Fly away, crash and spiral down to earth :(

[flyNfrank]

Are you saying you lost it the second you switched to ATTI?

No, it just started going when it lost gps so I switched it to ATTI to try to stop that and take control, but it never gave me control back. It never actually went into ATTI mode.

No doubt you were in a wind stream at the time of switching to atti. You most likely did have control in both situations, before and after the atti switch over point. You thought you did not have control with atti because after switching over it didn't lock the quad in place like you thought it might do. At this point you really begin to panic because it appears that the quad is flying away faster and faster, and if is going faster it's because the wind itself has gained speed.

Your best option at this point is to switch to gps mode and fight the wind, even if you have to hold it in full throttle for 10 minutes. And if you ever feel like you might be getting out of range, take off towards your quad! If in flight, work the controls while you run. I bought 3 quads this year learning these things on my own 1st hand. And this is why I respond to threads like yours in hopes of helping those that read it to never experience what I have.

OK so.....there is two things you might consider.

-One is to invest in a gps tracker. The best case scenario would be to use such a gps tracker that will have the ability to continue transmitting on it's own power even if you crash which in most cases throws the battery of the quad.
-Two or next would be to install the "Vision + Utility Pro" app. The reason I'm mentioning this app is because it can help diagnose some performance issues you may have with your quad. Example; if you lost satellite connection you can see the exact point in which this took place. Or, another example could be, say you noticed you were using more power during a particular range of flight which seemed above the norm. Because of this you were able to discover that one of your propellers had become weak allowing it to over-flex which causes drag and the prop struggles to keep up with the other three props. This then signals the Vision's total propulsion system to spin the prop at a higher rpm which is what the reason is for the battery to expire so soon.

*I'm an actual beta tester for the mentioned app and understand it's benefits. I could give a 100 examples for uses of the mentioned V+UP app all day long.

Anything to make our flying ventures a more enjoyable experience.

 

[Paul K]

Kind of a windy but clear day. Set bird up on box to take-off, got GPS lock, recorded home position and started my flight. She was drifting some but had a GPS lock, then after about a minute or less she lost the GPS signal; switched to ATTI mode and decided to bring her in. Was a little hard to control in the wind, then all of a sudden she took off up and backwards. I pulled control sticks to make her go down and forward but she just took off with no control up and backward. Fortunately she was caught by a big tree across the road before she took off to never been seen again. Went into a death spiral and landed on her back with leaves caught in the props. Turned her off and put gimbal guard on and figured she was a goner. Went back to my car and tested her out on the ground and camera and bird work perfectly. Lucky me. No clue why she took off. Perhaps I'll post the video of the death spiral and she spiraled down from the tree.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/Er9KHKNnewI[/youtube]

If the craft is drifting in GPS lock ,that already indicates some problem ; compass/GPS calibration or to windy

 

[kirbinster]

Yes, I think the gusts of wind were causing the drift in GPS, and I was about ready to bring her down when she took off. I don't think flipping the ATTI switch actually did anything as I think it may have already lost GPS and was in ATTI by itself. As I mentioned I pushed the left stick all the way backwards (to come down) and the right stick all the way forward (to come to me) and the craft continued to go away and go backwards. You can see I did not push them the wrong way as the video was moving away from me and up. Holding it did nothing as the speed and direction did not change at all with the controller input, that I don't think was received. The craft was only about 50-75 feet away from me when this all started.

 

[Paul K]

Yes, I think the gusts of wind were causing the drift in GPS, and I was about ready to bring her down when she took off. I don't think flipping the ATTI switch actually did anything as I think it may have already lost GPS and was in ATTI by itself. As I mentioned I pushed the left stick all the way backwards (to come down) and the right stick all the way forward (to come to me) and the craft continued to go away and go backwards. You can see I did not push them the wrong way as the video was moving away from me and up. Holding it did nothing as the speed and direction did not change at all with the controller input, that I don't think was received. The craft was only about 50-75 feet away from me when this all started.

By the way do you have a third switch position set to manual mode? switching to Manual mode (if set up) makes a Phantom pretty unstable and it is very hard to control .

 

[kirbinster]

No, its set to failsafe.