Fly aways? Pilot error?

d4ddyo · Mar 24, 2014

I'm really new to multi rotors and honestly i'm baffled. The phantom 2 is a crazy good and reliable machine. If I keep my phantom calibrated and tuned. What really can go wrong?

I keep seeing horror stories about Fly aways, VRS. VRS i understand.

I know this is probably been beat to death but i can't seem to find the discussion on this topics. Why so many stories of fly aways? I don't understand?

I also understand the logic on how to recovery from VRS.

What should the procedure be to recover from a possible fly away?

rilot · Mar 24, 2014

Flyaways do happen but I think they are a lot rarer than people make out.
The thing is, when one happens to a pilot the first thing they do is go "TO THE INTERNETS!" and moan about it.
Now think about all the people who have an uneventful flight. They don't immediately go online and say "I didn't have a flyaway today".

There are of course a lot that can be attributed to pilot error.

barees63 · Mar 26, 2014

So.. I've just had a flyaway with my 1.1.1, I've flown it about 30 times in this (rural) location, today it seemed to have a little trouble getting the last satellite, it went thru the usual thing and I got the first set of rapid green flashes then I got a series of green flashes interspersed with a single red flash and then eventually the usual steady green flashing.. (at this point I'm not 100% sure that I saw the usual second rapid flashing green sequence) .

I launched in GPS mode and it was behaving normally, started flying it around in a few big circles when it suddenly tilted to the side, appeared to throttle up and took off.. In the past if I've lost orientation or it got a bit far away I've gained altitude and used home lock to bring it back but this time it ignored me, I lost sight of it behind some trees and switched the transmitter off at which point it seems it tried to return to me but didn't clear the trees and is currently sitting about 40ft up in a blue gum

Waiting to hear back from a tree climber :|

discv · Mar 27, 2014

barees63 said:
it suddenly tilted to the side, appeared to throttle up and took off.. :|

This statement is the common factor in genuine flyaways. In fact, if this observation is missing from a report, it can be safely concluded that the incident was pilot error

Marc70 · Mar 27, 2014

discv said:
barees63 said:

it suddenly tilted to the side, appeared to throttle up and took off.. :|

Click to expand...

This statement is the common factor in genuine flyaways. In fact, if this observation is missing from a report, it can be safely concluded that the incident was pilot error

How do you attribute this to pilot error?
This is exactly what my P1.1.1 did when it flew away. Found it 3 days later, video showing same characteristics.

discv · Mar 27, 2014

Mark70, You have misunderstood me- I am saying it was not pilot error

phantom7 · Mar 27, 2014

I also have over 30 flights in with my P1.1.1 (loaded) but Have Not experienced this known fly away issue as of yet. (Knock on wood) Is there any leading cause or attributes to this phenomenon that has been discovered by anyone? Naza? Compass? Etc...?

Sent from my S4

ericdes · Mar 27, 2014

Normally in most "flyaway" cases it doesn't gain much height, it keeps to the same horizontal axis. It's sideways that it really goes crazy.

The most indicative item I have seen for genuine loss of control, is that the Phantom gains speed that are not reachable by the pilot. It just bolts out of town.

Sorry to hear about your troubles. At least you know where it it. You had some kind of signs before liftoff, however I wouldn't consider them to be "do not fly" warning signs.

I have my own weekly maintenance ritual, and preflight checklist that I follow to the letter.

Even if the Phantom as been rock steady, I am still always nervous and follow it like a hawk. Since the prop balancing and compass alignement on the leg, no more toilet bowl effect and it never "twitched" or moved oddly at any time during flight.

Reassuring but I am still nervous.

gbshovel · Mar 27, 2014

There has only been one documented case of a fly away all the rest are pilot error.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c41LUKdIlI

phantom7 · Mar 27, 2014

ericdes. Thank you for that. Could you please explain your 'Compass Alignment on leg' and which procedure you took to fix ' toilet bowl affect'? TIA

Sent from my S4

barees63 · Mar 27, 2014

The most indicative item I have seen for genuine loss of control, is that the Phantom gains speed that are not reachable by the pilot. It just bolts out of town.

That was very noticeable, it was absolutely screaming.. after spending a couple of hours yesterday unsuccessfully swinging a weighted rope at the branch I'm going to try builders string today and then hopefully haul the rope up with it, last resort will be to find a pro tree climber.

Not sure why people like gbshovel insist on denying the issue, unless he's just trolling, it certainly was not pilot error and I've read several reports that sound identical to mine.. I could not have flown that fast if I tried and it had a correct GPS lock since when I finally got it into fail safe it started to come back before it encountered the tree.

Having said that, there may be cases where pilot skill and quick reactions can save it, doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist.

GMANNZ · Mar 27, 2014

gbshovel said:
There has only been one documented case of a fly away all the rest are pilot error.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c41LUKdIlI

just about piss myself laughing everytime I see that .... :lol:

DanCH · Mar 27, 2014

I had a near fly away with my first P 1.1.1.

I was flying it in Atti mode, but had to adjust something so switched it to GPS mode. I looked down, and a second later looked up and saw it was tilted to the right and picking up speed, but not height.

I call it a "near" fly away because my plan for this event was to switch to Manual mode to regain control (if Atti mode didn't work), but before I could flick the switch the power on the Phantom cut and it dropped about 30-40 feet and landed on it's front and top.

The obvious damage internally was one battery power wire had come clean away and the connection of one of the antennae was away. My guess is that in the fly away event there was a lot of vibration and the cold soldered battery power wire was shaken free causing it to lose all power and plummet... but I can never really know.

I got a new replacement P 1.1.1 that has had no problems. I did upgrade to the latest firmware though, something I didn't do on my last (v4.02).

al100 · Mar 28, 2014

Had my first fly away this morning. One of those "this will never happen to me moments" Take off normal, took it up to about 30ft and then I would normally put Fatsharks on at this point. Didn't get a chance to. Starting going side to side and then into a tree. Could have been worse damage but lost my FPV camera and still did not find it. I don't know if switching over to manual flight would have worked. Really did not have much time. Had it up and flying again in an hour. Replaced props, put gimbal back together and calibrated. Flew perfect. Definitely not pilot error.

phantom7 · Mar 28, 2014

I apologize in advance if this has already been asked but are these 'Fly Aways' solely occurring with the Phantoms or are other builds, custom or otherwise, using similar components ie Naza also experiencing or known to have fly away issues?? Magnetic anomalies, interference, bad esc, poor soldering etc... ?

Sent from my S4

barees63 · Mar 28, 2014

are these 'Fly Aways' solely occurring with the Phantoms

There's a thread here, a flyaway with an X8 octocopter using a NAZA V2, exactly the same behavior as mine, the common factor being the NAZA flight controller.

PetePerrim · Mar 28, 2014

barees63 said:
are these 'Fly Aways' solely occurring with the Phantoms

Click to expand...

There's a thread here, a flyaway with an X8 octocopter using a NAZA V2, exactly the same behavior as mine, the common factor being the NAZA flight controller.

Hmmmm, flyaway so being solely attributed to Naza flight controllers? I don't think so. I'll bet all the technicians at Boeing are sweating their arses off right now until they find the black box (or indeed the actual plane) for flight MH370. Pilot error or a Boeing flyaway?

thongbong · Mar 28, 2014

gbshovel said:
There has only been one documented case of a fly away all the rest are pilot error.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c41LUKdIlI

I literally LOL...

R1 Phantom · Mar 28, 2014

I worry about this also. I just bought
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/persona...24583&skuId=2750716&st=pocketfinder&cp=1&lp=1 the only thing I don't like is that it cost 12.95 a month but its worth it.

barees63 · Mar 29, 2014

Hmmmm, flyaway so being solely attributed to Naza flight controllers?

I just thought it was interesting that the only (obvious ) shared component was the flight controller but I understand that "correlation does not equal causation"