P2V went berserk

[nativecolorado]

Just when I was developing high confidence with my P2V, it surprises me.

I had six flights under my belt with my stock P2V. No issues at all, a solid flier. Saturday 3/29 my brother-in-law and I flew around a rural church, taking photos and videos from all angles, and doing fly-overs looking straight down on the steeple. At one point I used the video to get within ~5 feet of the cross and snapped a photo. Rock solid the entire time.

That evening I flew it in the neighborhood to show it off for friends (all a bunch of techies who would love to see it in action.) Flew great up to 350 feet, too photos and videos, everyone wanted to see the live video. It was meant to be a quick flight then put it away, so I brought it down to ~6 feet to take a photo of us all standing there before landing. That's when it went berserk.

It started rocking back and forth four times (R-L-R-L), getting more violent with each swing, then it slammed into the driveway, took off and slammed into the back of one of the SUVs parked in the driveway, then fell to the ground after shattering 3/4 prop guards and all four props. I was incredibly lucky it didn't fly at the people and instead chose to attack the SUV. Once it started rocking back and forth it was no longer under my control. I was at most 15 feet away from the hovering P2V while snapping the photo.

I had ten satellites during the flight and green lights. My compass was good at takeoff, everything was in order.

I'm open to ideas as to what may have caused it to go into 'berserk mode'. Has this happened to anyone else? Was this the start of a flyaway? From what I've read a flyaway just starts flying in a direction out of control. This was a definite rocking back and forth motion. Everything was copacetic right up until it wasn't.

New props and prop guards are on order, and I feel like I need to start over gaining confidence with it as a flying machine again. :shock: :shock: :shock:

 

[F6Rider]

Did you descend real fast to that six foot level? Was it in hover at the time it went berserk? The 'rocking' sounds like a result of a too fast descent and I have heard of that happening, but not what followed.

 

[nativecolorado]

Nope, at the time I had brought it down at a reasonable speed to its 6-8 foot altitude where it was hovering as I took a 'selfie' of the group. It hovered for a couple more seconds, then lost its little electronic mind.

I've seen that behavior where it 'toilet bowls' as it descends rapidly, especially with the prop guards installed. But that wasn't the case here. I wasn't showing off or otherwise pushing things, it was simply hovering so people could look at it.

Then, everyone was all like "RUN!" and I watched it try to destroy itself.

 

[AmosMoses]

Bummer! I myself am trying to build the confidence to let the P2V lose but I have had it act "goofy" on me a few times. Once in forward flight it did do a weird left to right rocking but only for a few seconds than stopped. My range has also been very inconsistent after doing the 2.0 firmware update.


Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

 

[jimdenburg]

Hmmm...the only time mine weirded out was here.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw4Ej41niO8[/youtube]

It was obviously at a higher altitude, and I figured perhaps I descended too quickly but I didn't think I went any fast than normal. Were you in GPS mode the entire time? Mine happened while in ATTI, but switching to GPS, any stick inputs, failsafe, nothing had any effect until it just showed signs of leveling off about a foot off the ground and I hit the gas. That rocking back and forth thing caught my eye in your post though.

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

Hmmm...the only time mine weirded out was here.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw4Ej41niO8[/youtube]

It was obviously at a higher altitude, and I figured perhaps I descended too quickly but I didn't think I went any fast than normal. Were you in GPS mode the entire time? Mine happened while in ATTI, but switching to GPS, any stick inputs, failsafe, nothing had any effect until it just showed signs of leveling off about a foot off the ground and I hit the gas. That rocking back and forth thing caught my eye in your post though.

Jim, from what ive seen so far you have the best selection of crash and almost crash videos haha. Nice last second recovery although I'd say luck had a lot to do with it. Keep the videos coming

 

[nativecolorado]

Your rocking motion on your video does look similar. Maybe because I was lower it didn't have time to 'recover' like yours did.

So far I've only flown in GPS mode.

 

[riblit]

The rocking in jimdenberg's video is classic ring vortex.

I have seen the out of control self destruct once on a quad, not a phantom, with a Naza flight controller.
This one was auto landing after RTH. It descended to about 6 inches off the ground, rose up to about 18 inches, rolled back and forth, rolled to the right and accelerated, descending until it hit the ground about 15 feet away, rolled, smashed an arm and the props and lay there.

The area is grassed but is supposed to have metal grids like reo and underground power cables laid there.

You mentioned a driveway. What is around it?

 

[jimdenburg]

The rocking in jimdenberg's video is classic ring vortex.

I have seen the out of control self destruct once on a quad, not a phantom, with a Naza flight controller.
This one was auto landing after RTH. It descended to about 6 inches off the ground, rose up to about 18 inches, rolled back and forth, rolled to the right and accelerated, descending until it hit the ground about 15 feet away, rolled, smashed an arm and the props and lay there.

The area is grassed but is supposed to have metal grids like reo and underground power cables laid there.

You mentioned a driveway. What is around it?

That was my most likely feeling about the event too. Only brought it to the table because he mentioned the rocking and the loss of control. I would add that I was using knockoffs for the props (went through so many hitting trees that it was costing me a fortune), and the craft handled a bit more erratically with them on. The original poster's experience makes me glad I invested in prop guards for future flights!

 

[jimdenburg]

Jim, from what ive seen so far you have the best selection of crash and almost crash videos haha. Nice last second recovery although I'd say luck had a lot to do with it. Keep the videos coming

Thanks! Although I'm going to try to cut back on the crashes after these next few repairs.

 

[nativecolorado]

The rocking in jimdenberg's video is classic ring vortex.

I have seen the out of control self destruct once on a quad, not a phantom, with a Naza flight controller.
This one was auto landing after RTH. It descended to about 6 inches off the ground, rose up to about 18 inches, rolled back and forth, rolled to the right and accelerated, descending until it hit the ground about 15 feet away, rolled, smashed an arm and the props and lay there.

The area is grassed but is supposed to have metal grids like reo and underground power cables laid there.

You mentioned a driveway. What is around it?

Typical neighborhood driveway, but there were cars in the driveway and in the street. I wonder about trying to fly in and among too much metal? Could that interfere with my control? All my previous flights were in much more open locations, like parks, fields, empty parking lots...