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First flight = crashed ... :(

Posted by Willie Botha on January 22, 2013 at 8:28am

Well I was happy to do my first test flight ... until it crashed/malfunctioned!

GPS locked, I armed, take off, hovered for a few seconds, then wanted to check the RTL, switched to RTL ... up and away until it crashed against a tree! It felt like everything happened too quick. I did nothing wrong (I think) now need to order new props but is now a little scared that it might fly away...

I attached my log if anyone can maybe tell me why or what happened!

2013-01-22 17-59-12.tlog

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Graham Dyer January 28, 2013 at 9:47am

Willie, do you have the dataflash log file? At the point of when you switched to RTL I see your DistToHome is listed as 10411840 and which seems to indicate that your Home (or RTL) position was way off for some reason even though you had a 3D GPS lock. I'm trying to extract your waypoints from the tlog but it doesn't seem to work, did you have any waypoints loaded?
Søren Kuula January 24, 2013 at 12:00am

Hi, you should check that the heading (yaw)? is really showing the right direction (compare to a compass). Also with motors running (tie it to something heavy...). If high current wires run nesr the APM board, ite compass will readma distorted magnetic field and the APM will correct any small position error by flying off in the wrong direction..
Regards, Soren
Duran - ALTI January 23, 2013 at 10:06pm

Hey again Willie was this with those chock blocks you are using between the ESC and motors ?? We HIGHLY suggest soldering the ESC to the motors, NOT using the chock blocks, VERY risky using them, I have not seen anyone do this, the screw WILL loosen in flight after a while, even just a slight connection error can cause all kind of problems.

http://diydrones.com/photo/20121220-230320?context=user
Nick Scott January 22, 2013 at 6:09pm

Are you aware that by default when you enter RTL the aircraft is set to climb in elevation by 15M?