HELP!!!! So, my quad just came straight down, despite a charged battery and 100% thrust Can som...

[G+_Michael Heinz]

HELP!!!! So, my quad just came straight down, despite a charged battery and 100% thrust. Can someone help me understand what just happened? 

 

I've been getting two odd behaviors when I fly, which have been contributing to my flying problems - one is that the quad will occasionally yaw to the left without any input - and always to the left.

 

The other is an odd shimmy that happens when I'm trying to descend vertically. That happened this time - but it's the first time it's actually crashed...

[G+_Claude Gregoire]

Ouch! It does not look like you lost range like I did with mine. If you want to see some real pain scroll down and watch my crash. If I had to guess based of your description your quad may not be balanced and the flight controller is trying to compensate or your props are not balanced. The good news is that they talk about both of those things in the last couple of episodes on know how. Good luck solving the problem.?

[G+_Michael Heinz]

Well, I've had a number of good flights, so it's nothing too basic; the guys on reddit think I got caught in my own prop-wash and should have tipped forward or back to recover.

[G+_Jeff Brand]

Transmitter battery?

[G+_Michael Heinz]

Well, it responded when I went to full throttle - I could hear the engines change pitch.

 

According to the guys over on reddit, this is a well known issue called "vortex ring state" - they sent me a video to watch:

[G+_DeWayne Shorts]

I agree that vortex is your main issue. I might also adjust the PID. This link was written for MultiWii but is one of the best guides I have found to explain the relationship. Adjustment should eliminate the "out of control" part at the end of the video. 

 http://www.multiwii.com/wiki/index.php?title=PID