Major landing trouble

[jpierre]

I conducted 5 flights with Skydio 2+ w/ controller on a windy day manual mode. I was getting some wind warnings but the drone was handing well.

The first 3 flights completed with beautiful Case Landings.

On the 4th flight the Skydio would not land either using the HOLD TO LAND icon in the app or the button on the controller. The HOLD TO LAND icon would show a red circle growing clockwise as the button was pressed but then the drone would just hover and do nothing to land. Repeated attempts to reposition the vehicle and execute landing were fruitless...case landing...ground landing...nothing. There was also no way to land the vehicle manually, it would only descend to a minimum of about 2 feet even if min height was disabled. We eventually had to just hover it at 2 feet until it ran out of batteries.

After replacing with a fresh battery and restarting the drone, the 5th flight had the same landing problems...it. would. not. land.

Has anyone seen this behavior? Is there a way to land the drone manually if the HOLD TO LAND button won't work?

 

[BlueHeeler]

I conducted 5 flights with Skydio 2+ w/ controller on a windy day manual mode. I was getting some wind warnings but the drone was handing well.

The first 3 flights completed with beautiful Case Landings.

On the 4th flight the Skydio would not land either using the HOLD TO LAND icon in the app or the button on the controller. The HOLD TO LAND icon would show a red circle growing clockwise as the button was pressed but then the drone would just hover and do nothing to land. Repeated attempts to reposition the vehicle and execute landing were fruitless...case landing...ground landing...nothing. There was also no way to land the vehicle manually, it would only descend to a minimum of about 2 feet even if min height was disabled. We eventually had to just hover it at 2 feet until it ran out of batteries.

After replacing with a fresh battery and restarting the drone, the 5th flight had the same landing problems...it. would. not. land.

Has anyone seen this behavior? Is there a way to land the drone manually if the HOLD TO LAND button won't work?

That is certainly something I have not encountered in all of my landings, seems like a communication issue at the moment when you give the command to land, or some major interference, IDK. I would contact Skydio and also send in the Flight Log when this issue occurred, they should be able to see it on their end.

Keep us Posted.

 

[kenmavic2zoom]

did you try hand landing?

 

[jpierre]

I'm in contact with Skydio support on this issue, and they are being responsive. From what I could tell we had good connectivity, since the drone would respond well to the controller inputs, and seemed to accept the landing input too...but it would not actually go into a landing mode. As for hand landing the instructions said not to attempt that if the yellow landing lights don't come on, since the vehicle will still be in obstacle avoidance mode. It was tempting to just try to grab it and power it down by hand but opted to prioritize safety of personnel over the safety of the vehicle.

 

[anthonydotcom]

I'm in contact with Skydio support on this issue, and they are being responsive. From what I could tell we had good connectivity, since the drone would respond well to the controller inputs, and seemed to accept the landing input too...but it would not actually go into a landing mode. As for hand landing the instructions said not to attempt that if the yellow landing lights don't come on, since the vehicle will still be in obstacle avoidance mode. It was tempting to just try to grab it and power it down by hand but opted to prioritize safety of personnel over the safety of the vehicle.

Smart move. I had a brain fart last weekend and forgot to tell the drone to land. Instead I attempted to grab the drone out of the air and ended up with a good sized cut on my wrist and a drone that landed head down onto some rocks. Thankfully the drone was safe, and the cut wasn't worse than it was.

 

[jpierre]

for future reference: I sent the logs to Skydio support and they recommend upgrading from software version 15.11.35 to version 19.0.54, which seems to have fixed the problem for now. (the drone was purchased from Skydio only a few weeks before the incident so not sure why it came with such outdated software in the first place)

 

[gsrider]

for future reference: I sent the logs to Skydio support and they recommend upgrading from software version 15.11.35 to version 19.0.54, which seems to have fixed the problem for now. (the drone was purchased from Skydio only a few weeks before the incident so not sure why it came with such outdated software in the first place)

I had to upgrade software right out of the box when I bought the S2+. I just assumeded the drone was built and put in inventory prior to the upgrade being finished, Having to upgrade/update software right out of the box is not unique to Skydio.

 

[kenmavic2zoom]

I had to upgrade software right out of the box when I bought the S2+. I just assumeded the drone was built and put in inventory prior to the upgrade being finished, Having to upgrade/update software right out of the box is not unique to Skydio.

the timing is not always the same. new software is probably not rolled into the factory process until long after it is approved and loaded onto the server for customers to update ota. this could be months or there could be quite a bit of inventory built up on previous version. this shouldn't be a problem given the beauty of the software update over the air. i just don't like it when you are forced to update or else you cannot fly; very frustrating when you first get a new drone out of the box and have to spend a lot of time updates drones and batteries.

 

[jpierre]

Well it happened again today. HOLD TO LAND buttons would not work. Had to run down the battery to crash land. Skydio needs to provide a manual override for landing....their autonomy-only approach is downright dangerous.

 

[gsrider]

Well it happened again today. HOLD TO LAND buttons would not work. Had to run down the battery to crash land. Skydio needs to provide a manual override for landing....their autonomy-only approach is downright dangerous.

Sorry to hear you are having issues. So far, I've not had a landing issue or problem with either the 2 or 2+. I use the controller on all my flights and the button has always worked, both to land and cancel landings. Also, I fly the S2/2+ a lot, both to scout out areas to photograph and take videos, often going through 4 batteries on a (motorcycle) ride, which is when I use it.

 

[ETdronehome]

I'm in contact with Skydio support on this issue, and they are being responsive. From what I could tell we had good connectivity, since the drone would respond well to the controller inputs, and seemed to accept the landing input too...but it would not actually go into a landing mode. As for hand landing the instructions said not to attempt that if the yellow landing lights don't come on, since the vehicle will still be in obstacle avoidance mode. It was tempting to just try to grab it and power it down by hand but opted to prioritize safety of personnel over the safety of the vehicle.

When you are attempting to land it is my understanding that the lights turn yellow at about 10ft above ground level indicating OA is OFF. Not sure how you could have reached up that far to grab it. . I couldn’t but then again I’m not very tall

If I understand correctly if you hold the elevation stick fully down (usually left stick) with the lights yellow (so OA is OFF) you can get the aircraft down to 2ft above the ground and then it won’t go any further???

What happens if you go elevation stick up at that point??

I can see the button on the controller going intermittently faulty as it’s mechanical but the “electronic” button in the app should still work. Puzzling!!!

 

[BlueHeeler]

jpierre,

I figured you have this issue resolved way back in June, sorry to hear you are still experiencing this, but I am trying to picture a Skydio "Crash Landing" in my head since I have on several flights run down my batteries to observe what they would do ( they just touched down normaly ). I actually did a few for my nephew yesterday, the S2+ landed flawlessly after the 2 minute warning had expired, even at different heights, collision avoidance had disengaged every time. I am starting to believe some units have annoying bugs that are difficult to remove.

I really do wish you the best of luck going forward.

 

[jpierre]

UPDATE: Skydio support replaced the 2+ that wouldn't land...no problems so far (the new one has Remote ID !?!).

NOTE: there is a way to emergency land using the controller by holding down HOME + LAND at the same time for 3 sec, which cuts power to the rotors.

 

[gsrider]

UPDATE: Skydio support replaced the 2+ that wouldn't land...no problems so far (the new one has Remote ID !?!).

NOTE: there is a way to emergency land using the controller by holding down HOME + LAND at the same time for 3 sec, which cuts power to the rotors.

Happy to read that support got you a replacement that seems to be working. May it continue to work for you.