Fly Away Question

[Bodd]

Hello,

I see so many topics on fly-aways that I am now concerned. I was wondering if setting up a "geo-fence" would help limit the distance in the event of a fly-away.


Thanks

 

[Buckaye]

Hello,

I see so many topics on fly-aways that I am now concerned. I was wondering if setting up a "geo-fence" would help limit the distance in the event of a fly-away.


Thanks

I'll be honest... I haven't seen many fly-away threads that didn't have some element of Pilot-error or post-crash factor involved. I have seen everything from - I switched to ATTI and the wind took it... to... I just crashed a few days ago and when I powered up everything looked fine and then it suddenly lost GPS and flew off... to yes a couple of really hard to explain issues where an apparent reason wasn't available.

I am sure there are instances of it - but frankly, stuff happens with other RC aircraft (and cars) too. But you have to remember - human nature is to post stuff when something goes wrong - not the 1000's of times things go right

The problem with your Geo-fence idea is that it assumes "when" a fly-away happens the "brain" of the Phantom is in a state where it will recognize the distance and behave in some way. I guess that's possible... but, on the other hand... if something fails on the Phantom it's possible that it won't know where it is in the first place

I too was a little alarmed when I first came on this forum with a couple of recurring topics. 1. the "fly-away" (and I address my observation with that and 2. Battery early land (which I honestly still can't get a sense for how prevalent that is) - but I can tell you this - I have crashed three times with the Phantom - 2 of which I "could" characterize as a "fly-away" to make myself feel better... but BOTH were caused by me being a little too quick with my programming in my groundstation and not really thinking about how I was using the feature.

Just my 2 cents - I am sure others will disagree... but I'd say don't get overly concerned, have fun... but be diligent about your pre-flight routine and think about risks etc before you take off... and I bet you'll be fine.

 

[OI Photography]

I'd say don't get overly concerned, have fun... but be diligent about your pre-flight routine and think about risks etc before you take off... and I bet you'll be fine.

+1

 

[Bodd]

Thanks!

This makes me feel more at ease

 

[IrishSights]

Hello,

I see so many topics on fly-aways that I am now concerned. I was wondering if setting up a "geo-fence" would help limit the distance in the event of a fly-away.


Thanks

I'll be honest... I haven't seen many fly-away threads that didn't have some element of Pilot-error or post-crash factor involved. I have seen everything from - I switched to ATTI and the wind took it... to... I just crashed a few days ago and when I powered up everything looked fine and then it suddenly lost GPS and flew off... to yes a couple of really hard to explain issues where an apparent reason wasn't available.

I am sure there are instances of it - but frankly, stuff happens with other RC aircraft (and cars) too. But you have to remember - human nature is to post stuff when something goes wrong - not the 1000's of times things go right

The problem with your Geo-fence idea is that it assumes "when" a fly-away happens the "brain" of the Phantom is in a state where it will recognize the distance and behave in some way. I guess that's possible... but, on the other hand... if something fails on the Phantom it's possible that it won't know where it is in the first place

I too was a little alarmed when I first came on this forum with a couple of recurring topics. 1. the "fly-away" (and I address my observation with that and 2. Battery early land (which I honestly still can't get a sense for how prevalent that is) - but I can tell you this - I have crashed three times with the Phantom - 2 of which I "could" characterize as a "fly-away" to make myself feel better... but BOTH were caused by me being a little too quick with my programming in my groundstation and not really thinking about how I was using the feature.

Just my 2 cents - I am sure others will disagree... but I'd say don't get overly concerned, have fun... but be diligent about your pre-flight routine and think about risks etc before you take off... and I bet you'll be fine.

+2

Sent from Samsung S4 via Tapatalk

 

[q8f1]

+ 3

 

[bclemms]

I didn't have a fly away but last week was flying my p2 with gimbal on gopro black. Perfect weather, was about 100' away and 30' in the air when suddenly the quad violently went inverted and at full speed went upside down into the water. I was shooting some video of some ducks and almost stationary when it happened. No wind, bluebird skies and very subtle flying. I calibrate the compass every time I fly, always wait for home lock GPS. Was over open clear area. Dunno. Sucked watching almost $2k drop into the drink though. It was only 6 weeks old. I still haven't recovered it but doubt it does any good to get it back.

I want to get another but as hard as it was to pull the trigger 2 months ago to buy the p2, it is almost impossible for me to do it again.

I haven't even contacted DJI, after reading what others have posted about their support and without the quad I already know what they are going to say.

 

[Buckaye]

I didn't have a fly away but last week was flying my p2 with gimbal on gopro black. Perfect weather, was about 100' away and 30' in the air when suddenly the quad violently went inverted and at full speed went upside down into the water. I was shooting some video of some ducks and almost stationary when it happened. No wind, bluebird skies and very subtle flying. I calibrate the compass every time I fly, always wait for home lock GPS. Was over open clear area. Dunno. Sucked watching almost $2k drop into the drink though. It was only 6 weeks old. I still haven't recovered it but doubt it does any good to get it back.

I want to get another but as hard as it was to pull the trigger 2 months ago to buy the p2, it is almost impossible for me to do it again.

I haven't even contacted DJI, after reading what others have posted about their support and without the quad I already know what they are going to say.

Did you have the wifi on on the gopro black?

 

[bclemms]

No. I never turned the wifi on the gopro and checked before every flight.

I really am just extremely unlucky when it comes to buying products. I was hesitant to get the first because of fly away issues but spoke with multiple people who have the P2 and none had ever had any problems or even heard of anyone having problems other than stuff they read online. Finally a friend of mine who has two told me I was being paranoid and that less than 3% have issues. I told him I have lived 35 years in that 3%. Now the odds of me getting a second one that malfunctions is so slim on paper but I know in reality it is unrealistically high.

 

[Buckaye]

No. I never turned the wifi on the gopro and checked before every flight.

I really am just extremely unlucky when it comes to buying products. I was hesitant to get the first because of fly away issues but spoke with multiple people who have the P2 and none had ever had any problems or even heard of anyone having problems other than stuff they read online. Finally a friend of mine who has two told me I was being paranoid and that less than 3% have issues. I told him I have lived 35 years in that 3%. Now the odds of me getting a second one that malfunctions is so slim on paper but I know in reality it is unrealistically high.

Yeah - sometimes I feel like my luck is like that. Dude... I would retrieve it and try to get a replacement from DJI - assuming everything happened the way you described it, it seems like one of the first stories I have heard that sounds like a legit in flight failure of the Phantom. For instance - I have never heard of anyone having the their Phantom suddenly invert.

worst case scenario they say no right? Then you are no worse off than you are now.

 

[syotr]

Hello,

I see so many topics on fly-aways that I am now concerned. I was wondering if setting up a "geo-fence" would help limit the distance in the event of a fly-away.


Thanks

Probably not.
If the flyaway was caused by some malfunction or confusion of the GPS or compass, then the bird does not know where it is and how far it is from the actual home point.
If the GPS and compass were working fine and some erroneous signal told it keep flying East, then maybe the geofence would stop it.
If an ESC failed in a way to send full power to one motor, then I doubt that the flight controller could both keep the bird level and stop it from flying in one direction.
There are many other ways electrically or mechanically that the quad can fail. Some have argued that there could be a bug in the code which would allow the flight controller to get stuck on a single instruction. In most of these scenarios, the geofence probably wouldn't help.

 

[Hawkeye 1]

bclemms, if your quad is in fresh water, there's a very good chance that it'll fly again if you'll recover it as soon as possible. More than three months ago, mine was lost in a lake because of something stupid that I did. I recovered it right away, took it home and took the top off and rinsed it thoroughly in the tub. After that, I used an air compressor to blow as much of the water as possible out of the nooks and crannies and then I covered everything with rice. Late the next day, I cleaned it all up, fired it up and it's been flying fine ever since. Nothin ventured, nothing gained...if it is ruined you can still keep it for parts....hell, just the shell is worth $50. Get it out of the water and see what happens ! Good Luck

 

[syotr]

I didn't have a fly away but last week was flying my p2 with gimbal on gopro black. Perfect weather, was about 100' away and 30' in the air when suddenly the quad violently went inverted and at full speed went upside down into the water. I was shooting some video of some ducks and almost stationary when it happened. No wind, bluebird skies and very subtle flying. I calibrate the compass every time I fly, always wait for home lock GPS. Was over open clear area. Dunno. Sucked watching almost $2k drop into the drink though. It was only 6 weeks old. I still haven't recovered it but doubt it does any good to get it back.

I want to get another but as hard as it was to pull the trigger 2 months ago to buy the p2, it is almost impossible for me to do it again.

I haven't even contacted DJI, after reading what others have posted about their support and without the quad I already know what they are going to say.

Definitely, you should try to recover it. DJI may replace it especially if you can recover video from the event.

 

[thongbong]

Hello,

I see so many topics on fly-aways that I am now concerned. I was wondering if setting up a "geo-fence" would help limit the distance in the event of a fly-away.


Thanks

Don't get a used Phantom version 1. Any versioin P 1.1.1 and above are ok. What you see currently are stories of user error and just bad calibrations before take off. Learn how to fly, be safe, watch out for VRS and you'll be OK.

 

[Fplvert]

Yeah - sometimes I feel like my luck is like that. Dude... I would retrieve it and try to get a replacement from DJI - assuming everything happened the way you described it, it seems like one of the first stories I have heard that sounds like a legit in flight failure of the Phantom. For instance - I have never heard of anyone having the their Phantom suddenly invert.

worst case scenario they say no right? Then you are no worse off than you are now.

Well, I did see my P2V take a dive nearly straight down from 330' in 10.2 seconds. (Flytrex)
I'd been flying out in the desert when the wind picked up and I could barely get back to launch site. I attempted to hand catch. Failing twice, I landed in the field stirring up a bunch of dirt and sand. Two subsequent flights the next week were perfect. The third flight after the desert landing, the left front motor stopped mid flight.
The culprit turned out to be some fine particles of sand (black) had been magnetized and stuck to the motor magnets. I replaced all the bearings and c-clips after cleaning the motors. It's never happened again, so far! :?

 

[bclemms]

I have tried multiple times to get it back. The day it happened I spent 2 hours swimming in the lake looking for it. Luckily the guy whose house I was at has a boat and I can use it anytime. Unfortunately it is a solid hour away from my house. I've been back once after building a trolling box but didn't have any luck, actually didn't catch a single stick, clam, bottle, old tennis shoe or anything so it probably was working more like a box blad with a net. I'm heading back up there Sunday to throw some treble hooks with a fishing rod and hope I luck out. The water is 6' deep in the area it went down so searching is pretty difficult by swimming without gridding it off somehow.

When it hit the water it made quite an impact with a huge splash. It was by far and away the fastest I've ever seen a drone travel. I've wondered if the unit could have continued working for a few seconds. I have stayed up at night wondering if DJI is using me for a test subject on the possibility of DJI's next big release, a quad sub video platform. I've also wondered how fast it sinks, if it may suspend, if it takes a few minutes for the housing to fill with water before actually hitting the bottom. I've also realized just how much torture it must be looking for flight 370.

Even worse, the lake is one of the best private bass fishing lakes in the country and I've been dying to go fish it for a decade. Sunday I finally get to go out on the lake in a bass boat with a fishing pole and I'll be spending the day throwing an empty trevel hook at a prayer.

I appreciate the encouragement and will keep you guys posted. If I find it then I'll certainly present my argument to DJI, until then I wont waste my breath.

 

[darwin-t]

Would a fish finder see it? If not, a scuba mask ans a snorkle would be on my shopping list.

 

[bclemms]

Maybe some of the high end side imaging or charting fish finders would work but those are well over $1k. Scuba mask and snorkle wont really help. Visibility at the surface is 12-14" at the bottom in 6' of water it is probably zero. I have thought about hiring someone with scuba gear to go look. Biggest problem with that is without gridding off the area it would be awefully difficult to do a good search since it would so hard to get complete coverage with very few reference points.

I also didn't have the gopro recording and was just shooting video to show a client who was interested in seeing it work. I was just showing him the BP monitor through the FPV.

Now that I think about it, the sd card is in my laptop. Guess it wasn't a total loss.

 

[FBiff]

Maybe looking at the fpv video you can get a better idea of where she hit if nothing else just a reminder. What size treble hooks are recommended for a phantom?
I would go with at least 1/0s, maybe bring a strong magnet and either a mask or a clear bottom food container to hold just submerged and see if you can pick it up visually first.
Good luck!