Emergency shut down in flight

[Capt Guitardoe]

Is there's some kind of emergency shutdown or stop

 

[UasDriver]

down stick or RTH is all I know. my trainer would kill motors in flight, I don't believe the EVO will though, but haven't tried

 

[mdelrossi]

There’s a pause button on the remote.

what do you mean by”emergency”?

 

[Capt Guitardoe]

There’s a pause button on the remote.

what do you mean by”emergency”?

emergency would be a situation where you're aware that the drone could be potentially Hazard to people below and or property. Emergency shutdown option available needs to be available.

 

[Capt Guitardoe]

emergency would be a situation where you're aware that the drone could be potentially Hazard to people below and or property. Emergency shutdown option available needs to be available.

The pause button on the remote only stops or pauses a current action that's happening for example you're doing an orbit and you pause it or your landing and you pause it will not emergency stop the props or shut down the drone

 

[herein2021]

emergency would be a situation where you're aware that the drone could be potentially Hazard to people below and or property. Emergency shutdown option available needs to be available.

I'm not sure I understand what you are asking....you are saying you want a button that will immediately make the drone fall from the sky when pressed because there are people or property below the drone that could be damaged? I have never in all of my years of flying wished I had such a feature.

 

[Capt Guitardoe]

I'm not sure I understand what you are asking....you are saying you want a button that will immediately make the drone fall from the sky when pressed because there are people or property below the drone that could be damaged? I have never in all of my years of flying wished I had such a feature.

Yes it sounds strange but it's a safety measure that the FAA requires the drone to have as a protection with a parachute system you need to be able to stop the props from cutting or hurting someone as it's falling or being able to deploy your parachute system in order to do this you would have to stop the motors does that make sense.

 

[herein2021]

Yes it sounds strange but it's a safety measure that the FAA requires the drone to have as a protection with a parachute system you need to be able to stop the props from cutting or hurting someone as it's falling or being able to deploy your parachute system in order to do this you would have to stop the motors does that make sense.

Can you provide a link to that requirement? Are you trying to get a waiver to fly over people? The closest thing to an emergency stop for the props is bringing both control sticks down and towards each other...this will kill the props at least on the ground; I've never tried that in the air.

 

[Eagle928]

FAA Issues Waiver to Fly Drones With Parachutes

www.faa.gov

Drone Parachutes: Are They Necessary When Flying Over People? - Pilot Institute

A drone crash is pretty much a nightmare for any drone pilot. The potential consequences of one are two-fold – not only can it result in damage to the drone, but it can also damage or hurt property or people on the ground. For this reason, the restriction against flying drones over crowds is one

pilotinstitute.com

eCFR :: 14 CFR Part 107 -- Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems

www.ecfr.gov

The last link above is a glossary of the FAA Drone Zone site. A search for the word "parachute" turned up nothing.

I'm thinking this is a possibility in the future even though the FAA has given some waivers in certain circumstances to fly over people with the use of parachutes (the second link shows some being tested) but we are not there yet for the mainstream.

The owner of the Pilot Institute was on a streaming podcast last night saying this may be the most misunderstood FAA rule on the books. I would wait for clarity before flying over people; even with a parachute and the propellers have to have full caged prop guards. The parachutes have to be armed just before flight to work. It would be easy to overlook this during a quick pre-flight check. Then again checklists could help with that.

 

[Capt Guitardoe]

This is in or

Can you provide a link to that requirement? Are you trying to get a waiver to fly over people? The closest thing to an emergency stop for the props is bringing both control sticks down and towards each other...this will kill the props at least on the ground; I've never tried that in the air.

so it's in the new FAA regulations regarding the type of drone that you have categories 1 2 3 4 it's part of the FAA regulations you can find it in their book
der to fly over people or

 

[Eagle928]

This should add some clarity to this issue. Key points are the drone must be under 250 grams so that rules out any Evo drone and it won't go into effect for up to 2 years.

Proposed Drone Regulations Allow Waiverless Flying Over-People and Night Operations

The Department of Transportation made three major announcements that will be an advancement for the commercial drone industry: (1) proposed regulations to allow drone operators to fly over people as well as at night WITHOUT a waiver or an exemption, (2) an advanced notice of proposed rule making...

jrupprechtlaw.com

Proposed Regulations for Relaxing the Prohibition on Operations Over People and Night Operations.​

The commercial drone industry has been greatly hampered because Part 107 prohibits the flying over non-participating people and also prohibits operations at night. The only way around these prohibitions is to obtain a waiver or an exemption. Night waivers are attainable but over people waiver application denial rates are around 99%. Yikes.


Operations over people is significant because not only are those operations valuable within line of sight, they become extremely valuable when you want to fly beyond line of sight. Why? Generally, you can’t really figure out if you are flying over people when you are beyond line of sight because of just that – it’s beyond your line of sight – so you just must assume so.


Keep in mind that this is not just night and over people being changed. Part 107 is being “refreshed” to make things better. For example, the current 107 says you must show required documentation to FAA inspectors, but the proposed regulation is saying you have to present required documentation also to a National Transportation Safety Board representative; any federal, state, or local law enforcement officer; or a representative of the Transportation Security Administration.


The major highlights of the proposed regulations are:

• Requires you to present documentation to FAA, TSA, law enforcement, or NTSB when requested. But as I pointed out in the previous article, I don’t think law enforcement is currently adequately trained to handle to this capability.
• You can operate over non-participating people provided your operation meets the requirements of at least one of the operational categories. There will be three categories of aircraft which each have their corresponding benefits:
  • Category 1. 0.55 pound (250 grams) and under aircraft which can fly over people without any design standards, manufacturer does not have to prove anything to the FAA, and no operational restrictions other than just Part 107.
  • Category 2. No operational restriction aircraft. Weighs more than 0.55 pounds and:
    • Has been satisfactorily demonstrated to the FAA by the manufacturer they are below the Category 2 injury threshold,
    • No exposed rotating parts that could lacerate human skin, and
    • No FAA-identified safety defect.
  • Category 3. Operational Restricted Aircraft. Aircraft which:
    • Have been satisfactorily demonstrated to the FAA by the manufacturer they are below the Category 3 injury threshold,
    • No exposed rotating parts that could lacerate human skin, and
    • Because of its FAA identified safety defect, is required to have operational mitigations requiring the pilot to (1) not fly over any open-air assembly of people, (2) fly only over a closed or restricted access site with everyone on the site being notified, and (3) does not maintain sustained flight over the human being (only briefly transiting).
• Even though you can operate over people with category 2 and 3 aircraft, you cannot operate over people in a moving vehicle.
• The initial knowledge exam will cover operations at night.
• Instead of doing a recurrent knowledge exam at a testing center, you can do recurrent training online instead. Recurrent knowledge testing currently does not test on weather, aircraft loading, physiological effects of drugs & alcohol, etc. while recurrent training would test you on those topics.

So When Will This Go Into Effect?​

Don’t get too excited. These are proposed regulations. On average, you are looking at around 1.5 years until a notice of proposed rulemaking becomes a final regulation you can operate under. This is just an average of how long the rulemaking process takes. There are all these legal requirements the government has to comply with when creating regulations which bogs things down. Plus, the proposal said, the FAA does not plan on publishing the final rule for operations over people AND night operations until the remote identification rulemaking is finalized. The remote identification rulemaking has not been published yet. That’s still working its way through the system. Don’t confuse that with the advance notice of proposed rulemaking which was also announced.

 

[UasDriver]

I have never in all of my years of flying wished I had such a feature.

My Hubsan 501 started a TBE, zero control or response. That drone would stop motors in flight, did exactly that to avoid smashing into a house. one broke prop, cal's and she was back up the same day. I think it is a good idea as an "awe sheet gotta ditch" last resort option

 

[Eagle928]

As if things weren't confusing enough... Jason does try to clarify things though.

 

[autel-myst]

Its not a bad idea for getting down quickly either. On an older drone I had that was more acrobatic I could cut the motors drop to a reasonable height and then re-engage to drop altitude fast. Losing altitude on this one, like others, can be a slow process especially when confronted with a flock of geese or something like that.

Ideally there could be a setting to drop to a predetermined altitude and re-engage at that height automatically. Kind of the opposite of the RTH height setting in a way.

 

[gschulzuio]

Is there's some kind of emergency shutdown or stop

Good question, by default for an emergency stop (the motors) & drop to comply with waiver requirements, both sticks inward and down. Otherwise, pause and RTH if you have time to get out of, or away from whatever situation is.

 

[autel-myst]

With out controllers delay after hitting the take-off button we would have to be flying at a significant height to get back to flying before hitting the ground like I could do with my acrobatic drone. Still need some height for the drone to catch itself after re-engaging. Add that to the 2-3 seconds it takes for the controller to acknowledge takeoff that could be quite the minimum altitude needed for this maneuver right now. Even if they could make an adjustment that the controller engages take-off immediately at any altitude over maybe 10 meters that would be a plus.

 

[proton2]

In DJI world, you can kill motors in flight with CSC (down-inwards). Have not tried it with Autel.

 

[gschulzuio]

In DJI world, you can kill motors in flight with CSC (down-inwards). Have not tried it with Autel.

Yup, let us know what you find out with your autel test, hopefully it goes safe for you.

 

[kenautelevo2pro]

it's not the way I normally launch but while my drone is sitting on the ground, I have started spinning the prop and also have stopped spinning the prop using the sticks....all without taking off. easy to test with zero risk. not sure if this actually works when not at zero agl.

 

[Squerly]

Older thread, but it came up when I was searching for an emergency shutdown of my Evo Pro. I was flying around my house, lots of trees everywhere, so it was a very careful flight, in/out/around the trees, never more than about 30' off the ground.

I couldn't land (dogs were going to grab it) so I flew it up to where I could reach up and grab it. When I had hold of it, I pulled the left rudder full down, expecting it to turn the props off. That didn't happen. The drone went crazy and with full power on, it would have headed straight into the trees for a dreadful crash.

I tried everything to get it to stop, but nothing worked. I tried to pull the battery out but all I managed to do was to cut my fingers on the spinning props. Yes, I'm bleeding like a stuck pig.

I finally stuck it into some shrubs to get it to stop.

So yes, and emergency shutdown would have been very useful.