Crash caused by SK540, Is there a way to get a log file to view the events?

[ghost2212]

I crashed my 700E DFC today due to what I'm pretty sure was the SK540 going crazy. Just as I took off the Tail started wagging lots. It was pretty bad and then I believe because of this the cyclic was wobbling as well. It made it impossible to control properly meaning that I had to hit throttle hold and try and auto it down which resulted in it tipping over as I put it down due to it still moving sideways.

I have a video of it happening that I will post up here when I have edited it. The flight before it was absolutely find and I'm almost certain there was no mechanical problems with the heli.

Thanks for your help,

Brett

[Xrayted]

Originally Posted by ghost2212

I crashed my 700E DFC today due to what I'm pretty sure was the SK540 going crazy. Just as I took off the Tail started wagging lots. It was pretty bad and then I believe because of this the cyclic was wobbling as well. It made it impossible to control properly meaning that I had to hit throttle hold and try and auto it down which resulted in it tipping over as I put it down due to it still moving sideways.

I have a video of it happening that I will post up here when I have edited it. The flight before it was absolutely find and I'm almost certain there was no mechanical problems with the heli.

Thanks for your help,

Brett

Sorry to hear this. The 540 can hold the last flight log info, but do you have logging turned on in the software? I'm not sure if they can get anything from it if not.

[georgi UK]

=] you sure the unit was secure on its mount? sounds like the tail and cyclic gyro's scrambled?

[ghost2212]

Originally Posted by ICNU

Sorry to hear this. The 540 can hold the last flight log info, but do you have logging turned on in the software? I'm not sure if they can get anything from it if not.

Just realised logging wasn't turned on

Why would anyone not want logging turned on?, Seem's pretty stupid to not have it turned on by default.

The unit was definitely secure, I still had some degree of control although it was very sketchy and the heli was moving away from me rapidly so I hit throttle hold and tried to get it down as best as I could. The flight before that was absolutely fine with no issues whatsoever.

[georgi UK]

=] let's see the vid, please don't edit the start up bit, the heli has to know it's in air mode and not ground mode..........

[heathy]

I've experienced this violent tail wag on spool up too, this has happened on the deck though with no odd cyclic. Throttle hold, un plug and go again sorted it. I think that was due to the Heli being plugged in on a wobbly table so when the servos jumped into life pushing the swash up the weight of the blades (700) caused movement. I did it on the floor and it was fine.

Did you notice anything similar?

[Xrayted]

Originally Posted by ghost2212

Just realised logging wasn't turned on

Why would anyone not want logging turned on?, Seem's pretty stupid to not have it turned on by default.

The unit was definitely secure, I still had some degree of control although it was very sketchy and the heli was moving away from me rapidly so I hit throttle hold and tried to get it down as best as I could. The flight before that was absolutely fine with no issues whatsoever.

I guess because there isn't any logging function on the 540 that can be read by the user at the moment. Only Skookum can view the files.

There is also a bug in the software that causes a fast tail twitch for some users when logging is on, so many have shut it off until this is corrected. It won't effect flight, but can be annoying to see in hover if you have the issue.

[ghost2212]

Originally Posted by heathy

I've experienced this violent tail wag on spool up too, this has happened on the deck though with no odd cyclic. Throttle hold, un plug and go again sorted it. I think that was due to the Heli being plugged in on a wobbly table so when the servos jumped into life pushing the swash up the weight of the blades (700) caused movement. I did it on the floor and it was fine.

Did you notice anything similar?

Heli was initialised on the floor and I didn't notice any strange thing's going on, The Green light was on etc. It was just before I took off the tail wag started but then I was off the ground and it was too late.

Video should be up soon which hopefully will shed some light on the issue

[Slyster]

Once in a while.... you get a weird initialization where the cyclic is HYPER ACTIVE when you move the heli side to side... and you will surely shake the heli nearly apart if you try to fly it this way.. I tried once and caught it before lift off... even with the green LED.

Maybe it has something to do with the DX8 (I heard) but always check the heli for this hyper swash correction... it happened 2x on my Fusion and 1x on my Goblin... in around 100 flights. I just check now.. very easy to notice.

Perhaps this is what happened?

[heathy]

Yeah, mine didn't exhibit any signs of anything odd going on till headspeed was up.

The video will show if its the same.

[Slyster]

Originally Posted by heathy

Yeah, mine didn't exhibit any signs of anything odd going on till headspeed was up.

Did you tilt the heli around to make sure the swash looked like it was behaving normally?

[ghost2212]

Here's the video of the flight before just to prove everything was going great etc

700E DFC Flight 01-04-13 (4 min 39 sec)

Here's the crash video, Sorry it's so small in the Frame, I think maybe it did have the HYPER ACTIVE swash as i demonstrate on the video after the crash. Thoughts please?

700E DFC Crash (1 min 47 sec)

[heathy]

Yeah, something I always do on my walk from the pits. I'm 100% sure mine was wobbly table

[heathy]

Originally Posted by ghost2212

Here's the video of the flight before just to prove everything was going great etc 700E DFC Flight 01-04-13 - YouTube

Here's the crash video, Sorry it's so small in the Frame, I think maybe it did have the HYPER ACTIVE swash as i demonstrate on the video after the crash. Thoughts please?

700E DFC Crash - YouTube

Yep, that's the exact same thing, only I noticed it as the skids were light on the ground.

Looked windy too, like it was here today, maybe the wind caused the blades to move on initialisation. In conditions like this it helps if you can shelter the Heli from the wind, and or get someone to hold the Heli down by the head when plugging in.

[Slyster]

exactly like my Fusion and Goblin. that's the hyper swash.

I noticed before I lifted off and now know to look for it. I assume you are using a DX8?

It's pretty much like the SK540 is set to full cyclic gain... a reinitialization always takes care of it and apparently it happens to all of us once in a while. I thought it might be one of those things that only happens with DX8? But I notice heathy you have a Futaba?

[heathy]

Yeah, futaba here. I've witnessed it on a friends logo too. Now we always watch when light on the skids for it.

[Slyster]

Interesting. Maybe there should be a 'hyper swash warning' sticky? Here I was blaming my spektrum sats and DX8 combo but it's the SK540? Skookum should know about this and I assume one of them will see this thread.

[ghost2212]

Originally Posted by Slyster

exactly like my Fusion and Goblin. that's the hyper swash.

I noticed before I lifted off and now know to look for it. I assume you are using a DX8?

It's pretty much like the SK540 is set to full cyclic gain... a reinitialization always takes care of it and apparently it happens to all of us once in a while. I thought it might be one of those things that only happens with DX8? But I notice heathy you have a Futaba?

Yeh I'm using a DX8, I did think afterwards as you can probably hear from the commentary that the swash seemed too fast. The flight before I checked the swash etc though as I'm still a new user too Skookum even If I had checked that flight I'm not sure whether I would of realised.

At the end of the day I should have checked it was working correctly but the FBL system shouldn't have problems like this as it's obviously not an isolated incident.

It does anything but inspire confidence in the unit and I may have to seriously contemplate leaving these FBL unit's on my heli's after this

[heathy]

I've taken the liberty of emailing Skookum for a response.

Please don't let this put you off this brand, Skookum will look after you as their customer care is 1st class.

[Slyster]

I completely trust my 3 sk540 helis. I just watch out for this one issue. It is rare but it does happen.