air, about 30-35 feet in front of us. At this point I typically test all control functions to be sure they are operational, which I did. So, ready to raise the landing skids and gain some altitude, I suddenly realized that I had neglected t mention to him the rabbit/hare slider and its function. Don’t ask me why I decided that that was the time to do it, but I did.
The following sequence of events are from my memory; everything happened in just a few seconds. I tried to upload the telemetry to see what that might tell me, but I keep getting an error message.
So, picture this. Rob was standing to my left. As I started to explain the slider function I wanted to show him its location. To do so I rotated my body to the left while at the same time rotating the controller towards my chest. Concurrently, so he could see the slider, I rotated the controller counterclockwise by dropping my left hand while raising my right hand. (Starting to get the picture.)
My first inkling of trouble was the increasing roar of the props, coming at me from my right side. Instinctively, I ducked and rotated my body back to the right as I looked towards the prop noise, now just about over me. I gained sight of the Typhoon just as it plowed its back end into the front door overhang. I find it interesting that for me, in situations where unexpected chaos lets loose, I see things in slow motion; at least that is how my mind processes it. Since I always take off and land with the front of the Typhoon facing away from me, it was the back end of the Typhoon that crashed into the building. I vividly remember the back end of the landing skids starting to lift up as the prop blades shattered, prop arms collapsed and the Typhoon hit the sidewalk next to us in a crumpled pile. The camera cover was about 3 feet from the camera body, remnants of prop blades all over the place.
Most importantly, neither of us had been struck by anything. Once I realized Rob was not injured we began to try to figure out what had happened. It didn’t take long, as I am sure many of you have figure out already. Just as in flying other aircraft, disaster is usually the result of a series of small errors that finally overcome your ability to control the aircraft.
Mistake #1 – picking that moment to show Rob the slider
Mistake #2 – rotating my body towards Rob and taking my eyes off the Typhoon when it was in close proximity to us
Mistake #3 – rotating the controller towards my chest and turning the controller counter clockwise
End result – the neck strap contacted the right control stick and as I continued to rotate the controller, more reverse input was applied. Realizing something was wrong but not yet knowing what it was, I turned towards the prop noise, which took back pressure off the control stick. I believe the Typhoon was going into hover mode but ran out of airspace before it could stop.
Damage to the Typhoon was surprisingly minimal in my opinion. I was able to replace the camera cap after realizing that all the silver loops were the antenna and not camera wiring. The camera was tested and functions properly. All prop blades were destroyed but all motors checked out okay. Four of the prop arm clips were broken and will need to be replaced. One landing skid will not retract. Replacement parts have been ordered and hopefully we will be flying within a week.
A good lesson learned albeit the hard way. Fortunately, neither of us were injured; it easily could have been a lot different were I in the habit of initially hovering lower than I do. Hopefully my experience may save someone else from doing the same thing.
They say those who survive the experience are better for it. I am lucky enough to be in that group – this time.
Be safe.
sorry to hear this Paul, glad no one was hurt, I shipped promptly the next day, wish I coulda teleported it to ya if it would have helped
