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Although there are undoubtedly a significant number of genuine flyaways resulting from all different kinds of technical issues there are also many unnecessary pseudo flyaways resulting from loss of orientation when the Phantom is at some distance often resulting from wind drift and you can't see which way your bird is facing. Activating RTH is (too) often used as an emergency measure in the hope the Phantom will be able to fly home on its own but RTH is limited in speed and when winds are up a bit that lower autonomous manoeuvring speed might not be enough to get any decent ground speed in the right direction if any. Worst case is that wind speed exceeds the autonomous speed and it will drift even farther away. In such a situation active flying in the right direction is needed to bring your bird back to you. Only with full right stick will you achieve the maximum ground speed.
Your first choice should be switching to Home Lock mode and pulling the right stick (and descend when it's downwind and winds are strong - as long as you keep LOS to maintain Tx-Rx connection) but if the Phantom isn't configured to use HL so it isn't available or when Home Point isn't set correctly or GPS mode/reception fails for whatever reason this will give you the next best alternative to reliably bring your bird back to you. It also works in ATTI mode.
It's a fairly simple technique to make the Phantom fly towards you even when you can't see which way it is facing as long as you do have a line of sight and can see whether it is moving left or right or neither. If you practice this technique with a simulator like Heli-X and a game pad with two joysticks so you can use it with confidence it might help you out of a sticky situation (pun intended) in the future. The free demo version of Heli-X has a Phantom as one of the copters you can select.
Download and install Heli-X and attach your controller and get everything working. Then do the following.
Take off and fly away to such a distance that it is still visible but you can't see its orientation. Then hold the left stick to one side for a while so it rotates and you have no idea which way it is facing. Now let's start bringing her back.
Use the right stick and give full stick in a direction of your choice. I use full stick to the right but it really doesn't matter. Now watch in which direction the Phantom moves. If it moves to the right you gradually move the right stick clockwise while keeping it full stick until the Phantom no longer moves to the right but holds its position laterally. It's now flying straight towards you.
If when giving full stick it moves to the left you gradually move the right stick counter clockwise until it no longer moves laterally. Now it is also flying straight towards you.
If it isn't moving laterally it is either moving straight towards you or straight away from you. You can either move the right stick around in any direction until you see it moving sideways or give a short lateral jolt with the left stick to get it to move sideways and then do as described above. You might prefer to let go of the sticks to let it hover. Give it a short rotation input and re-initialise the procedure with giving full right stick.
When it deviates and starts moving to the right you move the stick a bit clockwise and when it deviates to the left you move the stick CCW. Keep doing that and soon you will welcome your precious bird flying at a comfortable distance again.
If you're flying fast nearby this works too of course. To fly away from you the CW and CCW directions are reversed.
Try it. You'll find it works. If you master this it will give you confidence you'll be able to bring your bird back to you when for whatever reason it turns up far away. As long as you can see it and its lateral movements you know you can steer it in the right direction and this will considerably ease the sense of panic that otherwise might overwhelm you and can interfere with reacting adequately.
Good luck and happy flying.
Your first choice should be switching to Home Lock mode and pulling the right stick (and descend when it's downwind and winds are strong - as long as you keep LOS to maintain Tx-Rx connection) but if the Phantom isn't configured to use HL so it isn't available or when Home Point isn't set correctly or GPS mode/reception fails for whatever reason this will give you the next best alternative to reliably bring your bird back to you. It also works in ATTI mode.
It's a fairly simple technique to make the Phantom fly towards you even when you can't see which way it is facing as long as you do have a line of sight and can see whether it is moving left or right or neither. If you practice this technique with a simulator like Heli-X and a game pad with two joysticks so you can use it with confidence it might help you out of a sticky situation (pun intended) in the future. The free demo version of Heli-X has a Phantom as one of the copters you can select.
Download and install Heli-X and attach your controller and get everything working. Then do the following.
Take off and fly away to such a distance that it is still visible but you can't see its orientation. Then hold the left stick to one side for a while so it rotates and you have no idea which way it is facing. Now let's start bringing her back.
Use the right stick and give full stick in a direction of your choice. I use full stick to the right but it really doesn't matter. Now watch in which direction the Phantom moves. If it moves to the right you gradually move the right stick clockwise while keeping it full stick until the Phantom no longer moves to the right but holds its position laterally. It's now flying straight towards you.
If when giving full stick it moves to the left you gradually move the right stick counter clockwise until it no longer moves laterally. Now it is also flying straight towards you.
If it isn't moving laterally it is either moving straight towards you or straight away from you. You can either move the right stick around in any direction until you see it moving sideways or give a short lateral jolt with the left stick to get it to move sideways and then do as described above. You might prefer to let go of the sticks to let it hover. Give it a short rotation input and re-initialise the procedure with giving full right stick.
When it deviates and starts moving to the right you move the stick a bit clockwise and when it deviates to the left you move the stick CCW. Keep doing that and soon you will welcome your precious bird flying at a comfortable distance again.
If you're flying fast nearby this works too of course. To fly away from you the CW and CCW directions are reversed.
Try it. You'll find it works. If you master this it will give you confidence you'll be able to bring your bird back to you when for whatever reason it turns up far away. As long as you can see it and its lateral movements you know you can steer it in the right direction and this will considerably ease the sense of panic that otherwise might overwhelm you and can interfere with reacting adequately.
Good luck and happy flying.