Total power loss and crash - Total loss of Typhoon H

[Joel Lukacher]

This morning, my Typhoon H lost total power about 2 minutes into its flight, in an arc across the outside of a hill. It was at 40 meters high on a clear day. It had a fully changed battery that was firmly secured with the latch down and locked. It simply lost total power are dropped straight down like-a-rock flat on to the short grass on a gentile hillside. The camera and gimbal was crushed, mashed, and torn off. Each leg (in the up position) with broken foot. Two broken arms. Cracked battery - half out of its bay. Cracks in the lower body. Three broken props. See attached flight log. It shows the spin out just before it lost power under perfect conditions. You can see all was well in this image of the last Flight Log Telemetry readings before the power loss. Notice hoe the yaw suddenly changed in the last 2 entries!

It looks like a total loss. No other pilots were in the area. It was a routine flight in a well flown practice area. I can't explain what happened. There was nothing I could do to recover. I guess I was lucky it didn't happen on a commercial job or over real property or people!!!

I called Yuneec, sent them the flight log, and they sent me a RMA with a pre-paid UPS shipping label. I have to wait and see what they say after inspecting the damage. I hope they'll send me a complete new unit with Real-Sence and the new 3 antenna transmitter too (I can hope & dream).

Has anyone else had any similar experiences?

 

[glider]

This morning, my Typhoon H lost total power about 2 minutes into its flight, in an arc across the outside of a hill. It was at 40 meters high on a clear day. It had a fully changed battery that was firmly secured with the latch down and locked. It simply lost total power are dropped straight down like-a-rock flat on to the short grass on a gentile hillside. The camera and gimbal was crushed, mashed, and torn off. Each leg (in the up position) with broken foot. Two broken arms. Cracked battery - half out of its bay. Cracks in the lower body. Three broken props. See attached flight log. It shows the spin out just before it lost power under perfect conditions. You can see all was well in this image of the last Flight Log Telemetry readings before the power loss. Notice hoe the yaw suddenly changed in the last 2 entries!

It looks like a total loss. No other pilots were in the area. It was a routine flight in a well flown practice area. I can't explain what happened. There was nothing I could do to recover. I guess I was lucky it didn't happen on a commercial job or over real property or people!!!

I called Yuneec, sent them the flight log, and they sent me a RMA with a pre-paid UPS shipping label. I have to wait and see what they say after inspecting the damage. I hope they'll send me a complete new unit with Real-Sence and the new 3 antenna transmitter too (I can hope & dream).

Has anyone else had any similar experiences?

The entire log tells the story better.

 

[horizontal]

Glider, would you please give some of us a little better explanation. I don't know how to read or decipher the logs. Thanks.

 

[David Wilson]

Sorry to hear about your loss. You sound like an experienced pilot with a believable story. We haven't heard many of these issues, at least not from experienced RC pilots. Most were newby problems. Please keep us posted on what Yuneec tells you. I'm sure they will replace the unit, but I hope they explain what happened. Hopefully this is a fluke. I know I've got hundreds of flights on my H now with zero issues, except my own dumb self inflicted crash.

 

[Steve Carr]

Don't see anything in that little piece of the log that would indicate a problem. Just curious why you think they would send you an upgrade? I'd be glad for a repair or replace.

 

[THoff]

I think this is the third report of a TH just dropping out of the sky. I wonder if this is a firmware fault where the software controlling the drone crashes or freezes.

Were you on the latest firmware?

 

[glider]

Glider, would you please give some of us a little better explanation. I don't know how to read or decipher the logs. Thanks.

Post the telemetry log itself.

 

[Joneshd3488]

I'm curious to know how many successful flights and/or flight hours you have logged to the point of this crash. Have you kept a flight log of all previous flights?

I've only logged about 21 hours myself, but it's good to know of possible at what point this crash occurred since you've owned your H.

 

[THoff]

I have only about half a dozen battery insertion / removal cycles under my belt, but one thing that has become apparent is that proper and positive locking of the latch is paramount.

I have already had an instance where I thought the battery was fully seated and couldn't go further, only to notice a small gap where the battery wasn't flush with the body of the THP. A second effort pushing with both thumbs and having the index fingers hooked around the rear landing leg joints produced a "click" and proper locking.

 

[Joel Lukacher]

I have about 20 flights in. Never any issues. I am certain the battery was locked in. I'm very careful about that. I'll post the full flight log when I get home.

My guess is Yuneec will replace my bird. I am going to ask if I can pay the difference for the pro version.

 

[Joel Lukacher]

I am speculating the power loss may be because of a thermal issue in the power distribution board. In was flying in South Florida in the noon day sun. It was a very hot day in the mid ninetys!

 

[Joel Lukacher]

Yes. My firmware was updated to current releases.

 

[Joel Lukacher]

Post the telemetry log itself.

GLIDER: I have attached all my flight logs on my Google Drive here. I'd appreciate your insights.
Typhoon H crash flight logs

 

[Sparkorc]

I have about 20 flights in. Never any issues. I am certain the battery was locked in. I'm very careful about that. I'll post the full flight log when I get home.

My guess is Yuneec will replace my bird. I am going to ask if I can pay the difference for the pro version.

I'm sorry for your unexpected crash a hope Yuneec replaces it for you.

I had a similar issue with a phantom whilst it had done over 150 hrs flying, this particular battery in question had only had 30 recharges, and was never ever under discharged during that time and when not in use was placed in storage mode voltage, then for no apparent reason motors stopped and it fell out the sky luckily it was only 15 ft high and crashed upside down on grass, suffering 2 broken props and the gimbal mount broken.

I have since carried further tests with this battery it charges to full voltage, and each test the voltage just drops instantly after 3 minutes of use, so this battery is knackered so this is what could have happened to your battery, in all the years I have been in rc models this was a first for me with a lipo battery failing early in its life.

 

[glider]

GLIDER: I have attached all my flight logs on my Google Drive here. I'd appreciate your insights.
Typhoon H crash flight logs

The log just stops abruptly as if all power was lost. There is very little information available (sorry to make the comparison again) compared to Arducopter, but it looks like a catastrophic loss of power, from 15.8 to 0 in nothing flat.

 

[EnlightenOnQ]

I have had this happen on my camera drone ( shown in my icon picture) where 1 cell dropped on the battery and it just dropped out of the sky with no warning or battery warning. Just wagging back and forth comng straight down in a FRTL forced RTL. Lucky I was only 50 feet up but still broke landing gear and bent the camera mount. Checked battery and 1 cel was gone the rest were fine.

 

[Joel Lukacher]

Thanks Glider. Here's the odd thing. When I got home I turned on the Radio, put the battery back into the "H" and powered it on to try to lower the landing gear so to pack it into the box to ship back. The battery still had an almost full charge of over 15 volts!

The legs still wouldn't go down. I had to remove them to ship back to Yuneec.

 

[Tuna]

It can be that a joint in the battery is heat sensitive - so if there's a bad solder joint, when it's drawing a lot of current everything gets hot, the solder melts and you can loose all power - which then mysteriously comes back when it all cools down. I'm not saying that's what's happened here, but I've seen it with other RC gear.

 

[ozzieb]

I am speculating the power loss may be because of a thermal issue in the power distribution board. In was flying in South Florida in the noon day sun. It was a very hot day in the mid ninetys!

That's not good I live in Australia hope that's not the case as our summers get a tad warm .

 

[Kmathis]

I had an issue where all motors just stopped as well and crashed to the ground. It wasn't my battery because it was still powered up when I went to pick it up on the ground.

After returning it to Yuneec and a few weeks of frustrating communications, I had asked for my money back because I believed, and still do that there is an inherent design flaw or manufacturing flaw and I didn't want to put that kind of liability on my business.

Although they couldn't tell me where it states this, but they told me that it's their policy that they don't give refunds and they repaired my unit, couldn't find a fault, and shipped it back to me. I spoke to them again and asked why would I want the same unit back if you couldn't find a fault and just replaced the broken plastic pieces? It's not a matter if but when this will happen again.

Since I couldn't get a refund, I was trying to get them to upgrade my transmitter to the latest as well as the latest camera. Here is what they said. They don't know when the new lens will become available but it is an upgrade to the current one. There will be a choice between the upgraded 115 degree FOV and a 98 degree FOV. And they don't have any stock of the new transmitters. Supposedly though, which I don't understand, is apparently there is a choice to order the non-pro version with or without the Wizard and its a $100 difference. They only have 10 of the Wizard units available. I just felt I was given a line.

So bottom line, I am stuck with the current design, but just a new serial number.