The Charity
Aviation
Maritime
Our fleet of a certain type of fixed-wing drone does not have consistent battery bay measurements.Ā This led to me incorrectly fitting the battery to the aircraft, which finally resulted in the battery being dropped from the airframe and a consequent hard landing breaking two rear v-tail elevators.
CHIRP questions and reporter’s answers:
Answer: Yes, there is slightly more padding in some of our aircraft. The batteries are the same size. The interesting issue is that I was following my own experience of engineering and effectively laying āflatā the battery, which was the orientation most appropriate for the airframe in front of me. However, the battery was setup for fitting to the āuprightā orientation.Ā I was unaware we had two formats of battery bay spacing.
Answer:Ā The battery is secured (normally) by two separate attachments. One Velcro strap and Velcro underneath the battery so it cannot slip backwards. In this case the Velcro on the floor of the airframe battery bay was not able to attach to the Velcro on the battery because it had been rotated to the side.
Answer:Ā Landing and go-around. We donāt fly inverted.
Answer:Ā There are no other issues at present, and build standards are being addressed internally.
Answer:Ā Yes.
Lessons learned:
As an organisation we need to improve the consistency of the build-standard of the same type of aircraft.Ā This will enable our RPICs to have confidence in the required on site assembly across that fleet and ensure safer operating of the flight.
There are a few points worth emphasising from this report:
Ultimately it is the pilotās responsibility to ensure the battery in the aircraft that is about to fly is secured in the correct way so, if thereās any doubt, then thereās no doubt, ask someone to clarify anything that youāre unsure of before you operate your equipment.