Landing the vision...best practice...

[beachvision]

OK ...I've flown like 20 times now and love my vision. I wait all week to do it. I prefer to fly Wally(my vision) with my partner but I don't always have that as an option. There are many times i have to land him on my own. No matter how slow and careful I try to land him, he always tips when touching down, which even on the beach can damage the blades. When i have my partner there, i grab Wally from the feet at about 6 ft and my partner shuts the motors off. I can't do that solo......ANY IDEAS???
JEFF

 

[amkorp]

A lot of people here do the mid air grab, even when they are alone.

I think the key is to be able to pull down on the left lever once you've got a hold of the p2v in mid air.

You don't have to bring both sticks down and to the middle to power down, you can just hold the left stick down for about 3-5 seconds and it will shut down as well.

On the other hand, I've found that too soft of a landing will always cause the p2v to tip. The trick is to bring it down slowly enough not to bounce it, but quickly enough not to allow it to tip.

There is a sweet spot and if you can practice hitting it, you will land square every time and there won't be any tip overs.

 

[beachvision]

didn't know about the left stick trick , but i would also like to be able to land him well to impress....now to the weekend for more practice!!

 

[amrflyingdude]

As a rule of thumb the higher the wind the quicker you need to touch down, slowly landing in high winds equals trouble.

Here is what you can do, practice hovering close to the ground in GPS mode, when you feel the phantom found stability descend the last bit until you touch down. your grounds speed should be zero or you will tip your phantom.

Landing takes time, get in the habit of hovering, don't rush your landings and you will be fine.

Hope this helps.

 

[EMCSQUAR]

Another good practice, try not decending straight down. Slowly bring it in at an angle. As mentioned it takes a little practice.

 

[dsiles]

All great advice... I also put on lexan extensions to my Phantom that really make tipping over much hard to do front to back. Agree with hovering and then coming down.

 

[rnrnrn]

At the start I'd just like to note I don't want to sound obnoxious or anything... but I do have a bit of a comment to make on this landing issue.

Both myself and my partner have flown the Vision tens of times (extra batteries help with that) and only once has there been a case of a tip over - purely pilot error when coming down at an angle in high wind and on sloping surface. Otherwise we've never experienced a tip over - not even in relatively high winds as long as the surface was more or less flat (and on grass you can't always tell exactly).

I've read in other threads about people complaining about this and the only explanation I can come up with is that the engines were shut down using CSC instead of just holding the left (throttle) stick down. I've never had to use CSC to stop the motors - only to start them - and had no problems whatsoever during landing.

If anyone can confirm having a tip over while landing without using CSC I'd be much interested in that.

And yes I've also recovered the Vision from the air without landing by grabbing it with my right hand and then pulling on the throttle down for about 5 seconds - works like a charm (and very useful if for instance the compass calibration is not done well in a new location).

 

[jimdenburg]

I've never had much of a problem landing, at least on purpose. I think bringing both sticks to center might be what are screwing some people up, might cause the craft to move in a direction while descending=tip-over. I've always just brought the left stick back, and if it's windy or I'm in a tight spot, I'll hand land with the controller in my left hand and grabbing a skid on the P2V FIRMLY. And rather than bringing the craft to me in this situation, I'll bring it down within reach altitude-wise a few feet away, make sure that it's hovering in a stable manner,and then approach & grab.

 

[Pull_Up]

Nothing much to add to what's been said, other than to say that the windier or more turbulent the conditions are, the more definite you need to be with your landing. Coming down very slowly in little or no wind is ok, but if there's a bit more of the blowy stuff about I'd be looking to increase the descent rate over the last 12 inches rather than let it stay in ground effect too long. Ground effect can make the aircraft act a little like a puck on an air hockey table, so if its windy then you want to minimise the time it's in the floaty stuff just above the ground. If you are landing on an even surface then you can put it down and left stick down. If it's uneven, or loose (like sand) then personally I'd always launch from the flight case (to keep dust and stuff out of the aircraft) and catch by hand (for the same reason, and also because you are more likely to tip over on surfaces that aren't fairly level or firm).

In addition I've always found performing a solo hand catch gets much more appreciative looks than "just" landing it on the ground...

 

[pault]

Agree with all of the above - key is always use left stick down (perfectly vertically) to stop the motors. Nowadays I always land by hand. Just go into a hover slightly to the right of you (I am right handed) and keep it just above eye level and then grab leg and depower with left hand. There is some stress on the leg as the P2V starts to momentarily fight you until the motors stop so i have now started to land in a different orientation each time so as not to continually stress the same leg (nothing exact, just not always facing forwards).

 

[Tripnman]

Agreed on everything posted so far... You do have to watch your ground speed and make sure you are coming straight down. As mentioned, don't spend too much time in the ground effect or the aircraft will start to bob and weave. As long as you are using just the left stick to shut down the motors after touchdown, rather than the CSC, there should be no surges and no tipping over.

Until a couple of weeks ago I always landed on the ground as most of my flights were in open fields, parks or other spaces where there was a nice level area to do so. Now that I'm toting the P2V around to more challenging areas I find myself using my Tradecraft case to create a launch pad but then hand-catching it for landings.

Yesterday I needed to burn off some battery juice so as to not leave the cells at full charge for too long and it was quite windy - 10 to 15mph gusting to 30 mph. After the needed flight time (low and slow, it was fun watching the machine buck the air currents) I brought it in to land and the gusts make keeping near zero air speed very tough. As I circled around to hand-pluck it out of the air I noticed a distinct pitch in the aircraft - it was leaning a good 25 degrees into the wind. And at that moment, I heard a distinctive accent in my head saying "always do this with the P2V down wind." So I did - Thanks Pull_Up!

 

[Pull_Up]

I try to tell everyone I'm just a figment of their imagination...

(Product of your warped minds, more like).

 

[myvrodrocks]

You need a neck strap. Hover. Let go of the tx and grab the pv with your right hand. Then with your left zero the stick.

 

[Pull_Up]

Neck strap is an excellent idea, although I used to do it without until I added modified antennas and a USB power bank to the tx...

 

[gunslinger]

Neck strap is an excellent idea, although I used to do it without until I added modified antennas and a USB power bank to the tx...

I added the neck strap when I swapped the iPhone for the 7" Nexus. I soon realized I should have used a neck strap from day one. Makes everything a lot easier...

-slinger