DISASTER! Anyone in Hants area?

[Richlizard]

Hi all. I was filming an industrial estate this afternoon when my Phantom suddenly disappeared from view and FPV monitor went dead.

I really have no idea what happened. It was in full view and filming all that I wanted and I chose to bring it back round the front of a building to take a few last snaps. It had only been up a couple of minutes. But instead of bringing it back in my ';slow'; mode I use for filming, I glanced down at my controller and clicked the switch back to ';normal'; speed.

I looked back up and couldn';t see it. I looked back down to my screen and the monitor was dead. So I went into homelock and pulled back towards me. No sign of it. So nothing for it... failsafe switch clicked.

I waited and waited. Nothing. No noise, no image on the screen. Nothing. Gone. It is a horrible, helpless, feeling I can tell you.

Anyway, I am not asking for a post mortem and more people asking ';didn';t you have a tracking device';, ';did you have your number on it';., etc. I just want to find it.

So I wondered if there was anyone in the Hants area that might be kind enough to assist me. I searched most of the day today trying to find it, but no joy. I can only assume that if it did not fly off - and the symptoms seem to suggest battery failure - then it has landed on a roof somewhere.

Is there anyone near me with FPV that can help save my life? Well, the life of my phantom anyway! I have put the last 4 months into this and have taken the first part of BNUC, but if I don';t find it then I just can';t go on.

Sorry to sound like I am begging for help. But I am!  :embarrassed

[Opto-Mystic]

I cannot help but my heart goes out to you - I am just struggling to get my first quad airborne - I can really sympathise for your plight - I hope someone can help

[Hands0n]

Dreadfully sorry to read your news. I know the feeling well.

Somewhere on this forum is a members map that may help you locate someone near to you.

Good luck and I hope that you find your aircraft.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Prometheus]

where abouts are you mate ?

P>

[powerlord]

If  no joy,  attach a camera to the end of a long stick and use that on a timer.  You can then see the roofs and go from there

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[Richlizard]

where abouts are you mate ?

P>

Thx for the replies. Prometheus, I am in Andover. A few friends have arranged a search party for 11am lol.

[nub]

good luck i hope u find it.

[Hands0n]

Do let us know how you get on. Good luck

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Prometheus]

Thx for the replies. Prometheus, I am in Andover. A few friends have arranged a search party for 11am lol.

I';m over your way. I dont have fpv, but I can fly and film, then review on the ground.

PM me if you need any help.

P>

[Richlizard]

I';m over your way. I dont have fpv, but I can fly and film, then review on the ground.

PM me if you need any help.

P>

Thanks P. sent you PM.

[Richlizard]

Just wanna say thanks to all that offered support.

You lot really are a great bunch. I even took positive from the one who pretty much said tough titty, start again lol.

This morning, my little lad was found hidden away in the corner of a local allotment. Judging by the shape of the battery, it very looks like it ate a few pies in the air. Will check everything else, but it is very much looking like that was the issue. Scarely really.

Anyway, for now I am walking on a cloud... 

[Hands0n]

Congratulations on the recovery    Some amazing support on here to be sure.  This is one extraordinary forum.

It is an awesome feeling, I know that well. 

[Jimbodiddly]

Amazballs! That';s ace !

[guest325]

Just wanna say thanks to all that offered support.

You lot really are a great bunch. I even took positive from the one who pretty much said tough titty, start again lol.

This morning, my little lad was found hidden away in the corner of a local allotment. Judging by the shape of the battery, it very looks like it ate a few pies in the air. Will check everything else, but it is very much looking like that was the issue. Scarely really.

Anyway, for now I am walking on a cloud... 

If your lipo puffed in flight I would take a look at the C rating - I had some 25c get pretty warm in my V tail- 35-45c were fine - that is unless you know that particular lipo was a bit suspect.
Oh and I am dead chuffed that you found it ok, that';s the main thing!

[Jumpy07]

Great news Rich.. glad you got it back   

[ktnch]

glad you got it back, shame about the lipo causing the damage tho

[Wireless]

Great to hear you found your Phantom, Rich. Junk the LiPo and go for the best you can.

[n506]

In fairness to the lipo, it possibly puffed after the crash because there would be stuff running onboard till the voltage dropped substantially. I wouldn';t guarantee that was the cause of the crash in case there';s something else that caused it and you have the same situation happen again with a new battery. Best to check everything over. Do you have footage from onboard by any chance? Might give some indications of what happened?

[Richlizard]

Looking at the timelapse images, it actually appears that it landed softly, almost like it had returned home... but to the wrong home (we have all done it).

I would put together a timelapse show, but know I would get slated for being too near this or that lol.

Actually, it looks very much like the gimbal was doing some weird things. It has the two front arms and props in almost every shot, even though my set point is about 15 degrees down from horizontal. And I don';t think I have ever got the right prop in as the lens being on the left hand side has occasionally caught the left only. At one point the image seems to be at 45 degrees which of course is not good using a gimbal.

Maybe I will put together a timelapse after all and suffer the comments. 

[n506]

Would be hard to tell from a timelapse right enough because you don';t get any audio. If a gimbal is doing weird things (and when tested now isn';t), then that would indicate either excessive vibration or low voltage I';d have thought. How were the props on it? Just wondering whether you blew a prop in mid air? I';ve had it happen while flying fpv and the best you can do is circle it into the ground to minimise the damage, but the vibration is absolutely crazy and while the gimbal might make the pictures look smooth as it attempted to stabilise things, the vibrations would make it very inaccurate in terms of stabilising normally.

See the end of this video for an idea of what I mean about vibrations:

FPV: Crashing, but thankfully not burning!

That said, I';d have been surprised if you';d not heard it! The buzz is quite distinct when it happens.

Out of interest do you have a battery low voltage alarm? If not, might be worth getting one just to make sure that if it was a battery issue, you don';t go unwarned in future.

I';d be interested to see the timelapse. Maybe make it an unlisted video so you don';t get all the youtube nonsense, and just post a link here?

[jwl940]

I take the opposite view to n506.  If you weren';t flying iaw the ANO don';t post a video or links to it. Let';s hope non of your BNUC colleagues are reading this. 

Congratulations on its recovery and I';d be very interested in the final outcome of your postmortem, low voltage failsafe kicking in perhaps?

[Hands0n]

I was thinking low voltage failsafe as I read the latest post from Richlizard.  For it to be an apparent controlled landing it could be little else.  I don';t subscribe to it being an incorrect RTL (yet).   Flying my own Naza M Lite with fail safe enabled the FC made its own mind up randomly once and landed gracelessly in the field I was flying and well ahead of the LiPo alarm sounding.  That could have been nasty if out of LOS (I was in FPV at the time) or over a hazardous area (water, cliff edge, deep ravine etc...).   I';m not sure I trust the Naza FS these days and switched the low voltage trigger off nowadays.

[jwl940]

N506

Just watched your video the first half which I thought was outstanding.  Very aggressive low level flying and balanced turns, oh to be able to fly like that.  More of the same please (but no livestock) and just 5 degrees up on the camera angle. 

Was it FPV or LOS and what kit were you using?  Great stuff.

[n506]

I completely agree with jwl940... I forgot you were going for your BNUC. Also, I forgot about low voltage failsafe on the naza (one of the first things I switched off because I don';t trust these electronics an inch). Could be a possibility! I';d have thought it would have brought the craft down in a fairly controlled but rapid descent though, so just wondering why the gimbal would have been going crazy... is the gimbal off the flight lipo?

Wouldn';t mind a sneaky look at it if you can put up a hidden view though!

@jwl940, The secret is to build as cheap a quad as you can so you can only do a limited amount of damage, and take it up with a view that you could easily cost yourself £30 in props and arms if you get it wrong, and perhaps worse if you do a little extra damage to electronics. If you care too much about a quad, you';ll not fly it like that. You wouldn';t see me flying my pretty naza quad with gimbal like that! :)

As for the specs, flown fpv with Predator V2 goggles, and a KK2.0 flight controller on a DJI F450 chinese knockoff frame. Some ageing DJI motors off my other quad and some Proflight ESCs. Add some carbon props at a tenner a pair because I found that they break a lot less easily than non carbon reinforced ones when you click a tree branch. The scary bit is the gopro sitting on the front of such a cheap as chips quad

Take your point about angling the gopro up. I get lazy and just strap it on any old way.

[Richlizard]

Love that low level video.

It really doesn';t now look at all like a battery failure although I will be destroying it anyway as it was sat out all night without a blanket.

Looking at the images - and sod it, I will do a timelapse as I was deliberately flying over tree areas to get the shots - it just seems weird the angle it was filming at. Something might come to light. Getting arms and legs in the way was something I eradicated long ago. I do have one of those low voltage alarms I use for checking each battery before flight, but it all happened so quick that I am not sure it would have made a lot of difference.

Will put the timelapse up in a minute to give an idea of at least how daft the gimbal behaved. I won';t add any soppy music if it is all the same to you! 

[Richlizard]

Ok fill your boots.

If anyone can spot a simple reason why it may have behaved like this, it will be worth any digs I get.

I was following the treelines... honest!

Autopsy

[Richlizard]

Of course if I was an expert, I might look at that and think the wind was a lot higher than predicted and my little lad with stock props just couldn';t handle it.

Forecast: 11mph

[ChrisH]

Unless I was seeing things around 1.37 but wasn';t that a very close proximity to some HV wires.... Maybe not a physical contact but you may have had some EMF interference as the descent followed quickly after? 

[Hands0n]

You ended up very close to those HT wires, there';ll be 11KV or more in those, a massive EMI field is likely and it looks like you were mere inches away at least one.  Not sure what was going on with that gimball of yours, but with those HT wires I';d think some unwanted behaviour was induced in the FC.  Chances are you';ll never get to the bottom of what happened.

[flybywire]

Did you get a good home lock before you took off?  It looks for all the world like a textbook RTH, descent wise anyhow, only the wrong home.  I don';t think it';s the power lines, that';s my thoughts.  For a minute I thought you were going to tell us your deceased great great Grandad used to own that plot!  Spooky.