Power dive into Lake Michigan

[Joe Dawes]

DJI PHANTOM ADVANCED. I've had it for a month. I've flew a bunch of times. And then started getting pretty sure with low passes and really liked the footage I was getting. On a rough day yesterday on the lake I hovered just off the beach and pushed hard towards the water and pulled back on the left stick. And realized I was thinking plane controls not the DJI controls just as the screen disconnected. My wife dove in right after it but it was immediately 6 feet deep and 3 foot swells. We looked for an hour plus with fins and goggles plus today for 2 plus hours with it much calmer. Nothing. Current in the lake is strong and could easily have taken it out over 24 hours and dumped it deep. Even in the short time we looked it did not stay in one place. Felt pretty dumb. It's lost. At least I wasn't the pilot in the craft. Also, it's fun and with risk there will be times it doesn't pan out. Take heart it's a little expensive to risk like that, so take your chances accordingly but stay with it because it's worth the experiences you get with the equipment. Next up, P3 Pro. And some floats, a GPS beacon and a little more caution. I'll just pretend I rented a jet ski for a few days. No biggie.

 

[snerd]

You can reassign the control sticks for the way you're most comfortable with on the new one. Sorry about your bird.

 

[kirk2579]

whoops!

hate when that happens!

really though, great attitude on the whole thing.
and sorry you lost your quad ,good luck with your Pro

 

[BrandAL]

Yea I was about to ask. I know sometimes the controls can be reverse when the bird is looking at you and so on. What would be the most common configuration to get s better a handle of it.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Wolfiesden]

I personally use an unorthodox control set. It works for me. And it seems to work for just about anyone who has never flown that I hand the RC to.

Left Stick:
U/D - Altitude
L/R - Strafe Left/Right

Right Stick:
U/D - Throttle (Forward/Back)
L/R - Yaw (rotate Left/Right)

This allows you to use the right stick to steer and power. Simply push forward and then left/right to guide it along a path. At the same time using the left stick to slide up and down and left and right.

I know. It sounds odd. Try it. It may work for you. If you let go of aviation type stick control (RC and real AC) and just let go and try it you may just find it works for you. I agree, its not for everyone.

My SIL has crashed everything he's flown in any game he has played. He was able to fly the P3 perfectly with this stick layout.

 

[Rommel]

I do this all the time. It's scary cuz the farther it is, the lower it looks lol
Now you really have me scared

 

[llyons92]

Not the best simulator but ar drone simulator on the App Store helped me get used to the mod 2 controls. Best of luck


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[peter west nz]

I have had exactly the same experience. Luckily, I realised before i hit the water - in the video, you can see the propwash on the water, and a very near miss with a channel marker pole. I did seriously think about reassigning, but in the end decided to retrain.

 

[hawkeye62]

I personally use an unorthodox control set. It works for me. And it seems to work for just about anyone who has never flown that I hand the RC to.

Left Stick:
U/D - Altitude
L/R - Strafe Left/Right

Right Stick:
U/D - Throttle (Forward/Back)
L/R - Yaw (rotate Left/Right)

This allows you to use the right stick to steer and power. Simply push forward and then left/right to guide it along a path. At the same time using the left stick to slide up and down and left and right.

I know. It sounds odd. Try it. It may work for you. If you let go of aviation type stick control (RC and real AC) and just let go and try it you may just find it works for you. I agree, its not for everyone.

My SIL has crashed everything he's flown in any game he has played. He was able to fly the P3 perfectly with this stick layout.

Unorthodox? Sounds like Mod 2 to me.

Jim

 

[wsalopek]

DJI PHANTOM ADVANCED. I've had it for a month. I've flew a bunch of times. And then started getting pretty sure with low passes and really liked the footage I was getting. On a rough day yesterday on the lake I hovered just off the beach and pushed hard towards the water and pulled back on the left stick. And realized I was thinking plane controls not the DJI controls just as the screen disconnected. My wife dove in right after it but it was immediately 6 feet deep and 3 foot swells. We looked for an hour plus with fins and goggles plus today for 2 plus hours with it much calmer. Nothing. Current in the lake is strong and could easily have taken it out over 24 hours and dumped it deep. Even in the short time we looked it did not stay in one place. Felt pretty dumb. It's lost. At least I wasn't the pilot in the craft. Also, it's fun and with risk there will be times it doesn't pan out. Take heart it's a little expensive to risk like that, so take your chances accordingly but stay with it because it's worth the experiences you get with the equipment. Next up, P3 Pro. And some floats, a GPS beacon and a little more caution. I'll just pretend I rented a jet ski for a few days. No biggie.

Sorry about your loss...too bad we can't configure an altitude FLOOR for a given flight...would come in very handy in many circumstances...esp over water. Then the way to cancel the floor would be to hit RTH.

--

Bill