Phantom 2 Vision Keeps Going Down After Releasing Sticks

[Jenn348]

I've had my Phantom for 4 days and it has been a blast. Unfortunately, I lost my first set of blades in a crash during a landing attempt.

I have no problems at all with a very smooth landing, but the first time this happened I was in a slow descent and about 8 feet off the ground I let go of the stick to let it stabilize to go slower on the final approach and it just kept going. I froze and it didn't break anything from the initial impact, but tipped over and ate up the blades. I thought I had made a mistake, and just put blades on again and kept flying.

Earlier today, I was descending toward a good place for a still shot and it did it again, only this time 30-40 feet off the ground. I pushed the right stick forward to avoid a house and it stopped descending after a few seconds. This happened again a few minutes later in the same flight.

Finally, on final approach for landing, it did it again when I paused at 10 feet for a slower speed. This time, I snatched the bottom of the copter and held it until I could shut it down to prevent damage.

What would cause these non-stop descents? Any ideas?

 

[OI Photography]

According to DJI's documentation, holding the throttle stick all the way down for more than 3 seconds while descending while initiate the auto-land sequence, which will keep descending until the Phantom senses that it's landed or you counter it with throttle above neutral.

Keeping the stick all the way down can get dangerous anyway because even the limited max descent rate of the Phantom can get you into a situation with VRS where the speed you're moving straight down causes the blades to lose too much lift.

 

[Jenn348]

I read the manual twice before flying, but failed to remember that part about the auto land feature. That looks to be what was happening.

I'll have to descend slower to avoid that problem and the possibility of losing lift. Thanks for your help

 

[OI Photography]

I read the manual twice before flying, but failed to remember that part about the auto land feature. That looks to be what was happening.

I'll have to descend slower to avoid that problem and the possibility of losing lift. Thanks for your help

Don't feel bad, I read the manual dozens of times over the course of months before I picked up on that little tidbit