Fly Away

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Hi Guys
I have just experienced a fly away with my FC 40. All can say is what a helpless feeling it is to watch all that money fly away out of site. Fortunately after about 4hrs I finally received a call from an honest Neighbor and got my phantom back, one broken prop, my Aerial freaks gimbal took some damage as well and the top body shell has a crack in it. fortunately it still fly's.
Lesson learnt.
advice for others,
At start up make sure you see the 2 consecutive green light combination flashes before take of to confirm GPS lock. I thought it had had the first flash while I wasn't looking. I was wrong. When I launched it just went straight up and done its own thing and flew of in the distance.

Write your name on your Phantom with a phone number and even Reward offered.

I have purchased one off these phantom trackers now, just for a little extra insurance

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/PhantomTrak- ... 3395197bd5
 
That's an expensive addition for the cheaper FC40. Hope it works!
 
The Fc40 may be cheaper, but with all the accessories such as range extenders, larger batteries and other stuff. My investment isn't cheap by any means. If I loose the phantom all the other stuff is useless.
I was lucky enough to bid on one of these phantom trackers and only paid $80
 
Did it just fly away on it's own or did the wind take it?
I hope it just was in Atti mode because you took of without GPS lock, which you can. In fact it's no big deal when you do, just remember the wind will make it drift away and you have to counter for that with opposite pitch. If it just flew away without any external force or command there's something wrong with the electronics and you have a true but very rare fly away.
 
lake_flyer said:
Did it just fly away on it's own or did the wind take it?
I hope it just was in Atti mode because you took of without GPS lock, which you can. In fact it's no big deal when you do, just remember the wind will make it drift away and you have to counter for that with opposite pitch. If it just flew away without any external force or command there's something wrong with the electronics and you have a true but very rare fly away.
Obviously from his post, it was pilot error. Costly, but a stupid but common newbie mistake.
 
That's what I was getting at. The term 'Fly away' is not applicable in most instances including this one.
 
Why not use a THK102B gps tracker for a lot less money. Does the same thing. They sell on E-Bay for about $20.00.
 
lake_flyer said:
That's what I was getting at. The term 'Fly away' is not applicable in most instances including this one.

Yeah I don't like how loosely this term is used. Some people might be mistaken to think that fly-away's are common with these things. But actual fly-aways are not.

n4lb said:
Why not use a THK102B gps tracker for a lot less money. Does the same thing. They sell on E-Bay for about $20.00.

Oh wow! I will HAVE to look into this for my P2V+. Been look for something that doesn't cost £100+
 
Over the past few weeks I've been busy adding a gimbal to carry a Gopro camera. Had one very satisfying day flying, then went out yesterday to a local park where I set up and took off. There was a slight breeze but I thought that I'd got all controls/switches in the correct position (both switches "up")

How wrong I was!!

From take off, nothing seemed to work correctly and I blamed the breeze. The Phantom just seemed to want to escape from me and was heading for a fenced area and then some houses so I decided to make a rather rough landing rather than loose everything.

Fortunately there was nothing more than a nick in one prop and a camera juddering 'cos everything had gone upside down for the phantom.

When I'd recovered from my own anxieties, I realised that S1 was in ATTI mode - that said everything. Why she continued flying when I sent her away; why she needed care to get her to obey my commands.

All I'll say is that I've learned my lessons as far as checking switch positions is concerned. I'll just have to push the switches "up" automatically before take off every time.

I wonder how many "fly away" situations are actually due to incorrect switch positioning.
 
It's a common mistake, not only for beginners (not saying you are a beginner). I once came down form a considerable height with a lot of speed and wanted to 'park' it right above my head. But I was forgotten that I had it in Atti mode so when I released the throttle, instead of stopping and hover, it just howled over my head and crashed against the wall of my neighbours house. Fortunately I instantly realised my mistake and switched to GPS a couple of feet before the crash. It stopped instantly but still barely hit the wall. No damage.
 
Lonelycruiser_au said:
Hi Guys
At start up make sure you see the 2 consecutive green light combination flashes before take of to confirm GPS lock. I thought it had had the first flash while I wasn't looking. I was wrong. When I launched it just went straight up and done its own thing and flew of in the distance.

Write your name on your Phantom with a phone number and even Reward offered.
Impressed that you had the balls to admit an error - most people don't seem to want to do that.

I used to be a motorcycle instructor and can't tell you how often people tell me that it wasn't their fault because...there was gravel on the road, it was wet, the corner was really sharp etc.

I have my phone number stating a reward is offered on it already - can't hurt and looks like it helped in this case.

Good luck with your future adventures!
 

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