Skydio Flipped/Fell off case on landing .. yikes!

uidzero · Sep 27, 2020

Hello all.. I'm looking for some input and perspective.

I went to land my Skydio 2 after a flight and while it saw its case during landing (indicated by the yellow ring around the case) it skewed to one side of the case while it landed, causing it to fall off the case as it was powering down and flip over. One of the props popped off the rotor as a result.. other than the drone getting some exterior dirt on it and surface dampness it seemed fine - the grass where I landed was still a bit wet from rains the night before. After cleaning it up it seemed to work fine again. I was able to put it up in the air and fly it again..

When I went to fly it again and land.. just to see if the landing system was working OK I tried it again.. and.. you guessed it.. fell off the case.

No strong winds.. I was surrounded by trees.. not even a gentle breeze when this happened.

She's back home and cleaned up and everything seems fine.. I flew it again just a few minutes ago and while she didn't - at first - want to land squarely on it's case I cancelled landing.. nudged it into position and completed handing and it otherwise seemed to work fine.. The only other issue was that I got a message when the Skydio was initializing that said "Fault: V30 Sensor Error".

So.. my question is - what did I do wrong? I'm not one to fault the drone.. this could easily be pilot error and I'm still learning Skydio's systems. I'm just glad it was only the height of the case off the ground when this happened.. could have been worse...

Lifeisfun · Sep 28, 2020

uidzero said:
Hello all.. I'm looking for some input and perspective.

I went to land my Skydio 2 after a flight and while it saw its case during landing (indicated by the yellow ring around the case) it skewed to one side of the case while it landed, causing it to fall off the case as it was powering down and flip over. One of the props popped off the rotor as a result.. other than the drone getting some exterior dirt on it and surface dampness it seemed fine - the grass where I landed was still a bit wet from rains the night before. After cleaning it up it seemed to work fine again. I was able to put it up in the air and fly it again..

When I went to fly it again and land.. just to see if the landing system was working OK I tried it again.. and.. you guessed it.. fell off the case.

No strong winds.. I was surrounded by trees.. not even a gentle breeze when this happened.

She's back home and cleaned up and everything seems fine.. I flew it again just a few minutes ago and while she didn't - at first - want to land squarely on it's case I cancelled landing.. nudged it into position and completed handing and it otherwise seemed to work fine.. The only other issue was that I got a message when the Skydio was initializing that said "Fault: V30 Sensor Error".

So.. my question is - what did I do wrong? I'm not one to fault the drone.. this could easily be pilot error and I'm still learning Skydio's systems. I'm just glad it was only the height of the case off the ground when this happened.. could have been worse...

Seen several reports about this happening.
Why don't you just hand launch and land the drone, it works great!
Don't forget the drone should face away from you for hand launch!
Read the instructions

OldBlueHeron · Sep 28, 2020

I’ve had that happen once. Since then I don’t do it anymore. It’s such an easy bird to hand catch.

skydioconvert · Sep 28, 2020

Although the automated landings are amazing they can never be perfect.

You're technique to manually fine tune exactly where the S2 finally lands is a good way to go if your not into hand catching.

At first hand catching seems risky but once you try it you'll quickly realize its the easiest way to land.

uidzero · Sep 28, 2020

Thanks all.. I'll try the hand catching technique.. after I go re-read how to do it..

Ridefreak · Sep 28, 2020

Hand launching and landing is incredibly easy. Despite that it's unnerving at first but once you do it a few times you'll find that's the easiest and fastest method. I just got this holder for the beacon that mounts to the handlebars so i cant remove the beacon quick enough to be a factor in hand landings. I was worried it was going to be an issue but I found that I just hit stop with the beacon, ride forward enough so I'm below the drone, then tell it to land, it descends quickly to about 7' then comes down slowly. It's easy to catch at that point.

SteveCJr · Sep 30, 2020

First case landing I did worked flawless, second one not so much.

You do have the option to nudge it while landing if it looks like it's off a bit.

uidzero · Sep 30, 2020

SteveCJr said:
You do have the option to nudge it while landing if it looks like it's off a bit.

Right and that's what I did the last time this started to happen, and thereby avoiding another flip..

LivinLarge · Sep 30, 2020

I wonder about landing one on the deck of a boat or kayak. Would slight drift or rocking motion stop it from landing or make it miss? I might consider attaching velcro to the bottom of the battery and to the landing pad/case so that once she has touched down she would not slide...

UNIXman · Oct 3, 2020

uidzero said:
Hello all.. I'm looking for some input and perspective.

I went to land my Skydio 2 after a flight and while it saw its case during landing (indicated by the yellow ring around the case) it skewed to one side of the case while it landed, causing it to fall off the case as it was powering down and flip over. One of the props popped off the rotor as a result.. other than the drone getting some exterior dirt on it and surface dampness it seemed fine - the grass where I landed was still a bit wet from rains the night before. After cleaning it up it seemed to work fine again. I was able to put it up in the air and fly it again..

When I went to fly it again and land.. just to see if the landing system was working OK I tried it again.. and.. you guessed it.. fell off the case.

No strong winds.. I was surrounded by trees.. not even a gentle breeze when this happened.

She's back home and cleaned up and everything seems fine.. I flew it again just a few minutes ago and while she didn't - at first - want to land squarely on it's case I cancelled landing.. nudged it into position and completed handing and it otherwise seemed to work fine.. The only other issue was that I got a message when the Skydio was initializing that said "Fault: V30 Sensor Error".

So.. my question is - what did I do wrong? I'm not one to fault the drone.. this could easily be pilot error and I'm still learning Skydio's systems. I'm just glad it was only the height of the case off the ground when this happened.. could have been worse...

I cover this on my Vimeo site. You may like some of my other videos there too. This is my coverage of this problem:

Lifeisfun · Oct 3, 2020

LivinLarge said:
I wonder about landing one on the deck of a boat or kayak. Would slight drift or rocking motion stop it from landing or make it miss? I might consider attaching velcro to the bottom of the battery and to the landing pad/case so that once she has touched down she would not slide...

Don't do it, any drift and your chance of failure is even greater. Hand landing is the way to go.

skydioconvert · Oct 3, 2020

UNIXman said:
I cover this on my Vimeo site. You may like some of my other videos there too. This is my coverage of this problem:

I think you're Idea of larger landing pad with Skydio logo on it is a good one.

The "ground effect", however, caused by the nearness of your truck cab could occasionally introduce unwanted turbulence and push the S2 off the mark.

I'm going to instead do something similar and just lay an enlarged Skydio landing pad on a large collapsible landing pad I already use for my Mavic. That would also allow me to land in remote spots far away from where the truck could be parked.

scrampker · Oct 27, 2020

Everyone says how easy it is to hand-catch, but it's still 100x harder than just having it land on the pad as-designed. I've had great success landing on my soft case, with only a few times it was maybe 2-3 inches off-center.

I with they would let you put the drone in "hand-catch mode," so it would disable some of the features and let you drop it down and catch it... instead of forcing you into a "crash into the ground/water/etc" mode. I'm glad they finally added nudge mode though, even though I believe it only works on app/controller and not Beacon.

LivinLarge · Oct 27, 2020

I find the hand catching easy but there are some situations where I could not be certain of being able to reach it. I am experimenting with a larger landing pad with good success.

Hyena1 · Oct 27, 2020

nice work UnixMan - Would be great if somebody would print/sell some magnetic logos-pads at the correct size to throw on the car roof/hood/trunk.

LivinLarge · Oct 28, 2020

Hyena1 said:
nice work UnixMan - Would be great if somebody would print/sell some magnetic logos-pads at the correct size to throw on the car roof/hood/trunk.

I designed one the size of the Skydio case and ordered 2 of them for $11.64 including shipping.

skydioconvert · Oct 28, 2020

LivinLarge said:
I designed one the size of the Skydio case and ordered 2 of them for $11.64 including shipping.

I might do something similar.... can you share the address of the ordering site?

LivinLarge · Oct 28, 2020

skydioconvert said:
I might do something similar.... can you share the address of the ordering site?

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skydioconvert · Oct 28, 2020

LivinLarge said:
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