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!
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!