It was bound to happen, or was it?  I had a small crash yesterday with my big hexacopter.  I was attempting to take off and the bird flipped over onto its top.  Normally a flip like that indicates propellers on wrong, or motors wired wrong but I haven’t changed anything in the over 100 previous flights.

The bird sustained some minor damage:

• Broken GPS tower
• One broken and unusable carbon fiber propeller
• Other propellers scuffed (may be able to sand them and still use)

I’m going to do a deep inspection and check all screws, levels, mounts, and such before going airborne again.

Causes for RC Multi-rotor Copter Flip

The copter flipped over from left to right, meaning the left side launched faster than the right.  I have noticed a couple of takeoffs where the right side seemed to lag a big, requiring me to give it more thrust.  Perhaps this time around I was too aggressive with the takeoff and the flight controller was not able to respond quickly enough.

I theorize it is possible that my motors need recalibration.  I think perhaps the motors on the left side are calibrated to a higher thrust rate than the right side and this image may support that a bit.  The image below is a props-off test of zero to full throttle over about 10 seconds.

Other Theories

One suggested theory is solar flares.  Yes that sounds crazy, but solar flares have been happening quite a bit lately and they can cause GPS devices to malfunction or produce bad readings.

Another suggestion is that the GPS was having other issues and not locked on the proper location.  If this is the case, the copter may try to move to the position it thinks it “should” be in before the takeoff is complete.

If the cause of the flip is either of the “other theories” above, launching the craft in attitude mode (GPS turned off) is the recommendation.  Shortly after takeoff GPS mode can be enabled.

Conclusion – Work to Do

Whether or not the cause of the flip was the difference in throttle shown in the graph above, my first move will be recalibrating the motors and throttle with each other.   With motors 1 and 4 above being different at the top end by as much as 14 points on this graph, that’s probably not good.

I’ll need to fix the GPS tower somehow, or mount the GPS again on a battery holder.  I can order another tower, but they come from China, so it will take a while.  I want/need to fly long before it will arrive.  They’re cheap, so I’ll probably just order two more.

I’ll need to inspect the frame, motors, and rest of the copter to make sure there was no other damage.  A cracked arm or frame part could be a disaster if it gave way in the air.

Once I feel I’m ready to fly it, a simple takeoff and hover test will be first.  Nothing crazy.

This is geeky beyond measure….

I’m in the “laboratory” getting ready for an aerial shoot tomorrow.  My hexacopter is good to go, but in case I need another flight or backup I was getting my DJI Phantom ready to fly.  I had just balanced some new props and was walking up the stairs when the doorbell rang.  Quad in hand, I answered the door.  It was a neighbor kid.

“My rocket is on your roof.”

He had launched a rocket from his yard and miscalculated the wind.  The parachute was hanging off the edge of the roof and the rocket was on the roof.  I told him I’d be happy to try taking the Phantom up there and seeing if I could get close enough for the wind from the props to blow the rocket down.  He, his father, and three other neighbor kids thought that was a brilliant idea.

I was a little worried.  I just spent a bunch of money on new props.  I’d hate to break them AND leave the damn Phantom on the roof.

I piloted up to the roof and positioned the quad above the rocket.  It was a bit breezy so I had to manipulate it a bit to keep it in position, despite being in GPS mode (that’s another discussion).  I lowered to the point where the prop wash hit the rocket and voila!  The rocket blew down and I was the hero of the neighborhood.

The neighbor kids raved how cool the Phantom was to which I said, “you should see the BIG bird!”

I then busted out the big hexacopter and did a neighborhood flight with a very attentive audience.  They loved it, and I got a test flight in on the big bird after having to reset the gimbal settings.

UPDATE 11:05AM ET – The article has been removed from That Drone Show’s website.  The explanation from David Oneal is that the piece was “written by a friend.”  Whether that’s true or not does not matter.  If this is his website, he is ultimately responsible and he did thankfully remove the article.  I suspect however, that his “friend” has posted many other “pieces” which may have come from somewhere else…  I’m scouring their site to make sure this is the only article of mine which was “written by a friend.”

My article Drone Paranoia – Top Five Reasons Drones Suck for Spying has become widely popular.  So popular in fact, that other drone sites are now stealing it.  Here are a couple of screenshots of the website and social network “That Drone Show” which you can see the article appear.  They left out my name, my website, my photos, and inserted a slutty picture to get a few more hits.  I assure you they did not have my permission to post my content without my name.  And what an awful attempt at disguising the text by changing the first paragraph by adding “We call it That Drone SHOW, because its the word people use when they think of our little uav we have.”  What kind of crap is that?

This is not only ILLEGAL, it is plain wrong.  The “US” page shows shows that this site is a two-person operation by David Oneal and Sarah Oneal.  David Oneal has been a video producer and editor since 1993.  So if you’ve been in the business that long, you know STEALING content is about the worst thing you can do.  Only ASSHOLES do that.

Their site does not have a “contact” page so I’ve taken to social networks to get them to remove my content from their site and their social networks.