My first flyaway! What did I do wrong?

[qrandle]

Hello:

So now I've had my first flyaway and I don't want to fly my P3S again until I figure out what I did wrong or ??? I just went out and did a flight tonight to play with my new ND filters. And it turns into a disaster -- almost.

When callabraiting the compass before, I've had errors and moved, callibrated again, etc. I understand all that, or thought I did. This is from my backyard where I've probably flown 15 times at least. I had no warning at all. Everything looked cool Just safe to fly in GPS mode.

Here is the healthy drones log, which doesn't even show any of these errors that I can see:

https://healthydrones.com/main?f ... ;page_id=SENSORSGPS

So about 22 seconds into the flight (very lower left) I notice the thing is drifting fast totally out of control (that's the bottom left flight area) back towards me and right then I get a COMPASS ERROR blah blah and it's totally flyling back the opposite way. I have no control. I switch it into ATTI mode but it won't respond, it's just keeps flying away back from me in the opposte direction. I have no control at all. I think I'm doomed. So it's out of control basically from the bottom left point to the top right point of the map trail that's when it was just having a mind of its own. (Screen shot attached.) Then I got control back.

This went on so long, that it wasn't like I was dissoriented in ATTI mode and just flying away from me without knowing it. It would respond up and down, but not left or right it seemed.

But then at that point I seem to gain control. And was able to fly it back and land.

I then looked at the aircraft status and its a HUGE COMPASS ERROR warning inside the app, but it has never done this to me after the aircraft has taken off. It's warned me on a few occasions as I was callibrating or setting up and I've moved, etc.

So what did I do wrong? Or what happend to the aircraft? I had hoped the healthy drones data would have shown me what was going on more, but everythign seems to be OK.

Any insight from more experienced users would be greatly appreciated. I just want to understand what I did (or didn't do.)

Quint

EDIT: Here are the Phantom logs:

Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

You see where I finally am able to switch into ATTI mode, while there are all these YAW errors. But then it switched back to GPS on it's own at some point or ???

 

[Mark The Droner]

From what I can tell, you had a bad compass calibration, right? That's obvious. But why? You need to figure that out.

What did you do wrong? IMO, you launched and sprinted away too fast. What I do is launch and hover for a while right in front of me about ten feet up. I spend about half a minute hovering to be sure there are no compass issues. If I'm happy with the hover, I proceed with the flight.

 

[With The Birds]

From what I can tell, you had a bad compass calibration, right? That's obvious. But why? You need to figure that out.

What did you do wrong? IMO, you launched and sprinted away too fast. What I do is launch and hover for a while right in front of me about ten feet up. I spend about half a minute hovering to be sure there are no compass issues. If I'm happy with the hover, I proceed with the flight.

It's not a flyaway, you managed the bring her home.... Good news!

There was a reasonable breeze blowing and you were in attitude mode with, from what you have described, a less than optimum compass calibration. Find a nice open area to get a good calibration and stick with it.

Include checking your compass mod value as part of your pre flight routine and you may get less supervises.

Happy flying....

 

[flyNfrank]

You have to finish compass calibration with a steady flashing green light. Not a solid green light, but steady flashing. If you have trouble at ANY point of a compass calibration, reset Everything. Meaning, power down the GO app Device, the R/C, and A/C.
Edit:
(Btw, the green flashing light can also tell you there is a gps connection and have nothing to do with a compass calibration)

 

[qrandle]

Mark MD, This is all really good advice. I usually do the hover for a bit but i was "in a rush" cause I was in my backyard and I don't want to bug my neighbors with the noise so I like to get high and out there fast. So that was totally in play possibly.

There was no compass warning on the ground, it was 30 seconds into flight when it occurred. That's what was new to me. The few times it has happened before it was BOOM immediately as I was doing a compass calibration.

Thanks With the Birds.

I'll do as everyone advices. I got some good advice on the DJI board as well.

 

[qrandle]

You have to finish compass calibration with a solid green light. Not a flashing green light, but solid. If you have trouble at ANY point of a compass calibration, reset Everything. Meaning, power down the GO app Device, the R/C, and A/C.

(Btw, the green flashing light is telling you there is a gps connection and has nothing to do with compass calibration)

WOW I just remembered something. THAT IS WHAT HAPPENED!!!!! This was the first time I had flown this close to night. And I remember looking at the A/C as it was up in the air as I first started to hover that the green lights were flashing. And I thought to myself, "that's cool it makes it easier to see at night when the are flashing." I did notice that before cause it I had flown during the day all the time.

WRONG!

So now I see I had a bad compass calibration but was so quick to fly it. So THAT is what happened.

I need to go back and study all the various light meanings and have those memorized better.

Thanks everyone.

Q

 

[flyNfrank]

Mark MD, This is all really good advice. I usually do the hover for a bit but i was "in a rush" cause I was in my backyard and I don't want to bug my neighbors with the noise so I like to get high and out there fast. So that was totally in play possibly.

There was no compass warning on the ground, it was 30 seconds into flight when it occurred. That's what was new to me. The few times it has happened before it was BOOM immediately as I was doing a compass calibration.

Thanks With the Birds.

I'll do as everyone advices. I got some good advice on the DJI board as well.

After seeing this in more then one of your post, you seriously need bring yourself up to speed on doing compass calibrations. You mention having compass issues multiple times(more then once) and this really needs to be taken seriously. I calibrate the compass before every flight and I never have to redo or question any of them.

Treat the calibration process with respect. As in keep the aircraft level, and don't do the process too fast.

 

[Multicoptertec]

It's not just your drone at risk. Look at all those houses you flew over. I may get flamed for this, and I know a lot of pilots fly over homes, but I worry for obvious reasons. So many horrible things can happen, and it's a matter of when, not if.

 

[qrandle]

I think you are misunderstanding what I am saying. Twice before I was doing a compass calibration and got an error right away as I did the callibration. (Not in my backyard. This was in a totally different area.) So I moved to a different/better location and started again. What is wrong with that? Got a good calibration and flew. It's not like I'm staying in the same location and "forcing a good calibration."

There are so many different color combinations with aircraft and R?C. The manual says to recalibrate when "When compass data is abnormal and the Aircraft Status Indicator is blinking green and yellow."

I don't remember the yellow, but it maybe that was the case. I just remember flashing green.

I need to go re-read the manual and better understand the difference between flashing and blinking. The manual says this blinking green means to use auto take-off.

Anyway, thanks.

Q

 

[qrandle]

(Btw, the green flashing light is telling you there is a gps connection and has nothing to do with compass calibration)

I gotta go back and go through the compass calibration stuff in the manual more I guess. Cause now I see you are telling me the flashing green light is normal in flight. So I just don't understand what I did wrong during compass callibration. To me everyone it was like the 70 flight before I had. I had no warning in the app about a compass error until 30 seconds into the flight.

But I must not have noticed something new and different in compass calibration that it as trying to tell me. That's what I'm trying to figure out. I rushed too fast basically.

Thanks,

Q

 

[flyNfrank]

I gotta go back and go through the compass calibration stuff in the manual more I guess. Cause now I see you are telling me the flashing green light is normal in flight. So I just don't understand what I did wrong during compass callibration. To me everyone it was like the 70 flight before I had. I had no warning in the app about a compass error until 30 seconds into the flight.

But I must not have noticed something new and different in compass calibration that it as trying to tell me. That's what I'm trying to figure out. I rushed too fast basically.

Thanks,

Q

I was referring to the green light at the point in which you successfully complete a compass calibration. There are times when even though you yourself are up over the a/c it receives signals from enough satellites for the a/c to give you a flashing green light. Also at that time it will record the Home Point location and mark it at that position.

The compass calibrations sort of requires a certain technique. That would consist of where you hold the aircraft, how fast to rotate it, waiting until the gimbal settles, ect.

As for blinking lights, each color, and the speed plus sequence,.....there is a full list of different meanings. I honestly don't pay any attention to them unless it is blinking red only lights as I know that be a low battery.

Keep in mind not everything is listed in the manual. It lacks a great deal of detailed info.

 

[lonjsnyder]

I believe once you have a good compass calibration, don't recalibrate until you travel more than 100 miles or after a firmware update. Some think it's prudent to calibrate at each new location but that increases the risk of a bad calibration.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[qrandle]

I sort of need to work on that....

The compass calibrations sort of requires a certain technique. That would consist of where you hold the aircraft, how fast to rotate it, waiting until the gimbal settles, ect.

Thanks,

 

[John Locke]

You stated you have Phantom 3 STANDARD. You are posting this in the Pro/Adv discussion, so what we PRO/ADV guys know may not be relevant to your STANDARD. You should really be posting this in the P3S section where the P3S guys hang out. I think they would be more help.

I can tell you that you I can have a perfectly good compass calibration that I have flown many times before near the original calibration spot, and all of a sudden during flight I can get a compass error in that same area. It's happened to me (one time), however I fly a P3P. There really is no explanation, so I don't think we can point to exactly what happened to you. Compass errors just happen. I don't calibrate unless I move 100+ miles from my last calibration and I've never had a problem with that routine in over 200 flights. PLEASE UNDERSTAND, the one problem above was within a few miles of my original calibration point, no explanation.

Compass errors can happen out of the blue. Others have reported the same thing, they just happen with no explanation, but are usually rare, from my experience. You need to be prepared for them by understanding how to fly in ATTI mode, which is what a P3A or P3P will switch to automatically when a compass error occurs. In your case, with your P3S, it sounds like you had wind and the craft drifted, making you think it was flying away, when in reality it was floating away in ATTI mode when you had the compass error. That's just a guess, since I've never flown a P3S.

IMHO, when you calibrate your compass is the time to be most cautious, doing the hover and making sure things look right, especially with the MOD value in the sensor section of GO (but I don't know if your P3S shows a mod value). New calibrations can be bad, not knowing what's buried nearby, or if there's any magnetic anomalies in the area. Just because the craft completes a calibration doesn't mean it's good, if your area is bad.

BTW, with P3A/P3P, when calibrating, during the first circle dance the LEDs on the craft are YELLOW until you complete the circle, then they turn to SOLID GREEN. On the second circle dance pointing the nose down the lights are SOLID GREEN until the circle is complete, at which time they BLINK GREEN. The BLINKING GREEN LEDs indicates the compass calibration is complete.

 

[qrandle]

You stated you have Phantom 3 STANDARD. You are posting this in the Pro/Adv discussion, so what we PRO/ADV guys know may not be relevant to your STANDARD. You should really be posting this in the P3S section where the P3S guys hang out. I think they would be more help.

I can tell you that you I can have a perfectly good compass calibration that I have flown many times before near the original calibration spot, and all of a sudden during flight I can get a compass error in that same area. It's happened to me (one time), however I fly a P3P. There really is no explanation, so I don't think we can point to exactly what happened to you. Compass errors just happen. I don't calibrate unless I move 100+ miles from my last calibration and I've never had a problem with that routine in over 200 flights. PLEASE UNDERSTAND, the one problem above was within a few miles of my original calibration point, no explanation.

Compass errors can happen out of the blue. Others have reported the same thing, they just happen with no explanation, but are usually rare, from my experience. You need to be prepared for them by understanding how to fly in ATTI mode, which is what a P3A or P3P will switch to automatically when a compass error occurs. In your case, with your P3S, it sounds like you had wind and the craft drifted, making you think it was flying away, when in reality it was floating away in ATTI mode when you had the compass error. That's just a guess, since I've never flown a P3S.

IMHO, when you calibrate your compass is the time to be most cautious, doing the hover and making sure things look right, especially with the MOD value in the sensor section of GO (but I don't know if your P3S shows a mod value). New calibrations can be bad, not knowing what's buried nearby, or if there's any magnetic anomalies in the area. Just because the craft completes a calibration doesn't mean it's good, if your area is bad.

BTW, with P3A/P3P, when calibrating, during the first circle dance the LEDs on the craft are YELLOW until you complete the circle, then they turn to SOLID GREEN. On the second circle dance pointing the nose down the lights are SOLID GREEN until the circle is complete, at which time they BLINK GREEN. The BLINKING GREEN LEDs indicates the compass calibration is complete.

Thanks for all the info. I do actually have a Pro, it was just a typo (that I've now fixed.) I've learned some great lessons from is experience. I've searched and read a lot more on compass errors and calibration, etc. and hopefully I'll be a better at all this because of it.

Q

 

[flyNfrank]

You stated you have Phantom 3 STANDARD. You are posting this in the Pro/Adv discussion, so what we PRO/ADV guys know may not be relevant to your STANDARD. You should really be posting this in the P3S section where the P3S guys hang out. I think they would be more help.

I can tell you that you I can have a perfectly good compass calibration that I have flown many times before near the original calibration spot, and all of a sudden during flight I can get a compass error in that same area. It's happened to me (one time), however I fly a P3P. There really is no explanation, so I don't think we can point to exactly what happened to you. Compass errors just happen. I don't calibrate unless I move 100+ miles from my last calibration and I've never had a problem with that routine in over 200 flights. PLEASE UNDERSTAND, the one problem above was within a few miles of my original calibration point, no explanation.

Compass errors can happen out of the blue. Others have reported the same thing, they just happen with no explanation, but are usually rare, from my experience. You need to be prepared for them by understanding how to fly in ATTI mode, which is what a P3A or P3P will switch to automatically when a compass error occurs. In your case, with your P3S, it sounds like you had wind and the craft drifted, making you think it was flying away, when in reality it was floating away in ATTI mode when you had the compass error. That's just a guess, since I've never flown a P3S.

IMHO, when you calibrate your compass is the time to be most cautious, doing the hover and making sure things look right, especially with the MOD value in the sensor section of GO (but I don't know if your P3S shows a mod value). New calibrations can be bad, not knowing what's buried nearby, or if there's any magnetic anomalies in the area. Just because the craft completes a calibration doesn't mean it's good, if your area is bad.

BTW, with P3A/P3P, when calibrating, during the first circle dance the LEDs on the craft are YELLOW until you complete the circle, then they turn to SOLID GREEN. On the second circle dance pointing the nose down the lights are SOLID GREEN until the circle is complete, at which time they BLINK GREEN. The BLINKING GREEN LEDs indicates the compass calibration is complete.

Hey @John Locke, I have over 350 flights and never had any compass errors before, during, or near the end of a flight. As you know I DO calibrate the compass after each battery change or flight depending on how you look at it. I also have the data for each of the flights I have made.

I lost 2 P2V+'s due to fly-aways in 2014 and eventually found out calibrating the compass before each flight reduced the risk. I never had another fly-away, nor has there been any such issues by using the same method with the P3.

 

[p fandango]

I believe once you have a good compass calibration, don't recalibrate until you travel more than 100 miles or after a firmware update. Some think it's prudent to calibrate at each new location but that increases the risk of a bad calibration.

the chap i normally fly with even recalibrates after changing a battery

 

[m0j0]

Hey @John Locke, I have over 350 flights and never had any compass errors before, during, or near the end of a flight. As you know I DO calibrate the compass after each battery change or flight depending on how you look at it. I also have the data for each of the flights I have made.

I lost 2 P2V+'s due to fly-aways in 2014 and eventually found out calibrating the compass before each flight reduced the risk. I never had another fly-away, nor has there been any such issues by using the same method with the P3.

I used to calibrate often, if I changed location I calibrated. That stopped when I had a problem that resulted in a compass error. Fortunately for me, I knew what to do and I recovered the bird without much butt puckering... The problem was absolutely because I calibrated in a bad spot. I now follow the directions from the primer thread. I have 300 miles flown and no real issues since. I can vouch that calibrating too often increases the chance of introducing a bad calibration. I'm in the camp of lock it in and do not change it unless their is something of significance occurs warranting a new calibration.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[m0j0]

the chap i normally fly with even recalibrates after changing a battery

Wow! That's really excessive and just an overall bad idea but hey it's his bird.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[skipilot1]

You have to finish compass calibration with a steady flashing green light. Not a solid green light, but steady flashing. If you have trouble at ANY point of a compass calibration, reset Everything. Meaning, power down the GO app Device, the R/C, and A/C.
Edit:
(Btw, the green flashing light can also tell you there is a gps connection and have nothing to do with a compass calibration)

What does A/C stand for?