Solo Crashed - Now what?

[JohnBoise]

got it for Christmas. Love it!!!! Was flying today in Winnemucca. Weather was clear and very cold. 8 degrees.
Was landing. Had the option to land on snow or bring onto the covered porch to land. Went for the covered porch. Was making a slow approach. Doing very well then lost control. Not too sure how or why. It hit a post. Was about 2 feet AGL. Damaged three of four props. Cowling on "brain" on top came off. Antenna on front leg came out but still attached.
1. Took props off.
2. Reattached cowling with no issues.
3. Stuck antenna back into place and placed cover back over it.
4. Removed battery
Cannot get new props until Monday.

Now what? Is there anything else I should do? What should I do once I get props to test everything before flight. Is there anything I can test before I get props?

Any help would be very appreciated. Wife gave it to me for Christmas. She is having a heart attack at the moment.

Thanks in advance.

 

[SteveReno]

Probably, roof over that porch stopped the GPS signal , then solo switch to manual mode. Started to drift.
Cheap to fix. Bestbuy may have props.

 

[Maddog]

You can turn Solo on & see if you can get sat. lock.
You can perform a compass & magnetic calibration.
You can review information on the 3DR website & threads here regarding how Solo's GPS is not reliable near buildings, trees, etc.
(i.e.- don't fly near those unless you are in manual mode & have lots of practice under your belt).
Welcome to the forum!

 

[pyrate]

Glad you have a solo, and please take this with the most sincere motives.
Solos are incredibly sophisticated so that new pilots like you can get into the air fast. This was my first too, having never flown one until solo in July.
That does not mean you should at warp speed. Its like a car, most people can drive one, but not that many can pull one out of a spin on snow.
Even with all the great fail safes you are going to encounter situations early in your career that require you to take control. Go over all the flight school videos, read the manual at least twice. ask a lot of questions here.
In the beginning operate only in wide open spaces, while you build confidence. That is a real nice Christmas present, protect it and you will have years of flying fun

 

[erikgraham]

As others have mentioned, it could have been a GPS issue. When GPS signal gets partially blocked by buildings (or during summer by thick tree foliage) it becomes less accurate and can start to drift. The Solo doesn't realize it's drifting and doesn't properly counteract the effects of wind, etc.

If it has poor GPS for an extended period of time (I think it's 5 seconds), then it switches to manual and you have to manually counteract the effects of wind and turbulence yourself (including air turbulence caused by the props as it gets close to the ground).

For snow landings, it can be handy to have a piece of cardboard. The prop wash from the Solo can move the cardboard while you try to land, so the bigger the piece of cardboard the better - or find a way to "spike" the cardboard into the snow.

Personally I find it is best to NEVER use the automatic landing feature on the solo. I just bring it into the landing spot and keep holding down on the left stick until the motors shut off (if you keep the throttle down the Solo powers down after 3 or 4 seconds if it senses that it's not losing altitude- that's how it knows it's on the ground). People call that "landing manually" but we should come up with different wording because Manual usually means no GPS. Anyway, when you let the Solo land itself automatically, sometimes it will bounce a few times off the ground and that makes me nervous.

 

[UCLABruins]

This is starting to get really old. When will they learn to fly a cheap toy quadcopter first before jumping to an expensive UAV like this? It doesn't matter how sophisticated or smart the flight mode is, it can't prevent stupidity.

Landing is not that hard. It's not rocket science but you need experience. The only way to get experience is to fly a toy first. You can crash all you want with a $50 Syma X5C toy.

 

[erikgraham]

This is starting to get really old. When will they learn to fly a cheap toy quadcopter first before jumping to an expensive UAV like this? It doesn't matter how sophisticated or smart the flight mode is, it can't prevent stupidity.

Landing is not that hard. It's not rocket science but you need experience. The only way to get experience is to fly a toy first. You can crash all you want with a $50 Syma X5C toy.

Well to be fair, he did get it for Christmas.

Getting a cheapo drone to practice on is great advice, but I think your going to go insane in the next few weeks because there are going to be a lot more questions and posts along these lines. If you've been around for awhile, this is way way past the point of "starting to get really old." I've seen the same sort of posts from new users for YEARS. So put your patient hat on and let's help these guys out.

 

[Acroduster]

To boil it down for you, Mr. Boise, the general suggestion is twofold:

1. Go to an open field and practice in Fly:Manual mode.
2. ALWAYS take off and land in Fly:Manual mode. Set your A button to this mode so that it is easy to switch to when you're coming in for a landing. Also, make sure you have satellite lock before you take off.

Doing these two things will save you much of the headache that new pilots have had.

 

[Marich]

This is starting to get really old. When will they learn to fly a cheap toy quadcopter first before jumping to an expensive UAV like this? It doesn't matter how sophisticated or smart the flight mode is, it can't prevent stupidity.

Landing is not that hard. It's not rocket science but you need experience. The only way to get experience is to fly a toy first. You can crash all you want with a $50 Syma X5C toy.

Now, come on guys. This fella makes a single post about having a minor crash with his Solo, and he's not complaining but asking how he can function test it before flying again.
And now he's being called stupid.
Let's ease up.

 

[Joe Horn]

... The only way to get experience is to fly a toy first. ...

3DR's website STILL carries the claim that the Solo app comes with a "flight simulator that lets you practice flying" (HERE). That claim was the only reason that I did not buy a cheap toy to practice with before buying the Solo. Alas, it's STILL vaporware, if not just a pipe dream.

 

[Marich]

3DR's website STILL carries the claim that the Solo app comes with a "flight simulator that lets you practice flying" (HERE). That claim was the only reason that I did not buy a cheap toy to practice with before buying the Solo. Alas, it's STILL vaporware, if not just a pipe dream.

Now wait - you bought your Solo thinking it had a simulator but were thinking about getting a cheapie drone to practice? And when you opened the box and there was no sim, you decided to just go ahead and fly?
Well... true, the 3DR sim isn't out yet, but there are others... seems you should have known better.

 

[Joe Horn]

Now wait - you bought your Solo thinking it had a simulator but were thinking about getting a cheapie drone to practice? And when you opened the box and there was no sim, you decided to just go ahead and fly?

Yes.

Well... true, the 3DR sim isn't out yet, but there are others... seems you should have known better.

Yes, I should have known better than just start flying it without any experience... but I'm glad I didn't wait, because it's been great and I've had no accidents so far, thanks to reading all the 3DR documentation and this forum. That's why, for example, I've never tried to do something like land inside a covered porch.

 

[RichWest]

Now what? Is there anything else I should do? What should I do once I get props to test everything before flight. Is there anything I can test before I get props?

Maybe a good idea to start the bird less the props. You can reeve the motors up like you were taking off. Look for any motor issues like unusual vibrations or noise from the motors, if you can get to that point.

If you get that far, then sure fly in an open area to test further.

A bunch of good advice given here is this thread, got to read past the razzing. Don't be ashamed, we all have had crashes due to one reason or another. I crashed a two day old AR drone into a neighbors garage door a few years ago, still have the bird and flies great after replacing the cross arm and central board. They don't make garage doors like they used to though. Live and learn...keep safety first and foremost in your mind when you fly.

 

[John hill]

got it for Christmas. Love it!!!! Was flying today in Winnemucca. Weather was clear and very cold. 8 degrees.
Was landing. Had the option to land on snow or bring onto the covered porch to land. Went for the covered porch. Was making a slow approach. Doing very well then lost control. Not too sure how or why. It hit a post. Was about 2 feet AGL. Damaged three of four props. Cowling on "brain" on top came off. Antenna on front leg came out but still attached.
1. Took props off.
2. Reattached cowling with no issues.
3. Stuck antenna back into place and placed cover back over it.
4. Removed battery
Cannot get new props until Monday.

Now what? Is there anything else I should do? What should I do once I get props to test everything before flight. Is there anything I can test before I get props?

Any help would be very appreciated. Wife gave it to me for Christmas. She is having a heart attack at the moment.

Thanks in advance.

John you do know solo has a "black box recorder" you can send the logs to support and they should be able to tell you what went wrong.
Cheers, John.

 

[Ian [P13]]

3DR's website STILL carries the claim that the Solo app comes with a "flight simulator that lets you practice flying" (HERE). That claim was the only reason that I did not buy a cheap toy to practice with before buying the Solo. Alas, it's STILL vaporware, if not just a pipe dream.

It's coming soon, a 3DR staff member said it was planned this month but didn't make it for then. Frankly there's more important stuff to deliver.

 

[JohnBoise]

Thank you all so much for your suggestions. I did the calibrations and fired it up yesterday without the propellers. It all seemed to work well. I will get some new props when I get back home and try it in an open field. I look forward to many years of fun. I also look forward to reading more and taking time to learn more about these drones.

 

[Rocket400]

That was interesting. I got a solo and just started flying it like the advertising shows you can do. Like the rest of life I learn a special lesson with every crash!
1. Don't fly under stuff. Solo goes straight up 85ft to return home. Even if your 2ft from landing under a tree.
2. Be careful about battery life. Get to low on battery and it flies straight up 85 feet to return home even when it's landing right beside you!
3. A small screen and bright sunlight can make it so you run into things you can't see. Get a bigger screen or get a visor.

My solo is tough but the blades and gimbal are more fragile.
By the way... Did have GPS failure and lost controller signal and it flew away. 3dr is going to replace everything they said.

Will start trying the manual flight. Slowly.

 

[Maddog]

That was interesting. I got a solo and just started flying it like the advertising shows you can do. Like the rest of life I learn a special lesson with every crash!
1. Don't fly under stuff. Solo goes straight up 85ft to return home. Even if your 2ft from landing under a tree.
2. Be careful about battery life. Get to low on battery and it flies straight up 85 feet to return home even when it's landing right beside you!
3. A small screen and bright sunlight can make it so you run into things you can't see. Get a bigger screen or get a visor.

My solo is tough but the blades and gimbal are more fragile.
By the way... Did have GPS failure and lost controller signal and it flew away. 3dr is going to replace everything they said.

Will start trying the manual flight. Slowly.

Before you start flying in manual, have you read the manual? Lol!

 

[Gary Burch]

Get some fpvlr sperical antennas. They really help around trees an other things.

 

[John N Kronyak III]

This is starting to get really old. When will they learn to fly a cheap toy quadcopter first before jumping to an expensive UAV like this? It doesn't matter how sophisticated or smart the flight mode is, it can't prevent stupidity.

Landing is not that hard. It's not rocket science but you need experience. The only way to get experience is to fly a toy first. You can crash all you want with a $50 Syma X5C toy.

Ya' know,? Some with you attitude are getting really old. Ya' have pilots new to Quads and all some of you do is insult and degrade. If the post is irritating, ignore and go on your way, and let folks who want to help do their thing without people like you wasting space. Gabeesh?