Inspire 2 crash

[H&S Ranch]

Crash Incident:

At approximately. 1930 hrs. I flew one flight on newly charged batteries. Flight was approximately 8-10 minutes. I landed and took off. I flew approximately 25 yards at approximately 15-18’ in height over a metal roof canopy. Brought the aircraft to approximately. 20 ft and it then descended without any control. It went to a hover approximately. 3-4 ft above the roof. Rear light was flashing yellow rapidly. I had no control response. The control sticks had no action, return to home did not work, pause had no effect.

I moved myself and controller withing approximately 15 yards with no change. I then purposely change the angle of the patch antenna to various angled position with still no response. I raised the controller above my head. I moved myself / controller both right and left approximately 15’. I tried “return to home” with no response. I tried pause button several times with no response. The rear continued to flash yellow rapidly.

After approximately 10 minutes the aircraft dropped to the roof and slid down the roof to the edge. As it slid off the roof, two blades were broken while hitting a rot-iron fence below the roof line. It came to rest on the ground (cement).

I suspect it only descended after the battery went dead. The CrystalSky maintained a full screen picture but not sure if it was just a frozen screen. It never did a return to home when the batteries were low. I had NO control over the aircraft.

Any comments welcome.

 

[G Saunders]

I lost a Typhoon with a thermal camera and and nearly lost a Mavic Air in the same kind of scenario.

They were both flying low over a roof and I let the eaves get between me and the drone, creating a radio shadow. The Typhoon tried to RTH, but I had the RTH altitude set high and it flew up into a tree and destroyed itself.

I was able to get the Air back under control by running away from the roof and up a hill on the other side of a creek so the radio was about level with the drone.

I'm no engineer, but I believe edges of roofs cast a radio shadow, and flying close to a roof can cause the signal to reflect. I believe the edges of forests do similar and have resolved never to let my drone fly out of sight past the edges of anything.

Now, I stay way above a roof, like 75 feet and use my Zoom to get better detail, haven't lost any more drones...

 

[H&S Ranch]

I lost a Typhoon with a thermal camera and and nearly lost a Mavic Air in the same kind of scenario.

They were both flying low over a roof and I let the eaves get between me and the drone, creating a radio shadow. The Typhoon tried to RTH, but I had the RTH altitude set high and it flew up into a tree and destroyed itself.

I was able to get the Air back under control by running away from the roof and up a hill on the other side of a creek so the radio was about level with the drone.

I'm no engineer, but I believe edges of roofs cast a radio shadow, and flying close to a roof can cause the signal to reflect. I believe the edges of forests do similar and have resolved never to let my drone fly out of sight past the edges of anything.

Now, I stay way above a roof, like 75 feet and use my Zoom to get better detail, haven't lost any more drones...

Thank you for the information. I had a perfect line of sight, unobstructed to the drone and tried various angles at distances as close as possible (15 yards) to 25-30 yards. I just can't put any trust in this aircraft without knowing what caused this. Thank goodness it went into hover instead of a "fly away". I am also flying with a brand new Cendence. I had flown approximately 4 times before this incident.

 

[S White]

Real bummer. I fly an I2 with Cendence, and have had no issues OTHER than loosing connection due to distance, but the bird went into auto return mode and came back. I was not really out that far, and it was in a remote area with not much interference, but the video cut out and then instantly the radio cutout. But all was good. In your case, I think I would have tried Plan C by turning off the Cendence and then turning it on. Sounds like you had nothing to loose. One time I had the I2 do some crazy things on a shoot near an airport (original radio, and not the Cebndence then) and I think it was interference with a commercial airliner's radar firing up. I ended up forcing it down into a curb. And then sending it in for repairs. A very bad day. But I really have had no other issues.

 

[H&S Ranch]

Real bummer. I fly an I2 with Cendence, and have had no issues OTHER than loosing connection due to distance, but the bird went into auto return mode and came back. I was not really out that far, and it was in a remote area with not much interference, but the video cut out and then instantly the radio cutout. But all was good. In your case, I think I would have tried Plan C by turning off the Cendence and then turning it on. Sounds like you had nothing to loose. One time I had the I2 do some crazy things on a shoot near an airport (original radio, and not the Cebndence then) and I think it was interference with a commercial airliner's radar firing up. I ended up forcing it down into a curb. And then sending it in for repairs. A very bad day. But I really have had no other issues.

Thank you for the comments. Never thought to turn it off and on. Like you said, "had nothing to loose". It was a very nail bitting experience, not knowing what was going to happen next if it came out of the hover. Thanks again.

 

[RichJ53]

Crash Incident:

At approximately. 1930 hrs. I flew one flight on newly charged batteries. Flight was approximately 8-10 minutes. I landed and took off. I flew approximately 25 yards at approximately 15-18’ in height over a metal roof canopy. Brought the aircraft to approximately. 20 ft and it then descended without any control. It went to a hover approximately. 3-4 ft above the roof. Rear light was flashing yellow rapidly. I had no control response. The control sticks had no action, return to home did not work, pause had no effect.

I moved myself and controller withing approximately 15 yards with no change. I then purposely change the angle of the patch antenna to various angled position with still no response. I raised the controller above my head. I moved myself / controller both right and left approximately 15’. I tried “return to home” with no response. I tried pause button several times with no response. The rear continued to flash yellow rapidly.

After approximately 10 minutes the aircraft dropped to the roof and slid down the roof to the edge. As it slid off the roof, two blades were broken while hitting a rot-iron fence below the roof line. It came to rest on the ground (cement).

I suspect it only descended after the battery went dead. The CrystalSky maintained a full screen picture but not sure if it was just a frozen screen. It never did a return to home when the batteries were low. I had NO control over the aircraft.

Any comments welcome.

So sorry for your crash!
I can only think the metal roof had something to do with your lost connection. Some have found that when you have lost the connection (bind) to the drone, that shutting off the remote and restarting it can get the radio link to reconnect. I have seen this first hand with a compass error with hovering over metal plates. yellow LED means the aircraft is not connected and possibly it was due to the compass error or IMU brain were interfered with.

Rich

 

[sa3stevens]

Was there a cell phone tower nearby? Or any high intensity power source nearby? A similar situation happened to me - I did not realize there was a 5G cell phone tower w/in a 1/4 mile and I believe the cell phone tower jammed my frequency. Fortunately the I2 went into Lost mode and returned Home.