inability to fly P3S straight close to the ground

[AllenSmithee]

I'm a relatively new flyer of a P3S (purchased in November, a little over 2 hours total flying time). I've been practicing smooth turns, and I thought I was getting the hang of it until I tried flying near the ground.

I wanted to film the approach down a dirt road that has a fair amount of tree cover. There was some wind, but I thought that the trees gave some shelter. I lined my drone up and expected to be able to fly straight down the road about 10 feet off the ground without difficulty. I could not have been more wrong; the drone drifted back and forth, and I had all I could handle to not go into the trees.

Do I need to change my expectations? I'm assuming that the wind didn't help, nor did my inexperience. But there was still a good deal of drift, which I realize happens at take off and landing.

 

[Oso]

Did you lose GPS when you were under the fair amount of tree cover?

 

[Just_nick]

Having the GPS signal blocked means you're flying in atti mode, which means your drone is not going to be stable.

 

[AllenSmithee]

I do not believe that I lost the GPS, though that was not the first thing I was looking at during the flight. I'm looking over the record now, and it looks like I have 6-8 satellites the entire time...usually 4 bars. And it reads "P-GPS" in the upper left.

When I hover, it will move 3 feet in any direction, so this isn't that far off from that.

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

It will only become stable with more than that amount of sat locks.

 

[AllenSmithee]

Thanks--that's very helpful!

Is this a function of my location? Or should I have waited a longer time to fly? I'll do a quick search to see if I can answer that on my own.

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

While low to the ground sat locks are minimal, you need to be higher up. Or climb up and get as much as it will, then decend back down keeping an eye on the sat count. It will always be lower near the ground.

 

[AllenSmithee]

Thank you once again. I will see if that works...or I'll stick to what works. Until I get more locks, it would be prudent to keep my P3 away from trees when the wind is blowing.