Checklist after minor crash

Soupias · Sep 19, 2018

So, after the first few flights it was time for my first, thankfully minor, crash. So, I was flying and it started getting a bit dark. Just to be sure of my safe return, I used the RTH function. I guess I got a bit too comfortable with the drone's sensors and I was checking the footage I got while it was on it's way back. It reached the home point and started descending just fine. Suddenly it drifted 2-3 meters sideways and hit the wall, regained balance and then hit the wall again and fell from around 1 meter on concrete ground.

No damage on body/camera can be seen except cosmetic damage on the propellers. I actually had it takeoff and hover around 1m height for the remaining of the battery (around 30%), it seemed responsive and the camera moved and worked fine.

Since I am new to this I have to ask if there is a list of things to check after a crash before trusting it to fly again at larger heights.

XavierFernandez · Sep 19, 2018

Hi and welcome.

Since propellers is basically what keeps it flying, I'd replace them even if the damage looks just 'cosmetic'. After that I'd do a check flight under controlled conditions (low alttitude, over grass) and verify proper funcioning (response to controlls, GPS, compass, etc), before sending to a new mission..

I'd suggest also verify why it crashed in the first place and what could be learnt from that.

Good luck!

Soupias · Sep 19, 2018

Thank you for the reply. The thing I learned is not to take my eyes of the drone even on the last moments of it's landing. I will always be ready on the controls in case something like this happens again. As to why it happened I still have no clue

Soupias · Sep 20, 2018

Just to add some info on the incident. I took some time to learn about flight records, how to read and play them. I am really trying to find out what happened. The RTH function worked perfectly and stopped the drone 30m exactly above the homepoint and then the auto landing sequence starts while I get a message that obstacle sensing will be disabled during landing. It descends to around 20m and then drifts 3m off the homepoint (10+ gps satellites at all times) without making any attempt to correct it's course. The logs are really detailed and even saw my last second attempt to prevent the crash. Another strange thing is that the drone reported -2m altitude when it crash landed. It looks like it missed homepoint and altitude. There was some wind at the time but nothing to be really concerned.

Air Beetle · Sep 20, 2018

what was the surface under the drone? perhaps it sensed a bad landing area and tried to move to a better spot

Soupias · Sep 20, 2018

Floor with tiles. I had the issue of 'surface not suitable to land' once before but it hovered at around 1,5-2m asking for user input (find better spot or force landing). Here the shift in position happened at around 20m of altitude. Maybe the sensors below the drone failed because it was starting to get dark. Still the gps recorded the position shift so it was working properly.

Air Beetle · Sep 20, 2018

must have been the darkness

I have had my Air since the launch and I have never used RTH. I always fly mine back to me with the sticks. It more fun to me to fly it than to push a button and wait. I did however try to shoot a 360 video of my house manually and now use the circle quick shot because it does a better job.