Phantom 3 Advanced fly away at first flight.

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Hi ! I am starter in drones and this is my first thread.
So, recently, I bought brand new P3A. I took my family out to the park for the first fly. I done compass calibration at the park, turned motors on, pushed trigger up, than try it to fly it around and little bit upper and so. Joy was about 3 minutes, until I pressed RTH on screen and confirmed it with slide on screen. Phantom was start to pick up altitude and moving away, somewhere above the trees. I started to think - it's strange... , but Phantom knows what it is doing, anyway, I try to cancel RTH after couple of seconds, as drone was about 100m away or so and I couldn't see it any more, because of trees around. So , I started to controll it manualy, but I realised that I'm confused and lost in area, as I wasn't ready for that kind of action. I pressed RTH again on controller, at the time on screen Phantom was about 600m away and was star loosing video. Drone was " returning to home point" , telemetry was showing it comes towards to me, the gap was about 300m, when it decides to land somewhere, than suddenly I lost any comunication with drone. All in all from start to end was about 8-9 minutes . You can imagine.. my 4yrs old boy in tears, my missis nearly in tears and angry on me (what an expensive sh8t I bought) etc. I raced with car to location , where it landed (1.3miles) away and of course, we did not find it there any more... as it was at busy street and football ground.
I contacted DJI, they investigated all details and replayed to me, that is a case of warranty and they will send to me a replacement. :)
Anyway , now I am a litle bit scared, as you possibly can imagine... I would like to hear any good advice and recommendations from you guys, what to do to avoid that kind of bad experience, how to double check , home point is recorded as in stone and Phantom will not choose on its own new HM miles away? Thank you!
P.s. sorry for bad grammar, as english is not my native.
 
Were you using DJI GO 3.1.2 on an Android device? If not, did DJI explain what happened?
 
Anyway , now I am a litle bit scared, as you possibly can imagine... I would like to hear any good advice and recommendations from you guys, what to do to avoid that kind of bad experience, how to double check , home point is recorded as in stone and Phantom will not choose on its own new HM miles away? Thank you!
There was a problem recently with an update to the Android version of the app.
DJI have just released a new version to correct the error.
It sounds like you were caught out with the problem caused by app version 3.1.2.
 
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It seems they have fixed the problem with 3.1.3 for android. I haven't tried it, since I had already downgraded to 3.1.1 and will stay on that for a while.
 
Hi ! I am starter in drones and this is my first thread.
So, recently, I bought brand new P3A. I took my family out to the park for the first fly. I done compass calibration at the park, turned motors on, pushed trigger up, than try it to fly it around and little bit upper and so. Joy was about 3 minutes, until I pressed RTH on screen and confirmed it with slide on screen. Phantom was start to pick up altitude and moving away, somewhere above the trees. I started to think - it's strange... , but Phantom knows what it is doing, anyway, I try to cancel RTH after couple of seconds, as drone was about 100m away or so and I couldn't see it any more, because of trees around. So , I started to controll it manualy, but I realised that I'm confused and lost in area, as I wasn't ready for that kind of action. I pressed RTH again on controller, at the time on screen Phantom was about 600m away and was star loosing video. Drone was " returning to home point" , telemetry was showing it comes towards to me, the gap was about 300m, when it decides to land somewhere, than suddenly I lost any comunication with drone. All in all from start to end was about 8-9 minutes . You can imagine.. my 4yrs old boy in tears, my missis nearly in tears and angry on me (what an expensive sh8t I bought) etc. I raced with car to location , where it landed (1.3miles) away and of course, we did not find it there any more... as it was at busy street and football ground.
I contacted DJI, they investigated all details and replayed to me, that is a case of warranty and they will send to me a replacement. :)
Anyway , now I am a litle bit scared, as you possibly can imagine... I would like to hear any good advice and recommendations from you guys, what to do to avoid that kind of bad experience, how to double check , home point is recorded as in stone and Phantom will not choose on its own new HM miles away? Thank you!
P.s. sorry for bad grammar, as english is not my native.
Hi.
Sorry for your lost I know how it feels. I hade the same experience but on my 3rd flight. It's NOT fun to run after your AC while nothing happens when you try to take it back. Mine drowned in the lake but I'm waiting for a new one that will arrive next week.

Sent from my SM-G935F using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
I hope you get a new drone under warranty. On a side note, and you are not the first to do that, why did you use RTH on a drone in VLOS which you had complete control over?


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
For newbies, RTH is often a safety net. Too easy to get confused about orientation and to panic. When the"I've lost control" feeling sets in, hitting RTH is natural. Takes some time to be comfortable with letting go of the sticks and taking a deep breath while you evaluate the situation. Things would likely have been ok except for the bug in the app. Be interesting to see the logs to find out if his home point had been reset.
 
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It seems they have fixed the problem with 3.1.3 for android. I haven't tried it, since I had already downgraded to 3.1.1 and will stay on that for a while.
How do you downgrade? Is there a place to find older versions than the Playstore offers?
 
For newbies, RTH is often a safety net. Too easy to get confused about orientation and to panic. When the"I've lost control" feeling sets in, hitting RTH is natural. Takes some time to be comfortable with letting go of the sticks and taking a deep breath while you evaluate the situation. Things would likely have been ok except for the bug in the app. Be interesting to see the logs to find out if his home point had been reset.

OP post didn't suggest any panic was involved and RTH can cause some unexpected results even without 3.1.2 bug.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
 
Hi ! I am starter in drones and this is my first thread.
So, recently, I bought brand new P3A. I took my family out to the park for the first fly. I done compass calibration at the park, turned motors on, pushed trigger up, than try it to fly it around and little bit upper and so. Joy was about 3 minutes, until I pressed RTH on screen and confirmed it with slide on screen. Phantom was start to pick up altitude and moving away, somewhere above the trees. I started to think - it's strange... , but Phantom knows what it is doing, anyway, I try to cancel RTH after couple of seconds, as drone was about 100m away or so and I couldn't see it any more, because of trees around. So , I started to controll it manualy, but I realised that I'm confused and lost in area, as I wasn't ready for that kind of action. I pressed RTH again on controller, at the time on screen Phantom was about 600m away and was star loosing video. Drone was " returning to home point" , telemetry was showing it comes towards to me, the gap was about 300m, when it decides to land somewhere, than suddenly I lost any comunication with drone. All in all from start to end was about 8-9 minutes . You can imagine.. my 4yrs old boy in tears, my missis nearly in tears and angry on me (what an expensive sh8t I bought) etc. I raced with car to location , where it landed (1.3miles) away and of course, we did not find it there any more... as it was at busy street and football ground.
I contacted DJI, they investigated all details and replayed to me, that is a case of warranty and they will send to me a replacement. :)
Anyway , now I am a litle bit scared, as you possibly can imagine... I would like to hear any good advice and recommendations from you guys, what to do to avoid that kind of bad experience, how to double check , home point is recorded as in stone and Phantom will not choose on its own new HM miles away? Thank you!
P.s. sorry for bad grammar, as english is not my native.

That is the risk we take from buying from a company that makes buggy products and does not give a dam about its customers. I hope my next drone will be made in the USA by people who care and take responsibility. Disillusion DJI customer.
 
Here is a possibility: When you went into the RTH mode your uav gained altitude that had winds beyond its capacity.
My backyard is surrounded by trees. Though it windy, I was determined to fly. I launched straight up to avoid any trees. I noticed my uav drifting, but didn't realize the wind was taking it. When it failed to respond, I started to lower the altitude even though I couldn't see it. I figured it's better to pick up the pieces. Watching the screen I noticed that once I got it down some, it started coming back.
I sail, and I know the winds increase with height. That's why sails are triangles.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots
 
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That is the risk we take from buying from a company that makes buggy products and does not give a dam about its customers. I hope my next drone will be made in the USA by people who care and take responsibility. Disillusion DJI customer.
Right, you mean like Microsoft, the manufacturer of zero defect software? Seriously....
 
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I hope you get a new drone under warranty. On a side note, and you are not the first to do that, why did you use RTH on a drone in VLOS which you had complete control over?


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
I was about to learn , what each trigger and button does. As I watched a lot of youtube videos, before I bought Phantom, just wanted to try everything step by step. I pressed RTH without any doubt, that will bring drone back to me...

Sent from my SM-T813 using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
For newbies, RTH is often a safety net. Too easy to get confused about orientation and to panic. When the"I've lost control" feeling sets in, hitting RTH is natural. Takes some time to be comfortable with letting go of the sticks and taking a deep breath while you evaluate the situation. Things would likely have been ok except for the bug in the app. Be interesting to see the logs to find out if his home point had been reset.
DroneLogbook
It's my flight log

Sent from my SM-T813 using PhantomPilots mobile app
 

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