Dont launch near manhole covers....lesson learned

[dtviewer]

Went to go fly today and figured I'd go fly over water. The spot I went to is at the end of an old parking lot. Right by the water there is a 10x10 foot triangle of grass. I placed my P3A there and kept getting a compass error...'contact DJI if it persists'.
As I was fighting that sinking feeling in my stomach I decided to try a compass cal...didn't help. On top of the fear my phantom would have to be sent in for repair, there was also embarrassment as 2 sheriffs happened to be watching as I was standing there staring at my bird.
Finally...a thought hit me. Maybe the big, very solid and old looking manhole cover about 8 inches away has something to do with the problem?
Yep...that was it! Moved the phantom about 4 feet away and no more error and it started right up!!
After that it flew flawlessly through 3 batteries. And it seemed to amuse the sheriffs for a while as they watched it fly before they got called off.

BTW, don't know if my image transmission freeze last weekend was because I had set the vid camera to 2.7 or if it was just a fluke but I had no transmission problems at all today (I'm on 2.8.0) I did set the camera back to 1080 before flying today.

 

[Zzyzx]

Yeah, I tried taking off from a nice flat patch of cement near a bridge by the river. It had a manhole cover on it, too. The Phantom was really unstable just on the initial lift off and hover. Set it down right away, and then realized the cement structure was a vault for some serious power lines that were strung under the bridge and came underground right there. I bet there was a ton of wonderful EMI coming off all that!