Here is what happens and to help clear this up.
It's called voltage sag.
So he took off with 32% battery on a cold battery. 32% was correct, the phantoms flight controller is basically a computer and can do simple voltage readings.
Now, he flew around and out 150 feet waiting on the failsafe, to show his buddy. Maybe he full throttled it a few times and that pulls a lot of current, this is where voltage sag comes in. Those quick fast full throttle bursts cause the battery to immediately dip, sometimes drastically. His battery dipped below the required current/voltage to run all four motors and keep the quad in the air. So they cut out and drastically slowed down...no motors spinning fast = no lift = crash.
Now, on the ground, with no load the battery will bounce back to say...20+%. Then you are confused as to why it crashed with 20% battery left and the failsafe did not kick in.
You can test this with a lipo alarm or lipo meter with digital display.
You can plug the lipo meter into a lipo battery (one with a balance plug), start the motors and read the voltage 12.97 volts, hold the quad down and full throttle (load) you can watch the lipo meter voltage start to drop instantly, if it's a low "C" battery, it could dip as low as 10v.
So if you start with 11v and full throttle it or fast maneuver it = voltage sag= not enough power to run four motors and props = gravity = crash.
Okay, we are done here.
Sent from my HTC6535LVW using
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