Fly Away

[Bradr19]

Beautiful late afternoon, so I thought I'd fly my FC40. Newly charged battery and down the street I went. I got about a block and a half away and then rose up and tried to return. It flew farther away. I put it in home mode and pulled back on the stick, but it kept going. I did have my name and phone number along with reward on it.
Be careful my friends. Sure hope someone finds it soon and calls me.
Brad

 

[crash1sttime]

You flew down the street, filled with lots of WIFI spots and other forms of electromagnetic interference, hope someone does find it.

 

[phantomi]

:| . Why do you think this happen? Did yo take all the pre-flight steps?

 

[Beario]

Not many people run 5.8 ghz wifi which is why I got the FC 40. From what you said, it appears you lost radio control. Once you lost radio control, the phantom returns home, but in your case it did not which suggests you did not get a home lock. I have nervously tested this many times, and each time the phantom returns home. Once you get your quad back just be sure to follow the pre flight checks. Just take this as a lesson for future flights. I hope you get it back soon.

 

[mendezl]

where you in ATTI mode?

If so, home lock does not work in atti mode because it needs gps info.

 

[lake_flyer]

Best way to check if the home point is written correctly (without FPV with OSD):

After startup wait for the second rapid green sequence. Take off and hover about 100 feet away at an angle of 45 degrees relative to the startup nose position. Switch IOC to Home Lock and pull back on the stick. If the Phantom is coming in your direction the Home point is correct and RTH will work.

 

[quadcopterblogger.com]

Not many people run 5.8 ghz wifi which is why I got the FC 40. From what you said, it appears you lost radio control. Once you lost radio control, the phantom returns home, but in your case it did not which suggests you did not get a home lock. I have nervously tested this many times, and each time the phantom returns home. Once you get your quad back just be sure to follow the pre flight checks. Just take this as a lesson for future flights. I hope you get it back soon.

I've set my s1 switch up to RTH but haven't had the courage to try it out yet! Think I need to man up and flip the switch! If I know that it works then it will give me a lot more confidence in how far away from me that I dare to fly it!

 

[Bradr19]

I had made sure it had both sets of green flashing lights before takeoff. I wonder if my transmitter batteries were low. I never saw a yellow flashing light to indicate that however.
Hope some good soul out there finds it and returns it.

 

[lake_flyer]

If the battery turns low the FC40 controller/transmitter will beep. When it starts to beep you still have at least a couple of minutes before it shuts down and you would have time enough to bring it home and land.

I would carefully check the XT60 connectors. If you wiggle them, do they hold connection? Or do you occasionally get the startup tones again? In that case, make sure the connectors make a firm contact by prying out the male connectors a little. A tiny little drop in connection causes your FC40 to start all over again with it's GPS locking procedure, even though the motors may keep spinning. I had it once (2nd flight from new) and nearly lost my quad when it went out of control. RTH didn't work because the GPS was totally messed up. Switching to Atti I got control back but I crashed it in the (soft) bushes immediately just to be sure. I wiggled the XT60 connection a little and I heard 2 startup melodies at almost the same time. After prying out the male connector I never had the problem again. Wiggling is an easy check. I's on my pre flight checklist ever since.

 

[Bradr19]

Still no drone. Keep hoping someone will call me

 

[Bradr19]

Maximum distance it could fly on a new battery? I know this is strictly a guess, but it gives me an idea of how far to look.

 

[Ramz]

Maximum distance it could fly on a new battery? I know this is strictly a guess, but it gives me an idea of how far to look.

I hope you find it. If you've already looked far try looking closer.
Mine did something similar a couple months back.
It looked like it had just kept on going but what really happened was it went down, low battery.
I looked for a long time far away but it wound up being about one block away in the neighbors back yard.

 

[IflyinWY]

Soooo,

YOU FOUND IT,

Very cool. How is it acting now?

I've had my bird get a bit out of hand when it's really far off. I was unable to tell which way it was going.

Shutting off the controller works well, provided the bird knows where home is.

 

[lake_flyer]

Maximum distance it could fly on a new battery? I know this is strictly a guess, but it gives me an idea of how far to look.

If it's a standard FC40 maybe 13-15 minutes x 8-10m/s, which would give anything up to 9000m or about 6 miles.

Edit:
wrong, I was thinking of 2 batteries .......

With one 2200 Lipo you get average 12minutes (I recall) so it would be 7200m or around 4 miles.