Skywalker Maiden FPV Crash

Radio range failure leads to crash.

A few weeks back I took my recently completed Skywalker FPV plane out for its maiden flight with all of the video equipment on board. I had previously tested the plane without the video gear, which was a great success. This one ended a little worse, but I've learned some things along the way and maybe some of my lessons can help you too.

It was a hot afternoon around 6pm with about a 5mph breeze, pretty decent conditions for flying the Skywalker. A lot of time and effort was put into getting to this point and I was quite excited and nervous. I had a few friends with me to help set up equipment, record the flight and I had a spotter to help keep an eye on the plane. We setup the ground station and tested the systems, and I plugged in the laptop which recorded the live stream from the FPV camera on board the plane. All systems were working well, so I attached the wing to the plane, securing the rubber bands to the fuselage. I gave the video and the radio controls a quick test and then had my friend Arend give the plane a launching throw. I had about 1/2 throttle at launch, and the plane smoothly glided away. I was flying line-of-sight since this was the first flight with all the equipment, and I wanted to trim out the plane before I attempted to fly with the video goggles.

The plane was flying great and climbing steadily! About 30 seconds into the flight I noticed my FrSky module started to beep, indicating that the RSSI was weak and the radio was close to being out of range. This was a bit of a surpise to me since I was only about 800 feet out, and my previous test flight was much further with no issues. I started to bank the plane back towards me, but the controls started to cut in and out. The plane slowly drifted to the right and a bit further out of range. At this point I'm not sure if I ever regained radio control, but the plane held in slight right turn and started to lose altitude quickly. This turned into a nose dive, ending it a quick crash into the adjacent cow pasture about 700 feet away. As expected my heart sank a little, and I was in a bit of shock. I began the slow, long walk of shame to recover the parts.

Luckily the plane landed in a pasture not far away, and easily accessible. The cows were all interested in the plane, so we had to chase them off to get to the wreckage. The plane ended up landing about 1 foot away from a cow patty, which could have added insult to injury... A quick look at the result and I actually felt a bit lucky. The wing itself was almost fully intact other than a chunk taken out by the prop on impact. The tail had snapped clean in 1/2 and the nose of the plane was cracked and bent, as well as the canopy being cracked in half. The Vado HD video recorder I had on board cracked its LCD screen and corrupted the video file it was recording at the time unfortunately, but the camera still works! We picked up all the pieces and packed up and went home. I've since tested all the electronics and to my delight they all are in working order. I've started on the repair process and it looks like the plane should fly again. I did have to replace the motor since the impact seemed to have knocked it a bit out of balance, but not a huge loss. ($15)

So what caused the crash?

Well I don't think I'll know for sure, since I don't have all the experience yet, but I'd venture a guess that by adding the video equipment it swamped the radio signal more than I was expecting. Using 2.4ghz isn't often suggested in FPV for that very reason, but I had read of success with the FrSky system to at least 1-2Km. So I figured I'd start with short range flights and work my way up. In hind sight, going for the UHF long range radio systems may have been a safer and more reliable bet. Also, those of you using the FrSky system, I'd spend a little time working out a good placement for the antenna. I had mine in the fuselage, which may have been too close to the other components. I've since ordered a UHF module that plugs right into my FlySky TH9x remote. The Rmilec UHF long range system from Foxtech. I also picked up a 600mhz low pass filter that should keep the UHF from interfering with the video signal.