So This Happened Yesterday ? ? ? ?

[Eddiebo]

Hello,

My Orange Pumpkin and I were doing some fun flying in the Rockies yesterday when this happened. I thought the propellers would only shut down when it was on (or very near) the ground when you held down the left stick. It's NEVER done this before on me. It survived the crash with no issues that I can tell.

My Crash

What do you guys think?

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Your link to your video does not work for me. You might have it set to private.

 

[Eddiebo]

Oops . . . Sorry. Meant to do "Unlisted". Should be good now.

THANKS!

 

[Jagerbomb52]

My guess is you are flying higher up with thin air. It looked like you might have got caught into a vortex ring state. It happens even with big helicopters. Doing a slower and a going around in a circle type of landing should help that if indeed that is what happened.

 

[Eddiebo]

My guess is you are flying higher up with thin air. It looked like you might have got caught into a vortex ring state. It happens even with big helicopters. Doing a slower and a going around in a circle type of landing should help that if indeed that is what happened.

Wow! That is crazy interesting. . . THANKS!

 

[Goober]

Holding the Descent stick full down for more than 2 seconds is one option for motor shutdown. I use this when hand catching. Never had a problem, even during rapid descents during approaching storms. But can't recall if I had stick "buried down" or not.

Other option is both sticks down (toe-in) for two seconds. This option is warned that it WILL shutdown motors, even in flight.

Hope the damage wasn't too bad.

 

[KentA]

I just returned from Colorado & the X-Star didn't seem to like the higher elevations. It struggled to rise & maintain altitude.

I assumed the thin air just didn't give enough purchase, but was unaware of a vortex ring. Is that effect magnified by thin air?

 

[Goober]

Learning more every day...

Vortex Ring State

Thanks, Augustine!

Further searching and I found this.

Phantom VRS Crash

 

[HiloHawaiian]

I’m thinking A is right it’s probably vortex? I never got past 11,000’ up Mauna Loa in Hawaii, but the XSP flew perfectly w/o any issues going 400’ higher from there. Very low humidity too. You can get much higher in Colorado though!

 

[KentA]

Here is a failed flight of my X-Star from Colorado's Mount Evans at around 13,000' with full throttle.

Was it just thin air & low humidity or did a "vortex ring state" contribute to this behavior.

 

[HiloHawaiian]

Here is a failed flight of my X-Star from Colorado's Mount Evans at around 13,000' with full throttle.

Was it just thin air & low humidity or did a "vortex ring state" contribute to this behavior.

Hmmmm. No wind, you were pretty close to the ground—I don’t know what the MAX operational altitude of the XSP is, but if I didn’t know it was 13,000’, I’d say vortex. Maybe at 13K there just isn’t enough lift from the thinness of the atmosphere? How hot was it?

 

[KentA]

Because of the dryness of the air, I cannot guess the temperature. We were escaping mid nineties in Denver, but I'll guess it was in the seventies.

Flying lower on the mountain, it was just slower to rise although it did unexpectedly lose altitude once which was regained with time & throttle. Fortunately that was over a ravine or it would have crashed.

 

[Goober]

Here is a failed flight of my X-Star from Colorado's Mount Evans at around 13,000' with full throttle.

Was it just thin air & low humidity or did a "vortex ring state" contribute to this behavior.

I would have to go with air density (or lack of) on the slow/low take-off. Ground effect turbulence on the rest? Thought the VRS was set up during vertical descent into the turbulence.

But what do I know... Learning as I go - sharing what I know...

 

[rkyleh]

If you are going to fly at that altitude you need more pitch on your props. Not getting any lift was caused by air density.

 

[Eddiebo]

Because of the dryness of the air, I cannot guess the temperature. We were escaping mid nineties in Denver, but I'll guess it was in the seventies.

Flying lower on the mountain, it was just slower to rise although it did unexpectedly lose altitude once which was regained with time & throttle. Fortunately that was over a ravine or it would have crashed.

So when I was flying last Saturday it was VERY early and I had no issues at all pushing it up higher. Again, early, not hot yet and humidity wasn't bone dry. I know right before it came crashing down from about 200 feet I had pushed it up about a 1,000 feet from my starting elevation of 9,000. Worked like a champ.