I'm flying a P2 V+ v3 with the gimbal/camera removed while I practice. I know I lose all the telemetry benefits I gain from using the Vision Assistant but I fear for the life of my $700 gimbal/camera! So I decided to practice without it...
Today I went out for my second session - I have been practicing with a Syma X5 and having a blast with it! That thing is practically indestructible, and flying it in manual mode is a fantastic experience and is very humbling. Today I was practicing flying squares with My Phantom and suddenly it ascended, rapidly (!), to about 400 feet and would not respond to any control stick efforts. It hovered there in the wind like a champ so I know GPS was working. It seemed like forever, but finally I realized it was slowly, very slowly, descending. I went from panicked and freaked to amazement - it was coming home on it's own! At the moment of it's ascension, I started worrying about the battery power ending and watching it fall from the sky as I positioned myself underneath to catch it!
On it's way down I noticed the lights were flashing red so I realized I had gone beyond RTH battery threshold, but what I don't understand is why did it ascend up to 400 feet when I have the RTH height set at 66 feet? I don't understand that part! I learned that I need to set my timer to 15 minutes rather than the 20 minutes I was using - probably the windy conditions used up more battery than I realized!
Lesson learned: 1) Added lost and found sticker with REWARD and phone number; 2) Serious research on a GSM or GPS tracker; 3) re-read my "Guide to the Phantom 2 Vision & Vision+"
Funny thing is, that was the first of my three batteries and I had been looking forward to about an hour of flying...after that incident with the first battery, I was so freaked I closed up shop and went home!....Weenie! But, I did figure out what happened so all in all, it was a good learning experience....
**** buy I love this stuff!
Today I went out for my second session - I have been practicing with a Syma X5 and having a blast with it! That thing is practically indestructible, and flying it in manual mode is a fantastic experience and is very humbling. Today I was practicing flying squares with My Phantom and suddenly it ascended, rapidly (!), to about 400 feet and would not respond to any control stick efforts. It hovered there in the wind like a champ so I know GPS was working. It seemed like forever, but finally I realized it was slowly, very slowly, descending. I went from panicked and freaked to amazement - it was coming home on it's own! At the moment of it's ascension, I started worrying about the battery power ending and watching it fall from the sky as I positioned myself underneath to catch it!
On it's way down I noticed the lights were flashing red so I realized I had gone beyond RTH battery threshold, but what I don't understand is why did it ascend up to 400 feet when I have the RTH height set at 66 feet? I don't understand that part! I learned that I need to set my timer to 15 minutes rather than the 20 minutes I was using - probably the windy conditions used up more battery than I realized!
Lesson learned: 1) Added lost and found sticker with REWARD and phone number; 2) Serious research on a GSM or GPS tracker; 3) re-read my "Guide to the Phantom 2 Vision & Vision+"
Funny thing is, that was the first of my three batteries and I had been looking forward to about an hour of flying...after that incident with the first battery, I was so freaked I closed up shop and went home!....Weenie! But, I did figure out what happened so all in all, it was a good learning experience....
**** buy I love this stuff!