This flight really scared me. I sent the P3P out in the desert trying to find an anomaly I spotted on Google Earth. The suspect location was about 2 miles out, but the P3P can do that distance without any problems. I’ve gone out much farther. This flight, I departed from my back yard landing pad. There are buildings and power lines all along my property. And there is a tall shed outbuilding in the middle of my back yard. I was cruising along at 150 feet altitude, when at around 6,000 feet I started to get an intermittent “Weak signal” message on the controller. I mistakenly thought the drone was North of my property, when in fact it was Northeast. I decided to move to a new location in my yard and then started to gain more altitude. When doing so, I accidentally moved to a location directly behind the outbuilding in my yard. The building was now directly between me and the drone.
Within a few seconds, I lost all contact with the drone. My screen froze and turned to black and white. Then I got that sudden cold pain in the pit of my stomach that is the first signs of “Panic”. I had visions of my poor P3P flying around helplessly out there somewhere in the desert, and then finally landing in the middle of nowhere when the battery ran down. I was recording the flight, so I had some idea where to start looking.
I shut down the Go app and then restarted it, but did not move from my new location. That didn’t work. So I frantically shut down the controller and the Tablet. That did not regain contact either. I just stood there in that location trying to figure out how I was going to find my drone in all of that desert. After a few minutes, I decided it was time to get on my Quad and start the hunt. But as I moved into the open in my yard, the video came back to life on the Tablet. There on the screen was a desert landscape passing slowly by down below. I thought, “Thank goodness, but where in the heck is it going now?” Almost at the same time, I began to hear that familiar sound of a drone is distant flight. Shortly thereafter, my P3P was directly overhead and starting the auto landing procedure. I just let it do its thing. After it landing in my yard, I tried to figure out what had happened in the first place.
As it turned out, I thought the drone was directly North of me. But in fact, I had maneuvered it to a direction in the Northeast. Consequently, when I move to the new location in my yard, I placed the Shed between me and the drone. Thus, the lost signal! Then the P3P did just what it was supposed to do. It activated the emergency “Return to Home” feature and came back home on its own.
I love my P3P!
Within a few seconds, I lost all contact with the drone. My screen froze and turned to black and white. Then I got that sudden cold pain in the pit of my stomach that is the first signs of “Panic”. I had visions of my poor P3P flying around helplessly out there somewhere in the desert, and then finally landing in the middle of nowhere when the battery ran down. I was recording the flight, so I had some idea where to start looking.
I shut down the Go app and then restarted it, but did not move from my new location. That didn’t work. So I frantically shut down the controller and the Tablet. That did not regain contact either. I just stood there in that location trying to figure out how I was going to find my drone in all of that desert. After a few minutes, I decided it was time to get on my Quad and start the hunt. But as I moved into the open in my yard, the video came back to life on the Tablet. There on the screen was a desert landscape passing slowly by down below. I thought, “Thank goodness, but where in the heck is it going now?” Almost at the same time, I began to hear that familiar sound of a drone is distant flight. Shortly thereafter, my P3P was directly overhead and starting the auto landing procedure. I just let it do its thing. After it landing in my yard, I tried to figure out what had happened in the first place.
As it turned out, I thought the drone was directly North of me. But in fact, I had maneuvered it to a direction in the Northeast. Consequently, when I move to the new location in my yard, I placed the Shed between me and the drone. Thus, the lost signal! Then the P3P did just what it was supposed to do. It activated the emergency “Return to Home” feature and came back home on its own.
I love my P3P!
