Rookie mistake, fly away

[Hojo70]

I'm relatively new to flying, only a couple dozen flights. On vacation last week, went to a clearing of trees at a campground to raise the P3S vertically to catch the sunset. Wasn't planning on flying anywhere except 400 feet straight up. I got in too much of a hurry as the sun was setting quickly and I raised it before it had a GPS signal. A strong wind current suddenly came in and started blowing it quickly away from me and toward a tree line, I lost orientation and only had a few short seconds to react so I pegged the left stick up to try and clear the trees which were about 80 feet tall. It cleared the trees and then disappeared from view, and within a few short moments after that the RC lost contact, turned red, and the bird was completely gone. I couldn't see or hear anything at that point. I stood for a few seconds in disbelief, and then ran quickly up the road roughly 150 feet into another open area and the RC suddenly picked up signal and FPV display. Apparently it had drifted about 350-400 feet away before it was able to lock on to GPS signal and then just hovered in the sky at a fixed position. I engaged home lock and brought it back to me and safely landed it. A warning to other newbies out there, take your time and make sure to let it sit for 20-30 seconds after liftoff to make sure you are definitely green and "safe to fly".

 

[kirk2579]

I'm relatively new to flying, only a couple dozen flights. On vacation last week, went to a clearing of trees at a campground to raise the P3S vertically to catch the sunset. Wasn't planning on flying anywhere except 400 feet straight up. I got in too much of a hurry as the sun was setting quickly and I raised it before it had a GPS signal. A strong wind current suddenly came in and started blowing it quickly away from me and toward a tree line, I lost orientation and only had a few short seconds to react so I pegged the left stick up to try and clear the trees which were about 80 feet tall. It cleared the trees and then disappeared from view, and within a few short moments after that the RC lost contact, turned red, and the bird was completely gone. I couldn't see or hear anything at that point. I stood for a few seconds in disbelief, and then ran quickly up the road roughly 150 feet into another open area and the RC suddenly picked up signal and FPV display. Apparently it had drifted about 350-400 feet away before it was able to lock on to GPS signal and then just hovered in the sky at a fixed position. I engaged home lock and brought it back to me and safely landed it. A warning to other newbies out there, take your time and make sure to let it sit for 20-30 seconds after liftoff to make sure you are definitely green and "safe to fly".

glad you got it back safely

I do hesitate to say you had a flyaway!
you simply had a operator error and the phantom did as it should, in atti it will drift with wind.

a "flyaway" is when the phantom just decides to go somewhere else without control or input or reason.
These are truly few and far between when all said and done.

in other words because the craft does "appear" to fly away does not mean it is a "flyaway"!

good luck and have fun flying!

 

[alokbhargava]

Engaging to home lock was the clever move. You seem to keep mind alert even in crisis.

It may be wiser to reset at least the home position if you noticed GPS error any time.


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[Hojo70]

glad you got it back safely

I do hesitate to say you had a flyaway!
you simply had a operator error and the phantom did as it should, in atti it will drift with wind.

a "flyaway" is when the phantom just decides to go somewhere else without control or input or reason.
These are truly few and far between when all said and done.

in other words because the craft does "appear" to fly away does not mean it is a "flyaway"!

good luck and have fun flying!

Thanks for your correction. It was definitely operator error, not the drones fault. This is a mistake I will not make again!

 

[Hojo70]

Engaging to home lock was the clever move. You seem to keep mind alert even in crisis.

It may be wiser to reset at least the home position if you noticed GPS error any time.


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I panicked but never lost my cool. I ran and got my truck keys and was prepared to drive with the RC hanging out the window to find it.

 

[RedHotPoker]

Ahhhh, phewww and exhale!! That was harrowing.
Glad you got your wits about you, rather quickly... Haha

Good retrieval. & You Get to fly another day. ;-)

Have fun, fly safe, happy landing.

RedHotPoker

 

[Catfish80]

That story had me on the edge of my seat. Glad it did what it did and didn't "flyaway".


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[gamebitplay]

A GPS tracker could be helpfull in this situation, like a TK102b



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[daveleeds]

My heart sank for you but then I read there was a happy ending.


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[sjp0eqt]

Great story, glad you got your Phantom back !!

 

[Bill S]

Always a good idea to learn to fly manually by looking through the tablet view. Go to an open field and learn. Doing figure 8s is a great skill builder. Learn to 'crab' along a line with the camera pointing at a 45degree angle. This will greatly improve videos when you decided to film at 30 ft or so.

 

[skiptv]

A better lesson learned would have been if the $1000 Drone was lost forever. When you read most of the "flight issues" with drones in this forum and others, its always from people in a rush, or not reading the manual or watching a two minute 'set up video' on YouTube. Im a Drone Flight instructor. I teach people who have never flown a drone in their lives to fly. I don't even let them take the drone out of the box by themselves. Thats part of the first class, so is setting up the drone, updating the firmware and software, setting up a tablet or OS device. Usually the first class is 3 hours and we never fly. This year alone I've trained 30 students, no one has had a crash, or a flyaway after graduating. The moral of the story, these are not toys, show them, yourself the people and environment around you some respect and actually take the time to learn how to use them properly.

 

[Arve Horgheim]

glad you got it back safely

I do hesitate to say you had a flyaway!
you simply had a operator error and the phantom did as it should, in atti it will drift with wind.

a "flyaway" is when the phantom just decides to go somewhere else without control or input or reason.
These are truly few and far between when all said and done.

in other words because the craft does "appear" to fly away does not mean it is a "flyaway"!

good luck and have fun flying!

I have never seen these definitions!!
But I understood it anyway. Good handling!

 

[Providian623]

A better lesson learned would have been if the $1000 Drone was lost forever.

I totally disagree with that assertion. As long as the incident is used as a "learning" experience which results in a more positive future awareness, then it is worthwhile. Losing a $1000 drone just to reinforce a "lesson learned", is ludicrous, IMO.

 

[kojie007]

Anybody help i have a early pic of my phantom 3 prof with no red lights.i had an accident with the seawater the drone briefly hitting the surface ruining the camera the new camera is fitted and everthing seems to be working had a few different flights nothing seems untoward with drone but its front lights are solid red when flying is this ok

 

[Avocet]

One question .. the home lock routine was good, but didn't you leave "home" looking for the bird? Did you move back to the homepoint after reconnecting?