Not enough power to RTH!!!

[Duchunter]

Omg I just got the scare of my life! I was flying around not paying much attention to my phone. Apparently my wife cut the volume all the way down so I got no audible warnings. I'm flying and look at the screen and I see "not enough battery to return to home"! I almost had to change my underwear. I was flying over LOTS of trees and water. I have this horrible habit of doing pilroeits when I bring it down. I'm trying to bring it back and down at the same time and it's doing circles the air while I'm trying to bring it back so I just hit the RTH button and as its coming back it stops and says its landing, IN A DENSE FORREST! I stopped the landing and took back control and manually brought it back. I landed with 7% battery. That's the closest call I've had yet. Scared me to death!

 

[macoman]

Wow... You was so lucky!!!

 

[Duchunter]

Yeah for sure. What I don't understand is why the controller never started beeping at me. I have the warning set to 20% and critical at 10%. I got neither. Had I not seen that warning it would have fallen out of the ski.

 

[tcope]

Very good rule of thumb is that you should be back to your area at 30%. You should be landing before 20%. You do not want to hit RTH unless you cannot control the Phantom yourself (not at low battery).

I mention percentages but really these are approximations made by the Go app. I _highly_ recommend that you change the settings to display the voltage of the battery and look at that more so then battery percentage.

 

[jsposito]

Yeah for sure. What I don't understand is why the controller never started beeping at me. I have the warning set to 20% and critical at 10%. I got neither. Had I not seen that warning it would have fallen out of the ski.

I truly believe the critical low battery / force landing should , if it could, be set to 5%. i have been in a couple of situations where taking control of the craft at 10% would have gotten to the HP. Mine is set to 10%, and I wonder if what you experienced with no beep is just an anonymly but and hopefully work the next time around.

 

[Deleted member 62848]

Omg I just got the scare of my life! I was flying around not paying much attention to my phone. Apparently my wife cut the volume all the way down so I got no audible warnings. I'm flying and look at the screen and I see "not enough battery to return to home"! I almost had to change my underwear. I was flying over LOTS of trees and water. I have this horrible habit of doing pilroeits when I bring it down. I'm trying to bring it back and down at the same time and it's doing circles the air while I'm trying to bring it back so I just hit the RTH button and as its coming back it stops and says its landing, IN A DENSE FORREST! I stopped the landing and took back control and manually brought it back. I landed with 7% battery. That's the closest call I've had yet. Scared me to death!

Wow Yip lucky,,,,good on ya

 

[matti]

I fly very conservatively regarding the battery so I have never experienced this.

But if I ever did, my plan has been to switch to ATTI mode and return to the home point manually ASAP (AFAIK for some reason automatic RTH does not use the maximum battery-friendly speed). If the AC's exact position is not known, I'd let it automatically RTH until I know where it is.

 

[tcope]

I truly believe the critical low battery / force landing should , if it could, be set to 5%. i have been in a couple of situations where taking control of the craft at 10% would have gotten to the HP. Mine is set to 10%, and I wonder if what you experienced with no beep is just an anonymly but and hopefully work the next time around.

The percentages are a guestimant by the software. The voltage in the lowest cell is what is correct. So there needs to be a pretty good buffer on the percentage.

Also, the issue and solution in your case had nothing to do with the critical battery level at 10% or 5%. You should have been at the HP around 30%.

 

[jsposito]

ha

The percentages are a guestimant by the software. The voltage in the lowest cell is what is correct. So there needs to be a pretty good buffer on the percentage.

Also, the issue and solution in your case had nothing to do with the critical battery level at 10% or 5%. You should have been at the HP around 30%.

, yeah, so a total of about 15 minutes flying time....sad but true!

 

[toddjlyons]

I'm a 30%er. Gives me lots of time to come in and fight bad winds if they come up.

 

[Tim Dawes]

Very good rule of thumb is that you should be back to your area at 30%. You should be landing before 20%. You do not want to hit RTH unless you cannot control the Phantom yourself (not at low battery).

I mention percentages but really these are approximations made by the Go app. I _highly_ recommend that you change the settings to display the voltage of the battery and look at that more so then battery percentage.

What's the rational for avoiding RTH? I've heard this before but I routinely use it.

 

[Tim Dawes]

Like many others here, I lean on the cautious side regarding battery status and always make sure I have a tailwind on the way back. Failsafe RTH is based only on distance with no account of windspeed.