C-7Claus
Siebeneicher

FAULT ANALYSIS

A drone failure, traced across system boundaries

Published Updated

A personal field account from August 2012 near Crupet.

An unexpected failure

In August 2012 I was flying a folding multirotor with a modified Canon camera near Crupet. Control was lost and the aircraft had to be recovered. A telemetry signal and warning beeper helped locate it. The experience became a practical investigation of the whole system.

Aerial photograph of a road through a wooded valley.
Automatic photograph during the descent, reproduced from my account published on 9 August 2012.
A person holding the recovered multirotor beside a road.
Recovery photograph from the original August 2012 account. My account places the landing in the grass beside the road; this photograph shows the aircraft after recovery.

The misleading symptom

My published account describes failed vibration dampers and a sensor module left hanging freely. Barometric altitude holding and lateral control did not behave in the same way. Looking only at the flight-control software would have missed a mechanical problem with consequences for the sensor inputs.

The multirotor photographed indoors after the incident, with a displaced arm.
Post-incident photograph from my August 2012 account, which describes a broken boom.
Map screenshot showing a red flight track across fields and woodland.
Flight-track screenshot from my August 2012 account, showing the recorded route.

Why I keep the story

It is a useful reminder to examine interfaces between mechanics, sensors, software and the physical environment. A plausible explanation is a starting point, not the end of diagnosis.

Original account: UAS-Model recovered after loss of control and subsequent crash, published on 9 August 2012. It records the flight, recovery and my analysis of the failed mounts.

Root-cause analysis →

All articles →