Rookie Mistake

[BamaRider]

I was recently flying the Catbird over the hills and fields I call my backyard. Do it all the time. I feel lucky to have such flying from my backyard. Only been flying a few months, but I feel like I am not a bad pilot. I might fly a little slow but I get the job done. No crashes etc.

On this day the catbird was hovering over a hilltop about 1500 feet away, when the screen on my Iphone went dark! I foolishly forget to note how much charge the phone had. Luckily I still had a visual on Catbird, the backdrop was a clear blue sky, the only reason I could see his little dot.

He was 150 ft high between 2 large trees. It would risky to fly him from the trees with no 1st person. From where I was I couldn't see enough to note the angles, or even if I was flying in the correct direction. Not sure what to, I decided to just land him. I dropped him down till he went down out of sight below the hill crest. He was probably 20 ft above the ground when I lost sight. I just held the stick till I was sure he made contact on the ground.

Next I jumped in my golf cart and took off to retrieve him, about a half mile away. Terrain is meadows, fields, and a few trees so not a problem. I knew the top of the hills was nothing but tall grass. My guess it might take a few minutes to find him in the tall grass and I was right. After a 10 min search I found him all safe and sound lights flashing.

I tell this story to help in the future if this should happen again. If Catbird had been out of visual, with a dark screen, what options do you have? Is there a return home on the RC (P3 standard) I don't know about that goes around the App? I prefer flying no course lock, that was the situation on this scenario.

Thoughts?

 

[microlinux]

Is there a return home on the RC (P3 standard)

Yes, toggle the S2 switch at least two times to initiate RTH (see page 11 of the manual).

 

[wichkans]

I am not in a position to judge this pilot I am also a new pilot,
What I started doing from my first flight was go through a checklist, it is actually attached to the inside lid of my drone case, some may say that the checklist is overkill but it has helped me, it keeps me from forgetting something,
I want to make sure that the things that I have control over do no cause an issue.

I get nervous before and during each flight I make, still feel that the drone my just take off back to China to never be seen again,
does this feeling go away with experience.

 

[Older_Man]

I am also nervous about losing my drone and I still fly in beginners mode but that is going to change.My eyes are too old to read the screen on my galaxy 7 phone but I have a nice tablet coming so I should be able to see where i'm going.I havn't tried using RTH yet but I need to to build up my confidence with this feature.

 

[marcel79]

If your phone/tablet is empty you lose connection to the dji go app, depending on your settings (land/hover/RTH) it should do just that.
in your case, you would first put rth on a hight higher then any obstacles (the trees) in de settings, so then it would climb to that hight above the trees and fly straight back to you.

 

[marcel79]

I would also always try out RTH and how it works in real life (like on a field) and not go flying al lot of distance without that knowledge.
Also never land it at a far distance if you cant see the ground clearly! I made that mistake once a few years back with a parrot bebop, and when i arrived it was in a small pool of water on a field a never could see talk about bad luck

 

[HWCM]

If your phone/tablet is empty you lose connection to the dji go app, depending on your settings (land/hover/RTH) it should do just that.
in your case, you would first put rth on a hight higher then any obstacles (the trees) in de settings, so then it would climb to that hight above the trees and fly straight back to you.

Just because the phone battery goes dead, that does not mean the quad looses connection to the remote. You don't need a phone or tablet to fly at all. RTH will not automatically initiate when a phone is disconnected. You can continue to fly. If you want or need to use RTH in an instance like this, you have to manually trigger RTH.
RTH only initiates automatically with an RC signal loss, or low battery. Or if you have a group fence set up.

 

[mcmmotorsports]

I get nervous before and during each flight I make, still feel that the drone my just take off back to China to never be seen again,
does this feeling go away with experience.

Yes, more flight time will make you more comfortable.

 

[Pharm]

...been flying a few months...Is there a return home on the RC (P3 standard)...?

I'm a bit unnerved that you've been flying for several months and don't know how to initiate RTH from the RC. Perhaps a re-read of the manual is in order, young man!

Glad you found him safe though. I thought you were going to tell us you ran over him with the golf cart!

 

[With The Birds]

If you were worried about potentially hitting tress with RTH you could simply fly straight up for 10 sec or so then initiate RTH, it would return at that altitude (assuming you climbed above your preset RTH height).

 

[jtludwig]

READ THE OWNERS MANUAL!

 

[OkiePhlyer]

One thing I did to build confidence in the RTH feature was to go out about 100' and initiate it. This showed me it would return, and at the altitude I had selected. I also climbed above my pre-set altitude and initiated RTH. It came right back every time. I also practiced canceling RTH in order to take over again in case it didn't come back to the exact spot.
I have also run the battery down to the point where auto-land initiates. As it comes down you can apply throttle/up stick to slow the descent and maneuver to a desirable landing spot. This one nearly bit me once so I practiced it to learn how to handle that if it happens again.
P3P by the way.

 

[Royr1957]

I am not in a position to judge this pilot I am also a new pilot,
What I started doing from my first flight was go through a checklist, it is actually attached to the inside lid of my drone case, some may say that the checklist is overkill but it has helped me, it keeps me from forgetting something,
I want to make sure that the things that I have control over do no cause an issue.

I get nervous before and during each flight I make, still feel that the drone my just take off back to China to never be seen again,
does this feeling go away with experience.

I've got about 120 successful flights. I still get nervous too! I'm very careful, make sure to do pre-flight inspections with a checklist, keep my updates updated, and keep reading this forum. I don't take off without a full charge and pay attention to RC interference (I turn off my cell phone) . I personally don't push range or fly in windy or wet conditions. I really feel great after each successful landing! Keep up the good work!

 

[BamaRider]

Well I called myself reading the manual. With the phone dark, I don't know how I fly between the 2 trees. He was above the trees, but I just couldn't see him well enough to be sure what direction he was gonna fly if I went forward. I don't fly course lock and I feel like that has helped me grasp things quicker.

I could have jumped in the golf cart and got a better visual (close down to 500 ft or so), and bring him back to me visual. I had several options in my scenario, but I was wondering about out of visual and the landscape thick forest or water, when your phone goes dark. Like roy I don't fly in high wind, and scout new territory before going up.

Prior to this, I'd had about 50 flights of various lengths and challenges and fast becoming a confident pilot. I knew to check the phone prior, but in this incident, failed to do so.

Define toggle the S2 tab? Just up and down a few times?

The Catbird got bored flying the same missions, and wants to expand his territory so been doing that. Since this incident I check the phone bar first Like most of y'all I use my IPhone for alot of stuff besides flying so I'm subject to have a low battery. In fact I cancelled a few missions to his displeasure when the phone was low.