P3P Went into Atti and out of control.

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My P3P went into Atti mode and became very difficult to maneuver. I panicked of course, and tried to work the controls, but it seemed to be flying away near some houses, so I cut the power and crashed. My question is what should I have done, and will a 100 ft. geofence still be in place if the P3P goes into Atti mode?

FYI, there APPEARS to be no damage to the drone. If it visually looks ok, and will start up and respond to controls, should it be safe to continue?
 
My P3P went into Atti mode and became very difficult to maneuver. I panicked of course, and tried to work the controls, but it seemed to be flying away near some houses, so I cut the power and crashed. My question is what should I have done, and will a 100 ft. geofence still be in place if the P3P goes into Atti mode?

FYI, there APPEARS to be no damage to the drone. If it visually looks ok, and will start up and respond to controls, should it be safe to continue?
Take the props off and see if it’ll fire up. Do it outside and see if you have good satellites reception.
It’s a good idea to do some practice flying in Atti mode.
 
My P3P went into Atti mode and became very difficult to maneuver. I panicked of course, and tried to work the controls, but it seemed to be flying away near some houses, so I cut the power and crashed. My question is what should I have done, and will a 100 ft. geofence still be in place if the P3P goes into Atti mode?

FYI, there APPEARS to be no damage to the drone. If it visually looks ok, and will start up and respond to controls, should it be safe to continue?

When you say 'cut the power' , do you mean turned off the R/C so it would initiate RTH ? If so, what were your RTH settings at the time?

If you could upload your flight logs here, it may allow members here to determine what your issues were.
 
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My P3P went into Atti mode and became very difficult to maneuver. I panicked of course, and tried to work the controls, but it seemed to be flying away near some houses, so I cut the power and crashed. My question is what should I have done, and will a 100 ft. geofence still be in place if the P3P goes into Atti mode?

To solve the mystery, you;ll need to post recorded flight data.
Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.

It would also be helpful if you can describe your launch spot.
What was the surface you launched from?
 
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Buy lottery ticket,, that's very lucky,,its sometime hard but never panic unless the fat lady is singing,,panic is a killer,,you should know atti mode drifts with wind so no need to freak out ,,give it some height so you remain in good visual contact that will buy you time to see what going on and direction in flight,,get your bearings and bring it back,,pgps would have probably returned in flight if you had left it flying,,ok even though it all starts up give it some calibration in case ,these impacts might look ok but internally can tear ribbon cables,,being me I would put it through its paces at very low flying to make sure it still responds to my command's,,this is if imu calibration works fine
 
Thank you for your kind and helpful comments. I will get the log ready and submit it. It started down the street near the red barn. I was able to get it back into my yard and attempted to bring it down near the blue star, but it went out of control and headed across the street towards my neighbors house all the while spiraling. Going in a straight line but spinning around. That was very puzzling to me. It was at around 40' altitude, just above the trees and I only had about 3 seconds till it would have been out of VLOS. I did not turn off the RC. I pulled both sticks down to opposite corners and crashed it right on the orange X. The battery shot out, two flashing light covers came off and one of the white gimbal cushions. There is a hairline crack near the battery compartment and a dent on one of the arms. Looks pretty good considering.

So, how do I practice in Atti mode and is the only difference that I will need to compensate for wind? It seemed to be completely out of control, but I may have been causing that. Now I will have to be dealing with fear and lack of confidence. And yes, I think I was very lucky. Could have hurt someone.

DJI_0032.jpg
 
Flying in ATTI mode takes some practice too. You, the pilot, are in 100% control. Yes, you will need to compensate for wind drift.

Please be aware, that in ATTI mode, the bird will hover a bit, but will not hold altitude or position like it does in GPS mode.

Practice in ATTI mode in a wide open space, free from obstacles like trees, power lines, or structures. If you get confused or unsure of what you are doing, just go back to gps mode (pending satellite strength) on your R/C and catch your breath.

Wide open spaces might be a field, vacant baseball or football field, or pasture land.

When comfortable flying in ATTI, try flying in circles, rectangles, or figure eights around a point on the ground. Soon you will be comfortable flying in ATTI anytime you need it.
 
ATTI is like flying a normal RC aircraft except you do have some automatic vertical control via the barometer,. You however are responsible for all other movement control and the biggest mistake people make is to over correct, far too much stick movement!
Presuming you're flying Mode 2 you don't really have to do much with the left stick, up/down and yaw, but concentrate on the front/back/left/right movement with the right stick. The fact that the drone was spinning would suggest you pushed the left stick hard left or right.
As has been said, find a big, open space - lots of long grass is a good idea for softer landings (crashes ??), and practice it, it's fun once you get used to it.
I have a bit of an advantage as I've been flying RC planes of all sorts for more than 60 years and find it hard sometimes to accept that if I let go of everything the AC will just sit there!
 
I will get the log ready and submit it.
It only takes 1 or two minutes.
So, how do I practice in Atti mode and is the only difference that I will need to compensate for wind? It seemed to be completely out of control, but I may have been causing that. Now I will have to be dealing with fear and lack of confidence. And yes, I think I was very lucky. Could have hurt someone.
It's most likely that atti mode was just a symptom of the actual problem rather than the real issue.
If the problem is what I suspect, the world's most experienced atti flyer couldn't have controller the drone either.
But the data is required to tell what really happened.

But since you asked about atti flying, all you need to do to practise is to go to a large, open area with no trees, buildings or other obstacles.
Fly up 30 or 40 feet and flick the flight mode switch to atti and give it a go.
Start by being gentle on the joysticks and see what it's like.
The drone will gently drift if there is any breeze and it won't have any brakes.
But it will maintain altitude and it won't take off out of control.
 
Typically, when the aircraft switches to Atti mode it's usually because of compass error. Likely due to taking off near metal (even concrete can be dangerous due to the rebar used to reinforce it). If it was flying normally before this flight then it is likely the cause, especially since you say the aircraft was spinning (trying to find compass lock). As said above, recalibrate and try again, from a known metal free take off point.
 
ATTI is like flying a normal RC aircraft except you do have some automatic vertical control via the barometer,. You however are responsible for all other movement control and the biggest mistake people make is to over correct, far too much stick movement!
Presuming you're flying Mode 2 you don't really have to do much with the left stick, up/down and yaw, but concentrate on the front/back/left/right movement with the right stick. The fact that the drone was spinning would suggest you pushed the left stick hard left or right.
As has been said, find a big, open space - lots of long grass is a good idea for softer landings (crashes ??), and practice it, it's fun once you get used to it.
I have a bit of an advantage as I've been flying RC planes of all sorts for more than 60 years and find it hard sometimes to accept that if I let go of everything the AC will just sit there!
Yep, me too. I still try to fly it like a heli to get that landing approach video looking a bit more cinematic. I had a p3pa suddenly change into atti & drift back into trees - while filming a wedding. Dji replaced that one. A sudden battery problem on another p3pa (I had 2) nearly led to a ditching, but I got it back to landing on the sandy beach, out of sight, without even getting it sandy. Atti is well worth practising - just use the rest of the battery down to 50% or so after coming home with a bit of spare capacity. Unlike most aircraft and helis, the quads fly perfectly OK backwards, without one having to allow for the aileron and rudder reversal when coming towards. A good test for the compass/imu is to use the rudder control to do a couple of max rate rotations, up close. If it does not rotate about its center, then redo both. I have only ever had to do this a couple of times for the p3as and once for the p4p2.
 
Flying in ATTI mode takes some practice too. You, the pilot, are in 100% control. Yes, you will need to compensate for wind drift.

Please be aware, that in ATTI mode, the bird will hover a bit, but will not hold altitude or position like it does in GPS mode.
It holds (!) the altitude as it is not a GPS function.
Everything else is on the pilot. It's not very different as in GPS mode. Flying into the wind need more push on the stick while with the wind it fly faster and it not brakes. Of course all depends on the strength of the wind. If you leave the sticks it will drift with the wind. You can even test the wind before flight with putting the craft into Atti when the craft is near to you and see how you handle the wind. If you can't fly into the wind then no Atti skills will work as the wind is too strong. But such situation MUST! be predicted before your drone takes off.
I believe that this was not the case in your flight.
 
It holds (!) the altitude as it is not a GPS function.
Everything else is on the pilot. It's not very different as in GPS mode. Flying into the wind need more push on the stick while with the wind it fly faster and it not brakes. Of course all depends on the strength of the wind. If you leave the sticks it will drift with the wind. You can even test the wind before flight with putting the craft into Atti when the craft is near to you and see how you handle the wind. If you can't fly into the wind then no Atti skills will work as the wind is too strong. But such situation MUST! be predicted before your drone takes off.
I believe that this was not the case in your flight.

Hold altitude in ATTI? Yeah, maybe in a perfect world.
 
Hold altitude in ATTI? Yeah, maybe in a perfect world.
If your Phantom doesn't maintain altitude in atti mode, there's something wrong with it.
I frequently use atti mode when it's advantageous to hitch a ride on the wind and sometimes forget to swap back to P-GPS mode.
It maintains altitude just as the manual suggests.
A-mode (Attitude): When neither the GPS nor the Vision System is available, the aircraft will only use its barometer for positioning to control the altitude.
 
If your Phantom doesn't maintain altitude in atti mode, there's something wrong with it.
I frequently use atti mode when it's advantageous to hitch a ride on the wind and sometimes forget to swap back to P-GPS mode.
It maintains altitude just as the manual suggests.
A-mode (Attitude): When neither the GPS nor the Vision System is available, the aircraft will only use its barometer for positioning to control the altitude.

Yep, I understand what the manual says, and that the Phantom uses its barometer to maintain altitude.

Carry on.
 
Well, maybe it appears to somebody that the altitude is a problem in ATTI too. If the craft is flying from you it appears that it is descending too. But it is only a perspective imagination. Further something in the air is, lower it appears to be so you can get false impression of going down when the distance raises.
 
My P3P went into Atti mode and became very difficult to maneuver. I panicked of course, and tried to work the controls, but it seemed to be flying away near some houses, so I cut the power and crashed. My question is what should I have done, and will a 100 ft. geofence still be in place if the P3P goes into Atti mode?
As I guessed, you had a Yaw Error situation, which will have been caused by launching from a magnetically distorted area.
Atti mode was just a symptom of the problem and not the cause.
You were fortunate yours was only at low speed and that you were able to recover the drone.
Many don't end so well.
What was the launch surface?
Was the Phantom facing toward the south at the launch?
 
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You've got a compass error warnings in the third second since you start motors and all the way on. This is serious warning and you shouldn't took off in the first place. So everything else what happened is the consequence of the pilot negligence.
Yaw error is just the consequence of the compass error. In ATTI you should had took it back but it seems that the craft fly its own flight although you had some minimal control.
By the way you should be careful with that battery if it is not broken because one of the cells is slightly loosing the power.
 

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