Scariest flight yet..

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I was showing off my P3A to my buddy. So I decided to bust out the Litchi app. I quickly scribbled a waypoint mission and sent the bird on its way. As it reached the 2nd waypoint, I realized that the waypoints were set lower than I wanted. No biggie right? I hit pause on the mission, the bird stopped and hovered like it's supposed to. As I pushed the left stick up, the bird didn't gain any altitude... oh **** moment quickly set in. It wasn't low enough for me not to be able to fly it home, so I decided to start giving it directions with my right stick.. the bird flew in every direction but towards me. I really got scared then. When the battery warning went off, I dropped a load in my pants and initiated RTH. The bird then gained altitude as it's supposed to and started to come home, just I as I felt relieved to see it coming, RTH STOPPED! This is the moment I dropped my second load. Luckily, initiating RTH seemed to have snapped the bird out of whatever bug it was in and I was able to fly it home.. I'm usually a Litchi advocate, but I'm not sure I will be using it again any time soon. IOS10 issue maybe?


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I was showing off my P3A to my buddy. So I decided to bust out the Litchi app. I quickly scribbled a waypoint mission and sent the bird on its way. As it reached the 2nd waypoint, I realized that the waypoints were set lower than I wanted. No biggie right? I hit pause on the mission, the bird stopped and hovered like it's supposed to. As I pushed the left stick up, the bird didn't gain any altitude... oh **** moment quickly set in. It wasn't low enough for me not to be able to fly it home, so I decided to start giving it directions with my right stick.. the bird flew in every direction but towards me. I really got scared then. When the battery warning went off, I dropped a load in my pants and initiated RTH. The bird then gained altitude as it's supposed to and started to come home, just I as I felt relieved to see it coming, RTH STOPPED! This is the moment I dropped my second load. Luckily, initiating RTH seemed to have snapped the bird out of whatever bug it was in and I was able to fly it home.. I'm usually a Litchi advocate, but I'm not sure I will be using it again any time soon. IOS10 issue maybe?


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Wouldn't like to have to do your laundry after that experience....!
 
Could you exit out of F mode and fly manually, litchi should disengage and give you full control?

Probably a good idea to practice more flying before getting too adventurous with missions. It's more a question of when than if that you will encounter a situation where you need to bring the AC home with the sticks.

Pleased you had a happy ending.
 
It wasn't really a matter of flying, it was night flying and I had my LEDs off to take pictures, at first I thought I was just disoriented, so I turned them back on. I could see the red lights were facing me, but I still couldn't come forward.. it really felt like I had no directional control or the ability to gain speed. It felt like a glitch.


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I usually just cancel the mission if there is a problem and fly home, I have never used the pause button.I have flown maybe a hundred Litchi missions and never a problem. Sounds like you had a very unusual experience.
 
It wasn't really a matter of flying, it was night flying and I had my LEDs off to take pictures, at first I thought I was just disoriented, so I turned them back on. I could see the red lights were facing me, but I still couldn't come forward.. it really felt like I had no directional control or the ability to gain speed. It felt like a glitch.


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Sounds like you were still in flight mode. The only forward, as litchi was concerned, was a continuation along the waypoint path you had set. Seems all was functioning as expected.
 
Ugh... Rtfm.

Next time, switch to Atti from F/P then back to P. That kicks it out of any automated flight mode, and back to manual control.

If you're a regular user of automated flights, you should definitely understand how the various flight modes work.
 
Ugh... Rtfm.

Next time, switch to Atti from F/P then back to P. That kicks it out of any automated flight mode, and back to manual control.

If you're a regular user of automated flights, you should definitely understand how the various flight modes work.

Im not so... stfu!


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Im not so... stfu!


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Please allow me to further clarify:

If you're flying a P3/P4 in any capacity, you should have an understanding of the basic flight modes.

My initial response may have perhaps been a bit too sarcastic, but it does not remove/excuse the need to understand the basic operation of the UAS you're piloting.
 
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And I get that. I thought that was the point of the forum, to gain that knowledge.
So allow me to clarify.
I am new to the phantom community. 99.9% of the time I fly in gps mode or atti mode, and I can handle my bird just fine. If for whatever reason I decide to use Litchi for a waypoint mission, i usually plan it out methodically, so I had never tried to stop it. As far as I know there is no manual for Litchi, so I rely on input from people like you in the forums. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, i expect people to be considerate and answer the question in a way in which I will not feel attacked.


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And I get that. I thought that was the point of the forum, to gain that knowledge.
So allow me to clarify.
I am new to the phantom community. 99.9% of the time I fly in gps mode or atti mode, and I can handle my bird just fine. If for whatever reason I decide to use Litchi for a waypoint mission, i usually plan it out methodically, so I had never tried to stop it. As far as I know there is no manual for Litchi, so I rely on input from people like you in the forums. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, i expect people to be considerate and answer the question in a way in which I will not feel attacked.


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There is a litchi manual that you can download from their webpage.
 
There is a litchi manual that you can download from their webpage.

Cool.. I'll eventually check it out. I really only use Litchi for FPV.. sometimes orbital mode but that's really about it.


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And I get that. I thought that was the point of the forum, to gain that knowledge.
So allow me to clarify.
I am new to the phantom community. 99.9% of the time I fly in gps mode or atti mode, and I can handle my bird just fine. If for whatever reason I decide to use Litchi for a waypoint mission, i usually plan it out methodically, so I had never tried to stop it. As far as I know there is no manual for Litchi, so I rely on input from people like you in the forums. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, i expect people to be considerate and answer the question in a way in which I will not feel attacked.


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I appreciate you are new, and as I say, I also appreciate my response was indeed a bit overly hostile. So I will gladly apologize for that.
However... if your question can be answered by the first result of a Google query, please consider doing such before posting the question here.

Plenty of folks don't mind hand-holding the newer flyers (and while you ignored it, my response was indeed the correct answer)... but operating a UAS without fully understanding it's basic operation is, in my opinion, irresponsible. The basics of the flight mode switch is EXTREMELY important. And to quote yourself... "[you] can handle your bird just fine"... but clearly only when nothing is going wrong.

Hell, I can probably land a Boeing 747, when nothing is going wrong. But that's not why pilots get so much training... the training is for when things do go wrong. And trust me, eventually, they will.

I've logged over 300 flights on two different birds, and covered roughly 400 miles of terrain. I've flown in 3 countries on 2 continents. It's very infrequent, but things do go wrong.
Fundamentally understanding the technology your're using makes the biggest difference when you have 1-2 seconds to make a critical decision. That's why you prepare.

While I appreciate you feeling comfortable with your bird, which is a good thing... you've also demonstrated a few core deficiencies in understanding its behavior.

Here are a few (of what I hope will be) constructive comments:

- When in autonomous mode, the pitch forward/back simply moves the bird along the preset path
- When in autonomous mode, roll right/left turns the bird itself (i.e. changes the heading) but will not change the overall path of movement
- RTH does not fail as long as GPS and compass are intact. Get used to understanding the behavior, and verify your RTH settings before each flight. RTH did not fail during your flight.
- Rather than trying to cancel the autonomous mode via the App, which requires the signal be sent over the data channel, toggle the mode switch to A, then back to P, which is more reliable and the "standard" way of quitting the waypoint flight mode. When you have only a second or two to avert a collision, you will not have time to fiddle with the app. You need to know where that switch is, and be able to toggle it quickly and automatically without a second thought.
- DO NOT "show off" to anyone, ever. You will end up getting burnt. I promise. Only fly when you're prepared, and after you've considered any/all nearby obstacles/airports/etc.

I assume you read your DJI manual cover to cover, but if you haven't, please do so. Particular attention to RTH behavior.

And if you're going to use a 3rd party app like Litchi, I'd suggest reading that manual cover to cover as well. Litchi is awesome, but it is more complicated than DJI Go.

This may seem "excessive", but talk to any of the folks on here who've logged serious hours, or use their birds for commercial purposes.
You'll see that while these UAS platforms are in some ways "toys", if you respect them, you'll discover they are very much more.

That's my $0.02. Take it for what you will.
 
It doesn't happen often, but when it does, i expect people to be considerate and answer the question in a way in which I will not feel attacked.
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There is a manual.. but... I agree with your comment. We are all here to learn more about the hobby and be informed. Most of the time, I see no reason for folks to be rude.

There are many times when posters spend more time insulting someone than providing the answer.

Like this: Exit autonomous flight by switching from F mode to ATTI or P mode.


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I appreciate you are new, and as I say, I also appreciate my response was indeed a bit overly hostile. So I will gladly apologize for that.
However... if your question can be answered by the first result of a Google query, please consider doing such before posting the question here.

Plenty of folks don't mind hand-holding the newer flyers (and while you ignored it, my response was indeed the correct answer)... but operating a UAS without fully understanding it's basic operation is, in my opinion, irresponsible. The basics of the flight mode switch is EXTREMELY important. And to quote yourself... "[you] can handle your bird just fine"... but clearly only when nothing is going wrong.

Hell, I can probably land a Boeing 747, when nothing is going wrong. But that's not why pilots get so much training... the training is for when things do go wrong. And trust me, eventually, they will.

I've logged over 300 flights on two different birds, and covered roughly 400 miles of terrain. I've flown in 3 countries on 2 continents. It's very infrequent, but things do go wrong.
Fundamentally understanding the technology your're using makes the biggest difference when you have 1-2 seconds to make a critical decision. That's why you prepare.

While I appreciate you feeling comfortable with your bird, which is a good thing... you've also demonstrated a few core deficiencies in understanding its behavior.

Here are a few (of what I hope will be) constructive comments:

- When in autonomous mode, the pitch forward/back simply moves the bird along the preset path
- When in autonomous mode, roll right/left turns the bird itself (i.e. changes the heading) but will not change the overall path of movement
- RTH does not fail as long as GPS and compass are intact. Get used to understanding the behavior, and verify your RTH settings before each flight. RTH did not fail during your flight.
- Rather than trying to cancel the autonomous mode via the App, which requires the signal be sent over the data channel, toggle the mode switch to A, then back to P, which is more reliable and the "standard" way of quitting the waypoint flight mode. When you have only a second or two to avert a collision, you will not have time to fiddle with the app. You need to know where that switch is, and be able to toggle it quickly and automatically without a second thought.
- DO NOT "show off" to anyone, ever. You will end up getting burnt. I promise. Only fly when you're prepared, and after you've considered any/all nearby obstacles/airports/etc.

I assume you read your DJI manual cover to cover, but if you haven't, please do so. Particular attention to RTH behavior.

And if you're going to use a 3rd party app like Litchi, I'd suggest reading that manual cover to cover as well. Litchi is awesome, but it is more complicated than DJI Go.

This may seem "excessive", but talk to any of the folks on here who've logged serious hours, or use their birds for commercial purposes.
You'll see that while these UAS platforms are in some ways "toys", if you respect them, you'll discover they are very much more.

That's my $0.02. Take it for what you will.

Holy crap you take yourself way too serious dude.. yes I could have done a google search. I wanted to share something with the community. Also, if you look at the language I used, I was trying to have some fun with the post... I have a drone to have fun. I don't fly where I'm not supposed to and I don't use other flight modes. If something goes wrong in the flight modes that I fly in, I have the ability to maneuver just fine. Yes, I tried a flight mode that I don't usually use, but at no point was I doing anything irresponsible. There was nothing around that I could have hit, I didn't fly over anyone's head. I have no interest in flying commercially, I'm not a photographer.. My phantoms aren't even my favorite things to fly, I rather fly my alien 5. CHILL.
 
And I get that. I thought that was the point of the forum, to gain that knowledge.
So allow me to clarify.
I am new to the phantom community. 99.9% of the time I fly in gps mode or atti mode, and I can handle my bird just fine. If for whatever reason I decide to use Litchi for a waypoint mission, i usually plan it out methodically, so I had never tried to stop it. As far as I know there is no manual for Litchi, so I rely on input from people like you in the forums. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, i expect people to be considerate and answer the question in a way in which I will not feel attacked.


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Litchi Help pages, where you will also find downloadable versions created by users:

Help - Litchi
 
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