- Joined
- Jun 12, 2015
- Messages
- 34
- Reaction score
- 6
- Age
- 37
Let me start by saying that I'm not new to flying and that I've been doing this for some time now and am quite familiar with how to operate this aircraft. I'm posting this more to share my experience then to be told what I did wrong. Every flight I do is preceded with proper pre-flight checks and I keep my phantom up to date and calibrated. This particular flight and its erratic behavior is puzzling but I'm fairly certain the bridge itself is some how to blame as it is the only structure in the area and no power lines or high power electrical devices near by. I'll also say that when I did my compass calibration, I did it a couple hundred feet from the bridge so that I could be fairly sure that the bridge its self would not interfere with the calibration process.
With all that in mind, the point or lesson here is that flyaways happen and you need to know what to do when it does. For this particular incident, flipping the S1 switch into ATTI mode allowed me to regain control so that I could land. After landing I packed up and left. No need to try again and risk losing it. For those out there new to flying, learn what the switches do and practice flying without GPS in case the situation were to arise. Sometimes there is nothing you can do but let's hope that never happens. I like to think that there is always something that can be done whether its flipping out of GPS mode or turning off the control and then turning it on again. Best thing to do is not panic and to stay calm, if you freak out you may not be able to find a solution before your copter fly's out of range.
Another point I'd like to make, something that I do that helped in the situation that might help others in the future is to keep your Phantom close. I try not to fly more that 500ft from myself unless its an area that I know very well. Part of the reason I was able to recover from this is because I could see everything that was going on and it didn't have time to fly out of my line of sight
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