Unfortunate post - my QAV is now a goner. Along with 2 GoPro Hero2's, 600TVL Super HAD fpv cam, Naza w/GPS, Graupner e-props, MT-4006 motors and a couple of 2500 GensAce 4s lipos, basically the best of what I could put on it.
It literally drifted away during a flight earlier. It was a bit cloudy but I had 6 or more satellites according to the LED. (Just green without any red blinks). I was out about 500m from myself and simply pivoting around this huge, ancient tree we had sitting on the edge of our flying field. No biggie, was just videoing it using fpv. So I flew up above the tree to get a new angle since I had a downward -facing cam, then I felt that the quad wasn't responding to my inputs when I got to the top of the tree. I was in GPS mode then. I flicked it to atti and still no response. Flicked it to manual, same thing. It was slowly drifting away from me while I was doing this. I flicked back to gps to try and see if the failsafe has kicked in, I was watching my fpv monitor the whole time. Then I decided since there's no control at all, I should kill my radio to get it to failsafe and RTH. I did and the quad was still drifting away, I was expecting it to stop in its tracks and start to rth but it didn't.
At this point I decided to turn my radio back on to try and regain control, and I decided to run to the tree to see if I get back radio control. The quad was probably around almost a kilometer already away from the tree and my flying buddies was watching the monitor while I ran to the tree all the while I was waving at them to see if any of my stick inputs was making the quad respond.
At this point they decide to call me back so we can get in a car and try to follow the QAV's flight path so we did, we brought the monitor with us since we still had video. Unfortunately being on the road, unlike the quad without any obstacles, we got left behind by it and lost video signal eventually but we continued our path towards it's general direction to where we think it was with my radio and the fpv monitor with us in the car just in case we came anywhere near it. We scoured the surrounding areas for a good couple of hours before declaring it a lost cause. RTH was already tested prior to this flight, working ok/properly. This time, it decided not to work even with the radio off. This is what makes me wonder and leaves me literally dumbfounded because I don't know what the hell happened.
The bad thing is, I purchased the QAV solely for AP work and not as a regular rc I could fly around for fun (had planes and helis for that purpose). I even invested in a brand new desktop computer with all the high-end specs to be able to efficiently edit full-HD videos (I had another cam on the way to replace the front GoPro).
It sucks to not be able to know what just happened. I was filming the tree earlier to add to my aerial video portfolio but now I'm QAV-less with my first commercial shoot scheduled for the end of February. Sucks since the frame was really good at eliminating vibes and jello and was a cheaper alternative to getting a full-blown hexa/octo with DSLR's. Quality wouldn't be exactly the same, but with the QAV frame, it was very near there with the help of some post-processing.
Apologies for the ultra-long post, but I'm just really dumbfounded. My wife also is as she can't believe how something like that loaded with cameras can just literally fly away. Too bad there's no video obviously. Phew.
It literally drifted away during a flight earlier. It was a bit cloudy but I had 6 or more satellites according to the LED. (Just green without any red blinks). I was out about 500m from myself and simply pivoting around this huge, ancient tree we had sitting on the edge of our flying field. No biggie, was just videoing it using fpv. So I flew up above the tree to get a new angle since I had a downward -facing cam, then I felt that the quad wasn't responding to my inputs when I got to the top of the tree. I was in GPS mode then. I flicked it to atti and still no response. Flicked it to manual, same thing. It was slowly drifting away from me while I was doing this. I flicked back to gps to try and see if the failsafe has kicked in, I was watching my fpv monitor the whole time. Then I decided since there's no control at all, I should kill my radio to get it to failsafe and RTH. I did and the quad was still drifting away, I was expecting it to stop in its tracks and start to rth but it didn't.
At this point I decided to turn my radio back on to try and regain control, and I decided to run to the tree to see if I get back radio control. The quad was probably around almost a kilometer already away from the tree and my flying buddies was watching the monitor while I ran to the tree all the while I was waving at them to see if any of my stick inputs was making the quad respond.
At this point they decide to call me back so we can get in a car and try to follow the QAV's flight path so we did, we brought the monitor with us since we still had video. Unfortunately being on the road, unlike the quad without any obstacles, we got left behind by it and lost video signal eventually but we continued our path towards it's general direction to where we think it was with my radio and the fpv monitor with us in the car just in case we came anywhere near it. We scoured the surrounding areas for a good couple of hours before declaring it a lost cause. RTH was already tested prior to this flight, working ok/properly. This time, it decided not to work even with the radio off. This is what makes me wonder and leaves me literally dumbfounded because I don't know what the hell happened.
The bad thing is, I purchased the QAV solely for AP work and not as a regular rc I could fly around for fun (had planes and helis for that purpose). I even invested in a brand new desktop computer with all the high-end specs to be able to efficiently edit full-HD videos (I had another cam on the way to replace the front GoPro).
It sucks to not be able to know what just happened. I was filming the tree earlier to add to my aerial video portfolio but now I'm QAV-less with my first commercial shoot scheduled for the end of February. Sucks since the frame was really good at eliminating vibes and jello and was a cheaper alternative to getting a full-blown hexa/octo with DSLR's. Quality wouldn't be exactly the same, but with the QAV frame, it was very near there with the help of some post-processing.
Apologies for the ultra-long post, but I'm just really dumbfounded. My wife also is as she can't believe how something like that loaded with cameras can just literally fly away. Too bad there's no video obviously. Phew.
