Well today I tried my first waypoint mission with my P3S. It was a simple mission circling the remains of an old abandoned settlement. I set my waypoints and had them all focus on a POI (the remains). I launched the mission and it completed it successfully with a few glitches. The recording was to stop at the 2nd last waypoint then go to the last one and do a panorama, but this did not happen, it kept recording. I had set RTH after the pano waypoint. The phantom returned but there was a tail wind so it was travelling fast and then it began to descend near some trees but in the midday sun I couldn't see it, but could hear it. I thought it was much farther than it was and panicked and cancelled the RTH but by that time it was already near the ground. From what I can tell the phantom crash landed and flipped over. When I got to it the motors were still running but had stopped because of the tall grasses. As soon as I picked it up they were running. I feared the worse but everything seems to be ok. Other than a bit of grass shards and stains she seems to work fine. I quickly did an quick test hover and it seems to work.
Litchi Mission
The Good:
•the waypoint mission completed and RTH initiated like planned
•the phantom seems to be ok but will do some more testing
•got the video I wanted but … (see below)
•my waypoints were set high enough to clear any trees in case it drifted.
•choosing the P3S to learn on was a good choice. It would be a $$$ to crash and damage a more expensive drone.
•I was lucky and learned from my mistakes.
The Bad:
•WOW cruising speed is fast. Need to slow it down ALOT. What is a good speed to set?
•setting RTH on last waypoint was a mistake. Should have just set to hover and brought it in manually
•recording did not stop on the second last waypoint and the pano did not happen on the last one. I re-checked my mission and both were set properly
•was a little more windy than I would have liked (Wind was 20km/h) and there was a tail wind when it was in RTH
•RTH location was off quite a bit (not sure if this was the result of wind) causing phantom to narrowly miss trees.
•phantom crashed (flipped over on landing)
What I learned:
•cruising speed is too fast
•RTH was not the best choice on this mission
•should have stuck with my gut and not flown my first mission in that kind of wind.
Overall, I learned a lot from this mission that will hopefully help me become a better pilot next time. Now to edit the mission and try again.
Litchi Mission
The Good:
•the waypoint mission completed and RTH initiated like planned
•the phantom seems to be ok but will do some more testing
•got the video I wanted but … (see below)
•my waypoints were set high enough to clear any trees in case it drifted.
•choosing the P3S to learn on was a good choice. It would be a $$$ to crash and damage a more expensive drone.
•I was lucky and learned from my mistakes.
The Bad:
•WOW cruising speed is fast. Need to slow it down ALOT. What is a good speed to set?
•setting RTH on last waypoint was a mistake. Should have just set to hover and brought it in manually
•recording did not stop on the second last waypoint and the pano did not happen on the last one. I re-checked my mission and both were set properly
•was a little more windy than I would have liked (Wind was 20km/h) and there was a tail wind when it was in RTH
•RTH location was off quite a bit (not sure if this was the result of wind) causing phantom to narrowly miss trees.
•phantom crashed (flipped over on landing)
What I learned:
•cruising speed is too fast
•RTH was not the best choice on this mission
•should have stuck with my gut and not flown my first mission in that kind of wind.
Overall, I learned a lot from this mission that will hopefully help me become a better pilot next time. Now to edit the mission and try again.