A question for the long distance FPV fliers

Joined
Jun 19, 2014
Messages
773
Reaction score
122
Suppose you are 1 and 1/2 miles out and at 400ft altitude and you lose video. What do you do? I suppose if you lose TX signal failsafe is your only option. Gosh that would be a long wait. On the video loss side would IOC Home Lock be a viable option? Thanks in advance.

J.
 
So you are out there a mile and a half and you lose video... don't panic... level out and stop flying... maintain proper antenna orientation and keep it steady... 9 times out of 10 you will get video back.. use those moments to get your bearings and start heading home... now... heading home is the weakest orientation for the onboard antennas so you are likely to lose video again ... keep on the stick and keep it moving forward and you will see video come back and all will be OK.

Let's back up a bit... you lost video at a mile and a half... you leveled out and stopped flying... but video never regained... initiate failsafe and let it start coming home... maintain proper ground control aim with antennas pointed toward the Phantom... you will see video again as the Phantom gets a bit closer and have the choice of taking over control while you are still over a mile away...

I've never been in a situation where I had to stand and wait for the entire return to home process to play out... usually video loss is brief as you get it back within range of where you just had video a minute ago.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mario_SB
Thank you sir. Is video loss like TX signal loss in that you get it back once in range? Sorry for what seem like simple questions but I'm going to start going farther out and want to be prepared. Right now I've been about 1700ft high and 1200ft out.

Regards,
J.
 
I might choose based on best antenna pattern. H lock keeps rear of bird towards me and failsafe turns it around. So depends on setup.
 
Done this many times. If you still have control you can certainly use home lock. I've generally just used RTH and the video comes back online fairly quickly and then I can resume piloting. If I'm out that far I'm careful with battery level any way. I've had a couple mad dashes on ATI mode to get back before battery runs out though :)

I now run with a 900 Mhz datalink and Flytrex live so I generally always know where it is. Been out a few miles on GS missions.
 
If you lose FPV, I bet you also lose telemetry data with "Phantom connection broken" message.

I would AVOID using IOC Home Lock when dropping FPV. I had experienced multiple times HL failed when doing 2km+ range testing with P2V (non-Plus) back to late 2013. The problem/risk of HL at 2km+ is when you switch S2 to HL, sometime the 5.8G receiver could not receive such HL command and stay as IOC off but you thought it's HL. When FPV dropped at distance and you don't know aircraft orientation, pulling back with faked HL (in fact IOC off) may fly your aircraft somewhere further.

I always use/initial RTH (8-10 seconds later) to ensure aircraft heading back, then I can switch S1 to GPS mode and fly full speed forward heading back home until regaining FPV. I would also check last known battery level. If battery is running low, I would fly in ATTI mode for faster speed, but this is more risky without FPV.
 

Recent Posts

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,357
Members
104,935
Latest member
Pauos31