S1000 flyaway and crash

[RCedit]

Rig had been working beautifully on a 2 day shoot. Had probably 15 flights without issue. On my last battery/flight, I ascended to 15-20 ft and the coper immediately began strafing right. Slowly at first but quickly accelerated. Tried to correct by rolling left but that seemed to increase the speed going right. Same with yaw. It only took about 8 seconds for it to find the woods about 75 yards away. Broke my centerplate and I'm sure one of the motors is toast since it's full of bark. Tremendous bummer.
I've been up all night going through everything in my head and I just can't deduce a theory of what happened. Until I do I'm not going to be terribly comfortable lifting off again once I get it repaired. Any opinions of what may have occurred?
s1000
A2 (GPS mode)
LightBridge
GH4

Thanks

 

[Carapau]

This is very typical of the A2 faults that were numerous a while back. Seems to be a rarer occurrence now so I think it might have been a batch thing. How old is your A2 and what firmware did it ship with?

 

[ovdt]

Is there any footage you can share with us?

 

[Ronan]

Rig had been working beautifully on a 2 day shoot. Had probably 15 flights without issue. On my last battery/flight, I ascended to 15-20 ft and the coper immediately began strafing right. Slowly at first but quickly accelerated. Tried to correct by rolling left but that seemed to increase the speed going right. Same with yaw. It only took about 8 seconds for it to find the woods about 75 yards away. Broke my centerplate and I'm sure one of the motors is toast since it's full of bark. Tremendous bummer.
I've been up all night going through everything in my head and I just can't deduce a theory of what happened. Until I do I'm not going to be terribly comfortable lifting off again once I get it repaired. Any opinions of what may have occurred?
s1000
A2 (GPS mode)
LightBridge
GH4

Thanks

typical questions... Did you change mode? What does the IOSD MKII log show?

Looks to me like a GPS problem or Lightbridge. IOSD MKII logs would show it, might even get free stuff/repairs from DJI if that's the case.

 

[RCedit]

A2 main controller vers 2.3
IMU 2.2
GPS 2.2
This is what it shipped with in August. Was waiting to get home from this job to upgrade to 2.4. That'll teach me.
Unfortunately, camera wasn't rolling as I wasn't in position yet and hadn't triggered the shutter.
Did not switch modes.
Sending the IOSD log to DJI. We'll see what they say.

 

[tahoejmfc]

Rig had been working beautifully on a 2 day shoot. Had probably 15 flights without issue. On my last battery/flight, I ascended to 15-20 ft and the coper immediately began strafing right. Slowly at first but quickly accelerated. Tried to correct by rolling left but that seemed to increase the speed going right. Same with yaw. It only took about 8 seconds for it to find the woods about 75 yards away. Broke my centerplate and I'm sure one of the motors is toast since it's full of bark. Tremendous bummer.
I've been up all night going through everything in my head and I just can't deduce a theory of what happened. Until I do I'm not going to be terribly comfortable lifting off again once I get it repaired. Any opinions of what may have occurred?
s1000
A2 (GPS mode)
LightBridge
GH4

Thanks

Sounds to me like it might have been operator error. Is it possible you thought you were in one flight mode when you were actually in another, like home lock?
How long have you been flying and do you fly fixed wing or only multi rotor?

 

[yvesOttawa]

Sounds to me like it might have been operator error.

Ha, you must work for DJI and are clearly in denial. I saw your post in another topic saying that you've never come across an FC flyaway and that it's operator error there too. How insulting! the poor guy just had his investment fly away on him for no reason that can be explained and you're quick to blame him for it. wow! you're a real piece of work.

 

[Carapau]

Can you post a copy of the log here as some of us can have a look too. With DJI you are unlikely to get much of a response (apart from via Tahoe Ed). Please dont post all of the logs but the one from the flight please. Thanks.

 

[Ronan]

Ha, you must work for DJI and are clearly in denial. I saw your post in another topic saying that you've never come across an FC flyaway and that it's operator error there too. How insulting! the poor guy just had his investment fly away on him for no reason that can be explained and you're quick to blame him for it. wow! you're a real piece of work.

Actually tahoejmfc is spot on with his comment, which was not insulting at all. In most cases it is operator error.

We won't know until we see some logs and DJI inspects the wreck. It could be faulty hardware (that happens) or something came lose.

I'm honestly surprised the OP didn't switch mode, that's my first reflex if/when something goes bad. Changing to manual means that even if the GPS came lose or is broken, means you can bring your craft back with no to little problems depending of your skills.

Most people just panic and flip the RTH switch... which isn't much help if you are having a GPS problem (like solar flares are messing with it for example).

 

[sk8brd]

carapau- which firmware was it when airport restrictions were left on..2.2? more then a few had issues well documented then dji fixed it with 2.2b or something.

 

[Carapau]

2.2 had the airport restrictions inadvertently turned on. They then issued an update without telling anyone to begin with and then this was made official by calling it 2.3. All of the A2 incidents I dealt with either had 2.1 or 2.3 on so I cant say much about 2.2- it was only downloadable for about a week if I remember correctly.

On the subject of those failures I dealt with, there is mounting evidence to say that it was batch related although I have nothing concrete so confirm this.

Here's an odd one. I bought a new A2 a few weeks back. It came already with 2.3 on it yet oddly the GPS was already at 2.4 despite 2.4 not having been released. The bad side of this is that DJI continue to be less than transparent which we don't need if operating in a safety conscious commercial environment. The good side of it though is that DJI are indeed working hard to improve the product it would seem.

 

[Benjamin Kenobi]

Ha, you must work for DJI and are clearly in denial. I saw your post in another topic saying that you've never come across an FC flyaway and that it's operator error there too. How insulting! the poor guy just had his investment fly away on him for no reason that can be explained and you're quick to blame him for it. wow! you're a real piece of work.

Most flyaways are indeed operator error. They tend to be new pilots with new aircraft who don't follow the logical set of sequences when you have a problem.

 

[sk8brd]

thanks carapau.. i was just thinking maybe the op had that 2.2 on it. there were several reports on here and other forums about people loosing control with their a2's mostly on the s1000's cause they just came out prior to the 2.2 update..i agree there working harder it seems to solve issues. .they can invent for sure but more care needs to be taken especially when outside forces are looking at the hobby in regards to fc reliability and updates.

 

[RCedit]

Thanks for the responses. Trust me, for 24 hrs after the crash I was sure it was op error somehow. And I guess perhaps not switching to manual mode fast enough could be considered an op error that warrants a crash. But satt/gps signal was strong and I had no control other than lift.
The rig is on its way to DJI and I regret not downloading the fight log before sending it but I was flying another job and had to have my asst ship it out.
As for experience, I've been flying pretty steady for about 4 years, professionally for 2.5. I've only had the s1000 since August but frankly find it easy to fly and it has performed very solidly (other than Lightbridge, but don't get me started). I probably have over 100 flights with it, although I don't think my experience, or lack of, was a factor.
Anyway, I'm sure DJI will soon tell me everything I did wrong. In a weird way, I kind of want it to be op error. I'd feel much better (although a lot poorer) to understand what happened and how to avoid it in the future as opposed to them saying it just flew away. That's a long winded way of saying that I too have a hard time believing it was an actual flyaway. But I'd guess that in 99% of these cases the op could probably deduce what went wrong afterwards. I can't.

 

[yvesOttawa]

Most flyaways are indeed operator error. They tend to be new pilots with new aircraft who don't follow the logical set of sequences when you have a problem.

Well, logic would state that properly developed firmware would recognize a GPS glitch when it encounters one and wouldn't obligate the operator to have to "switch to manual" to prevent it from flying off to who knows where. I guess this is to be expected from DJI FC and operators just accept this as "normal" or "by design" way of dealing with it.

As long as the later is the accepted course of action, there is not much pressure on DJI to fix what should be considered a design flaw. :highly_amused:

 

[tahoejmfc]

Thanks for the responses. Trust me, for 24 hrs after the crash I was sure it was op error somehow. And I guess perhaps not switching to manual mode fast enough could be considered an op error that warrants a crash. But satt/gps signal was strong and I had no control other than lift.
The rig is on its way to DJI and I regret not downloading the fight log before sending it but I was flying another job and had to have my asst ship it out.
As for experience, I've been flying pretty steady for about 4 years, professionally for 2.5. I've only had the s1000 since August but frankly find it easy to fly and it has performed very solidly (other than Lightbridge, but don't get me started). I probably have over 100 flights with it, although I don't think my experience, or lack of, was a factor.
Anyway, I'm sure DJI will soon tell me everything I did wrong. In a weird way, I kind of want it to be op error. I'd feel much better (although a lot poorer) to understand what happened and how to avoid it in the future as opposed to them saying it just flew away. That's a long winded way of saying that I too have a hard time believing it was an actual flyaway. But I'd guess that in 99% of these cases the op could probably deduce what went wrong afterwards. I can't.

Well which one is it, 15 flights on the S1000 like you said in your first post, or over 100 flights on the S1000 like you say here?

If it flew away yesterday it could have been the Solar storm with M class flare and X class flare.

Your story is starting to fall apart, not trying to be harsh, I feel your pain in the loss of the copter. It really sucks no matter what happened, its sad.

First thing you should have done was download the Mark II data and post it online so we could help determine the fault in your copter.

 

[RCedit]

My story isn't falling apart. That would imply it is somehow constructed. The 15 flights were referring to the day it happened, as in- this occurred on the 16th flight of the day in the exact same location. The 100 flights referred to my overall experience with this particular rig.
I also regret not posting the flight log.
Thank you for your empathy.

 

[RCedit]

In the latest (2.4) A2 firmware release, the first release note says to make sure the main controller and IMU are running the same version. As mentioned earlier, mine shipped with different versions- 2.3 for main controller and 2.2 IMU. Perhaps this could have contributed?

 

[tahoejmfc]

My story isn't falling apart. That would imply it is somehow constructed. The 15 flights were referring to the day it happened, as in- this occurred on the 16th flight of the day in the exact same location. The 100 flights referred to my overall experience with this particular rig.
I also regret not posting the flight log.
Thank you for your empathy.

I should have put a :tennis: next to the comment, I was being a little sarcastic but forgot the smile.

Anyway, Like I said before, This sucks to have a issue like this. I feel for your loss and hopefully we will have the answer soon.

Did anyone happen to get any video of it flying that day?

 

[gtranquilla]

I have noticed over time that even the WKM flying with 5.20 fw will suddenly veer off to one side and crash during takeoff..about one if 50 flights or so..
Twice with mine, twice with a colleague's twice with client #1 and once most recently with client #2...... These cases seem to occur mostly when taking off in GPS mode which I strive to always avoid.

Solar storm influence at time of launch was affecting the GPS accuracy after a lock in at least three cases.
Without knowing the more detailed logic decisions within the firmware one has to wonder why this happens.

So I am inclined to think there is something not quite right in the FC firmware, or it is an unresolved airframe vibration issue or possibly a FC motor output channel glitch that can occur with some flight proven ESCs.