RTH crash :( R.I.P Inspire Pro

[crashedice]

I was filming with a regular client of mine this week. We had just finished doing a shot when the first level battery warning was shown (25%). I began to bring the Inspire back to land about 10 feet in front of me, or about 30 feet from my take off position. I had the Inspire right in front of me and I brough the landing gear down and brought the throttle down to land. When the aircraft was about 1.5 feet from the ground, it hit the second low voltage warning (15%) and attempted to return to home. The aircraft rose rapidly upwards, I looked at my iPad screen and i had no option to cancel the RTH, nor would it accept my stick inputs. The aircraft continued to rise until it clipped a tree brach with a prop and tumbled about 30 feet to the ground. The Inspure broke a leg, jammed and bent the camera and bent the frame and centre worm gear. It was very frustrating because i was 1.5 feet high with the landing gear down and throttle down, ready to land when it shot up and hit the branch.

Is this worth a repair or is it dead?

Does anyone have any thoughts/ advice/ constructive criticism for me?

 

[msinger]

Does anyone have any thoughts/ advice/ constructive criticism for me?

A few things:

• Land before your first battery cell reaches 3.3V.
• After moving away from the home point after takeoff, make sure you reset your home point to your current location.

 

[crashedice]

A few things:

• Land before your first battery cell reaches 3.3V.
• After moving away from the home point after takeoff, make sure you reset your home point to your current location.

Thanks msinger. I didn't realise how quickly the battery had dropped when brining it in after the first battery warning. Thanks for the advice though. Also, I moved around 15 feet between my take off and landing points, I was silly not to reset it but since I didn't move very far it honestly didn't cross my mind.

Thanks for the good advice.

 

[Fastrack]

This just happened to me, hence my post here:
Inspire 1 v2 x5 gimbal mount parts?

Lucky mine only hit a branch about 15' off the ground. Broken leg shock, front mount to the body of the x5 plate is broken. X3 flew off attached to the plate but it survived and works on my OSMO. In my case I was walking through a forest following my inspire which was about 10' off the ground, so no option to constantly reset the home point.

I was about to land as well! About 2' off the ground! It shot up with me holding the throttle stick down, no response! I didn't even have time to look at my screen.

I was reading the DJI FAQ and looks like RTH can be cancelled by pressing the button once? I haven't tried this yet, but I'm also not sure if it would have responded quickly enough, as it was mere seconds before mine struck the tree branch.

Ben

 

[The Editor]

I was filming with a regular client of mine this week. We had just finished doing a shot when the first level battery warning was shown (25%). I began to bring the Inspire back to land about 10 feet in front of me, or about 30 feet from my take off position. I had the Inspire right in front of me and I brough the landing gear down and brought the throttle down to land. When the aircraft was about 1.5 feet from the ground, it hit the second low voltage warning (15%) and attempted to return to home. The aircraft rose rapidly upwards, I looked at my iPad screen and i had no option to cancel the RTH, nor would it accept my stick inputs. The aircraft continued to rise until it clipped a tree brach with a prop and tumbled about 30 feet to the ground. The Inspure broke a leg, jammed and bent the camera and bent the frame and centre worm gear. It was very frustrating because i was 1.5 feet high with the landing gear down and throttle down, ready to land when it shot up and hit the branch.

Is this worth a repair or is it dead?

Does anyone have any thoughts/ advice/ constructive criticism for me?

OK, moving slightly from your home point should not have any adverse effect since if you are within 20m of your home point RTH will not (or shouldn't) trigger a increase in altitude and return to home flight but simply land within that 20m radius at the point RTH is triggered.
What I find more intriguing is that critical battery level should not invoke a return to home condition but simply cause the aircraft to slowly decend and land (although you can keep the aircraft airborne by pushing up on the throttle).
The very fact that the battery has reached critical means it has insufficient power remaining to make a return to home flight (that's for the first level) and so will make a landing where it is.

 

[crashedice]

OK, moving slightly from your home point should not have any adverse effect since if you are within 20m of your home point RTH will not (or shouldn't) trigger a increase in altitude and return to home flight but simply land within that 20m radius at the point RTH is triggered.
What I find more intriguing is that critical battery level should not invoke a return to home condition but simply cause the aircraft to slowly decend and land (although you can keep the aircraft airborne by pushing up on the throttle).
The very fact that the battery has reached critical means it has insufficient power remaining to make a return to home flight (that's for the first level) and so will make a landing where it is.

Editor, that's what I thought too. I usually have a "cancel" button when the RTH is triggered at the first battery warning and the action on the second level warning is to land. This time the 2nd level warning triggered the RTH and there was no "cancel" button on the screen when I looked down before it hit the tree. Is this worth writing to DJI about or discussing with anyone in particular?

 

[Dr. Ifly Drones]

I have a feeling that somehow a thumb made it on to the RTH button on the RC and that triggered it.

 

[crashedice]

I have a feeling that somehow a thumb made it on to the RTH button on the RC and that triggered it.

Absolutely not. Thumb was no where near the button - i always keep my finger as far away as I can when flipping the landing gear switch.

 

[Dr. Ifly Drones]

Absolutely not. Thumb was no where near the button - i always keep my finger as far away as I can when flipping the landing gear switch.

I understand and it wasn't an accusation. But, I do know that when things start to happen fast that human error can and does happen. I see many posts where people have gotten used to the auto takeoff and landing functions as well as using the RTH to bring the airframe back at the end of a mission. What the Editor said has been my experience when it hits critical battery levels and not the RTH behavior, just a moderate descent and landing no matter what it's over.

 

[Fastrack]

I should mention in my case it was not the critical battery but the first battery warning. I'm not blaming dji in any fashion as it was doing what it should, I just did not hear the alert.

I'm surprised it did not respond to the throttle stick though, since mine was not critical level.

But I agree mine started to auto land once over a large rock when critical level was reach! Lucky I was in the process of landing already but the process was kinda scary.

Ben

 

[crashedice]

It was a strange and frustrating experience. While there was a tree in the area, it wasn't by any means what I would consider a tight or crowded operating area.

The copter shouldn't have gone into RTH at that battery level in my opinion, and it seems that the Editor and others may agree. Why would they let the battery drain to 15% and then drain it faster by climbing - this would be a feature for the 1st level battery warning, not the 2nd. The Inspire knew it's altitude, could've sensed that it was over land and knew that I had just lowered the landing gear and was throttling down for the last foot or so before touchdown. All of a sudden the aircraft shoots up and the app gives no override and stick commands aren't responsive either.

Not to absolve myself entirely, but could this have been an unintended action of the copter? Did it behave as designed and expected? Is this a case of wrong settings?

 

[Dr. Ifly Drones]

I should mention in my case it was not the critical battery but the first battery warning. I'm not blaming dji in any fashion as it was doing what it should, I just did not hear the alert.

I'm surprised it did not respond to the throttle stick though, since mine was not critical level

Ben

So Ben, one of the things that stands out is the part of not responding to the throttle up; only on one occasion have I had my Inspire do what you're saying and that was when I made the mistake of flying on a partially charged battery. According to the app I had ~80% and 2 minutes in it reverted to auto land and was completely unresponsive to the stick commands. I would contact DJI as well as upload your flight record file to Healthy Drones for evaluation. Hopefully DJI will help you out.

 

[Fastrack]

So Ben, one of the things that stands out is the part of not responding to the throttle up; only on one occasion have I had my Inspire do what you're saying and that was when I made the mistake of flying on a partially charged battery. According to the app I had ~80% and 2 minutes in it reverted to auto land and was completely unresponsive to the stick commands. I would contact DJI as well as upload your flight record file to Healthy Drones for evaluation. Hopefully DJI will help you out.

I do have VPS disabled as I fly mostly over water. But what your saying in RTH mode it should have responded to full throttle stick down? As I know as soon as it started to climb I pulled the stick full down. Mine was purchased black friday in Nov last year.

Not to absolve myself entirely, but could this have been an unintended action of the copter? Did it behave as designed and expected? Is this a case of wrong settings?

Are you still under warranty because there's no way it should be doing a RTH under critical battery. It auto lands.

Ben

 

[Mad_angler1]

This is very odd as The Editor posted second battery warning should just land,

Can you tell us what FW you were on as I'd like to try and replicate this if possible

Your warnings were 1st 25% and 2nd 15%, approx 30ft from HP.

What was take off battery level and when had it been charged.

 

[IrishHeights]

2 things,

1 - shitty firmware
2 - untrained pilot/operator error

Lets start with number 2
"return to home will start in 10 seconds"
if you cannot figure out how to hit the "cancel" button (on the right side of controller with the landing gear switch) then you shouldn't be flying I1 - Furthermore, in 10 seconds, you should be able to hit that cancel button 50 times, (let alone once).

now back to 1

#1 - shitty firmware
This has also happened to me about 3-4 times over 400 flts
exactly like you described
bird practically on the flippin ground rt in front of me when (instead of critical batt autoland) RTH is initiated?
WTH! my RTH altitude is set to 60M/180ft
"there is no way my bird will even make it to 40 ft, I better cancel b4 I drop outta the sky, (like others).

I don't know if it is because I am on older firmware, or what, but it is indeed a Very Stressful emergency situation, (and you did not handle it well).

I will repeat, there is plenty of time to "cancel" any auto RTH command, but if you don't know how, and you freek, you crash!

Sorry for your loss brother, it truly pisses me off. I'm sure you were heartbroken, like wtf just happened.
There have several pilots that have been bitten by your exact situation.
Dust yourself off and get back on that sweet I1

 

[crashedice]

I do have VPS disabled as I fly mostly over water. But what your saying in RTH mode it should have responded to full throttle stick down? As I know as soon as it started to climb I pulled the stick full down. Mine was purchased black friday in Nov last year.



Are you still under warranty because there's no way it should be doing a RTH under critical battery. It auto lands.

Ben

I will be contacting DJI about this. I'm not really sure who to contact though - do i just email DJI support? What data/ evidence will they require?

 

[crashedice]

This is very odd as The Editor posted second battery warning should just land,

Can you tell us what FW you were on as I'd like to try and replicate this if possible

Your warnings were 1st 25% and 2nd 15%, approx 30ft from HP.

What was take off battery level and when had it been charged.

All firmwares are current for my Inspire 1 Pro, battery was fully charged 100% before take off.

 

[crashedice]

2 things,

1 - shitty firmware
2 - untrained pilot/operator error

Lets start with number 2
"return to home will start in 10 seconds"
if you cannot figure out how to hit the "cancel" button (on the right side of controller with the landing gear switch) then you shouldn't be flying I1 - Furthermore, in 10 seconds, you should be able to hit that cancel button 50 times, (let alone once).

now back to 1

#1 - shitty firmware
This has also happened to me about 3-4 times over 400 flts
exactly like you described
bird practically on the flippin ground rt in front of me when (instead of critical batt autoland) RTH is initiated?
WTH! my RTH altitude is set to 60M/180ft
"there is no way my bird will even make it to 40 ft, I better cancel b4 I drop outta the sky, (like others).

I don't know if it is because I am on older firmware, or what, but it is indeed a Very Stressful emergency situation, (and you did not handle it well).

I will repeat, there is plenty of time to "cancel" any auto RTH command, but if you don't know how, and you freek, you crash!

Sorry for your loss brother, it truly pisses me off. I'm sure you were heartbroken, like wtf just happened.
There have several pilots that have been bitten by your exact situation.
Dust yourself off and get back on that sweet I1

IrishHeights, thanks for the reply. I have all firmwares up to date, 1.8 I believe and DJI Go updated to current version. There was simply no dialogue for me to press - usually a box of text is displayed with two buttons under it, one of which is "cancel" but I had nothing on my screen at all. The app was still showing the camera view and the other various DJI UI but there was 100% no button presented to me.

 

[crashedice]

I should mention, that while experienced pilots can and do make mistakes, I have over 4 years experience in the industry as a pilot and flown over 100KM with my Inspire 1 pro and 11 hours flight time with this aircraft and 81 flights. There was no dialogue for me to exit RTH, nor was the aircraft responsive to further stick inputs.

 

[crashedice]

One additional question. Since the copter didn't finish the flight in the expected manner and I didn't click the end recording button, my last video file is being seen as unfinished and won't play. Can anyone let me know if there is a way to repair the clip or finalise it so that it can be played?