Have a Matrice 210 (or had) fitted with a Slantrange 3PX multispectral sensor for NIR agricultural work but flight planning software integrated with the sensor is pretty limited. I flew a few missions with DroneDeploy but experienced real connection issues between the RC and M210 where the aircraft couldn't be recognised and shut down/restarts/reboots etc consumed hours in the field. Beyond the Cube's flight planning for DJI is recommended by Slantrange so thought I'd give that a run. I am the chief pilot for South West Catchments Council and have many hours under my belt but a crash like this is very upsetting to say the least and I don’t take it lightly. Perfect flying conditions sunny gentle breeze from SSE and a vacant grassed park without people. Prepared the aircraft ran through pre-flight checks and did a manual flight for a couple of minutes to verify GPS lock/hover and that everything was performing as it should. It is a pain that the Crystal Sky has to be disconnected when plugging in a tablet (iPad) as some of the monitoring info is not available on Cube’s flight plan. DJI really must get their act together in this commercial space, we are spending $10,000s for products now, not just a few hundred bucks. Basics for Cube such as Sat numbers, craft battery, distance, alt, speed are all there but it isn’t DJI. The intention was to fly a few transects (total of 288 m or 950ft) at 10m (30ft) above the Park elevation within a square boundary and observe the turns at the end of each transect and generally test the software. All set to go, and hit the launch button Alt 10 (m) Speed 10 (m/s) 10% side lap and 10% front. The craft launches and quickly passes the 10m mark so I apply stick to bring back down with no response. The machine is shooting vertically now at 30m and I toggle the flight mode switch, but this doesn’t halt the ascent. I pull the USB connection between the iPad and RC believing I will resume control, stick hard down to stop vertical. No response. I watch as 210 rises further, must be at 100m+ and still disappearing. Finally, I see with stick hard back a response and it grows slowly larger as it descends. Some calm is restored in my troubled mind as I plan for a landing, but at an estimated 30m I see a stutter in the rotors, and the craft inverts and within 3 seconds plummets to the ground, exploding into fragments. So, the question in my mind relates to the Cube software (easily avoidable and will not go there again) or was the final descent attributable to TB50 battery failure? I have looked over the logs and battery voltage appear constant to the point of impact. However, I’m no expert in trying to interpret the DJI dat. files and now have to lodge a claim with my insurer to get back in the air. Will keep you updated but look forward to comment. Cheers Steve
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