Killing motors in flight

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OK - I'm sure this must have been asked before, but I have not been able to find an answer.

If you kill the motors in flight, and have sufficient altitude, can you restart them and recover? This is more of a theoretical question that a practical one, but for curiosity's sake...

Say your happily cruising along at 500-600 feet and for whatever reason do something stupid and bring both sticks into the inside low corners and kill the motors. Your bird starts dropping like the expensive rock that it now is. You quickly put the sticks back into the inside low corners and restart the motors. Can you at that point, hit the left stick and try to climb? Will the bird attempt to right itself?

I'd expect that it will be tumbling, so it won't be in a typical flight attitude, but once the motors are restarted, even with idle power, you're still producing minimal thrust.

Anyone know for sure?
 
It is possible, and some people do it just for thrills...but the survival rate is well below 100%. If you just want to know if it's worth even trying in case you accidentally kill the motors, the answer is yes :)
 
I'd say you might want to try it at maybe 500-600 meters and not feet ;)
Its completely possible and completely insane.
 
To me, it would be nice if the CSC positions did not power it down. I'd rather have it only power off if on the ground stationary. I know those are pretty insane positions for the controls to be in at the same point, but I can't help but worry that could happen somehow.
 
dollerprod said:
To me, it would be nice if the CSC positions did not power it down. I'd rather have it only power off if on the ground stationary. I know those are pretty insane positions for the controls to be in at the same point, but I can't help but worry that could happen somehow.

I think besides normal start/stop, CSC exists as a last-ditch bailout tool. It can protect the props/motors/ESCs from whacking at full speed, and if for instance you're out of control and careening towards a crowd, they wanted something you could instantly trigger without reaching for a switch, that would shut down the spinning blades and minimize injury.

But as to OP's question, OI has it exactly right. You can search Youtube and find plenty of videos of people CSCing to get down on low batteries, "glide" down on balanced quads, etc. Sometimes the Naza can recover from the descent if restarted, sometimes it can't.
 
Mal_PV2_Ireland said:
I'd say you might want to try it at maybe 500-600 meters and not feet ;)
Its completely possible and completely insane.
At $1,000.00 or more, each, you have that right.
 
I did it by accident once. Almost crapped my pants but somehow got it back on and left stick all the way forward and regained control. it was from less than 100 feet. got control right before it hit the ground.
 
Ejazzle, what type of maneuver were you doing or what brought about your sticks in one of the CSC positions?

BTW, how long do they have to stay in that position until the Phantom powers off?
 
dollerprod said:
Ejazzle, what type of maneuver were you doing or what brought about your sticks in one of the CSC positions?

BTW, how long do they have to stay in that position until the Phantom powers off?

Both sticks down and in (which would serve 0 usefulness when normal flying) I was just messing around and didn't realize what I was doing before it was too late. I think it was about 3 seconds. Then OH ****
 
Ejazzle said:
dollerprod said:
Ejazzle, what type of maneuver were you doing or what brought about your sticks in one of the CSC positions?

BTW, how long do they have to stay in that position until the Phantom powers off?

Both sticks down and in (which would serve 0 usefulness when normal flying) I was just messing around and didn't realize what I was doing before it was too late. I think it was about 3 seconds. Then OH ****

It'll turn off INSTANTLY if you CSC, no 3-second delay as with holding throttle down to 0. You can test this behavior pretty easily by taking the props off and holding the Phantom. Arm it and you'll hear the motors whining to adjust attitude as you move it around. Hold throttle down 10% and exceed 70 degrees tilt, or CSC, and the motors will disarm.
 
Thanks for all the input everyone. This is what I thought, but figured I'd ask the experts. I guess I could see it as an emergency maneuver, to get down in a hurry, but wow - you would sure be taking a chance if the restart didn't get you to a correct flight attitude before the sudden stop at the bottom of the drop.
 
I had to shut the motors off in flight. I believe I had some sort of wifi interference and just after I started the motors they went to full power and I had no control. I was able to shut the motors off and almost got them started again but it was to close to the ground. The only thing that broke was the GoPro mount. Here is the video, http://www.jimandsusan.com/crash.html
 
Ejazzle said:
I did it by accident once. Almost crapped my pants but somehow got it back on and left stick all the way forward and regained control. it was from less than 100 feet. got control right before it hit the ground.

do you have video of this?
i like the "close call" videos.
 

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