Flyaway or Inexperience

[mikrob]

I ordered the Dominator today & should be here in a few days. To celebrate I went for a fly at the soccer field where I have flown before. I am a newbie & with only about 25 flights under my belt, mostly with GPS but also with Atti. I have practiced with HL & CL with success. Today I got the same LED lights as I always get: a couple of minutes flashing yellow for warm-up, followed by multiple green flashes for home location, then one green followed by three reds, one green followed by two reds, one green followed by one red, then just double green flashes indicating GPS (no more reds). I lifted off & away it went. The sticks had no control at all. After a few seconds I switched to HL....it kept flying away. I turned off the transmitter hoping for failsafe but it kept going. I turned the transmitter back on & I then switched to Atti which did gain control because I could lower the altitude. However it was so far away that I could barely see it, let alone see orientation. I am sure a more experienced pilot could have brought it back but I was too flustered to fly it straight. I turned off the transmitter hoping for failsafe to return it but it seemed to hover so far away. I waited for it lose battery power to land itself. I quickly jumped in the van & drove towards the industrial area it came down in. Luckily I found it after only about ten minutes of looking.
My battery tester reads 8.6 volts with O% capacity. I am recharging now to see if I can salvage the battery. The Assistant software shows no errors & no need for calibration.
In hindsight, I am not sure that I did everything in the order I just described. Panic mode isn't the best mode for thought for me. However I am sure it took off on its own like it never has before. I assume the red lights (three, two, one, zero, then only double greens) that I described before take-off is normal because that is what I always get before successful flying but I don't see that mentioned in the manual.
Anyways, I am lucky to get it back. I am going to buy a GPS locator & expect to fly mostly in Atti from now on.

 

[Gizmo3000]

Glad you were able to recover it! as well as regain control.
Hopefully it was just a fluke or something.

 

[Audaciter]

Hopefully it was just a fluke or something.

Doubt it highly. He is flying next to an industrial area, and the DJI radio system uses technology, (PPM) that is great for putting
on a small chip, but very susceptible to multipath interference, and other wifi . Anything from a leaking microwave door,
wireless security cameras, access points, etc.
Also from what I've read, flying directly above yourself, which so, so many people do, to get panoramic views, is a very
high risk of losing the signal, without recovery.

 

[bumper]

What Audaciter said. Awaiting my Futaba T8J . . . it's been shipped.

 

[MKheng]

Totally agree with flying directly overhead. I've upgraded to the Futaba T8J and am calmer now when flying. Just waiting for the bits to arrive to upgrade the TX so the left stick self centres as I've got used to the DJI TX and now keep leaving the stick either a little too high or too low!

 

[jackhyde]

Anyways, I am lucky to get it back. I am going to buy a GPS locator & expect to fly mostly in Atti from now on.

Good idea. If you lose control in GPS mode that means any function that uses GPS will not work. RTH and HL use the GPS to come back to home. In your situation CL in ATTI mode would have been the best choice. In the future with more experience you might want to practice MANUAL mode.