Am I a good pilot or was this an accident?

[mediaguru]

I'm getting the hang of flying my new Phantom. Up to 3 batteries now and waiting for image stabilization mounts...

SO I'm practicing my flying on my street today. TWICE I somehow got the unit to hover by itself at a 45 degree angle. I had to mess with the controls for a minute to get it out of the 45 degree angle.

Is that supposed to happen?

 

[oldengineer]

...Sounds like you have a problem with your speed controllers, or the motors themselves.

 

[martcerv]

The only way you can get the phantom to pitch and not move is if there is wind. In GPS mode it will hold position in any wind it can handle and as top speed is around 80kmh at 45 degree max pitch in atti mode the only way you could get it to hold position at high pitch angles without knowing what your doing is in GPS mode is flying in very strong winds using gps mode.

Not really any skill involved in this as the naza does it on its own but if your a noobie pilot and flying in such conditions without knowing what your doing things will likely not end very well in future flights.

If there is no wind and its hovering at a 45 degree angle I want to see a video as its just not possible with a fixed pitch multicopter.

 

[mediaguru]

I learned my lesson with regards to flying in wind. The conditions when this happened were no to little wind.

Interesting. So the unit is not supposed to be able to do that. Thanks for the comments.

On the last flight there was no odd behavior. Both times it happened near my neighbor's house. Perhaps there was some interference there?

 

[martcerv]

I still dont see how its possible to get any pitch angle with no wind and maintain a stationary hover. Id love to see a video of this especially if its at 45 degrees for a couple minutes as it just doesnt make sense. Basic physics indicate that when the craft is pitched the angle of thrust will also move it in the direction it is pitched towards. The naza adjusts the rpm of each motor to keep the altitude hold but it cant pitch and hold position and altitude it just shouldnt be possible with a phantom even with an expert pilot in manual mode. This just isnt something this type of craft can physically do due to its design and the naza controller wont allow it in any mode even if it as moving the thrust direction which is done by pitching the entire quad can only cause it to move unless its heading directly into a wind strong enough to cancel out this motion. That is how the gps hold works and if using gps mode you will see it pitching to counterract the wind but it will never pitch at 45 degrees with no wind and not move.

 

[mediaguru]

It didn't do it for a couple of minutes. I'd say 10 seconds. And for that time I was only able to move the craft vertically. It stayed at the 45 degree angle and moved up and down. So I think it somehow got confused and thought that 45 degrees was level.

 

[ElGuano]

The thing I don't get is how any of this would translate to pilot quality? Were you thinking you were unnaturally gifted to get it into this state, or to get it out? In any case, it's weird. Wind's the only thing that's caused my Phantom to tilt out of true, and I try not to fly when it's blowing that hard.

 

[fizzviic]

I am a reasonably good pilot! I have been told so by pro's. And please forgive me if you find this post not to your liking.

For the life of me I can't see the need or desire to reach out to insanely great distances or altitudes, fly in high winds or over crowds or out to sea. Is it the "thrill"? Risking a high priced piece of equipment like a Phantom, especially with GoPro, gimble FPV gear etc. attached seems a bit foolish. Every time I sat in the cockpit, the very first thing I did was read the checklist! I no longer fly formation aerobatics but even when flying my Phantom I use a checklist before flight. Needless to say, I still read the manual from time to time as a refresher. Perhaps it is because I am getting up in age, perhaps I am just more cautious and more aware of the limitations of both my "toys" and of myself.

Please enlighten me to the errors in my thinking.

 

[mediaguru]

The thing I don't get is how any of this would translate to pilot quality? Were you thinking you were unnaturally gifted to get it into this state, or to get it out? In any case, it's weird. Wind's the only thing that's caused my Phantom to tilt out of true, and I try not to fly when it's blowing that hard.

Yeah I don't fly when it is blowing too hard anymore either, after having to climb a fence to retrieve it.

I'm usually quick with the camera so if the unit does the same thing again I'll try to catch it on video.