Wrecked My Typhoon H first time out! Can Anyone shed light if I provide the flight log?

[Kyrenegade]

I took my H out to a local park and flew it for two or three minutes with no problem. Took off to a hover about 8 feet off the ground. I then flew a square approx 50foot by 50 foot, then landed and cut the motors. Sat for a few minutes reading the manual. Took off a second time, hovered about 8 feet off the ground ( no drift, hovering nicely) in a split second the H revved up to max and did a full left turn. I tried everything. It stayed straight line right into a concrete culvert next to a road. I dont have a clue if I did something wrong or if it lost telemetry.
I called Yuneec and emailed them the flight log about a week ago. I have not got a reply yet. Here is the flight log if anyone can help a newbie out.

 

[Skeets]

I am no expert at reviewing Telemetry files, but it looks like you had two flights on July 11 and I assume since those are the last two flights in your .zip, those are the flights in question. On the first flight, the battery level was already at 14.6V, which is not a voltage to continue to fly, let alone take off again. The second flight looks like it lasted for about 8 seconds before the voltage dropped to 13.7V. Im not sure why that would cause the revving up and full left turn, but flying with such low voltage is an accident waiting to happen.

 

[Shadowolf]

I haven't looked at the filed but from skeets thoughts it looks like it had a failure in the main board and powered cycled. As it was only a 8 sec flight for the second one.
But like I said I didn't review the files.

 

[Steve Carr]

I am no expert at reviewing Telemetry files, but it looks like you had two flights on July 11 and I assume since those are the last two flights in your .zip, those are the flights in question. On the first flight, the battery level was already at 14.6V, which is not a voltage to continue to fly, let alone take off again. The second flight looks like it lasted for about 8 seconds before the voltage dropped to 13.7V. Im not sure why that would cause the revving up and full left turn, but flying with such low voltage is an accident waiting to happen.

Hmm....I'm looking at flight 020 and the start voltage is 15.5. It does drop briefly to 13.7 but that is during a max sustained roll.

In my opinion, the H went into a nearly max roll and stayed in that attitude until it crashed. This is with sticks centered on the ST16. It also shows switching to flight mode 32. I have never seen that mode so I'm at a loss for that number.

Bottom line.....The H took off on a joy ride without a pilot on board. I see no pilot error involved. However, Kyrenegade, in the future don't take off with anything less than a fully charged battery.

 

[Dilly Joat]

I took my H out to a local park and flew it for two or three minutes with no problem. Took off to a hover about 8 feet off the ground. I then flew a square approx 50foot by 50 foot, then landed and cut the motors. Sat for a few minutes reading the manual. Took off a second time, hovered about 8 feet off the ground ( no drift, hovering nicely) in a split second the H revved up to max and did a full left turn. I tried everything. It stayed straight line right into a concrete culvert next to a road. I dont have a clue if I did something wrong or if it lost telemetry.
I called Yuneec and emailed them the flight log about a week ago. I have not got a reply yet. Here is the flight log if anyone can help a newbie out.

Yuneec are the best people to read the logs; I have had a quick look at the telemetry_00020 log and at motor start the voltage was 15.4. Then according to the altimeter the H was 2 feet below take-off position, latitude was increasing, longitude was fixed doing 11 mph in an easterly direction. Then at 12:24:17.772 there is a short gap in the telemetry and voltage goes from 14.8v to 13.7v instantaneously, the H yaws from 89 to 195, there is a motor failure and solid compass warning. But the good news is that voltage comes back up to 15v. Leave it to Yuneec to sort that one out and I hope they come through for you. Let us know.

 

[Kyrenegade]

I am no expert at reviewing Telemetry files, but it looks like you had two flights on July 11 and I assume since those are the last two flights in your .zip, those are the flights in question. On the first flight, the battery level was already at 14.6V, which is not a voltage to continue to fly, let alone take off again. The second flight looks like it lasted for about 8 seconds before the voltage dropped to 13.7V. Im not sure why that would cause the revving up and full left turn, but flying with such low voltage is an accident waiting to happen.

Thats strange because I charged all 4 batteries the day before. I dont remember hearing a low battery alarm? Any way to check if I have a bad battery?

 

[Kyrenegade]

I haven't looked at the filed but from skeets thoughts it looks like it had a failure in the main board and powered cycled. As it was only a 8 sec flight for the second one.
But like I said I didn't review the files.

Is that a defect in the main board? How do I prevent this from happening again?

 

[Kyrenegade]

Yuneec just sent me a RMA number and want a copy of the my purchase receipt. Want me to send the H back to them. Didnt really say what happened?

 

[Steve Carr]

Yuneec are the best people to read the logs; I have had a quick look at the telemetry_00020 log and at motor start the voltage was 15.4. Then according to the altimeter the H was 2 feet below take-off position, latitude was increasing, longitude was fixed doing 11 mph in an easterly direction. Then at 12:24:17.772 there is a short gap in the telemetry and voltage goes from 14.8v to 13.7v instantaneously, the H yaws from 89 to 195, there is a motor failure and solid compass warning. But the good news is that voltage comes back up to 15v. Leave it to Yuneec to sort that one out and I hope they come through for you. Let us know.

I see no gap in the telemetry. The voltage drop occurs at the same time as the motor failure. However, the H was already in a max roll attitude.

Yuneec just sent me a RMA number and want a copy of the my purchase receipt. Want me to send the H back to them. Didnt really say what happened?

Glad they are taking care of it. They have a policy of not telling anyone what they find.

 

[Kyrenegade]

Sort of scary! I am so new to this I am thinking I overlooked something or did something to cause the loss of control?

 

[Steve Carr]

Sort of scary! I am so new to this I am thinking I overlooked something or did something to cause the loss of control?

Defects in electronic components usually cause a failure in the 1st 60 minutes of operation. That may be the case here. There are plenty of things you could do wrong to cause a crash but I sure don't see any of them. There are some things you can do to try to recover from erratic flight. It looks like the H went for about 40 seconds on it's own before it crashed. In that time you could have tried to gain altitude to buy some time. Then try to turn off the GPS. Generally that will allow you to take back control. However, anyone new to flying the H might have difficulty in recovering from this type of event.

 

[Kyrenegade]

Thanks! I will keep that in mind.

 

[Kyrenegade]

Hmm....I'm looking at flight 020 and the start voltage is 15.5. It does drop briefly to 13.7 but that is during a max sustained roll.

In my opinion, the H went into a nearly max roll and stayed in that attitude until it crashed. This is with sticks centered on the ST16. It also shows switching to flight mode 32. I have never seen that mode so I'm at a loss for that number.

Bottom line.....The H took off on a joy ride without a pilot on board. I see no pilot error involved. However, Kyrenegade, in the future don't take off with anything less than a fully charged battery.

I will check batteries again
I bought 2 extra batteris along with the 2 that came with the H. I charged them up with a Venom 100x4 Typhoon Pro charger. I need to do my homework on the voltages and try to find if I have one battery bad maybe? Thanks for the reply!

 

[PatR]

Be joyful you are dealing with a manufacturer that cares. Sounds like you'll be getting things taken care of.

 

[Steve Carr]

You might want to try one of these for quick checks before you fly.
Yuneec Q500 & Typhoon H Dual Voltage Batteries Tester by ULTIMAXX - Brand New! | eBay

I will check batteries again
I bought 2 extra batteris along with the 2 that came with the H. I charged them up with a Venom 100x4 Typhoon Pro charger. I need to do my homework on the voltages and try to find if I have one battery bad maybe? Thanks for the reply!

 

[Kyrenegade]

Thats looks pretty nifty for only $6. Thanks for that I will order one.

 

[kai_bcn]

Maybe good thing you did not turn the GPS off manually, when checking my telemetry here in Europe, Yuneec Germany said that when flying without GPS, you are no longer covered by warranty. Might be different in a case like yours where you obviously lost control first.

 

[Steve Carr]

Maybe good thing you did not turn the GPS off manually, when checking my telemetry here in Europe, Yuneec Germany said that when flying without GPS, you are no longer covered by warranty. Might be different in a case like yours where you obviously lost control first.

It should be obvious in the telemetry to tell the difference between 1. losing control because you turned off the GPS and 2. disabling GPS because you lost control.

 

[kai_bcn]

One would think that they respect the decision to turn off the GPS to try to save the aircraft and avoid accidents.

 

[JCFlippen]

To put a positive note into this episode.
I had an H that did a similar out of character erratic flight into bushes with just a bit of damage - but trust in the machine was lost. Yuneec replaced the machine as after intensive testing the GPS function was found to be intermittently faulty.

add.

GPS confusion means H is lost and so will travel uncontrolled in any direction it fancies!