Newbie Question

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Just got my P3S recently and have clocked up 18 flights and I love it, still getting used to everything and I am very happy with the purchase. Furthest I have flown from the home position is 200 metres as I am still a bit weary in case it flies away....I know...... I'm daft.

My last flight gave me a bit of a scare but managed to work it out but I will explain and hopefully someone can give me the best way to recover next time it happens.
I was out flying at a distance of around 50 metres over a bit of scrub, near to zero wind when all of a sudden my Sony Xperia Smart Phone lost contact with the drone, the DJIgo app stopped working and gave a lost contact signal, screen was grey, the drone was just hovering going nowhere. I did realise the hand controller was still operation so I was able to guide it back. The only thing that worries me if it was a distance of 100metres and I fail to notice the orientation of the drone to bring it home, I do know I can toggle the S2 button a couple of times to invoke the RTH but I was wondering if it would be okay to restart the DJIgo app to try and recover the drone this way?

Or is there another way??

Many thanks in advance.

Paul
 
I was wondering if it would be okay to restart the DJI Go app to try and recover the drone this way?
Or is there another way??
It should be fine to try restarting the app and if that doesn't help, you still have RTH or manual control to work with.
Try going to a nice, clear area, fly out 50 metres and shut down the app and restart to see how that works.
Better to experiment with this sort of thing in a safe area under controlled circumstances that having a panic when things aren't so calm.
 
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Thanks Meta4 for your quick response, that sounds like a plan. As stated just received it not long ago and I am still weary to let it fly beyond 200 metres....until that is, I build up the confidence that it will come home!
 
I've shut down and changed piloting apps while in flight without issues. When I tested this the P4 was maybe 50 feet away.
For my test I launched with Litchi, aborted, shut Litchi down and launched DJI Go.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots
 
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Thanks Kevin, starting to feel more and more confident..I will do more tests out on the field to become more acquainted with the controls!
 
REMEMBER to have your return to home height set above tree or nearby obstacle height.

If the height is set too low, it will RTH into a tree while trying to come home.


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This is a trick you can learn if your app is not working but you still have LOS. Push the right stick forward and if you see your drone going to the left, then move the left stick left (yaw) a bit till it straightens out heading back toward home. And if you see it flying right, move the left stick right (yaw) till again it straightens out heading home. It's easy to remember right equals right and left equals left. If it doesn't move either way, then it's either flying straight to or away from the home point, which should be easy to figure out.

Sent from my HTC 10 using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
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REMEMBER to have your return to home height set above tree or nearby obstacle height.

If the height is set too low, it will RTH into a tree while trying to come home.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Thanks for the input, my RTH height is set to 60 metres hopefully this should be enough or is it enough?

Paul
 
This is a trick you can learn if your app is not working but you still have LOS. Push the right stick forward and if you see your drone going to the left, then move the left stick left (yaw) a bit till it straightens out heading back toward home. And if you see it flying right, move the left stick right (yaw) till again it straightens out heading home. It's easy to remember right equals right and left equals left. If it doesn't move either way, then it's either flying straight to or away from the home point, which should be easy to figure out.

Sent from my HTC 10 using PhantomPilots mobile app
Great tip...many thanks for this, will try this out on my next flight!

Paul
 
Thanks for the input, my RTH height is set to 60 metres hopefully this should be enough or is it enough?

Paul

Next time you fly your "regular" spot, double check how high you need to manually fly to be above the trees or other height obstacles. Make sure your RTH height is set ABOVE those. Otherwise, you run the risk of some type of controller failure triggering RTH and you get stuck watching your Phantom glide directly into an object and creating expensive damage all the way down to the ground.

I don't see anything detrimental to having an extra-height RTH, such as approximately 120 meters. The extra height in RTH can possibly allow you to reach an altitude that you might be able to re-establish control signal with your Phantom.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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Next time you fly your "regular" spot, double check how high you need to manually fly to be above the trees or other height obstacles. Make sure your RTH height is set ABOVE those. Otherwise, you run the risk of some type of controller failure triggering RTH and you get stuck watching your Phantom glide directly into an object and creating expensive damage all the way down to the ground.

I don't see anything detrimental to having an extra-height RTH, such as approximately 120 meters. The extra height in RTH can possibly allow you to reach an altitude that you might be able to re-establish control signal with your Phantom.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Great, thanks for clearing that up! Big big help.

Paul
 
Great, thanks for clearing that up! Big big help.

Paul

Do keep in mind, if you're flying UNDER something and RTH is triggered, your phantom will rise all the way up to the "point of impact." [emoji1]


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Hopefully not! Just getting used to flying it above! o_O But a strong valid point! Do you know I have learn't more out of this forum for the short time I have been registered than the DJI forum! I wrote a couple of questions there a couple of days ago and still no answer? But here! It's great!
 
Next time you fly your "regular" spot, double check how high you need to manually fly to be above the trees or other height obstacles. Make sure your RTH height is set ABOVE those. Otherwise, you run the risk of some type of controller failure triggering RTH and you get stuck watching your Phantom glide directly into an object and creating expensive damage all the way down to the ground.

I don't see anything detrimental to having an extra-height RTH, such as approximately 120 meters. The extra height in RTH can possibly allow you to reach an altitude that you might be able to re-establish control signal with your Phantom.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
There is at least two detrimental things I can think of right off at having a 120m RTH height, (that's the max height per FAA in the states BTW). First if there are any good winds on this day, and they're not blowing in your favor. That's going to add to your RTH time and battery drain as the winds are always stronger the higher you go. Next, speaking of battery drain. If your battery % is getting low and you're having it go up to 120m first before even heading back, when maybe 40 or 50 meters would have be just fine. Is wasting battery power unnecessarily, and then you're going to have to descend that 120m at the home point as well. Personal I use 50 meters as my go to setting. The best practice is to just add 10 meters to the tallest thing anywhere near you if at the same ground level as the home point.
 
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Hopefully not! Just getting used to flying it above! o_O But a strong valid point! Do you know I have learn't more out of this forum for the short time I have been registered than the DJI forum! I wrote a couple of questions there a couple of days ago and still no answer? But here! It's great!
Yes, I completely agree with you at that. I'm on both forums and find this one much better when discussing any mods to your setup or when talking about pushing the envelop some.
 
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