First Drone, P3 Advanced, first crash!

[lohman]

Bought a nicely used Phantom 3 Advanced on eBay, have been flying it in the yard and fields, we live on a farm, lots of open space. Things went well for the first two days, then today (third day) I took it out in a field and was close to some trees, battery got low and the darn thing wanted to fly home but did not have the elevation needed to clear a tree, long story short it crashed into the tree, but gracefully fell through the limbs and landed on the soft (tall brush) ground.

I felt like if I could gain control I could have landed it, but only later thought maybe moving the level to A instead of P, them move it back, might have done that. I don't know for sure, might adjust the low battery fly home settings if possible.

It did break a few props, and the camera arm, sheared the screw off into the motor shaft, so kind of screwed. I removed the camera and it flies fine, just got to get some parts or send this camera off to get some repair.

Lesson learned today, low battery, land the darn thing quick.

 

[Deleted member 62848]

Bought a nicely used Phantom 3 Advanced on eBay, have been flying it in the yard and fields, we live on a farm, lots of open space. Things went well for the first two days, then today (third day) I took it out in a field and was close to some trees, battery got low and the darn thing wanted to fly home but did not have the elevation needed to clear a tree, long story short it crashed into the tree, but gracefully fell through the limbs and landed on the soft (tall brush) ground.

I felt like if I could gain control I could have landed it, but only later thought maybe moving the level to A instead of P, them move it back, might have done that. I don't know for sure, might adjust the low battery fly home settings if possible.

It did break a few props, and the camera arm, sheared the screw off into the motor shaft, so kind of screwed. I removed the camera and it flies fine, just got to get some parts or send this camera off to get some repair.

Lesson learned today, low battery, land the darn thing quick.

HI....man that such,,,on you device when flying it shows you how much flight time left also on battery rear lights blink and count down 4 to 3 to 2 to 1,,,1 meaning nearly flat..u can also set your battery warning in settings when connected...few posts about trees lately I beta watch out to..happy flying

 

[HWCM]

Someone did not read the manual...

 

[HWCM]

Set your RTH altitude higher than the surrounding trees.

 

[lohman]

I read the material that it came with, downloaded the complete manual PDF file, but yes, did not read it completely, probably should have. I used Google, Forums, and YouTube to gather initial information, did that for a week or so. I even remember tips that this can be an issue, but what happened was that I landed after walking with it for about 10 minutes, in a new spot. Then took off again and headed home walking, and forget that the RTH was probably the second take off point, not my original take off point. Plus my second take off point was not in a great spot, compared to where I was actually going, back home, not sure what I was thinking.

If you see the attached image, my new take off point was marked in Blue, I did not even think about it making this my new RTH, I was about where the green dot was, the P3 was a little ahead of me, out of this picture, and I got low battery warnings I was lowering it and bringing it closer to me, then I lost control and it took off to my right, going back to the second take off point, and the tree marked with a red X was between us.