UAV - Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle
Flight Crew Commercial
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 1; Flight Crew Total 2200; Flight Crew Type 4
Situational Awareness; Confusion; Troubleshooting; Workload
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Aircraft
Operating a MINDS-i multicopter below treetop at a sports park. Winds were reported NNE at 3 kts; but seemed just a little stronger than that - perhaps just over 5 kts. All calibrations had been completed just an hour before; but roll/pitch quickly proved to be faulty. They would move in one direction; but not the other (trims were centered). UAV continued to track further away and up to probably 50 feet in altitude. I put it in auto mode; to return to launch site; but it only seemed to loiter (fixed position). Perhaps this was a function of it not being able to roll or pitch in the direction needed to return. When I took it out of auto mode; it continued to track further away. It soon became evident that I would not be able to bring it back; so I tried to bring it down gradually in altitude as it disappeared beyond trees.I ran to the neighborhood in the direction the UAV was tracking. I spoke to eye-witnesses who said the UAV came overhead and was working its way down and tracking roughly down the street. Their prediction was that it landed in bushes/trees down the street. I scoured the streets and driveways and looked through some bushes and trees. One of the eye-witnesses helped me look where he thought it was headed. We could not find it; but there are a lot of bushes and trees in the yards around there. No other people were out and about. I knocked at a couple of doors; but no one had heard or seen anything.I returned home and called the local police to report the event and then thought to log on and report it as a safety event. I haven't seen a runaway UAV before. It's sobering to feel a loss of control in the situation.
A UAS pilot lost control of his MINDS-i multicopter after it failed to respond to any control inputs and disappeared into a neighborhood.