Gps/compass signal lost question....

bikerg2001 · Jan 28, 2017

I was flying in a short grass field under 15 ft for 50 yards and suddenly the alert.... "Abnormal compass function or gps signal detected. Aircraft. Switched to atti mode".....the aircraft took off and hit the hillside with no damage.... My question is did flying that close to the ground for a distance create the loss signal....I had flown in the exact area previously without problems but never that close to the ground.....thanks in advance for any input

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microraptor · Jan 28, 2017

I noticed the other day while just messing around in my driveway, seemed like atti mode would kick in when I was low and the phantom was close to the remote. I'm due for a firmware update but kinda scared. Hopefully someone will answer this for you and me.

Meta4 · Jan 28, 2017

bikerg2001 said:
I was flying in a short grass field under 15 ft for 50 yards and suddenly the alert.... "Abnormal compass function or gps signal detected. Aircraft. Switched to atti mode".....the aircraft took off and hit the hillside with no damage.... My question is did flying that close to the ground for a distance create the loss signal....I had flown in the exact area previously without problems but never that close to the ground

Close to the ground is no problem .. unless there's a lot of steel also close to the ground.
The usual suspect is your compass calibration - can you give details of where and when it was last calibrated?

microraptor said:
I noticed the other day while just messing around in my driveway, seemed like atti mode would kick in when I was low and the phantom was close to the remote. I'm due for a firmware update but kinda scared. Hopefully someone will answer this for you and me.

Driveway?? ... reinforced concrete full of steel?
That's probably your answer.
It's never a good idea to calibrate your compass anywhere near steel or to launch from it.
Flying very close will also cause compass errors which will make your Phantom switch to atti mode because it's getting conflicting information from the GPS and compass.