I've had a dozen successful flights and then it suddenly happened to me. I was up in the mountains near the continental divide. It was calm and everything seemed fine then suddenly only about 2 minutes into flight it quit responding and the screen showed returning home while it flew away from me and into the mountain. I was only about 100 feet away and all batteries were fully charged. I was running 3.0.2. Luckily it crashed into the only mountain top nearby, maybe 100 feet away. What was strange is the motors never turned off, even after it crashed. Does this help to explain what may have happened? Luckily everything appears to be ok other than 2 shredded props. The props were very hard to get off on the side that hit the ground.
Here's the video. You'll see me take off, fly away to check home lock, then make one pass overhead. Any ideas what may have happened? If it was really trying to return to home, it should have flown upward, then towards me, instead it flew to my left and into the mountain.
Dave
Dave,
As a crew member with over 4,000 flight hours on various models of the UH-60/MH-60K Blackhawk, I can diagnose your crash with complete confidence because I was in a real life Blackhawk crash that looked just like this although, without a stabilized camera recording the event. It was quite violent when viewed through my own eyes.
On high mountain ranges and ridge lines like where you were flying when this crash occurred, there is a phenomena we called "Mountain and Ridge Line Wind Sheer" when I was doing HATS training in Colorado in our MH-60K model Blackhawks.
What happened to your drone is what's known as "Mountain Wave Turbulence". Your drone was quite stable and, likely "dropped" a bit when you flew off the ridge line, looks like to the East, initially. Then you flew what appears to be West and encountered the windward side of the Mline which likely "lofted" your drone a bit. However, soon after flying to the leeward side of the ridge line, you got caught in the "washing machine" effect of winds being projected over the windward side of the Ridge Line and then, forced immediately down on the leeward side.
Please read this information, you can scroll down to Fig. 80, Mountain Wave, for a thorough explanation of what caused this crash.
http://pilotoutlook.com/aviation_weather/turbulence
Saying it was pilot error would be correct. More direct, it was a case of pilot ignorance. I've crashed one of my R/C gliders in this very situation and I do not have ignorance of the situation to salve my wounds. I knew better and still thought I could out-fly the turbulence. I didn't and a $250 glider was lost due to the terrain off of Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs.
An expensive lesson my friend. Hopefully, you'll see your drone back into flying condition with a minimum of expense! Good luck to you!
Edit: I should mention the easiest way to prevent this. Altitude is your friend along these ridge lines. The more you have, the more time the drone and the pilot have to react to the downward force of winds aloft at a 13,000' mountain range. Also, the higher over the ridge line, the less the winds forces will affect your aircraft.