My first hexacopter is a salvage project; bought second hand; it was a crashed Typhoon H with a couple of broken arms and damaged camera mount.
It was quite pleasing to discover that it required only a few $$$ and a couple of nights of tinkering to restore its airworthiness.
A few practice sessions in the neighborhood park inspired the courage to venture out to a local R/C model aircraft park in search of bigger safer air space for some serious maneuvers.
Darwin Alert - Having read the user manual; and not recalling any serious warnings about interference from other R/C transmitters; I gave only a minimum of consideration to the other model aircraft operating in the area; as well as the high tension power lines a mile away. There was also a huge automated pumping station nearby; but, it too was dormant.
Excerpt from the Typhoon H User Manual follows -
• Do not attempt to operate your aircraft in areas with potential magnetic and/or radio interference including areas nearby broadcast towers, power transmission stations, high voltage power lines, electrical storms, etc.
• Always keep a safe distance in all directions around your aircraft to avoid collisions and/or injury. This aircraft is controlled by a radio signal subject to interference from many sources outside your control. Interference can cause momentary loss of control.
So; unperturbed; I moved off to a far corner of the park determined to make some low level practice runs on my first fully charged battery.
At this point; my dodo bird instincts had not yet started to tingle.
Sunny clear late afternoon sky; mild 5MPH breeze; a few hikers coming and going; in a few minutes we were airborne.
The brave little UAV hovered at 10 meters or so; went through all of the controls: yaw, pitch, landing gear, etc.; climbed up and out quickly in a 45 degree ascent to 50M; then disaster struck.
What happened next in quick succession was a big gust of wind; which blew the TH backwards a couple of meters; it recovered and plugged onward; hesitated; then descended slowly to 30M and returned to a spot directly over its take off point ... and stayed there.
I immediately tried to Home it; and nothing happened.
I switched back to Angle mode and tried to descend or maneuver; still nothing.
Even the camera was unresponsive; no display; no telemetry; no battery indicator.
Panic is settling in.
At this point I noticed that one of the propellers had slowed to a visible rotation speed.
Half of the right side arm prop had broken off; it pinwheeled lazily while the other motors fought to maintain flight in the now mildly turbulent breeze.
The five prop mode appeared to work well as it held steadfast; fixed in the azure sky; stationary; stolidly ignoring my anguished attempts to bring it safely back to Terra firma.
Nothing I did for the next five minutes had any effects on my poor zombie air-droid; including moving the ST16+ around in ever larger then smaller circles; to higher ground; nor switching antennas.
I even toggled transmitter power; twice. On the second power cycle; it seemed to respond to down stick; as it began a normal rate of descent to almost 5M.
Just as I positioned myself to grab a landing strut ... it rapidly took off and climbed back to its original position; then stuck there; staring bleakly out and away as before.
Rough calculations indicated that it had been on air for ten minutes or so; so I stood fast underneath it; hoping I might be able to catch it as it fell from the sky from imminent loss of power.
I had to think twice about that strategy; since I had no idea whether or not those mini machetes might continue to spin.
15 minutes into this terrifyingly errant flight; a small miracle happened.
Slowly; RokKopter began a seemingly controlled descent; exactly to its take off point; landed gently and idled.
I pounced on it and shut it down.
When powered up again to check the battery; it was discovered to be exhausted.
I had had enough; I packed up and went straight home for a post flight Goose-atini sedative.
Ugh.
It was quite pleasing to discover that it required only a few $$$ and a couple of nights of tinkering to restore its airworthiness.
A few practice sessions in the neighborhood park inspired the courage to venture out to a local R/C model aircraft park in search of bigger safer air space for some serious maneuvers.
Darwin Alert - Having read the user manual; and not recalling any serious warnings about interference from other R/C transmitters; I gave only a minimum of consideration to the other model aircraft operating in the area; as well as the high tension power lines a mile away. There was also a huge automated pumping station nearby; but, it too was dormant.
Excerpt from the Typhoon H User Manual follows -
• Do not attempt to operate your aircraft in areas with potential magnetic and/or radio interference including areas nearby broadcast towers, power transmission stations, high voltage power lines, electrical storms, etc.
• Always keep a safe distance in all directions around your aircraft to avoid collisions and/or injury. This aircraft is controlled by a radio signal subject to interference from many sources outside your control. Interference can cause momentary loss of control.
So; unperturbed; I moved off to a far corner of the park determined to make some low level practice runs on my first fully charged battery.
At this point; my dodo bird instincts had not yet started to tingle.
Sunny clear late afternoon sky; mild 5MPH breeze; a few hikers coming and going; in a few minutes we were airborne.
The brave little UAV hovered at 10 meters or so; went through all of the controls: yaw, pitch, landing gear, etc.; climbed up and out quickly in a 45 degree ascent to 50M; then disaster struck.
What happened next in quick succession was a big gust of wind; which blew the TH backwards a couple of meters; it recovered and plugged onward; hesitated; then descended slowly to 30M and returned to a spot directly over its take off point ... and stayed there.
I immediately tried to Home it; and nothing happened.
I switched back to Angle mode and tried to descend or maneuver; still nothing.
Even the camera was unresponsive; no display; no telemetry; no battery indicator.
Panic is settling in.
At this point I noticed that one of the propellers had slowed to a visible rotation speed.
Half of the right side arm prop had broken off; it pinwheeled lazily while the other motors fought to maintain flight in the now mildly turbulent breeze.
The five prop mode appeared to work well as it held steadfast; fixed in the azure sky; stationary; stolidly ignoring my anguished attempts to bring it safely back to Terra firma.
Nothing I did for the next five minutes had any effects on my poor zombie air-droid; including moving the ST16+ around in ever larger then smaller circles; to higher ground; nor switching antennas.
I even toggled transmitter power; twice. On the second power cycle; it seemed to respond to down stick; as it began a normal rate of descent to almost 5M.
Just as I positioned myself to grab a landing strut ... it rapidly took off and climbed back to its original position; then stuck there; staring bleakly out and away as before.
Rough calculations indicated that it had been on air for ten minutes or so; so I stood fast underneath it; hoping I might be able to catch it as it fell from the sky from imminent loss of power.
I had to think twice about that strategy; since I had no idea whether or not those mini machetes might continue to spin.
15 minutes into this terrifyingly errant flight; a small miracle happened.
Slowly; RokKopter began a seemingly controlled descent; exactly to its take off point; landed gently and idled.
I pounced on it and shut it down.
When powered up again to check the battery; it was discovered to be exhausted.
I had had enough; I packed up and went straight home for a post flight Goose-atini sedative.
Ugh.
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