Phantom flips when switching from ATTI to GPS mode.

[stuplaysdrums]

Hey guys-

Had a pretty scary incident the other day. About 5 minutes into a flight, I switched from ATTI mode to GPS mode and my phantom immediately nosed down and flipped upside down. Has anyone else had a similar problem? Any ideas what could have caused this? I'm thinking it may have been a glitch with the NAZA.

Incredibly the only damage resulting from this crash was 3 broken CF props. I think the Phantom may have recovered completely had I been another 50 feet off the deck. No need to tell me how lucky I am! Phew!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK9XB1FtnB0[/youtube]

 

[Gizmo3000]

Yikes!

I'd connect it up to the NAZA and check things out.

Had you at any time enabled manual mode?

My guess is that somehow it was enabled and you trigged it, (maybe your switch got flipped?) as that's the only time I've ever seen a Phantom upside down.

 

[stuplaysdrums]

I do have manual mode enabled, but I am 99% sure I flipped the switch up to GPS. I checked everything out in the NAZA assistant and all seems to be normal. It didn't even recommend calibration after the crash!!

It does sort of sound like a switch to manual mode - as the phantom pitches forward it sounds like the power to the motors drops a bit as well.

 

[tanasit]

Does it fly okay now?

 

[Gizmo3000]

I've never tried manual mode,. nor do I plan to anytime soon. (not with a camera and gimbal attached).
Imagine it's fun for guys who like to do flips and aerobatic flying stuff tho.

But if you don't plan to go into Manual mode too often, I wouldn't make it an option,.
i switched to having mine go into Failsafe instead.

 

[stuplaysdrums]

It flies just like new, I can't believe it. I turned manual mode option off to hopefully prevent this from happening again. I have a few helis that I fly a little 3d with, and thought it would be cool to try manual mode. After this incident, I see no reason to have that option, at least not for a while. From what I hear the Phantom isn't very agile for aerobatics anyway. I'll get my 3d fix from my helis and be happy with flying my phantom with the landing skids facing down!

 

[tanasit]

The MANUAL mode is throttle sensitive but the pitch and roll are not that bad. Before the Phantom, I have the Y6 and flew it for months with ACC mode (similar to ATTI) then I switch it off (similar to MANUAL) and flew like that for a while.
Later I like the manual mode better because once I let go the stick my Y6 will glide with momentum giving a smooth flight. But with the ACC mode as soon as the sticks are centered, it's just like my Y6 put on the brake causing the jerk in the flight path. Now if I switch my Y6 to ACC mode, I can even fly it nicely.

As for the Phantom, I did try the MANUAL mode many times: hovering is beautiful, forward flight is smooth; pitch & roll must be given very slightly and ready to correct any time.
Note: you have to make sure that the throttle is definitely more than half stick or else when you flip to MANUAL, it will DROP like a rock.