fly away last night with healthy drones link

[josephtarlecky]

so last night i was flying my typical long distance route and i noticed that during that flight and the one before it if i turn around to go home i immediately loose communication with the drone. two days ago i lost communication for 7 minutes and then sure enough the drone was headed home. last night not so lucky. i flew out like 30,000 feet and turned around to come home. at that point no signal and i waited and waited and waited. i looked at the log on the iPad and the drone flew away no where near the direction of home and landed in a farmers corn field. i used my iPhone map and the iPad and went in searching at 230am and sure enough 10 minutes later i came out with my drone undamaged. as the drone was descending i had a brief clip of video and gps location. in like 14 minutes he only flew 8000 feet which is super slow. can anyone take a look at my log and let me know why this happened since now i scared to take my usual route to fly!

last nights flight HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters

previous nights flight HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters

 

[Mark The Droner]

I am going to suggest your flying style needs improvement.

You flew really high. Do you know what the wind is like up there? Did you check uavforecast?

It appears to me you never initiated RTH and you never actually broke signal. I appears on the turn around, your app lost signal from the AC, but the AC was still receiving a (perhaps weak) signal from your controller.

So you flew it out, then attempted to turn around. The rotation of the craft at the edge of range caused you to lose the signal from the AC to your controller. But you didn't complete the turn around - apparently because you were turning around blind. So now the AC is flying blind in a random direction you were hoping was home which fortunately was somewhat in the direction of home but nowhere near precise. It still senses the control signal, even if it may be intermittent, so RTH isn't activated.

Another possibility is you turned around and then stopped flying. So the AC hovered waiting for your command which you never gave. The high winds blew it 8,000 feet in 14 mins.

Meanwhile you're at home scratching your head and wondering what is going on.

I suggest next time you change your tactics in anticipation of losing the AC's signal. Initiate RTH before you lose signal, then, after several seconds take it out of RTH and race it home since you know for sure it's pointed straight at home. You might be doing this in the blind.

You can repeat this every so often, say every 2 mins, while keeping the right stick straight up. This would be insurance that you are heading straight home at a fast speed and not stuck in the slow RTH mode

 

[Meta4]

Altitude = 400-500 metres ... what was the wind doing?

 

[josephtarlecky]

I am going to suggest your flying style needs improvement.

You flew really high. Do you know what the wind is like up there? Did you check uavforecast?

It appears to me you never initiated RTH and you never actually broke signal. I appears on the turn around, your app lost signal from the AC, but the AC was still receiving a (perhaps weak) signal from your controller.

So you flew it out, then attempted to turn around. The rotation of the craft at the edge of range caused you to lose the signal from the AC to your controller. But you didn't complete the turn around - apparently because you were turning around blind. So now the AC is flying blind in a random direction you were hoping was home which fortunately was somewhat in the direction of home but nowhere near precise. It still senses the control signal, even if it may be intermittent, so RTH isn't activated.

Another possibility is you turned around and then stopped flying. So the AC hovered waiting for your command which you never gave. The high winds blew it 8,000 feet in 14 mins.

Meanwhile you're at home scratching your head and wondering what is going on.

I suggest next time you change your tactics in anticipation of losing the AC's signal. Initiate RTH before you lose signal, then, after several seconds take it out of RTH and race it home since you know for sure it's pointed straight at home. You might be doing this in the blind.

You can repeat this every so often, say every 2 mins, while keeping the right stick straight up. This would be insurance that you are heading straight home at a fast speed and not stuck in the slow RTH mode

awesome advice thanks! i'm in a very mountainous and wooded area i only seem to be able to do long range if i'm up super high! i ended up getting #6 on the p4 leaderboard doing that altitude. the idea to activate rth before turning around is brilliant since i have great signal up till the point i turn to return home. i haven't checked winds and will be checking uavforecast before any future flights. thanks again for giving me the tips.

 

[josephtarlecky]

Altitude = 400-500 metres ... what was the wind doing?

not quite sure wasn't checking pre flight but i will in the future. i always do a test flight out a mile and back a mile to track the winds. i was doing 45mph out and 35mph back on this particular session of flying.

 

[the5more]

You are an experienced pilot but still, it's so lucky that you can get your drone back. Congrats.

 

[josephtarlecky]

You are an experienced pilot but still, it's so lucky that you can get your drone back. Congrats.

after reading the wind site i realize how much faster the winds are up 1600 feet its crazy! i flew at 100 ft on the chesapeake bay in maryland because of no interference. i can't seem to get more than a mile or two unless i go up!

 

[fastfed]

When I do my long distant runs, I'm usually against the wind on the way home, depending on battery is what determines my altitude, of course signal power is priority, but if I can get away with it, I'll notice 100ft=1mph faster