Blade 350 QX Certified Altitude Test Part 2 of 2 - Crash 

I don't think your prop size was the issue... I do high attitude all the time and I can tell you from experience that your mistake was using the "return home mode"... you should have dropped the throttle to idle in stability mode... and she would have dropped like a rock... the motors would have only used enough power to maintain the quad upright. I do max throttle for 4.5 minutes with stock props. Then idle to just before the ground, recover, set down and still have 10.7v left over. In return home mode the algorithms are designed to bring it back home SLOWLY... This would include decent... and it's not expecting to be at 1000+ feet. :D The only way I can figure that the bigger props would make a difference on decent is that if the software is setting the idle speed of the motors based on a model the smaller props and you are getting more lift than the software is expecting. But I don't think it would have slowed you that much... I am convinced this is a result of return home.

Good video, you convinced me to try the Graupner props. Try descending in Stablilty mode with throttle closed. It comes down much faster than RTH mode and with hands off will stay in the GPS Column.

Its situations like this that make me wonder about the wisdom of attaching a parachute that can be released via the transmitter if you have enough channels.

awesome!! that was some wicked altitude! ive had mine at around 500 to 600 feet, plenty high for me, lol. glad you got it back without more damage than that.

Nice of someone to put you in such a nice flying field.

Nice vid and we have learned some more without too much damage. Well done for the effort

why not fee fall for a a while to get down quick? ... thats how we do it when the battery is close to its end...FREE FALL and power up in the last few hundred feet....Props to you for the height...good job

wow that,s just amazing over 3000 feet risky and gutsy flying we all crash but the videos amazing and glad you did the test cheers

You doe doe head..lol. I did the exact same thing about a month ago, the only difference was that I let it come down at full speed for about 1:45-2:00 then hit return home. The only thing that did happen was a solder joint melted on the main board. I have the video, maybe I'll down load it this week. I'm glad you at least got it back.

Just FYI bro, when doing high ascents like this, never use RTH, it kills the battery really fast, just chop the throttle, and it will descend perfectly fine, then just throttle up when the drone comes into sight. ive done it many times! the RTH uses a lot of batteries. but thank you for verifying the max altitude for our blades, i wanted to do a test myself. how much was the altimiter? great vid and hope you recovered and got back up in the air

you fly CONTOUR? good stuff, me too and I love it - crashed today due frigging prop failure on my 350QX and totally destroyed my Contour+2 and the QX of course

One thing hobby pilots don't realize is that at 3000 ft you can have a wind speed difference of 30mph or more. The algorithms for the controller prioritize the GPS position hold to the descent so if you're experiencing high gusts the aircraft is throttling up to fight them and therefor cannot descend. Why didn't you take manual control to descend? At a lower altitude you probably would have encountered less wind and been able to come back even if a drift occurred during the descent.

The reason it went full power at the end for 10-12 sec. is because it went into failsafe return home mode because it lost signal from the Tx. That's what it does to put itself on trajectory for return home.

Great test and video, Congrats. Why didn't you bring it down in Stability mode rather than RTH ? You could have got down quicker or am I wrong?

3k feet up, great video. Thanks!

I was yelling S^&*( all the way down. Why the heck did you use 9x5? Holy smoke! The 5 inch pitch sent you up like a rocket and the 9 inch diameter taxed your motor and sucked the battery. It was a one way trip from the get-go. But hey. I'm glad you did your test in an open, safe field not like the morons doing high altitudes in their front yard. Thanks for doing the video. I would rather hear just motor the whole time rather than the music though the whole 12 minutes.

I can't be the only one who immediately thought of the Icarus parable, can I??

Nice video. Have you experimented with any other props? I wanna do that upgrade but am unsure what props to go with

ouch! What are your 2200mah regular flight times / no camera with the Graupner props? Does it have a lot more punch to it compared to stock?

All things considered you probably got off light. I am surprised the stock battery held out that long. Hope it wasn't to damaged.

Cool thing though, you could hear the beeping when going down, that's the it's "all f*uck%d up" tone.

Looked like a clean crash

Sonnenuntergang mit dem Blade 350 QX

on stock set up with FPV equipment on it I max out at 2230 feet. I would never fly out of sight with out FPV as RTH is too slow. You have to fly back the at least the same speed you left at. Surprised to see it did so well at a 200 foot drop.

oh man oversized props too? this drains battery like ...a lot

Hallo. Which Transmitter did you use? I have the Spektrum DX4 from the RTF Kit and I m not sure about this. Thanks

The return to home speed SUCKS. I am wondering if the little programming cord that comes with the quad might be able to speed the return feature up?

Was the battery fully charged when you started?

You should have taken it out of return to home when it was in sight and flew it home manually. would have saved on the battery

RTH.... Gets em every time it seems lol. Drop the quad yourself until its in sight if it was straight up.

I just learned this after the first 2 flights that rth is to slow and do not use. I learned now when its in site I just put it in agility mode, flip it completely upside down for a good couple seconds or just a second and flip it back on your own or flip to smart mode or rth mode and it will flip back on its own.. comes down quickly.. I seem to be the only one who man handels their 350 sometimes

Like GasserGlass said, free fall would work and in Stability Mode it would self correct when you punch the throttle. But how in the hell are you supposed to know your battery is going dead when you can barely see it let alone hear it at 500 feet? You should have pulled a Crazy Murdoch move like he did in the A-Team cut the engine to avoid the heat seekers and then restart before hitting the ground. Its OK tj, I crashed my QX first day I got it. On my 4th flight after 3 successful ones, it was taking a long time gaining GPS lock so I started it in Stability Mode and at about 20-25 feet up I, for some stupid ass reason, flipped it into Smart Mode. With no GPS reference for altitude, the motors spooled way down and my QX followed suit, busting the front passenger-side nacelle on the top half body section and the driver-side landing gear. The skid actually broke off the main spar, so structurally it still has integrity. Great video and awesome preparation! Way to go on the altitude achievement, you just put a Bullseye on your back. Everyone will be gunning for you now.

hey trade that in for the phanthom its a lot better and it always comes back to you also it lands it self when low power does that do that

when i fly this high i always use a spotter with binoculars. at high altitude is reached cut throttle until spotter sees the quad. power uo and float to the ground with plenty of battery left although something went wrong once with my spotter I think he was getting a beer) the quad fell into the neighbors yard an killed his cat. I am so sorry for his loss. I love cats but dogs better

YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN MINE FROM TWO HUNDRED OR MAY BE MORE ITS TOAST PROPS FAILED AN IT WAS COLD LIKE 5 BELOW WHEN I LIFTED OFF IN BLUE MODE ALSO HOPEU LOOKAT MY VIDEO ALSO

Blue mode and cut throttle next time

I wish someone would put a A-meter on a stock 350 and fly it straight uptill the battery died

100% operator error

Whats with the 2 dislikes!!!!! Damn it ppl :(

Nice video. Have you experimented with any other props? I wanna do that upgrade but am unsure what props to go with

Sonnenuntergang mit dem Blade 350 QX II