3DR Solo Crash - Video Provided Of Course...

[MtnXfreeride]

Man this drone has been very frustrating this month, but today takes the cake. I am seriously considering getting out while I am somewhat ahead,selling the glitchy freezing gopro hero4 black as well and getting a Mavic.

34F foggy morning because snow is evaporating. No wind. About 5 minutes into my flight I decided to take it home and land because the gopro was looking foggy. As soon as I got over my driveway it started dropping quick while I had the throttle all the way up. It would respond to turning but would not stop dropping. Landed on the grass right next to my driveway hard and spun over. Crash detected.

I didn't understand what was happening and didn't hear a gps loss or any other warnings.

No ice on the blades which was my first thought.. Not really wet at all except some snow on the back from flipping over. Motors warm, battery warm. I think I was at 50% when it crashed.

Only damage appears to be 1 broken prop. I turned it back on and the gimbal still works.

Anyone have non-bs ideas on why this would happen and what to do next time?

Its about 1 minute in if you want to skip the few shots I got before it happened:

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I'm guessing it isn't worth sending a log to 3dr, right? It sounds like customer service is now useless and plays the blame game, which they will pick on the humidity I am sure. I also cant even figure out how to view the logs, I can download my Tlogs but the bin files people refer to aren't in the logs folder.

 

[pyrate]

No only BS ones you would not want to hear

 

[MtnXfreeride]

No only BS ones you would not want to hear

Ha that came out bad... I dont want someone to say it is because I flew past 60% battery...

 

[pyrate]

Honestly it was a snippy reply.
Have a nice beverage, pretend you are someone on this forum who likes he Solo has been flying them long enough to help you.
re-read your post.
My first reply was Nooooo dont bother sending a ticket to 3DR who have been known to replaces solos on even border line incidents, and while they may not be as good as they were are still one of the best support groups in the busines. Why would you send them a ticket and possibly find out what caused it,

That was sarcasm
BTW flying in those conditions may have been the problem

 

[Jubalr]

Probably might have been saved had you switched to stabilize or manual at the first sign of trouble. If the throttle was at full I didn't hear a change in the motors during descent. Certainly looks like a loss of lift from the blades due to conditions (wet & cold). Stabilize mode in particular will allow you to send more power to the motors than manual or especially 'Fly' mode.

 

[MtnXfreeride]

Honestly it was a snippy reply.
Have a nice beverage, pretend you are someone on this forum who likes he Solo has been flying them long enough to help you.

Sorry, I meant my thread came out bad (snippy), not your reply. It is a "venting" therapy thread for a crash that could have ended its life.

 

[MtnXfreeride]

Probably might have been saved had you switched to stabilize or manual at the first sign of trouble. If the throttle was at full I didn't hear a change in the motors during descent. Certainly looks like a loss of lift from the blades due to conditions (wet & cold). Stabilize mode in particular will allow you to send more power to the motors than manual or especially 'Fly' mode.

Honestly, I thought for a few seconds.. maybe I descended to quick and it'll take a second to stabilize and gain. But I didn't hear the motors throttle up and from that point it would have been too late. I came in too quick/low to react to the failure in time.

Loss of lift I think could be eliminated as a reason since the motors never throttled up.

Good advice though- I have a button assigned to manual mode but I have to look down to hit it from lack of experience which takes time when I was already out of time.

 

[pyrate]

Sorry, I meant my thread came out bad (snippy), not your reply. It is a "venting" therapy thread for a crash that could have ended its life.

Certainly understand that

 

[mattshup]

Totally off topic, but what song did you use in the intro? It's really relaxing and I like it.

 

[MtnXfreeride]

Totally off topic, but what song did you use in the intro? It's really relaxing and I like it.

It is from the Sims game. My brother played it on Piano and recorded it.
He has his original stuff at http://dreamsneverdie.com

 

[Olli]

Google vortex ring state on quads... might be that what happened. You came down too fast on straight line vertically. My opinion, but might be wrong about this.

 

[Vegasrobbi]

I have had a few issues with my Solo after hundreds of flights. About a year ago my Solo started acting up in freezing weather. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think Solo has a heated IMU?

The problem seemed to get worse the colder the temperature was. I sent the logs to 3DR and they said the gyro's were not working properly. I did a lot of speed testing and ACRO with my Solo so it was well worn at this point. I sent it back to 3DR and the CS was awesome, they replaced the IMU and all four motor pods no charge. My Solo still flies awesome to this day, even in the cold.

I noticed my P3 and 4 take a while to arm in the cold I get "aircraft warming up" message for sometimes more than a minute. I thought about this and now on cold days I warm the battery and Solo up in my car before take off. I also leave it on the ground an extra minute or two powered up before take off. I start the motors several times to get the oil flowing in the motors and warm them up, they power off after 10 or so seconds.

I have had zero cold weather issues since so I don't know if I had bad gyros or improper procedures.

Here is the video of the odd flight behavior with the bad gyros. Solo started beeping and wandering all over, I fought it to the ground in manual. Solo and the batteries were cold on this take off as you can see I was in an open non heated Jeep.

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Here is the same Solo almost a year later doing Follow with a Jeep and it is 34 degrees out. I always warm up Solo and the battery now before I fly in cold weather.

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[nexxypoo]

Looks likely to be battery cell death to me. Have you tried the battery since?
Also, those conditions are, shall we just say, *sketchy* at best.

• ~200ft visibility? Not good.
• Beyond LoS? Not good.
• 99% humidity? Not good.
• Freezing temperatures? Also not good.

So many factors which could have contributed. It may have been mechanical, but it was pilot error to fly in the first place IMHO. If you were flying it professionally, you would have definitely been breaking the law. (Lovely video though).

Sorry, I know this isn't what you want to hear. I hope it gets fixed.

neX

 

[pyrate]

The current ph 2 does not have heated IMU the new 2.1 does

 

[Olli]

At what time, has that heating been added, it's almost a year since i bought this thing? Flew happily @-25 celscius last winter.

 

[twitchyzero]

reminded me why i should not attempt to fly in fog as cool as some videos it can produce.

 

[MtnXfreeride]

A reply to some concerns:
1. It wasn't out of line of sight, I could see the lights on it at all times, even going down my street I was above the treeline enough to see it. Plus I fly just to the edge of the road at almost all times.
2. <200' visibility? Not at the start, and it only looks like poor visibility at the end because the GoPro had fogged up.
3. I dont think it could be below freezing - I know it was 34F at ground level but at 100-125', with the warm airmass moving in I doubt it could be cold enough to mess with sensors too much. I flew after watching some videos of people flying in colder conditions without office.
4. I have it set on medium for speed and I wasnt actually dropping it anywhere near that fast when it started accelerating downwards faster.
5. Cold Moist air is more dense, I would expect the drone to have more punch if anything.
6. I was aware of vortex ring ground state, but I looked into it more after it was mentioned.. I didn't know it could happen from so high where the props can essentially stall. Maybe at some point in my descent I started dropping too quick. I will alter my landing habits so I am moving forward while descending.

I found my security cam footage if anyone wants to see how fast it dropped:

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[Thegeek]

Maybe the surrounding trees had an influence. I notice sometimes there can be a lag with controller inputs or even signal loss around trees. Even when it appears to still operate within line of sight.

 

[Olli]

This is a nice example:

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[Ralph E. Johnson]

Loved the video. I've never flown in that much fog. Sorry about the crash though. I have the Mavic and also the Solo. So far when I go to film something I want some right I take the Solo.