P3 Crashed. Final Flight

[aburkefl]

Are there Litchi logs on my iPad? There is a lower res video. I didn't do a screen capture of the flight - darn it.

I don't think you'll have as much information from the Litchi flight logs, but you can copy them from your iPad via iTunes.

Within iTunes, with your iPad connected to your PC (I don't know nuttin' about Macs!), you can use the "share" function for apps and download the "flightlogs" (that's the actual folder name). That folder contains an array of logs (in CSV format). Again, I have no idea how comprehensive these logs are relative to what you can capture off your Phantom (in either DAT or TXT files), but it might help you.

Sorry for your loss. I've come to the conclusion that nothing on my Phantom is invulnerable to failure. With no upkeep, maintenance, etc., eventually something will fail or break, with unpredictable results. If these things were real airplanes, you'd have required inspections every so-many-hours or so, complete annual, etc. I was surprised the Phantom doesn't even have plug-in motors. If there were very easily replaceable motors, ESCs, etc., one could produce a pseudo-inspection process and replace a few items now and then.

My Phantom has crashed twice. The first time was pure pilot error. The second was an apparent fly-away, but I do suspect some interference from some metal. Fortunately, the first crash was very very minor and I was able to make repairs (inexpensively) on the fly-away crash. My Chroma has crashed once (unknown reason and minor damage) and my old QX3 has crashed twice - destroyed the camera in the second crash.

Unfortunately, the experiences don't lessen the feeling of loss when something goes wrong!

Good luck.

Art - N4PJ
Leesburg, FL

 

[aburkefl]

Yes I know and people are getting more and more sensitive about it these days. I've always tried to fly high and keep it moving.

I've done a number of videos in a big park here where I live. The other day I took a thumb drive to the local Chamber of Commerce. I made them aware that I don't have a commercial license (Part 107 etc.) but I can donate them, if they're interested. They were, but were initially cautious - until they saw the first of the videos.

The first video they saw was a fly-by of a big playground with a splash pool next to it. From about 125 feet up and just across the street from the sites, you can see people and you can tell some of them are children - but you can't see them well enough to recognize anyone! The people at the Chamber were impressed. Almost to a man/woman, they were initially convinced that taking such pictures would invade privacy, look like snooping, voyeurism, etc. When they saw the actual video, they were pleasantly surprised.

We are now talking about pictures for 4th of July, a couple of other areas of town, etc. Thus far, we're planning everything so we stay within rules/guidelines, not directly over people and just far enough away to avoid privacy issues.

One of those videos was taken while "free-flying." All the rest of them (five of 'em) were taken using Litchi.

Art - N4PJ
Leesburg, FL

 

[BudWalker]

I Guess it's so long for now fellow P3 pilots. Yesterday brought an end to over 2 years of successful flights with my P3A.
I took off with no wind and a full battery after performing a thorough pre-flight check. I was running Litchi on iOS.
I manually took it up to altitude and everything was normal as I began the WP mission. It lifted another 20ft to 240ft at which point it zoomed around, completely inverted and powered into a neighbor's roof upside-down. (Poor neighbor thought a bomb had gone off!) Total wreck obviously, except for the landing gear which never made contact. It was easily recovered on the hillside after bouncing of their concrete shingle roof.
Factoids:
1. No evidence of a bird strike. I watched it with my naked eyes - also video and no visible feathers.
2. Did not spin off a prop. They were still on the drone, but scratched and broken from the roof.
3. Same mission I ran previously.
4. No wind – not that wind would cause it to invert and power 150ft down to a roof top.
5. I was watching the app until I heard the commotion in the air, at which point I watched it flip and dive straight down.
6. The camera was trying to keep things steady you’ll see, but the final second or two were lost when the battery ejected upon impact.
I don’t know – IMU error – gyro? I’ll probably try to recover the onboard logs, but the flight battery is pretty bad and it won’t recognize my other battery for some reason.
Plans:
Guess I’ll wait it out awhile and see what develops with laws and technology before jumping into another one. I did get a Mavic as a gift from my Better Half last month, but returned it when I found the video didn’t perform right with my iPad Mini. I’m very concerned for liability reasons now – who knows how this could have ended. And my insurance specifically excludes drones.

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Another possibility to retrieve the onboard .DAT file would be to remove the SD card. Typically, you need to disassemble the shell and break the glue joint that holds the SD card in place. From your description your P3 may be part way there already.

 

[The Springs]

I think what Avocet means is that is a lot of private back yards that it could have dropped into .

 

[Gnormand]

I suspect a malfunctioning ESC (electronic speed controller) or ESC control board. If the craft is flying normally, then flips...one can only assume that full power
was sent to one (or two) motors, or the power was completely shut off to one...The dramatic change in motor thrust is the only thing that will immediately flip a 4
motor aircraft in the air. I actually observed this in one of my P3's...it was only 50' feet away, flying normally, when it just flipped over and landed prop side down
in the grass. After examination, I held it in hand and powered up...when I gave full power, all motors responded; but when I throttled down, one of the motors
stayed at full power. Undeterred, I wanted to see if that was the problem...flew it again, and when I hit full power-that one motor stayed at full power regardless
of throttle position, and flipped the bird. You can look at your flight record and see if it confirms.

 

[Dounin Front]

Another possibility to retrieve the onboard .DAT file would be to remove the SD card. Typically, you need to disassemble the shell and break the glue joint that holds the SD card in place. From your description your P3 may be part way there already.

Hey Bud - Help, help!
I opened the shell and found the "black box" SD under the motherboard (although It probably isn't a motherboard).
It's on my PC now and on dropbox. Dropbox - FLY621.DAT
I believe you will be able to access it, else let me know.
I have your DatCon viewer from last year and checked it out. Mainly speed error and compass error large. I'm not savvy enough to interpret it. I'm really hoping you can help me.
Thanks in advance
**** Faust

 

[BudWalker]

Hey Bud - Help, help!
I opened the shell and found the "black box" SD under the motherboard (although It probably isn't a motherboard).
It's on my PC now and on dropbox. Dropbox - FLY621.DAT
I believe you will be able to access it, else let me know.
I have your DatCon viewer from last year and checked it out. Mainly speed error and compass error large. I'm not savvy enough to interpret it. I'm really hoping you can help me.
Thanks in advance
**** Faust

I looked at this flight. As noted by @Gnormand I'm gonna speculate that the cause stems from an ESC issue. I.e., not a motor or a prop. This incident is different than the usual P3 broken or spun off prop incident. 1) There was no spinning, 2) there was no evidence that points to a single motor/prop having lost propulsion.

The incident began with a pitch up and roll left suggesting that the leftBack had lost propulsion. But, the leftBack motorSpeed never increased to compensate.

Although Yaw varied following the onset there never was a complete rotation. Also note that there was a brief period (54 secs - 55.5 secs) where motorSpeeds, roll and pitch were stable. This suggests that the cause was intermittent.

Looking at motorCommanded it can be seen that both the back motors are commanded higher than the front motors. If it were a single motor having lost propulsion then only that motor would be commanded higher.

 

[Dounin Front]

Thanks Bud Walker for your time and effort to analyze the flight data from the AC. It was a pretty crazy and catastrophic failure.
And Glen Norman, you guessed it (from experience) also.

 

[cadm8]

I suspect a malfunctioning ESC (electronic speed controller) or ESC control board....

Is there any way to check for this pre-flight?

 

[Dounin Front]

You probably want to hear it from Bud, but I say it's tough to foresee an intermittent problem - especially the first time.
Just be sure your props are seated properly, your motor mount screws are ok and you have enough satellites. Then watch the app for warnings.
BTW: I see main boards (ESC) are $159 these days and it looks like they sell many of them. Unfortunately, I would need a P3 to go with it after my crash.

 

[BudWalker]

You probably want to hear it from Bud, but I say it's tough to foresee an intermittent problem - especially the first time.
Just be sure your props are seated properly, your motor mount screws are ok and you have enough satellites. Then watch the app for warnings.
BTW: I see main boards (ESC) are $159 these days and it looks like they sell many of them. Unfortunately, I would need a P3 to go with it after my crash.

The only thing I can add is the P3 is pretty good at detecting ESC problems at motorStart. If it doesn't like what it sees the P3 will stop the motors (if they started) and issue an error message. I've seen a couple of situations where the P3 would occasionally issue an error at motorStart but work the next time. The errors would then come more often until finally the error always occurred or there was an incident.

 

[pomonabill220]

So very sorry to hear of the loss!
I cannot imagine your thoughts as you watched your pride and joy try to thread itself into your neighbor's roof.
I hope you either get it repaired or get another one so you can continue your enjoyment of this hobby.
Good luck and all the best to you!

 

[Dounin Front]

So very sorry to hear of the loss!
I cannot imagine your thoughts as you watched your pride and joy try to thread itself into your neighbor's roof.
I hope you either get it repaired or get another one so you can continue your enjoyment of this hobby.
Good luck and all the best to you!

Not the same thing - I know, but I think I'll try RC speed boats for awhile until all the rules and regs get sorted out. Besides, there is a great pond behind my house. Maybe I'll end up videoing my boat with the next drone.
BTW: Thanks for the kind words.