I am sick to my stomach. Just recieved my PH2+ 2 days ago, began flying it in an increasingly (ignorantly) bold behavior and had it blow away. I had 6 sucesscesful previous flights and decided to upgrade the firmware and increase to flight limits. STUPID got it way up in the neighborhood then lost connection. turned off transmitter then got coming home message. It began flying home then **** happened. It started flying away in the direction of a strong wind at an altitude of 400 + feet and distance of 900- 1000 ft horizontally. Had my wife, my kids and myself searching immediately. Long story short never found it. I blame pilot error just because but still feel like something went array. I had sucessful recalibration and 7 satttelites before take off. Tried frantically driving in car attempting WIFII recycling to relocate it and no success. I feel like such an idiot for trying to show off to my 12 year old daughter.If any lesson can be learned by my ignorance at least write your name and phone number on the drone. Also there are some great BLOWAWAY prevention videos out there to give you some good tips before losing a $1200 toy.This really sucks because I think it is a great product but just needs some more something to idiot proof it for people like me.
Phantom vision 2 plus blowaway less than 2 days
- Thread starter craigelinor
- Start date
Tony McDrone
Premium Pilot
I had mine get away from me...and found the next morning miles away from my house. Because I had written my phone number and reward offer on it, I was able to get it back. It took 2 weeks and a $50 finder's fee. I would highly recommend writing, engraving or labeling your quad with your phone number just to increase the chance. Once I got mine back, I engraved the last four of my social security number on all of the motors as an added step of security...AND a gps tracker. My flyaway was completely my fault, but that pit in my stomach was there just the same. Hope this helps others, sorry for your loss.
Putting contact details on it makes sense.
Have you checked what the find my phantom feature in the app says?
If it went way out of range probably no use but could still indicate direction of travel.
Winds at higher altitude are often much stronger than ground level and can be blowing in a different direction.
We can all get caught out. The phantom can't fight anything above around 30mph, half that is the reasonably safe limit.
Have you checked what the find my phantom feature in the app says?
If it went way out of range probably no use but could still indicate direction of travel.
Winds at higher altitude are often much stronger than ground level and can be blowing in a different direction.
We can all get caught out. The phantom can't fight anything above around 30mph, half that is the reasonably safe limit.
Fortunately, I haven't needed to use this yet, but this pocketfinder tracker buys me a little peace of mind, especially for extended range flights. It's a fairly cheap insurance policy.
Also, the "Find My Phantom" utility in the DJI Vision app can sometimes help for these type of situations.
Sorry for your loss, and hope this doesn't drive you away from the hobby.
Also, the "Find My Phantom" utility in the DJI Vision app can sometimes help for these type of situations.
Sorry for your loss, and hope this doesn't drive you away from the hobby.
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shadowband said:
Shadowband, what actually is this "pocketfinder/tracker"?
I've had a recent flyaway and have been trying to find a piece of hardware I can easily attach that wont affect the signals coming and going to my PV2.
flyNfrank said:
FlyNfrank, as I've mentioned to another poster, I had a recent flyaway. I'm also the victim of a crash and am researching where to send out for repairs. Any ideas anyone?
I also am on my 3rd quad now. And my wife hasn't kicked me out yet :lol:
Learning is sometimes a painful and costly experience :geek:
oscar19 said:
So then are you saying your quad flew away, and crashed, you found it and now are looking to do repairs?
OR...
You had one quad fly away, lost.... And another one that you crashed and now looking to repair it?
flyNfrank said:
After about 20 flights on my first quad I had a flyaway that wasn't recovered. I couldn't do without my new hobby so after a week or so of "soul searching" I took the plunge and bought a second. This quad lasted a week until I tried a stupid thing in the confined area of my backyard
This, of course, resulted in a crash into the house. House is fine, quad needs minor work on a motor(?). Still looking for a reputable repair shop to send this out to. Any suggestions?I'm on my third now. I still love this new hobby, but I have a bit of "buck fever" where I'm more tentative in what I do.
I would like the second pv2 repaired to use as a spare. I'm seeing a bit of an issue with my third quad where I'm loosing fpv until I reboot the quad, so a spare sounds like a must.
Did you notice how many satellites you had in the air.
The results sounds like it might have dipped below 6 sats and dropped into ATTI mode.
I believe a tracking device is a must. I dont think the find my Phantom will help you because this is data transmitted across the WIFI connection and it sounds like your Phantom was probably just getting started moving when you lost connectivity and the Find Phantom deal will only show the point in which it was last seen. The only think it might help you with is a better sense of the direction it was heading.
More than likely it drifted with the wind until it ran low on battery and auto landed somewhere.
The results sounds like it might have dipped below 6 sats and dropped into ATTI mode.
I believe a tracking device is a must. I dont think the find my Phantom will help you because this is data transmitted across the WIFI connection and it sounds like your Phantom was probably just getting started moving when you lost connectivity and the Find Phantom deal will only show the point in which it was last seen. The only think it might help you with is a better sense of the direction it was heading.
More than likely it drifted with the wind until it ran low on battery and auto landed somewhere.
"I believe a tracking device is a must. I dont think the find my Phantom will help you because this is data transmitted across the WIFI connection and it sounds like your Phantom was probably just getting started moving when you lost connectivity and the Find Phantom deal will only show the point in which it was last seen. The only think it might help you with is a better sense of the direction it was heading."
rrmccabe, I'm pretty sure that is exactly what happened. I lost view behind trees then lost signal. Spent many hours looking but no luck.
And yes, the Find Phantom really didn't do any good other than show me where I took off :roll:
What exactly did you mean by a "tracking device"? Something mountable like gps tracker? Will it interfere with quad?
I appreciate your input in this. As a newbie, I can use all the suggestions I can get!
rrmccabe, I'm pretty sure that is exactly what happened. I lost view behind trees then lost signal. Spent many hours looking but no luck.
And yes, the Find Phantom really didn't do any good other than show me where I took off :roll:
What exactly did you mean by a "tracking device"? Something mountable like gps tracker? Will it interfere with quad?
I appreciate your input in this. As a newbie, I can use all the suggestions I can get!
I also would like to know what "tracking device to use.
Just today I was flying in my regular area and the quad just seemed to take off and I lost sight of it. It was over 2000 ft away so I took it up to 185 ft knowing it would be higher than anything around and tried to use the radar on the iPad app to orient it and bring it back. I watched as the distance went down and then all of a sudden it started to go up again. Several tries still could not get it to come back. The arrow on the radar was way off to one side. I tried rotating my position around trying to get an orientation as to where the dam thing was but nothing seemed to work. I did not really recognize where it was on the iPad from the view on the camera. I recognized the horizon but could not pinpoint where exactly it was.
Now I'm shitting brick and the battery is getting low. Connection breaks and I turn off the RC and low and behold the Return to home is displayed on the iPad. In what seemed like forever, I started to hear the motors but still could not tell where it was. Then up over my head, the drone was there and slowly started to descend right to where it started almost right on the spot. Landed with just 14% battery left.
I was so lucky.
Before take off I waited a long time before I got 7 or 8 satellites and all blinking green lights so I am guessing I had a good home point recorded.
I also noticed for the first time, that my number of satellites dropped to 4 when I turned on the camera so I am going to try the modification mentioned in another thread. Video was off during my hair raising experience.
If I had a tracking device, I'm sure I would have been able to find it as we live in an area with few trees and not a lot of houses.
So what do you suggest.
Just today I was flying in my regular area and the quad just seemed to take off and I lost sight of it. It was over 2000 ft away so I took it up to 185 ft knowing it would be higher than anything around and tried to use the radar on the iPad app to orient it and bring it back. I watched as the distance went down and then all of a sudden it started to go up again. Several tries still could not get it to come back. The arrow on the radar was way off to one side. I tried rotating my position around trying to get an orientation as to where the dam thing was but nothing seemed to work. I did not really recognize where it was on the iPad from the view on the camera. I recognized the horizon but could not pinpoint where exactly it was.
Now I'm shitting brick and the battery is getting low. Connection breaks and I turn off the RC and low and behold the Return to home is displayed on the iPad. In what seemed like forever, I started to hear the motors but still could not tell where it was. Then up over my head, the drone was there and slowly started to descend right to where it started almost right on the spot. Landed with just 14% battery left.
I was so lucky.
Before take off I waited a long time before I got 7 or 8 satellites and all blinking green lights so I am guessing I had a good home point recorded.
I also noticed for the first time, that my number of satellites dropped to 4 when I turned on the camera so I am going to try the modification mentioned in another thread. Video was off during my hair raising experience.
If I had a tracking device, I'm sure I would have been able to find it as we live in an area with few trees and not a lot of houses.
So what do you suggest.
oscar19 said:
This *might* be exactly what you're looking for. I attach it to the underside of phantom (with Velcro) near the camera mount, and it has no affect on the balance. I configured the pocketfinder (via web interface) to transmit its current position every 5 minutes using GSM (2G/3G), and the accuracy claim is +-10 feet. The position history can be viewed online via your pocket finder account using a map interface. It has lots of configurable features and alert modes. Service is $12.95/month with the first few months free. I've used this device on every mission (25+ flights), and it hasn't interfered with the RF or the GPS. Pocketfinder.com contains more details on this device if you're interested.
oscar19 said:
I chose the Marco Polo tracking device. It does not rely on cellular connection and comes with a tracking receiver.
I REALLY looked at all options from $50 to $200 and this seemed like the best option for protecting $1300 bird.
http://eurekaproducts.com/rc-model-trac ... -recovery/
Also, another reason I picked this was it would stay charged for weeks and you could track it for days without running battery down.
Meta4
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bcass1 said:
Guessing isn't good enough.
If you are trusting that your bird will come home you have to KNOW that it has a good home point recorded.
Too many "flyaways" are caused by flying away without a good home point recorded.
It's easy to set home point after take off while you are checking that everything is right.
Flick the S2 swith down and up 5 times, watch the the fast green flashing.
Now you have confirmed that home point is recorded.
craigelinor said:
You know if SATs dropped to less than six and it was returning home because of control signal lost, it will land right where it is, but drifting with the wind at the same time. So it would be coming down at an angle relative to the wind speed (higher wind speed = smaller angle). Keep this in mind when searching for it to get a better idea to where it might be. Hope this helps.
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