Flyaway when RTL engaged; over 30mph on landing?

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb73TprfUZ8[/youtube]
[attachment=0]2013-12-17 18-48-52.tlog[/attachment]

Can someone review the video or tlog file and let me know what I did wrong? I’ve been flying my quad for about 6 mo now, but had it fly away last Tuesday.

Issue #1 - tlog file of my quad flying away after RTL was selected. I started in stabilize mode, switched to “loiter” then switched to “auto” mode. When I switched back from “Auto” mode, I couldn’t control the quad.
Once the failsafe engaged, I couldn’t take control of the quad by switching back to stabilize mode and turning RTL off. I’ve only had to use RTL 2 times before and worked great. This time I ended up losing the quadcopter about a week ago. I’ve been flying for 6 mo before this happened.

Issue #2 - Telemetry reports quad flying over 30mph when trying to land. (Scroll to 2:10 on youtube video) Can that be correct? Would the copter be whisked away at over 30mph due to the wind alone or a malfunction of the telemetry data due to the signal?

I’m using mission planner V1.2.88.
APM2.5 (internal compass)
MediaTek GPS
SK450 Frame
Turnigy NTM 28-36 motors (400W)
Turnigy AE30A ESCs (30A)
Turnigy 9x transmitter (set-up for 6 modes) / PWM receiver
2200mAh 3c battery (11.1v)
Xbee series 1 for telemetry (for close range only)
LED lights (400mAh)

Can’t review video it’s set to private…

Can we have the dataflash log too, please? (And the video needs to be made public as already mentioned).

@rcflyer40t - Thank you for trying to review. I changed the video to public.
@rickp - my quad flew away, so I’ve been searching the woods for the past week. Right now, the tlog is all I have. I thought I looked in the right area until I saw the quad was traveling at 30mph when trying to land. Thank you for reviewing.

[quote=“hkimble”]@rcflyer40t - Thank you for trying to review. I changed the video to public.
@rickp - my quad flew away, so I’ve been searching the woods for the past week. Right now, the tlog is all I have. I thought I looked in the right area until I saw the quad was traveling at 30mph when trying to land. Thank you for reviewing.[/quote]

The area of woods seems small enough, however quite dense. Looking at the top of the trees, I would guess it’s stuck high above in the canopy rather a branch below. With the video, it gives you a pretty good idea of the area it most like is in. I noticed on the bottom of the vid you still have the coordinates, you should grab a gps unit, and walk into the trees. By some miracle you may find it dangling in the top of the trees. One other thing, it showed the copter was about 107ft, you may have to climb, hope you’re not scared of heights.

Oh this may sound redundant, and I bet you tried already (now doesn’t matter cuz batts are dead). Did you try to track the copter while you were still connected to it the MP? You could’ve set the Home dist on the HUD to give you distance, and used the map to guide you on the bearing for direction. Another would’ve been to wonder out there with the transmitter to bump the throttle a bit to see if you could hear any leaves or branches fluttering. I did this with a micro indoor quad, was flying bluetooth about a block or more away, batteries slightly low and WAY too much wind for the little guy… just kept pushing further away, eventually, dropped behind houses, so I drove around the area I knew, and dropped my windows, listened for anything to my response of the throttle. Luckly, I heard it and found it up in the tree.

Hope you find your copter.

@rcflyer40t - Yes, very dense woods. Lol. Thanks for the tips. I grabbed my computer and ran towards the forest, but I couldn’t pick up a signal once I couldn’t see the quad anymore. Lessons learned - Always have a long range telemetry system. I’ll focus more attention looking up the next time I go searching for it.

Thanks again and happy holidays!

Have you searched really hard at the point it accelerates away “into” the woods. Did you actually watch it shoot off over the trees?? I feel your loss never a good thing.

Have a Happy Christmas.

I had a look at the tlog and parameters and a few things stood out.

The magnetic field varies a lot over the flight. It’s somewhat related to the throttle but also related to the copter’s orientation so I’d guess that the compass “live” calibration went wrong or maybe some metal objects had been placed on the frame near the APM since that calibration was last done. With the mag field length varying between 80 and 500 it’s very likely that the copter didn’t know which way it was facing and could fly off in the wrong direction.

The throttle drops to 900 many times during the end of the flight so the TX/RX probably lost contact and a throttle failsafe was triggered. This is probably why you couldn’t control the copter and why it attempted an RTL (twice).

At the very end of the log it tries to LAND probably because the battery voltage drops below 10.5 for more than 10seconds.

@rmackay9 - Randy, thank you for looking at this. I watch all of your YouTube videos!

Ok - Tough lesson learned on positioning my APM as far as possible away from any other electrical items. My compass mot passed the test, but I’m sure I only tested at mid-throttle.

One other question to help me find my quad - at the end of the video, it seems the quad is moving 30mph. Is that an error due to a weak telemetry signal or actual value? (30mph drastically increases my search area)

One suggestion - Can you have someone add a link for descriptions or suggestions on the Arducopter website for the “Graph This” panel in mission planner? Just knowing to review mag_field vs. throttle should help newbies like me.