Hard right turn

[mrfun]

About our fifth flight, my wife at the sticks...in GPS...everything looking normal...she took off hard and the PV immediately took off leaning hard to the right, headed right for the treeline. She made an executive decision to climb to miss the trees, and it disappeared headed toward Georgia. By this time I'm panicked, but my wife has the right joystick held down hard left. In a minute or two it slowly came back to us and she got it 'landed'.
Two questions ...
When I turned off everything and restarted it all, the problem disappeared. Could the problem have been that the joystick was off neutral when I powered it up, and it initialized incorrectly?
If I had switched off controller power as it was crossing the Savannah River....would it have tried to return home?
Third question ...
I didn't power off because the treeline was around 75ft tall. Is there any way to change the RTH altitude?

I'm new to the Phantom and would appreciate any ideas you've got?

 

[gpauk]

RTH will maintain current altitude, or climb to 20m / 66 feet if below that level...

 

[mrfun]

Good to know ... Removes about 90% of my fear of flying over trees.

 

[Hank Reardon]

Id never let the wife or anyone fly my phantom period. You can buy a x1 when you fly she can fly that its 40 bucks on amazon and a ton of fun to fly.

That's too bad.
It was my wife who convinced me to buy a Phantom!
Of course she won't let me fly most of her planes, says I'm not that great of a pilot.
I have to remind her she was my instructor...lol.
She is a former Pylon Racer and is responsible for getting me into the hobby.

 

[Sf_Kilo]

Id never let the wife or anyone fly my phantom period. You can buy a x1 when you fly she can fly that its 40 bucks on amazon and a ton of fun to fly.

Based on the simple fact that Quads in general are extremely simple to fly...

My dad has never flown before flying my models, he has flown a a few of my heli's (flybarless wth gps autopilot) and planes here and there...
I completely expect to let him fly the Phantom vision when it gets here Saturday...
It's unfortunate that you wouldn't be willing to permit your life partner at least try to fly it...
If it crashes is not like you can't get parts and fix it...

More on topic, I haven't even seen the Phantom yet but knowing my gps heli's if the throttle gimble is not correct the heli wont initialize but if the other isn't centered it will still arm and now will fly as if the recorded incorrect input is the home position of said gimble...

Just food for thought, that's why I do a pre-flight in air test of all functions about 2ft off the ground...
I have been flying model aircraft for 10+ years and it has saved me numerous times...

 

[Migmon]

There's a sticker on the bottom telling you things to do before flight, I would do those things then always at liftoff go up a few feet then test all controls and verify there is no drift and everything works then fly. If you need to pounce on it or land to recalibrate it's not very far from you and safer to kill power if necessary

 

[PhantomFan]

Yeah, I always do a few circuits near by to make certain all responses are appropriate.

If your wife would like to train to fly the Phantom or wants to get into R/C flying generally, I say hell yeah! In that case you MIGHT want to consider the following advice:

Buy a Futaba TX and Rx and a second hand Futaba Tx. Install a Futaba receiver in the Phantom. Get a trainer cord and let her fly to her hearts content with you ready to take control if need be.

PF