300-400m from Home Point When....

[BourgeoisSJC]

Suddenly you lose all GPS and the drone switches to ATTI mode. The 20Km/hr winds are carrying your drone further and further away from your position. Then... your app/mobile crashes. You still have control over the drone with your remote but it soon may get out of range if you dont act quickly. What would you do????


A few weeks ago I started practicing flying without GPS and one of the difficulties I had was knowing which way the drone was facing. Think the front was facing me I pressed the controller Right stick forward. The drone shot to the left and further away from me. Recovery was easy because all I had to do was look at my app and knew what steps I needed to take to turn my drone and fly it back to my location. It then occurred to me that without the use of the app this would have been very hard especially if the drone was but a small dot in the distance.

I fly a P3S and if I ever encounter the above scenario especially near the end of its maximum range I would hope I take the correct action(s). Your experience/input would be appreciated.

 

[Mark The Droner]

This is one reason I believe learning to fly without the app the first week is beneficial.

It's a dot in the sky and you don't know where it's aiming. Move forward with the right stick. If it goes to the left, move the left stick to the left a bit. If it goes to the right, move the left stick to the right a bit.

Repeat. Keep doing it until it's coming towards home.

There's a youtube on this somewhere...

 

[GMack]

Seems to be a lot of this lately losing satellites.

Something is askew somewhere. I can drive the car with its GPS on and its map through a tunnel and it will buffer the signal for a bit and still work right, but the drone loses it for an instant and it goes bonkers with ATTI. Litchi guys have random hesitations too. Mine in GO and Flight Review shows a drop from 18 satellites down to 4, and then jumps back up to 18 an instant later. Very odd behavior and I suspect programming errors as dropping that many sats. suddenly seems too coincidental, and if it dropped to zero I say the GPS was faulty or a loose wire, but 4 and back up to 18 is puzzling.

 

[Drone Boss]

There has been high magnetic solar storms recently. Maybe that has something to do with it?


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[alokbhargava]

This is one reason I believe learning to fly without the app the first week is beneficial.

It's a dot in the sky and you don't know where it's aiming. Move forward with the right stick. If it goes to the left, move the left stick to the left a bit. If it goes to the right, move the left stick to the right a bit.

Repeat. Keep doing it until it's coming towards home.

There's a youtube on this somewhere...

Right, these were the steps we used to follow during our golden RC days. To maintain our aircraft flying, it was needed to maintain a forward speed else it would stall and drop like a stone.

With drone age, we need not keep it moving forward as it has capabilities of hovering and that gives us time to think. That's why the golden rule today is to leave all the sticks to center, let it hover first. Think calmly and then decide the next actions. This is all true when you have GPS control active.

If you see a dot and don't know what to do next to get it back, RTH is your best friend at that time, off course again with gps control active.

The real problem starts when it loses gps and switches to Atti mode. If you are not comfortable with atti mode, first it to lower the aircraft to a safe altitude to reduce wind pressure and then if still not able to control, look for a safe location and land it. It's not easy to do it as you don't want to lose your drone neither hurt someone.


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[BourgeoisSJC]

It's a dot in the sky and you don't know where it's aiming. Move forward with the right stick. If it goes to the left, move the left stick to the left a bit. If it goes to the right, move the left stick to the right a bit.

What an easy and simple rule to remember...

Since practicing ATTI mode I often make big mistakes. I will fly it away from me then with the left stick spin the drone so I no longer know which way it is pointing. I then (given I have lots of time) decide my next move. It is often the wrong one.

Adding to the above rule.
If I move forward with the right stick and cannot tell (immediately) if its moving away or getting closer, move the right stick to the right. If the drone moves right, move backwards with the right stick. If it moves left, move forward with the right stick. Correct???

 

[BourgeoisSJC]

Seems to be a lot of this lately losing satellites.

Something is askew somewhere. I can drive the car with its GPS on and its map through a tunnel and it will buffer the signal for a bit and still work right, but the drone loses it for an instant and it goes bonkers with ATTI. Litchi guys have random hesitations too. Mine in GO and Flight Review shows a drop from 18 satellites down to 4, and then jumps back up to 18 an instant later. Very odd behavior and I suspect programming errors as dropping that many sats. suddenly seems too coincidental, and if it dropped to zero I say the GPS was faulty or a loose wire, but 4 and back up to 18 is puzzling.

I mostly use Litchi and cant say I lose GPS often if ever. That said, sure want to be ready when or if I do

 

[m0j0]

I always use this method to bring my Phantom or MP back to me.

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[Mark The Droner]

Yes - I believe that's the vid I was referring to... I remember the desert

 

[dangerd]

Maybe this, there were a couple of advisory notices recently:
https://www.faasafety.gov/files/notices/2016/Dec/NTTR_16-12_GPS_Flight_Advisory.pdf

To get notices sign up at Safer Skies Through Education - FAA - FAASTeam - FAASafety.gov

Sometimes helpful.

Seems to be a lot of this lately losing satellites.

Something is askew somewhere. I can drive the car with its GPS on and its map through a tunnel and it will buffer the signal for a bit and still work right, but the drone loses it for an instant and it goes bonkers with ATTI. Litchi guys have random hesitations too. Mine in GO and Flight Review shows a drop from 18 satellites down to 4, and then jumps back up to 18 an instant later. Very odd behavior and I suspect programming errors as dropping that many sats. suddenly seems too coincidental, and if it dropped to zero I say the GPS was faulty or a loose wire, but 4 and back up to 18 is puzzling.

 

[Blooddemon6]

I just lost my drone today due to wind and went behind a ridge full of trees and lost signal when I checked flight record it said entered manual mode and I searched forever and no drone

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[Neon Euc]

I just lost my drone today due to wind and went behind a ridge full of trees and lost signal when I checked flight record it said entered manual mode and I searched forever and no drone

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So sorry to hear that. Can you give more details or start a new thread so we can all jump in. One guy got reunited with he's lost drone a few hours ago so I'm sure we can help you

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[Blooddemon6]

Started a new thread 12 minutes ago lol and with the rain coming in tonight and it's 10:12 pm where I am not much chance tonight lol

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