FPV Warp Down!

[02DropTopM3]

Well, after a dozen successful FPV flights with the Warp, the inevitable happened. Somehow I lost the radio transmission during a flight and was left with no alternative other than to hit TH and let it come down from about 50 feet or so.

I am always careful to not overfly houses / buildings / people and that was the case this time as well, but unfortunately I WAS over a paved parking lot so the damage was pretty ugly:



Crazy thing is I was only about 800 feet away and I had overflown that same area numerous times in previous flights. I'm still at a loss as to what went wrong...

[kachur779]

It dont look that bad ,but iam looking at thé picture on my phone,looks like thé blades are ok

[Ah Clem]

Sorry for your loss, sir.

Did you find out what caused it?

[fjoe]

Sorry bud!

So you lost your video feed?

[02DropTopM3]

Originally Posted by kachur779

It dont look that bad ,but iam looking at thé picture on my phone,looks like thé blades are ok

Picture doesn't show it very well. Damage at a glance:

Boom
Most of the tail is tweaked except for the blades
Tail control rod
Servo arms
Canopy (beat up but could continue to fly it)
Canopy posts
FPV camera
Main blades (they didn't snap but they're both bent)

Hopefully the rest of the electronics are good. I'll know more once I have the stomach to start digging on the bench. The real kicker is that the next day I dumb-thumbed my Goblin right into the ground... Bad Heli weekend...

Originally Posted by Ah Clem

Sorry for your loss, sir.

Did you find out what caused it?

Thanks! Still not sure what caused it. Going to dig in and take a closer look after an appropriate mourning time. :-)

Originally Posted by fjoe

Sorry bud!

So you lost your video feed?

Yea, so I flew it out to the parking lot, was turning it around nice and slow and it startled wobbling like crazy and at the same time I lost the video feed. I didn't want it to get away from me and end up who knows where so I just shut it down and let it fall... sad... If I wouldn't have panicked I should have hit rescue and just stared over in the direction where the Heli was to see if I could get a visual on it, but honestly, after about 500 feet it's a dot, and this was about 800 feet out.

[Luigi_tuga]

Poor bird

But the damage could have been worse, no broken skids or frame

Maybe you could reposition the camera to a higher position, maybe opening a hole in the canopy.
It was a bit vulnerable in its original position.
Just a thought

Good luck with the rebuild!

[fjoe]

Hindsight is 20/20, right

I've had a few (3) forced autos, only once did I flip the SL. Gotta try and drill it in to my head. Luckily I didn't crash.

[02DropTopM3]

Originally Posted by Luigi_tuga

Poor bird



But the damage could have been worse, no broken skids or frame



Maybe you could reposition the camera to a higher position, maybe opening a hole in the canopy.

It was a bit vulnerable in its original position.

Just a thought



Good luck with the rebuild!

Thanks Luigi. I had also repositioned the camera to the top of the canopy but it didn't matter. It came down hard on its side so the camera was pretty much doomed.

[02DropTopM3]

Originally Posted by fjoe

Hindsight is 20/20, right

I've had a few (3) forced autos, only once did I flip the SL. Gotta try and drill it in to my head. Luckily I didn't crash.

Yea, I've gotten pretty good at hitting rescue, but never thought I would need it when flying low-rpm FPV. It's not like I was trying any scary new moves. Just didn't expect it.

Anyway, thanks for the kind words guys. Time to start adding parts to my shopping cart!

[Bob O]

Oh man, poor canopy.

[02DropTopM3]

Originally Posted by Bob O

Oh man, poor canopy.

Yes... Sad Angry Bird...

[HeliSmith]

When you hit throttle hold the motor turned off immediately? That seems like you had connection. Sucks not to know exactly what happened and the best you can do is to scrutinize everything.

[02DropTopM3]

Originally Posted by HeliSmith

When you hit throttle hold the motor turned off immediately? That seems like you had connection. Sucks not to know exactly what happened and the best you can do is to scrutinize everything.

To be honest, the heli started wobbling pretty violently (I could see this from the FPV monitor I was watching) and then I lost video completely and as soon as that happened I hit TH out of habit from the early days crashing my 130x repeatedly into the soft grass. I cannot say for sure if TH worked or not because it was too far away. Once I drove over to pick it up, it was within 50' or so of the last thing I recognized while watching the video feed so it didn't wander far after I shut everything down.

I might dig it out of the bag today and take a closer look to see if I can figure out what happened. I'll probably never know. Just strange that I'd flown well beyond that point many times with zero range issues.

This is the exact spot where I lost control and crashed (this was a previous flight):

St George FPV - Dusk to Dark #2 (6 min 48 sec)

[GravityJunkie]

Interesting flying area. I'm not used to that style of scenery.

[02DropTopM3]

Originally Posted by GravityJunkie

Interesting flying area. I'm not used to that style of scenery.

Southern Utah, near St George. We head down there from Northern Utah when we get sick of snow! :-)

[HeliSmith]

I hate crashes like that the best we can do is scrutinize everything like crazy.

[02DropTopM3]

Originally Posted by HeliSmith

I hate crashes like that the best we can do is scrutinize everything like crazy.

I know. I finally started rebuilding. Haven't found a smoking gun yet though.