P3P Flyaway

[Swifteagle]

Hi everyone,

I am new to the forum and also to phantoms.. I have a p3p on the mail and was really excited until I decided to youtube for flyaways. I was under the impression this was something of the past, but it seems to be an ongoing issue for what I saw in youtube.

How often does it happen? and what triggers the flyaways? It really scares me, 1. potentially hurting someone, 2. losing quite a bit of money if it is lost or damaged.

Looking forward to hearing from you guys.

Thanks

 

[msinger]

what triggers the flyaways?

In almost all cases discussed here, it happened because pilots failed to read the Phantom manual and/or did not understand it.

 

[Swifteagle]

In almost all cases discussed here, it happened because pilots failed to read the Phantom manual and/or did not understand it.

That is what I usually hear.... But I only wonder why we dont hear the same about APM or Multiwii, you would think if it was always user fault the same would be seen in other systems.
example:

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Watching this video freaked me out big time.

 

[Sagebrush]

That is what I usually hear.... But I only wonder why we dont hear the same about APM or Multiwii, you would think if it was always user fault the same would be seen in other systems.
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Watching this video freaked me out big time.

Well... this video doesn't bother me 'cause I can't tell what's going on other than somebody is using an RC indoors. Flyaway? I dunno but whatever it is looks like a classic example of pilot error if he's indoors and the birds flying around outside.

SB

 

[msinger]

Watching this video freaked me out big time.

What exactly freaked you out?

 

[msinger]

I dunno but whatever it is looks like a classic example of pilot error if he's indoors and the birds flying around outside.

The owner of that video is playing the flight log back in DJI GO.

 

[Zuzua]

That is what I usually hear.... But I only wonder why we dont hear the same about APM or Multiwii, you would think if it was always user fault the same would be seen in other systems.
example:

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Watching this video freaked me out big time.

Video doesn't show anything that would indicate problems are solely due to system malfunction! It could be bad compass calibration, not waiting to get good GPS signals before take off, taking out from a bad compass position, third party equipment, flying too close to a location with high magnetic interference, etc etc.
I wouldn't go by all the videos you see on you tube. Do your own experiments and due diligence!
Keep a log of all your flights, such as weather conditions, locations, etc.

 

[JamesG2571]

I had a near fly away the other day, interference caused the quad to pop in and out of P-GPS to Atti mode causing the quad to drift with the wind!

I was able to bring it home because I knew how to fly manually without GPS. If your new I can't stress enough how important it is to know how to fly manually just Incase of a situation where you loose GPS!

Flyaways don't happen often, you just hear about them more on the forums and on YouTube!

Just enjoy your phantom and fly safe!


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[maxwell smart]

It only happens on Chines Holiday.

 

[Stiggy Pop]

I had a near fly away the other day, interference caused the quad to pop in and out of P-GPS to Atti mode causing the quad to drift with the wind!

that's not what a fly-away is at all.

 

[N017RW]

that's not what a fly-away is at all.

+1

Sounds more like a [near] 'give-away'!

 

[HWCM]

That is what I usually hear.... But I only wonder why we dont hear the same about APM or Multiwii, you would think if it was always user fault the same would be seen in other systems.
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Watching this video freaked me out big time.

I have had a near fly away with both my APM and my pixhawk. You just have to switch to stabilized mode and fly with the sticks. No biggie.

 

[moswissa]

i once had a flyaway with my p2 at the beach. I ran and chased after it as it flew away, then i realized I was chasing a seagull I mistook for my drone. My drone was hovering in position the entire time.

That is as close as I got to a flyaway and Ive been flying phantoms for 3 years.

Recently Ive been noticing that the GPS compass would fail but lock back on, I think the latest FW is overly sensitive

 

[GKPK]

i once had a flyaway with my p2 at the beach. I ran and chased after it as it flew away, then i realized I was chasing a seagull I mistook for my drone. My drone was hovering in position the entire time.

That is as close as I got to a flyaway and Ive been flying phantoms for 3 years.

Recently Ive been noticing that the GPS compass would fail but lock back on, I think the latest FW is overly sensitive

Are you serious????
LMAO!!!
That's funny as hell.

 

[Meta4]

I am new to the forum and also to phantoms.. I have a p3p on the mail and was really excited until I decided to youtube for flyaways. I was under the impression this was something of the past, but it seems to be an ongoing issue for what I saw in youtube.

How often does it happen? and what triggers the flyaways? It really scares me, 1. potentially hurting someone, 2. losing quite a bit of money if it is lost or damaged.

Flyaway these days usually means operator error or confusion.
It's a word that some flyers use to transfer blame to DJI and the drone rather than themselves.
The P3 & 4 are much more sophisticated than the earlier models and true flyaways are very rare.
Now that they have their own black box recorder, the actual cause of an incident is much more likely to be evident and it's not so easy to pass every crash or lost Phantom off as a flyaway.

That is what I usually hear.... But I only wonder why we dont hear the same about APM or Multiwii, you would think if it was always user fault the same would be seen in other systems.

You have to factor in the number of Phantoms out there too.
Best estimates are they have 70% of the ready to fly drone market and 30% is shared by all the rest.
The most operator errors will always come from the model with the most operators.
For some interesting reading on the topic try this: Fear of Flying 2016 - The Last Word on Drone Flyaways! - Drone Flyers

 

[Meta4]

I had a near fly away the other day, interference caused the quad to pop in and out of P-GPS to Atti mode causing the quad to drift with the wind!

If the Phantom gets conflicting information from the compass and GPS sensors, it will drop the GPS info and slip into atti mode.
Interference might cause you to lose signal which would trigger RTH but it would be most unlikely to have any affect on your compass or GPS.
It's much more likely that your incident was caused by a compass error, possibly caused by a bad calibration.
It's easy enough to look into the flight data and see what happened.
Go to https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.

 

[Vertigo]

But I only wonder why we dont hear the same about APM or Multiwii,

Which is all the more surprising considering:
A) the sheer complexity of APM/pixhawk with innumerable configuration options and possibilities to configure it incorrectly
B) the open ecosystem with countless suppliers of the flight controllers, sensor,s etc

Of course, many more DJI phantoms fly around than pixhawks, but even so its rather obvious that opensource firmware and some thoughtful redundancy and error handling pays dividends. Pixhawk is designed to handle failures that a Phantom clearly cant. Even multiple sensor failures.

As for blaming user error; someone please name me a user error that could cause a fly away situation, and that can not or should not be handled gracefully by the flight controller. Im trying, but I cant even think of any cause TBH, even a hardware failure or combination of failures, that would lead to an unavoidable fly away. Crash, yes; if for instance the gyro sensor stops working it will crash. A fly away, no. Compass and GPS problems, whether caused by bad calibration, faulty hardware or environment, can easily be detected and handled and the worst case scenario ought to be an auto landing.

FWIW, pixhawk can even be configured to navigate and RTH upon loss of GPS or compass data. It will do dead reckoning. Not super accurate over long distances, but it will get you back within range.

 

[msinger]

someone please name me a user error that could cause a fly away situation, and that can not or should not be handled gracefully by the flight controller

Smart RTH initiates, the pilot doesn't know it occurred, and the Phantom flies away uncontrollably into a rock and rolls into a water. See more details in this thread.

 

[Vertigo]

Thats not what I would call a fly away. Its flying under control to where its supposed to fly.

 

[msinger]

Its flying under control to where its supposed to fly.

Yep. To anyone who understands what was going on, it was flying as instructed. To the pilot, it was flying away uncontrollably. That's why people call them fly aways