Landing Gear Issues

heygeorge · Mar 18, 2017

I was out filming some antique race boats earlier today. We got some great shots and decided to bring the bird home with about 35% battery. I used the RTH button as the craft was about 1/2 mile out. I could see it, but couldn't see the lights so I really didn't know which way it was facing. As it hovered over us at 75 ft. the controller said landing gear down. When it got down to around 10ft, took over manual control again and the landing gear was definitely not down. I flick the switch - nothing. I flicked it a number of times - again nothing. Finally, the battery was getting to critical levels so I gently lowered the craft to where the camera was touching the launch pad and pulled both sticks down to shut off the motors. 2 blades hit the ground while they were still running, bit the camera didn't seem to be damaged.

Any idea why the landing gear wouldn't come down. It was set to "smart return to home", "Enable Vision Positioning" and Automatic landing gear".

I wasn't able to get it into travel mode either.

NickU · Mar 18, 2017

Inspire 1 or 2 ?

heygeorge · Mar 18, 2017

Inspire 1 V2

The Editor · Mar 18, 2017

heygeorge said:
I was out filming some antique race boats earlier today. We got some great shots and decided to bring the bird home with about 35% battery. I used the RTH button as the craft was about 1/2 mile out. I could see it, but couldn't see the lights so I really didn't know which way it was facing. As it hovered over us at 75 ft. the controller said landing gear down. When it got down to around 10ft, took over manual control again and the landing gear was definitely not down. I flick the switch - nothing. I flicked it a number of times - again nothing. Finally, the battery was getting to critical levels so I gently lowered the craft to where the camera was touching the launch pad and pulled both sticks down to shut off the motors. 2 blades hit the ground while they were still running, bit the camera didn't seem to be damaged.

Any idea why the landing gear wouldn't come down. It was set to "smart return to home", "Enable Vision Positioning" and Automatic landing gear".

I wasn't able to get it into travel mode either.

Turn it on its head (whilst powered down) and insert a flat bladed screw driver into the worm screw drive slot.
Give it a nudge (1/8 turn) and this should free the landing gear and cure the issue.
Common problem, been mentioned on here before (Do a search and you will find similar threads)

lake_flyer · Mar 19, 2017

Knowing how to land it in your hand is a pre in such a case. Not promoting to land that way in normal cases but it's a good emergency procedure to have some experience with. Also, after issuing a RTH it is safer to take over control as soon as it's getting near and before the 'landing gear lowering' message, and land it pilot controlled. It's unsafe to have the landing gear automatically going down before starting the descent, specially from great heights.

heygeorge · Mar 19, 2017

The Editor said:
Turn it on its head (whilst powered down) and insert a flat bladed screw driver into the worm screw drive slot.
Give it a nudge (1/8 turn) and this should free the landing gear and cure the issue.
Common problem, been mentioned on here before (Do a search and you will find similar threads)

I did a search on "landing gear" and came up with no results. what should I search for? Getting to that worm gear slot is a challenge. I have to remove the vibration dampener sand camera mount. Four screws (I believe). will there be any wiring issues with the camera mount?

heygeorge · Mar 19, 2017

lake_flyer said:
Knowing how to land it in your hand is a pre in such a case. Not promoting to land that way in normal cases but it's a good emergency procedure to have some experience with. Also, after issuing a RTH it is safer to take over control as soon as it's getting near and before the 'landing gear lowering' message, and land it pilot controlled. It's unsafe to have the landing gear automatically going down before starting the descent, specially from great heights.

I always land it pilot controlled. Landing in auto mode provides a much harder landing than I like to see. I can "grease it in" manually as opposed to the hard bounce of an auto landing. Why is it unsafe to have the landing gear lowered on decent?

lake_flyer · Mar 19, 2017

heygeorge said:
I always land it pilot controlled. Landing in auto mode provides a much harder landing than I like to see. I can "grease it in" manually as opposed to the hard bounce of an auto landing. Why is it unsafe to have the landing gear lowered on decent?

You should only lower it when you're about 2 meters off the ground. If you lower the gear at high altitude it has to come down all the way with the COG above the props. VRS is always a risk when doing that. Coming down with gear up the COG is below the props hence the craft is more stabile during the descent in its own prop wash. Coming down straight is not advisable unless there is a breeze that blows the prop wash away. In any case, make sure it has some airspeed while descending.

heygeorge · Mar 19, 2017

lake_flyer said:
You should only lower it when you're about 2 meters off the ground. If you lower the gear at high altitude it has to come down all the way with the COG above the props. VRS is always a risk when doing that. Coming down with gear up the COG is below the props hence the craft is more stabile during the descent in its own prop wash. Coming down straight is not advisable unless there is a breeze that blows the prop wash away. In any case, make sure it has some airspeed while descending.

Thanks for the info. Makes sense! Always learning something every day.

heygeorge · Mar 19, 2017

heygeorge said:
I did a search on "landing gear" and came up with no results. what should I search for? Getting to that worm gear slot is a challenge. I have to remove the vibration dampener sand camera mount. Four screws (I believe). will there be any wiring issues with the camera mount?

I did finally figure out how to get to that screw. Turned it about an 1/8. Landing gear is still stuck, but now I get a red and green alternating lights. No gimbal attached.

lake_flyer · Mar 19, 2017

heygeorge said:
I did finally figure out how to get to that screw. Turned it about an 1/8. Landing gear is still stuck, but now I get a red and green alternating lights. No gimbal attached.

You could have a Go app issue. Uninstall and reinstall might help. Lots of strange issues have been solved by simply doing that (when FW updates, IMU and sticks calibration, RC FW update etc did not help).

heygeorge · Mar 20, 2017

I would have thought that all the issues with the app would have been sorted out by now! But that solved the problem (at least for now). Thanks Lake_Flyer.

I have reinstalled the app on both tablets. But it it always necessary to reinstall the app on the Slave?

I guess my concern in the future would be that I'm not sure if reinstalling the app in the field is always a practical thing to do. One of the tablets I have is wifi only (normally used on the slave). And were not always in cell coverage for the other to work.

Even if we are in cell coverage I could only reinstall on on tablet. Would I have to revert to single pilot operation?

giumick · Mar 21, 2017

I had the landing gear issues after the software update too, Hand landing a x5r is not ideal. Our issue just went away after i did reinstalls but once again Dji never fails to disappoint software wise.

lake_flyer · Mar 22, 2017

heygeorge said:
I would have thought that all the issues with the app would have been sorted out by now! But that solved the problem (at least for now). Thanks Lake_Flyer.

Glad it helped.

One way to check the app (or firmware) right after an update (before taking it outside), is to run the simulator. If the simulator runs fine and all your settings are still correct, chances are that the app (and your bird) is working indeed properly. Most of the problems you would see in the field would show in simulator. Even the gear issues should be noticeable, be it virtually.

Just to explain, I'm a big endorser of flight simulators and using virtual machines in general. I even reinstalled MS Flight Simulator last weekend, for fun. FS helped me tremendously back in the 90's, to train navigation and wind correction while studying for PPL ground school.