Crash!

Doug Anderson · Oct 25, 2016

Ten satellites, connected vehicle, camera on, but unfortunately not recording. Checklist completed, I held down "fly." The Solo immediately went to max RPM and took off. None of my control inputs meant a thing. It crashed onto the driveway, lept up and crashed again. And again. Holding the power button down to turn this thing possessed off did nothing. I turned the battery off on what was left of my Solo.

Any ideas of what happened? More important, how can I download the flight data to send to 3DR? Thanks for any help.

Marich · Oct 25, 2016

We'll need more details. Exactly how did Solo take off? Until it reaches a programmed height after takeoff it won't respond to controls. Usually this takes only a second or so. Exactly how did it crash onto the driveway - did it flip, become inverted, etc.?

Maddog · Oct 25, 2016

The only way to "kill" the motors is to hold down the "A", "B" and "PAUSE" buttons on the controller at the same time.
(page 28 of owners manual) You did read this prior to flying, right?

No idea what happened but you need to contact 3DR.

To send flight logs:

Go to Solo app main screen and select "support" at lower right corner.
Select "contact us" at lower right corner of following screen.
Follow the prompts to email a ticket to 3DR.

Sorry about your crash- let us know what you find out.

(Don't worry about the damage- it should buff right out. Be good as new

)

Cyberblitz · Oct 25, 2016

If you have look at this thread :
I'll interpret logs

I'll have a look a the logs for you, for free.

hackbard23 · Oct 26, 2016

can´t believe your legs survived the crash, but it seems that your shell is broken ?
even the leg extensions didn´t fold
please describe the sitiuation with a bit more detail, how high did it take off ? did you held the left stick down ?

Doug Anderson · Oct 26, 2016

Marich said:
We'll need more details. Exactly how did Solo take off? Until it reaches a programmed height after takeoff it won't respond to controls. Usually this takes only a second or so. Exactly how did it crash onto the driveway - did it flip, become inverted, etc.?

My usual takeoff technique is to hold "Fly" until the rotors spool up, then fly it slowly off the ground. That way, if there are any controllability issues I can terminate while within inches of the ground - something I picked up test flying helicopters. This time the rotors went to max RPM, the Solo took off at about 30 degree angle to about 6 - 8 feet then entered one steep bank after another up to about 20 feet between crashes before finally crashing inverted. Had it not entered those steep banks and crashed, it would have been a flyaway. This happened so fast that by the time I got off the sticks and on to the A/B and Pause it was already on the ground. I've never seen it move so fast. Two of the blades broke (no big deal if the motors are ok) and one of the arms is cracked pretty bad. Don't know yet if any of the innards are busted.

Doug Anderson · Oct 26, 2016

hackbard23 said:
can´t believe your legs survived the crash, but it seems that your shell is broken ?
even the leg extensions didn´t fold
please describe the sitiuation with a bit more detail, how high did it take off ? did you held the left stick down ?

Yup. Held the left stick down from the very beginning, knowing that a somewhat controlled crash is usually the best idea.

Doug Anderson · Oct 26, 2016

Cyberblitz said:
If you have look at this thread :
I'll interpret logs

I'll have a look a the logs for you, for free.

Thanks and thanks again.

Jubalr · Oct 26, 2016

Doug Anderson said:
View attachment 4487
My usual takeoff technique is to hold "Fly" until the rotors spool up, then fly it slowly off the ground. That way, if there are any controllability issues I can terminate while within inches of the ground - something I picked up test flying helicopters. This time the rotors went to max RPM, the Solo took off at about 30 degree angle to about 6 - 8 feet then entered one steep bank after another up to about 20 feet between crashes before finally crashing inverted. Had it not entered those steep banks and crashed, it would have been a flyaway. This happened so fast that by the time I got off the sticks and on to the A/B and Pause it was already on the ground. I've never seen it move so fast. Two of the blades broke (no big deal if the motors are ok) and one of the arms is cracked pretty bad. Don't know yet if any of the innards are busted.

Hey Doug, Sorry to hear of this. Word of advice though on your routine. After you get a GPS lock and 'OK' to fly, switch to manual mode and take off from there. Once in the air and everything checks out, then tap the Fly button. Anything not look right, go immediately back to Manual. The more you use Manual, the more you will like it anyway. Allows you to be the pilot instead of the computer. Save GPS modes for smart shots or 'loitering' as needed. Switch to manual for landing as well. May have saved your bird.
Good Luck..

Marich · Oct 26, 2016

Doug Anderson said:
View attachment 4487
My usual takeoff technique is to hold "Fly" until the rotors spool up, then fly it slowly off the ground. That way, if there are any controllability issues I can terminate while within inches of the ground - something I picked up test flying helicopters. This time the rotors went to max RPM, the Solo took off at about 30 degree angle to about 6 - 8 feet then entered one steep bank after another up to about 20 feet between crashes before finally crashing inverted. Had it not entered those steep banks and crashed, it would have been a flyaway. This happened so fast that by the time I got off the sticks and on to the A/B and Pause it was already on the ground. I've never seen it move so fast. Two of the blades broke (no big deal if the motors are ok) and one of the arms is cracked pretty bad. Don't know yet if any of the innards are busted.

It sounds like you took off manually - that is, didn't press Fly again after prop start - initially, and then as you were ascending auto-takeoff took over.

Cyberblitz · Oct 26, 2016

Doug Anderson said:
Thanks and thanks again.

If you can upload any logs to I'll interpret logs then I'll take a look

volcomdork182 · Oct 26, 2016

Maddog said:
The only way to "kill" the motors is to hold down the "A", "B" and "PAUSE" buttons on the controller at the same time.
(page 28 of owners manual) You did read this prior to flying, right?

No idea what happened but you need to contact 3DR.

To send flight logs:

Go to Solo app main screen and select "support" at lower right corner.
Select "contact us" at lower right corner of following screen.
Follow the prompts to email a ticket to 3DR.

Sorry about your crash- let us know what you find out.

(Don't worry about the damage- it should buff right out. Be good as new)

"A, B, and pause"

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

dalv · Jun 6, 2018

Last Saturday I crashed my drone and found it until today. I was flying it at about 230 feet, when one message appeared at the control, the message said something like lost the control signal, and when I saw the drone again, it was flying erratically and fell behind some trees. I do not know what happened. It was with 11 satellites when the flight started and in a few minutes less than 5 it crashed. It will be possible for you to help me analyze the log's.

XevetS · Jun 6, 2018

dalv said:
Last Saturday I crashed my drone and found it until today. I was flying it at about 230 feet, when one message appeared at the control, the message said something like lost the control signal, and when I saw the drone again, it was flying erratically and fell behind some trees. I do not know what happened. It was with 11 satellites when the flight started and in a few minutes less than 5 it crashed. It will be possible for you to help me analyze the log's.

Just up-load the logs and the gurus here will analyse them for ya...