Hello Fellow Yuneec Pilot!
Join our free Yuneec community and remove this annoying banner!
Sign up

The H and Garage doors

Joined
Jun 4, 2017
Messages
513
Reaction score
56
Looking for comments about this. Several months ago I was outside in a driveway with the H and decided to do a little hovering. I placed the H on the ground about 15 ft from a large garage door. I had often flown my Q500 there with no problems. I remember that the H seemed like it did not have good Sat lock even though I had waited and checked it carefully. Never got above 15-20 ft. Finally I decided I better land before something happened and recall the landing was a little iffy as the H was moving around no matter what I did.
Fast forward to yesterday. In a different location. Had several good flights at a school. Made sure I had a full Almanac. No problems. Decided too fly the H for the first time in my driveway. Have flown the Q there many times with no problems. After assuring I had as many Sats as possible took off and simply flew in a hover, 15-20ft, in a radius of about 50ft. 14 min go by and the H flies/hovers beautiful. Very stable. Now time to land . As I got within 1 to 2 ft of the ground I noticed the H moving around some what. Figured it was the wind. There was not much of it but enough. I was attempting to stop the side movement so I could land but all of a sudden the H started toward me at a increased speed then I had selected. It stopped and then decided to fly backwards at a faster speed. Only 1 to 2 ft above the ground. Caught me by surprise. Saw the H come down a little, about 50 ft away and catch the rear of the landing gear. Started to tip backwards as I killed the motors. Replaced 2 props. The only thing common to both incidents was that they took place near a large garage door. I now believe that the H is more sensitive to metal objects near it. I was about 10 to 15 ft from the doors. It really affected the H. Anyone else discover this? I have had 75 flights in the bird but never had a bad incident until yesterday. I had not flown near a garage door since 6 months ago at that other location until yesterday. What do you think? Thanks in advance.
 
I had an incident once at a property where we were shooting in the middle of a very large front yard with no apparent place for any metal. At around two feet while landing, the aircraft just took off and eventually began skipping as it contacted rising terrain. No Damage but it took me by surprise as the aircraft had maybe 100 solid flights by this time. Afterwards I checked everything out, whet through another start up from a different location and then flew back to that same spot but at a higher altitude. I was positioned well away and planned to attempt a landing and prepped myself to quickly raise the aircraft if any sign of disturbance was seen. Sure enough as I got close the aircraft started to move on its own so I just punched it up to about 25 feet without further problems. I still to this day have no idea what could have been in the middle of a 5 acre lot or maybe it was something else.

Another time (In fact it is in one of my videos) as I was filming an abandoned forest ranger watch tower, I found that any closer than about ten feet would cause aircraft movement in an unwanted direction.

We know that things like RR tracks, metal rebar in concrete, certain structures and so on will effect the compass. What is unclear (at least to me) is exactly what these look like at the particular location under undermined circumstances. Maybe it was the garage door, maybe it was rebar mesh if you were flying over a concrete driveway and maybe it was a combination of both things or even perhaps there was something else. I don't understand how these things interact but what I have taken away from my two scary moments is that they can happen unexpectedly; what we can do is prepare for the antidote which is distance and/or altitude as soon as you suspect a disturbance.
 
I had an incident once at a property where we were shooting in the middle of a very large front yard with no apparent place for any metal. At around two feet while landing, the aircraft just took off and eventually began skipping as it contacted rising terrain. No Damage but it took me by surprise as the aircraft had maybe 100 solid flights by this time. Afterwards I checked everything out, whet through another start up from a different location and then flew back to that same spot but at a higher altitude. I was positioned well away and planned to attempt a landing and prepped myself to quickly raise the aircraft if any sign of disturbance was seen. Sure enough as I got close the aircraft started to move on its own so I just punched it up to about 25 feet without further problems. I still to this day have no idea what could have been in the middle of a 5 acre lot or maybe it was something else.

Another time (In fact it is in one of my videos) as I was filming an abandoned forest ranger watch tower, I found that any closer than about ten feet would cause aircraft movement in an unwanted direction.

We know that things like RR tracks, metal rebar in concrete, certain structures and so on will effect the compass. What is unclear (at least to me) is exactly what these look like at the particular location under undermined circumstances. Maybe it was the garage door, maybe it was rebar mesh if you were flying over a concrete driveway and maybe it was a combination of both things or even perhaps there was something else. I don't understand how these things interact but what I have taken away from my two scary moments is that they can happen unexpectedly; what we can do is prepare for the antidote which is distance and/or altitude as soon as you suspect a disturbance.
Thanks Ty. That helps me to understand what happened to me and how to deal with it!
 
I tried messing around in my driveway and quickly remembered that my garage doors were STEEL when the H started doing a dance that I'd never seen before. 2 props gave up their lives in that one.

This is easy to say but bewildering when it happens because adrenalin kicks in. When the H behaves strangely close to the ground go up if possible and try to gain control. Try landing again in a different spot once you're in control again. In my case I had few options on where to go because of nearby trees.

Flying in my driveway near my garage doors is something I've never repeated.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Roadstar30
I tried messing around in my driveway and quickly remembered that my garage doors were STEEL when the H started doing a dance that I'd never seen before. 2 props gave up their lives in that one.

This is easy to say but bewildering when it happens because adrenalin kicks in. When the H behaves strangely close to the ground go up if possible and try to gain control. Try landing again in a different spot once you're in control again. In my case I had few options on where to go because of nearby trees.

Flying in my driveway near my garage doors is something I've never repeated.
Put my on the list of "Never try that again". Thanks Ron
 
those steel garage doors must be really heavy!

mine has a pretty light gauge galvanized steel frame, and then a thin aluminum skin.
I have flown standing just inside the garage door with the door up and noticed reception glitches in the ST16 ( of course)
 
Last edited:
Anticipation and action plans are a must, as we discover with the more experience we get. Too bad we sometimes have to experience something first before we know what to prepare for.

In the summer months, I take off and land on a four foot wide dock. While the take off has water on both sides, I will bring my craft under the trees to land on the portion of dock that has the harder stuff at the sides, just in case of a tip OFF the dock. Happened once (tip over and off) so I was glad I anticipated and did not have the wet stuff to contend with.

Now, with much more experience and confidence, if my H will not settle down on the first landing attempt, that eight feet (altitude) I have to play with when under the trees is plenty. What is really nice is that I now have no qualms about "running the chute" if I need to. That is, get back in the air, stabilize, get the pilot off the dock and send the craft to the middle of the yard, dodging the pipes and trees as I go.

Fortunately, I rarely have an audience, so that last maneuver, if necessary, has yet to be seen by anyone but me.

:):D:rolleyes:o_O

Jeff
 
Yes, they’re heavy doors. They are also insulated. Without the springs and 1/2 HP motors they aren’t coming up easily. There are 3 bays in the garage each with its own door.
 
Yes Sir, springs and 1/2 HP motor on mine as well.
It is insulated, some very light I assume fiberglass batting , behind a plastic FRP backing, glued between those light galvanized steel frame pieces, and covered on the outside with a very thin aluminum skin.

I can easily lift it myself without the electric opener , but without the springs requires a lever.
been there done that. replaced the spring too haha
 
Magnets stick to my garage doors so I think they are all steel with no aluminum skin. I believe they are Overhead Doors with "Thermacore". Its been 20 years since the house was built with the doors so some of the details may be hazy in my brain. ;)
 
When I was growing up, if I ever did, garage doors were made of wood and were quite heavy.
 
Why could they not have made the H as reliable as the Q500 I loved my Q only ever had the engine go down but that was replaced by yuneec touchwood I have had no issues with my new H now see the almanac can you check that or do you just have to let it sit for 13mins to do it by itself
 
When I was growing up, if I ever did, garage doors were made of wood and were quite heavy.

Yep, and I remember painting them as a kid and as an adult. Something that didn’t want to do when I built this house. :)
 
Why could they not have made the H as reliable as the Q500 I loved my Q only ever had the engine go down but that was replaced by yuneec touchwood I have had no issues with my new H now see the almanac can you check that or do you just have to let it sit for 13mins to do it by itself

There’s no check on the GPS almanac that I’ve heard of. Letting it sit for 13 minutes is the routine. Once done it only needs to be repeated if you haven’t flown in a while or you’ve made a large change in your position on Mother Earth.
 
Where GPS is concerned, time has always been your friend. Satellites acquisition in quantity is never instant, and the longer we wait the additional time allows acquisition of more satellites. With GPS, the amount of time a satellite has been in view with the system is also a measure of positional accuracy.

As for GPS checks, we only have satellite counts between aircraft and controller to go by unless connected to the GUI, which is not something we can do when preparing to fly. Our only other means is to let the system tell us it is “happy” through the white flashing light indication with the light color associated with the flight mode.

For those with less experience, never fly with less than 10 satellites showing for both the aircraft and the controller. This is especially relevant when using Smart or RTH modes.
 
@PatR another thing that new pilots are generally confused by is the ST16 saying "acquiring" GPS and then it goes away. They often interpret this as GPS "locked".
 
Why could they not have made the H as reliable as the Q500 I loved my Q only ever had the engine go down but that was replaced by yuneec touchwood I have had no issues with my new H now see the almanac can you check that or do you just have to let it sit for 13mins to do it by itself
Funny you should say that. I have been telling whoever wants to listen...if only the H was as reliable as the Q500. Seems like the H is just to complex compared to the Q. Maybe that's it? Don"t know for sure. Yuneec should be able to do a better job with the H. Probably never will.
 
So see this almanac what is it is their away to see it work or do you just let the H sit and it does it itself
 

New Posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
20,954
Messages
241,586
Members
27,284
Latest member
csandoval