Lost my phantom today

[KismetLRC]

Well, LOST my Phantom today being stupid!

At the beach and was zipping her along. I was standing on the deck of our ocean front house showing off and she was cruising up and down the beach. Turned her inland and lost sight momentarily. Now worries. Settled the sticks in the center, walked to the inland side of the house and....

Oh crap, where'd she go?

No worries,its on GPS setting..... Look down at the control and its on ATTI.

Down wind (20 knots) and ATTI isn't a good combo.

Anyway. Spent a couple of hours trying to recover her and no joy.

Worst part was I had a gopro3 aboard.

Anyone finds one on the mainland of the Outer Banks, please give me a PM.

 

[miskatonic]

Wow, well that sucks. Sorry to hear that you lost $800+. Check to see if your renters/home owners insurance covers it. Not to be a jerk but it sounds like maybe you are a rookie pilot with the Phantom? I only say that because your post indicates a knowledge gap with how the Phantom works and the conditions in which it can be flown without mishap. The first step is to put on a song by Pink Floyd: "Learning to Fly."

GPS mode is just GPS assisted flight that helps the Phantom maintain its position in the air. GPS mode is not going to return the Phantom to you it will just keep it in one position in the air. What you really wanted to do was to turn failsafe mode on so it would return home. Failsafe mode has to be set up in the software before flight and you have to establish a home position.

All that is a moot point anyway. If you were in ATTI mode with a 20 knot wind the Phantom is probably in the water. The Phantom has max speed of about a 22 miles per hour. A 20 knot wind is about 23 miles per hour. ATTI mode in a 20 knot wind with no input from your remote makes a water crash a strong likely hood.

A few tips before you decide to blow another $800+.

I live on the ocean in San Francisco. There is always some amount of wind. Use an anemometer and don't fly in anything over a moderate breeze. This means stay on the ground if the wind is over 10 knots!

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...mometer.html?gclid=CIOtmObj6rkCFSZxQgodqxoACg

Mount a Garmin GTU 10. They are too cheap not to have one: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Garmin-GTU-10-Tracking-Device/15741887

Get an IOSD Mini and set the Phantom up for FPV. The IOSD Mini works with the GPS and will help you find your way home if you happen to lose sight of the Phantom.

Put some really bright LEDs on the Phantom.

Write your name and contact information on a sticker and put it on top of the Phantom.

If you had a registry number, please add an A to the end of it. As in NCC-1701-A.

 

[KismetLRC]

Well, thanks for the advice, especially the NCC-1701.
Unless I'm mistaken, turning off the transmitter actually triggers the failsafe RTH feature, does it not?
I definitely did this...and waited quite a while....
I didn't realize that RTH also works when in ATTI mode. Either way though, the wind was too much to overcome n the return flight.

I have wind speed and direction indicators on the house and mobile apps on my phone, so really no reason to spend $20 on something that tells me its breezy outside.

Like I said, I was stupid and now its gone. I've always flow it pretty close to home, just got away from me this time.

 

[FrankB]

I believe both the Garmin GTU 10 and the Pocketfinder trackers rely on having cell coverage- so if you're flying your Phantom in the wilderness where there is no cell coverage, you're hooped. Is there any lightweight device, like the SPOT messenger, that use satellites to transmit its location?

I just bought one of the new Bluetooth tracking devices- but they only have a range of about 100 feet.

 

[FrankB]

Hopefully, the new Phantom Vision will have a built-in tracking system- something that constantly sends you the location of the device so that if it goes down, you can mark the location and find it.

 

[Skylane765]

Garmin GTU 10 is the best way to find the Phantom.

 

[tapiot]

GTU 10

Seem to be rather hard to find. Is there an alternative?

Thanks!

Tim T.

 

[mblitch]

Use an anemometer and don't fly in anything over a moderate breeze. This means stay on the ground if the wind is over 10 knots!

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...mometer.html?gclid=CIOtmObj6rkCFSZxQgodqxoACg

That same unit can be had via Amazon for ~12 shipped and you will not have to wait 3-4 weeks as you would with HK.

http://www.amazon.com/GM8908-Digital-Te ... 007VAVTHU/

 

[RedFishChaser]

Wow, well that sucks. Sorry to hear that you lost $800+. Check to see if your renters/home owners insurance covers it. Not to be a jerk but it sounds like maybe you are a rookie pilot with the Phantom? I only say that because your post indicates a knowledge gap with how the Phantom works and the conditions in which it can be flown without mishap. The first step is to put on a song by Pink Floyd: "Learning to Fly."

GPS mode is just GPS assisted flight that helps the Phantom maintain its position in the air. GPS mode is not going to return the Phantom to you it will just keep it in one position in the air. What you really wanted to do was to turn failsafe mode on so it would return home. Failsafe mode has to be set up in the software before flight and you have to establish a home position.

All that is a moot point anyway. If you were in ATTI mode with a 20 knot wind the Phantom is probably in the water. The Phantom has max speed of about a 22 miles per hour. A 20 knot wind is about 23 miles per hour. ATTI mode in a 20 knot wind with no input from your remote makes a water crash a strong likely hood.

A few tips before you decide to blow another $800+.

I live on the ocean in San Francisco. There is always some amount of wind. Use an anemometer and don't fly in anything over a moderate breeze. This means stay on the ground if the wind is over 10 knots!

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...mometer.html?gclid=CIOtmObj6rkCFSZxQgodqxoACg

Mount a Garmin GTU 10. They are too cheap not to have one: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Garmin-GTU-10-Tracking-Device/15741887

Get an IOSD Mini and set the Phantom up for FPV. The IOSD Mini works with the GPS and will help you find your way home if you happen to lose sight of the Phantom.

Put some really bright LEDs on the Phantom.

Write your name and contact information on a sticker and put it on top of the Phantom.

If you had a registry number, please add an A to the end of it. As in NCC-1701-A.

Thanks for this post! How much does the Garmin GTU 10 weigh? Where do you mount yours? Inside the body? Can it be tracked via iPhone apps? Thanks!

 

[miskatonic]

Use an anemometer and don't fly in anything over a moderate breeze. This means stay on the ground if the wind is over 10 knots!

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...mometer.html?gclid=CIOtmObj6rkCFSZxQgodqxoACg

That same unit can be had via Amazon for ~12 shipped and you will not have to wait 3-4 weeks as you would with HK.

http://www.amazon.com/GM8908-Digital-Te ... 007VAVTHU/

I was being lazy and was already on their page.

 

[miskatonic]

I use this to mount the GTU 10: https://www.shapeways.com/model/126...-bracket.html?li=search-results&materialId=62

The GTU 10 weighs about 48.5 g and it can be tracked with an iPhone app.