Two years on and first proper crash - pilot error

[Tuna]

So I've had my Typhoon H for two years now and it's been very reliable. One puffy battery and a couple of props have been the only service items I've had to worry about... until now.

Last weekend I was flying a two inch FPV drone (badly) and caught a branch of a tree, sending it off in a random direction to crash. I quickly discovered that it is *very* hard to spot a tiny drone in long grass.

So (being a bright spark), I thought I'd get out the Typhoon to search for the little drone from the sky! A quick launch and I did a slow sweep of the field, videoing the ground so I could check it out on a big monitor to see if I could spot the lost drone.

Then I thought... it could be stuck up in the tree! So I flew the Typhoon up and over the tree to video into the branches and see if I could spot anything there. After all that, I brought it down towards me and had it flying at just above head height, ready to land.

That's when it started to drift... slowly and very deliberately into the tree. I grappled with the controls but fumbled it.. and... five motor mode.. four.. three... two..

Here's the official test report: The Typhoon H cannot fly with only one intact prop. It tends to fall from the sky.

It broke the camera rails and mashed the camera into the gimbal. However, everything else seemed to be intact.

After freeing up the gimbal, replacing the gimbal plate and putting five new props on, everything looked ok. Started it up, and it booted OK. Ran a gimbal calibration. Success. Then took off. Everything ran just fine. Flew around a bit, raised and lowered the landing gear and then landed. Perfect!

I am very relieved to still have a working machine... and quite embarrassed that I'm still capable of flying drones into trees after many hours of piloting. Moral of the story: pay attention and stay away from that tree - it eats drones!

 

[AeroJ]

Lols - I feel your pain buddy, but amazed and pleased you got up and flying again so quickly ! By the sounds of it you are very lucky that gimbal / camera is fine ! I lost my favourite little ladybird to too much wind a few years back, shortly followed by too much impenetrable hedgerow ! Never did find that

My H does a lot of drifting sometimes, and I am increasingly blaming the ST-16, whose sticks sometimes don't return to 0 as accurately or consistently as we'd like. You can see if that's the case not in the hardware monitor, which doesn't show you accurately enough, but in the edit screen for each control in the channels setup, which shows a yellow line and in much greater clarity its deviation from center. Certainly in my case, whenever I have excessive drift at landing, my first response is always to gently stir the right stick then release, which usually works and returns it to stable hover. Then, after the session, I recalibrate by ST-16 via the hidden menu and the problem usually goes away for a few flight sessions. I have read that the right aileron is particularly susceptible to this 'not quite zero' center problem, but I haven't tried anything beyond calibration to permanently address this yet. Do you think it could be that ? I presume this wasn't regular GPS loss or you'd have got a warning ?

 

[Ty Pilot]

As a motorcyclist, there is a saying that the two most dangerous periods for riders are; in the beginning, just after you learn the basics and after 30 years or so - the thought being once we've experienced it all and become very relaxed, we can become complacent. I think the same holds true for flying. Glad it wasn't too bad.

 

[Eagle's Eye Video]

That's when it started to drift... slowly and very deliberately into the tree. I grappled with the controls but fumbled it.. and... five motor mode.. four.. three... two..

Almost identical to my first crash a month into owning the H... other than being a 4' wall as opposed to a tree... annoying as **** the way it rotates around, in it's efforts to take out several props. Tuna, you think if we feed them Xanax, they'll be less suicidal? You'd think the Lithium would take care of that...

 

[Dustoff]

When I crashed mine in to a tree it also spun around to take out as many props as it could

 

[rdonson]

I've adapted another saying from road bicycling.....

"There are two kinds of pilots. Those who have crashed and those who are about to."

 

[Ty Pilot]

That is another good one and: There are old pilots and bold pilots but there aren't too many old, bold pilots.

 

[rdonson]

 

[Steve Carr]

and quite embarrassed that I'm still capable of flying drones into trees after many hours of piloting. Moral of the story: pay attention and stay away from that tree - it eats drones!

I was working on a page of examples of how to crash a copter. After months of additions I gave up on page 5 after determining there are more ways to crash than to fly.

 

[PatR]

Been quite awhile since I last crashed a drone but one thing is certain, it’s going to happen again. The only question is when, and which one?

 

[FlushVision]

Been quite awhile since I last crashed a drone but one thing is certain, it’s going to happen again. The only question is when, and which one?

Totally agree with that. I was flying over a group of ancient henges yesterday in a wind measuring about 10 MPH on the ground but obviously a lot stronger at altitude since it looked like the H was being badly buffeted around when I got it over about 200 ft. Of the three flights the second one was a close call

 

[Dustoff]

George , George , George of the jungle ....look out for that tree....

I noticed I get a little nervous getting close to trees , also flying low and at some distance I loose site of the drone when trees are in the background .

 

[KEITH KUHN]

So I've had my Typhoon H for two years now and it's been very reliable. One puffy battery and a couple of props have been the only service items I've had to worry about... until now.

Last weekend I was flying a two inch FPV drone (badly) and caught a branch of a tree, sending it off in a random direction to crash. I quickly discovered that it is *very* hard to spot a tiny drone in long grass.

So (being a bright spark), I thought I'd get out the Typhoon to search for the little drone from the sky! A quick launch and I did a slow sweep of the field, videoing the ground so I could check it out on a big monitor to see if I could spot the lost drone.

Then I thought... it could be stuck up in the tree! So I flew the Typhoon up and over the tree to video into the branches and see if I could spot anything there. After all that, I brought it down towards me and had it flying at just above head height, ready to land.

That's when it started to drift... slowly and very deliberately into the tree. I grappled with the controls but fumbled it.. and... five motor mode.. four.. three... two..

Here's the official test report: The Typhoon H cannot fly with only one intact prop. It tends to fall from the sky.

It broke the camera rails and mashed the camera into the gimbal. However, everything else seemed to be intact.

After freeing up the gimbal, replacing the gimbal plate and putting five new props on, everything looked ok. Started it up, and it booted OK. Ran a gimbal calibration. Success. Then took off. Everything ran just fine. Flew around a bit, raised and lowered the landing gear and then landed. Perfect!

I am very relieved to still have a working machine... and quite embarrassed that I'm still capable of flying drones into trees after many hours of piloting. Moral of the story: pay attention and stay away from that tree - it eats drones!

You are correct stay away from trees

 

[rdonson]

They aren't good swimmers either.

 

[KEITH KUHN]

They aren't good swimmers either.

I have one that's at the bottom of a river happened because of a fly away but it was under warranty so yuneec sent me a brand new drone camera battery and props