R/C Jet Crash GoPro RF probable cause

1st Day at Jet Action Monarto (AMA) Adelaide South Australia May 2011.
It went off the air for some unknown reason. Batteries, fuel, etc all checked and good! The only thing different to this flight to the last few that day was I added the GoPro to the inner wing. RF?? But after some analysis on the Transmitter (Futuba 14mz) and the ECU it was clear that the plane went into failsafe as it had lost connection. Some Google searching also confirmed that thgere have been reports of RF interference with GoPro's so we are pretty convinced that's what is was. In addidtion to this you will note the plane goes into fail safe just after achieving level flight where the GoPro was right in the line of sight of my transmitter and the receiver. Check out http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1422899 re RF problems. The GoPro's however are pretty tough - not a scratch after a 200km/h++ crash. Its a pitty because they take such great video.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• engine
• Roo
• GoPro
• stunt
• crash
• R/C
• Jet
• turbine

[scottyfun12]

Thanks for your comments. No matter what people like to say or think, there are definitely circumstances where RF interference does seem to occur. I love to go pro, and I think they're fantastic, it's just that in this particular circumstance and others that I hear about there seems to be some issues.

[LieutenantLoughead]

Interesting video, but I dont think you can blame the GoProHD camera. I've got one on my Aerial Video RC aircraft, and have no issues.

[scottyfun12]

@LieutenantLoughead you guys may be right. its an unknown. id be interested to see where exactly to have plced you gopro on the plane in relation to the receiver. also what sort of receiver and radio you use?

[scottyfun12]

I didn't say I'll never strap a video camera on board, as I have been using others before with no problems. If you read the start of the video it says what radio I was using, a Futaba MZ14 and yes 2.4G. And yes dual batteries and all read good after crash. There is no way I can say for 100% sure that it was the GoPro, but everything is suggesting it was that on the day? Problem is I’ll never know for sure. But & I do love the Go Pro. I just won't put one on my expensive planes again.

[xjet]

Something doesn't sound quite right.

Did you not have the failsafe set on your RC system because the turbine didn't sound like it shut down prior to the crash. Also, if you didn't have the failsafe set -- how did the ECU know that it had encountered a failsafe because it would have gone "last position hold".

You might want to check that something didn't suck the receiver battery down and cause a brownout of the receiver.

[scottyfun12]

@xjet Failsafe definitely set & confirmed by Peter from INTAICO. The ECU post diagnostics showed the engine was winding down before it hit. Plane rolls over and then locks into position all the way the ground. All indicating that it had gone into failsafe. Engine is actually OK! My ECU was set to go to idle if it loses signal. 2 x Duralite LiIo batteries all good after flight. The only possible thing we can think of is the GoPro RF. I’ll just use my GoPro for dirt bikes etc not planes.

[jessebunich]

I have a unicorn wing and put my gopro on it about 20 times. I'm certain that there is rf interference - of the 20 times, the go pro has frozen about 15 times, gotten partial video 3 times and i've only gotten 2 full videos (see videos under username jessebunich). I use the gopro for other stuff all the time and it never freezes. Therefore, i know some interference is going on even though its never crashed my plane or messed with the controls, but i could see how it would. Very sorry to see tha

[foerester]

I had a issue with landing gear that kept cycling it drained my battery it went so far as to flip flaps on but itself, fortunately I recovered barely I didn't apply full throttle aft the flaps cycled up the second time and I was using Spektrum technology I feel for you man beautiful Machine from what I seen

[LieutenantLoughead]

I've used my GoPro on two different aircraft -- the camera is always in the nose of the airplane (no airplane parts visible in the video frame). The Spektrum receiver is always aft of the CG. I use a Spektrum DX7 and a Spektrum AR7000 receiver.