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

What to do when your TYPHOON H suddenly FLYS AWAY!!!

Joined
Apr 4, 2016
Messages
1,358
Reaction score
961
Age
61
Location
Ottawa, Canada
First let me say to YUNEEC... You have a "flyaway" problem with the Typhoon H.

My Typhoon H did what many others on this forum have been saying... It literally flew away out of control!!!! I'm running the latest Firmware.

I have the flight data and when you replay it, you can clearly see that the Typhoon H does not have a clue where it is. Each time I switched it into RTH it was like it went through a time portal and appeared elsewhere.

Here is what happened, and here is what I did to save it:

1. Travelled to 4 separate areas about 10 km apart from each other. Flew a battery at each location and everything was as it should be.

2. Arrived at fourth location. 4th battery inserted. Camera connected, plenty of satellites with screen showing READY. Took off in ANGLE mode (I never fly in SMART MODE). As the Typhoon H raised up between trees it was drifting to the left so I gave it full power to rise above the trees before it crashed into one. At about 30 meters it immediately QUICKLY started drifting to the left. All yaw & directional stick input had ZERO effect.

3. I could tell that the Left stick to ASSEND or DESEND was working, but with slow results. The Right stick input DID NOT produce desired results. It was as if the right joystick was not working.

4. I switched it into Return To Home (RTH) mode and it shot off at a 90 degree angle AWAY from me. It did not perform any of the RTH movements (i.e., rise and turn around, etc). I noticed that by hitting RTH it would cause the FLY AWAY to go in a different direction, so I kept flicking in and out of Angle mode and RTH mode.

5. Since there were people, cars, trees, swamp, water all around I kept the Typhoon H above the trees so that it would not crash. If you panic and bring it lower to the ground while it's out of control, it will crash.

6. Finally after a few minutes of flicking in and out of the modes it began to fly less erratic at HIGH SPEED until finally it just flew erractic at a SLOWER SPEED and began to drift. I finally was able to get it to begin a true RTH process where it rose up and came to my location (slower than normal). I put it back in Angle mode and landed it safely. As it was coming down it was flying perfectly as if nothing was ever wrong.

If any Typhoon H pilot encounters their Typhoon H doing the FLY AWAY thing, then I suggest to do the following:

1. Don't Panic
2. Raise it above all objects surrounding you (the left joystick hopefully will work to raise it)
3. Keep trying to regain control by switching between RTH and ANGLE & SMART mode (but don't leave it in SMART mode)
4. Try the RIGHT joystick and expect it to not produce the desired results, but keep trying as you don't want it to keep flying in the same direction or you may never see it again.
5. It may take two minutes for the Typhoon H and ST16 to begin to work as per normal.
6. Once you regain control and all is well, crack open a cool one.... You deserve it!


Yes I'll be in touch with Yuneec this week to advise them that they have a problem.

Here is the video of the incident:

 
Last edited:
Well done for keeping calm, it's all to easy to panic and make snap decisions, glad you got it back. Not sure I would trust it again tho [emoji23][emoji23][emoji106]
 
Here is a snapshot of all the objects around me during the FLYAWAY. There was no place to land except the dirt road. I'm at the arrow. I started by the red car and was flying towards the planes, but the Typhoon ending up flying in the total opposite direction.

FLYAWAY.jpg
 
Very strange, i never had any big problems ore isseus since i bought the H.
Perhaps i have one from the good batch
I bought it begin of June
I have a Euro version.

Max2206
 
Cap, could it have been a GPS anomaly, or local RF interference with the control signal? This was today?
Good luck. If anyone can sort it out, it will be you. Don't hesitate to involve Yuneec.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CAPTAINDRONE
I was always taught that in case of flyaways the first thing to do is disable the GPS, you are then left in attitude mode and should be able to fly it back.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ward Paterson
Very strange, i never had any big problems ore isseus since i bought the H.
Perhaps i have one from the good batch
I bought it begin of June
I have a Euro version.

Max2206
I thought the same. Mine is from May and it has worked flawlessly since. It can happen to anyone as I strongly believe it is a glitch in the pre-flight start up. If something goes wrong in the pre-flight initialization it wrongly lets you still take off.
 
I was always taught that in case of flyaways the first thing to do is disable the GPS, you are then left in attitude mode and should be able to fly it back.
That was going to be my final option, but since it was flying without input and there was no response for awhile as I moved the right stick, switching out of GPS mode would have had no effect. If there is no response from stick movement in GPS mode then the same would be true in non-GPS.
 
That was going to be my final option, but since it was flying without input and there was no response for awhile as I moved the right stick, switching out of GPS mode would have had no effect. If there is no response from stick movement in GPS mode then the same would be true in non-GPS.

With all due respect you can't say that for sure. I can see why you think that though but as it wasn't tried I would 100% add that to the to do list if the worst happens. If GPS is off it should come to a stop and hover, unless the controller is the issue but you won't recover that regardless if that is the problem, that is unlikely though. If GPS was off and right stick doesn't work then you should be able to decend at least.

Please let us know how you get on though and glad you got it back.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: THoff
That was going to be my final option, but since it was flying without input and there was no response for awhile as I moved the right stick, switching out of GPS mode would have had no effect. If there is no response from stick movement in GPS mode then the same would be true in non-GPS.

Most flyaways are the results of corrupted gps data. Either the craft doesn't know where it is or thinks it's somewhere else and tries to correct the issue by flying to where it thinks it's supposed to be. Switching off GPS should stop the craft from flying away and give you back control.
 
First let me say to YUNEEC... You have a "flyaway" problem with the Typhoon H.

My Typhoon H did what many others on this forum have been saying... It literally flew away out of control!!!! I'm running the latest Firmware.

I have the flight data and when you replay it, you can clearly see that the Typhoon H does not have a clue where it is. Each time I switched it into RTH it was like it went through a time portal and appeared elsewhere.

Here is what happened, and here is what I did to save it:

1. Travelled to 4 separate areas about 10 km apart from each other. Flew a battery at each location and everything was as it should be.

2. Arrived at fourth location. 4th battery inserted. Camera connected, plenty of satellites with screen showing READY. Took off in ANGLE mode (I never fly in SMART MODE). As the Typhoon H raised up between trees it was drifting to the left so I gave it full power to rise above the trees before it crashed into one. At about 30 meters it immediately QUICKLY started drifting to the left. All yaw & directional stick input had ZERO effect.

3. I could tell that the Left stick to ASSEND or DESEND was working, but with slow results. The Right stick input DID NOT produce desired results. It was as if the right joystick was not working.

4. I switched it into Return To Home (RTH) mode and it shot off at a 90 degree angle AWAY from me. It did not perform any of the RTH movements (i.e., rise and turn around, etc). I noticed that by hitting RTH it would cause the FLY AWAY to go in a different direction, so I kept flicking in and out of Angle mode and RTH mode.

5. Since there were people, cars, trees, swamp, water all around I kept the Typhoon H above the trees so that it would not crash. If you panic and bring it lower to the ground while it's out of control, it will crash.

6. Finally after a few minutes of flicking in and out of the modes it began to fly less erratic at HIGH SPEED until finally it just flew erractic at a SLOWER SPEED and began to drift. I finally was able to get it to begin a true RTH process where it rose up and came to my location (slower than normal). I put it back in Angle mode and landed it safely. As it was coming down it was flying perfectly as if nothing was ever wrong.

If any Typhoon H pilot encounters their Typhoon H doing the FLY AWAY thing, then I suggest to do the following:

1. Don't Panic
2. Raise it above all objects surrounding you (the left joystick hopefully will work to raise it)
3. Keep trying to regain control by switching between RTH and ANGLE & SMART mode (but don't leave it in SMART mode)
4. Try the RIGHT joystick and expect it to not produce the desired results, but keep trying as you don't want it to keep flying in the same direction or you may never see it again.
5. It may take two minutes for the Typhoon H and ST16 to begin to work as per normal.
6. Once you regain control and all is well, crack open a cool one.... You deserve it!


Yes I'll be in touch with Yuneec this week to advise them that they have a problem.

I also plan to post a video showing how screwed up the Typhoon H is during a flyaway.

Nice tips
 
With all due respect you can't say that for sure. I can see why you think that though but as it wasn't tried I would 100% add that to the to do list if the worst happens. If GPS is off it should come to a stop and hover, unless the controller is the issue but you won't recover that regardless if that is the problem, that is unlikely though. If GPS was off and right stick doesn't work then you should be able to decend at least.

Please let us know how you get on though and glad you got it back.

To me theoretically it should have no effect based on my experience with drones. Let me explain.... I've flown a Phantom that had a major toilet bowl problem which is the result of a GPS/compass conflict (I have a YouTube vid showing this). When in GPS mode with the Phantom flying in a circle with no stick input, one could still control it with stick input by countering the toiletbowl effect. If it was taken out of GPS mode it would drift and twitch, but just like in GPS mode it could still be controlled.

What occured with the Typhoon H was a Flyaway where right stick input has either no effect or sparodic opposite effect. Left stick only worked for ascend/descend at slow speed.

If it does this again I'll take it out of GPS and report back as to what the result is.
 
In a slight toilet bowl, the aircraft may respond to right stick, but in a full tilt flyaway it does not seem to work. My experience with 4 Phantom flyaways, is that when there is a problem with compass and or GPS, the program tries to correct this before responding to right stick commands. Thus you may be able to gain altitude, but not steer it in the correct direction. Since it responds to throttle, it should respond to commands to switch modes. I do wish this mode change would be added to a switch for quicker access.
Changing from GPS to Atti mode has saved many Phantoms and I hope would do the same for a Typhoon H in a similar situation.
I have had only one brief incident after an upgrade where the H was not responding well. After rebinding and reclaibrating everything, the problem was gone and has not returned.
On thing I would watch out for is that you have nothing touching the sticks when you boot up the transmitter and aircraft. It is easy to have the neck strap pushing one of the sticks while you have set the transmitter aside and this can cause strange behavior.
 
Interesting, I have a question:

Did you turn your H on, get a GPS lock and then moved it around to the take off position? Or did you turn it on and wait for a lock at the takeoff location?

I'm asking this because my first crash derived from a very similar flyaway, but I'm 100% sure it was a GPS glitch I triggered by moving around the H before taking off (I got various GPS lost warnings at least 4, and then placed at least 10-13 meters away from where I initially turned it on)

When analizing the telemetry data, it shows that basically the GPS kind of "froze" for close to 13 seconds, which was enough for the H to try and autopilot itself and get out of my control.

Anyway, for some reason the H definitely assumed it was in a fixed position but autopilot in reality was making it drift away very fast trying to match wrong GPS information.

I believe had I disabled GPS I could have regained some control because this was definitely a GPS malfunction. (looking back there's a lot I could've done, but in real life it was something that happened in a matter of seconds)

I was hoping Yuneec would confirm this, but I never received any response from the telemetry data.

According to telemetry data the GPS kicked back in a few seconds after, the telemetry shows the real final trajectory, but it was already 30 meters away from me traveling at 34kph into a concrete wall.

Ever since I always turn on the H exactly at the spot where I'm going to take-off. If I have to move it to another place I will turn it off, place it, then turn it on and wait for a lock in there and never had another situation like this.
 
Interesting, I have a question:

Did you turn your H on, get a GPS lock and then moved it around to the take off position? Or did you turn it on and wait for a lock at the takeoff location?

I'm asking this because my first crash derived from a very similar flyaway, but I'm 100% sure it was a GPS glitch I triggered by moving around the H before taking off (I got various GPS lost warnings at least 4, and then placed at least 10-13 meters away from where I initially turned it on)

When analizing the telemetry data, it shows that basically the GPS kind of "froze" for close to 13 seconds, which was enough for the H to try and autopilot itself and get out of my control.

Anyway, for some reason the H definitely assumed it was in a fixed position but autopilot in reality was making it drift away very fast trying to match wrong GPS information.

I believe had I disabled GPS I could have regained some control because this was definitely a GPS malfunction. (looking back there's a lot I could've done, but in real life it was something that happened in a matter of seconds)

I was hoping Yuneec would confirm this, but I never received any response from the telemetry data.

According to telemetry data the GPS kicked back in a few seconds after, the telemetry shows the real final trajectory, but it was already 30 meters away from me traveling at 34kph into a concrete wall.

Ever since I always turn on the H exactly at the spot where I'm going to take-off. If I have to move it to another place I will turn it off, place it, then turn it on and wait for a lock in there and never had another situation like this.

Did you checked the KP-index? It have been pretty high in the last few days.
1e111463d70dc420aa6658908a31e067.gif



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: Agent K and THoff
Interesting, I have a question:

Did you turn your H on, get a GPS lock and then moved it around to the take off position? Or did you turn it on and wait for a lock at the takeoff location?

Did not move it. I have the same routine with the "H". I always set it facing away from me. Turn on the ST16, then the "H". For some reason I remember looking at the ST16, adjusting the camera settings & checking the Sats and seeing 15 or so and the green READY. There should have been no issue as this is just your basic drone, like many others on the market. We are the year 2016... drones are no longer "Buck Rogers Sci-Fi", everything should work if it was designed properly with proper failsafes.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
20,952
Messages
241,579
Members
27,284
Latest member
csandoval