Seen crazyist fly away ever on some ones 1st flight.

[J.James]

Seen the crazyist fly away ever on some ones 1st flight ever. It didn't even last the guy 5 minutes. I was showing some one how to fly there ran new fc40 tonight. and He got it up and flew it around for a big and brought it in for a landing every thing was fine except for we wanted to re set the course lock to face a different direction. manually rerecorded a new CL position with the S2 switch made sure we had good stead green led then took off again and it was then flying really weird and not responding to the controls right. So dude handed me the transmitter and it was indeed not flying right. it would not yaw at all but it was only about 100 feet up and about 200 feet away. and the controls didn't seem to be doing any thing. So i switched it in the fail safe and it hovered like its supposed to then started slowing going the other way. Then I wanted to retake control being it was not going towards home and when I switched it in to att and for a second and then in to pgs to retake control from fail safe it not only still headed in the same direction it was going but it went like a bat out off hell and just took off in a bee line fail safe didn't do any thing to help or turning off the tx it just took off WAY! faster then I ever seen a fc40 go and i have had mine at 52 mph and this was going faster then that.
and at the speed it was heading it could of made it real far in time it still had to go on the battery.

lamest thing I ever seen.

 

[Beario]

That sounds really weird, but hopefully he was able to get it back. I have not had a problem with my FC40, which is why I bought another one (the wife :roll: ) She did rather well on her first flight and I made sure she did all of the pre flight checks including waiting for gps and home lock. We did connect the copter and remote control to the software and upgraded everything before the calibration. Hopefully he did everything too and as I stated before hope he was able to find his copter.

 

[J.James]

I checked eery thing for him before we headed out. and every thing was all set right. and I even set his max radius to only be 600m to and it went way farther then that when it took off. What really sucks is the guy lives about 45 minutes away and dont know this area very well either to look for it.

But I may have a fix on were it went. I also set his battery auto land. and he actually had a lil over 5 minutes time on the 2200mah battery already when it took off. and it was just before dark so I took mine up with the camrea on after it got dark and flew it exactly in the direction his took off towards and about .6 miles away across the river and in the next city over I seen a blinking light on the video in an area that is completely deserted old industrial zone and there is nothing at all there and pitch dark. just some old abandoned factory's and weeds and concrete slabs. SO it had to be the led on the phantom I seen in the video. Its also right about how far it could of gone before it would be real close to the time the battery would be hitting the alarm and autoland.

I took a ride over tonight but didn't see it. But was too sketchy to be at night. Wandering around. So I'm going to go scour the area tomorrow. and hopefully find it for him. I'm also going to take one last flight over in a few mins at lower altitude. To see if I can still see the blinking light I seen before

 

[Beario]

Hope you guys are able to find it. I was still trying to think what could have happened with your buddies FC40 today when I was flying, then one thing came to mind. are there any cell towers in your area? Anything that could cause interference? One of the videos I watched mentioned a bunch of things that could cause interference. Good luck hope you are able to find it.

 

[Ohary]

I don't think I've ever commented on someones grammar, but that's a real tough read!

But in all honesty, do you have a lot of experience yourself flying? Seems like maybe you're probably not experienced enough yourself.

 

[J.James]

ya I have a lot of experience flying and was also flying mine just before and right after his took off. It started not responding to the controls at all. Well more like intermittently not responding to them It would then it would stop and then it would for a few seconds then would get all fucky again and also the way it took off so fast it seemed like it some how was in atti mode. and flew like some one was holding the right side stick all the way up. even without touching the sticks at all. and even shutting the transmitter off incase there was any problem with the s1 switch didn't even cause the led on the back to flash on it. So some how it thought it had radio signal even when there was no way it could of been with the radio shut off.

I was starting to also think it had to be some sort of out side interference such as a cell tower. and I have no idea if we had the advanced radio protection turned on or not and wondering if not if that could of been why if it was a cell tower that did it.

But I put a fresh battery in mine and I flew it in the same direction his headed hoping I could catch it on video. Mine always comes home to the point I take it for granite.

Yesterday after I was leaving from searching the area were there is nothing at all but abandoned industrial ruins about 1/2 mile away on the other side of the river and the next town over. and in the same direction that it went and were I seen a blinking light of some kind in the video from the night flight I took. I gave up searching then as I was coming home. I noticed right on the other side of the only building there was a BIG *** cell tower. It was tall and had about 20 microwave antennas on it pointing in a bunch of directions. BUT most of them pointed pretty much right in a line with were we were and the direction it flew towards. I also happen to fly mine that direction quite a lot and have always noticed it just dont seem to get the same range compared to if I fly other directions. I cant ever seem to get past about were I now know that tower is. Even to its an area I can usually always still see the craft with out any thing blocking my view. Tho other then that i have never had it do any thing weird other then go in to fail safe and come back like it went out of radio range. But I have my radio protection set to be on. So it could be the reason it goes in to fail safe and comes home.

 

[J.James]

Woot hoo Just got an email from a lost and found post I made craigslist for the FC40 . Someone found it. They said it looks like everything but the camera case is still intact. I'm hoping they just mean the rubber grommets poped out. Because the camera was tethered in and also had safety strings tied threw the grommets so that nothing could get lost if the holder poped its grommets or the case opened up it cant lose the camera. Now I'm still waiting to hear back from my response to the email so I can make arrangements to meet up with the person and real anxious to see were it went and the circumstances of its landing or crash.

I also want to get it and hook it to the naza assistant and see what setting are different from mine. To be able to get some clue about what may have caused it to have a mind of its own.

 

[Ohary]

Maybe the battery door opened and the battery popped out?

(I always have that fear as I've heard it has happened to others before)

 

[J.James]

Got it back and after talking to the guy that found it. He said he seen it fly by at a real fast clip in the direction it flew away then a few mins later seen it coming back but much slower and then over his house he said it was starting to lower its self for awhile lie it was going to land on his house. Then it just dropped the last 100 feet or so like a rock and bounce off his roof hard. He even flys rc planes and commented how tuff that that sucker was being when ever you crash a plane or helo like that they explode in to a million pieces. only thing damaged on it is the hinge to the door on the camera holder and the prop nuts rubbed on the concrete after it fell on its back on the ground. the props spun for a minute or so before it shut off. He even knew to unplug the battery so it would not damage its self from under voltage. So that was awesome It had 10v on it when I checked it. and it seemed to take a recharge all ok.

I then plugged the fc40 in the naza expecting to see some thing wrong and only thing that was even a bit off was the battery settings were a lil bit on the low side which is probably why it never finished auto landing before it dropped the last 100 feet. So it had to off eventually started to come back after it flew off and when I then turned off the radio. Cause we watched it fly away till it was not even in site and I know thats almost a 1/2 mile in the direction it went. But were it crashed coming back was just two blocks from home. So it had to of went in to a real come to home once the radio was off. and just didn't have enough juice to make it all the way back in time esp being that it flys in gps mode which is no ware near as fast as it can fly in atti mode.

But being the settings seemed all right and nothing at all set wrong or showing they were wrong I tried to test it out and it was doing the same dam thing as the other day and noticed in Home lock and in control lock it would respond the exact opposite of the controls. left made it go to its right. forward made it go back wards. only the up and down worked right. If cl or hl was off it would work right. So I landed it. and plugged it back in to the naza expecting to see the controls reversed. and they were right. So I did reverse them to see if it would change any thing and then in control lock and home lock it then flew the right directions but in cl or hl off it would go the opposite ways . so I landed it. Set it back to normal and back to how is was before. Then I gave up trying to find any rhyme or reason what could be wrong when looking at the naza settings which were all exactly the same as mine is set to. except for the battery settings which i set to off and instead use a buzzer alarm on mine. . So i updated the firmware again just to see if that might help and reloaded the default configurations and bingo it flew ok tho it was a lil bit drifty but not bad at all. So I did a compass dance and flew it again and it flew like a champ. in all modes I even flew it towards the general direction of the cell tower and no more problems. It even hovered rock steady. Recharged the battery. Then I took it out again and put it threw all the paces and not a hitch. Even in fail safe threw S2 it would come back and not go away from home like it did the other day.

So all I can conclude is some how the firmware was all messed up and looking back at the other day it did not fly weird intill it was in cl mode.

 

[Beario]

First congratulations that you were able to recover the quad. Both of the quads I bought I updated the firmware before flying and did the calibration. I started wondering if the compass on the quad somehow got near a magnet, but after reading what you wrote I doubt it. The good thing is you got the quad back I know your buddy must be all smiles tell him to enjoy :mrgreen:

 

[Kwas]

Great that an honest guy found it. Glad to hear that you got it back and you're friend will be very happy.

 

[Wedeliver]

and.. what did we learn from this event? I am a noob so maybe someone with lots of experience can comment on doing things like changing course lock in the field first time flying, or what happened here that we can all learn from?

 

[J.James]

One thing I learned is if ever up dating the firmware is to not fly it with out checking that the firmware and parameters installed right. After I realized things were not right with it and tried re doing the firmware I didn't fly it till I first carefully held it by the landing gear and tried to fly it and make sure the controls all worked right. Then when I flew it I made sure to keep it a few feet off the ground and not let it get to far away in case and thing still was going to flaky on me and I would off did a controlled crash landing if needed. then I tested all the modes to make sure it was all good before I did any real flying on it. I also learned that if every thing is all ok there is not much to really worry about cause when they are working right they work right.

anther few things I learned or more so just reaffirmed what I already new was that these are some real tuff sob's if they crash cause I have also crashed mine when I first got it a few times that were all real doozey's and it held up great each time. another thing is I also lost mine a few times when I first had it and eventually got it back each time. Even tho every time I thought for sure it was never going to be seen again.

Funny thing to now that I know were it went down and rewatched the videos I took with mine on the recon flights to see if I could locate it and never looked to hard at any place near by cause I thought it was farther out. its sitting in the guys yard right in plane site had I noticed the big white x lol lol i had it on video a few times and the flights from the next day its gone. and the guy said he left it there for a few hours after unplugging the battery in case any one came walking by trying to find it. Before he took it inside when it got dark and the weather was calling for rain.

 

[Beario]

The good thing is you got the quad back. The funny thing is you had where it crashed on video and you flew by it :lol: There is a video that I followed with the upgrade a calibration on youtube and I followed the procedure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6LPIRG ... g&index=13

Another one too for tips -------> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXM3PKM ... 4g&index=4

 

[J.James]

The good thing is you got the quad back. The funny thing is you had where it crashed on video and you flew by it :lol: There is a video that I followed with the upgrade a calibration on youtube and I followed the procedure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6LPIRG ... g&index=13

Id ha it all set up right just for some reason when i first showed him how to update the firmware. it didn't go in right and never gave any warnings or looked like any thing was wrong. I compared every single setting to the settings i have on mine and all were the same except for the battery settings and the max radius settings. Neater of which could cause the controls to all be reversed when in hl or cl mode. like it was. in till I re updated the firmware again which fixed every thing.

Another one too for tips -------> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXM3PKM ... 4g&index=4

lol I even had gave him all them tips in that video and also showed him how to check the S1 an S2 switches as well which in my opinion if some one has there phantom all set up right is the biggest real reason most fly always are caused by them switches failing . Providing they are set up right and don't ever take off with out having a steady green flash and they don't over fly the battery and get an auto land situation.

Mine is so reliable that it comes home every time all the time. Its to the point that I almost take it for granted now. when I first had mine I had a few problems such as one un planned auto landing and a mishap with a tree that just so happened to be in a line from were the phantom was and the home point when I lost site of it and put it in the fail safe with out making sure i was up high enough to clear any thing at all that could be in its path. I even was showing him how the fail safe works all while the CL and HL were turned off on the S1 switch. and it worked like a charm. First I showed him how it worked if it was up high and flew it just out of site and with out telling him I then flew it side ways and gave it some elevation for a few seconds before flipping the switch to fail safe. and stood there with him looking it the direction he thought it was looking north, but knowing it was going to actually be coming from our right some place any second. I then even took it down low to about 20 feet high and flew it a few 100 feet away and showed him how if lower then 20meters how it will first rise up before coming home. We landed it then took off again and wanted to show him how cl and hl mode works and thats when it was not flying right and he gave the controls back to me. and it just was not responding right at all. Thats when I said ya some thing is not right we better bring it in and I also was going to show him how to do a field compass calibration dance to. But no matter what I did to try and land it. It just was not doing any thing the controls should of told it to do. So I was going to let it do a fail safe landing and then the crazy 50+ mph fly away happened when the switch was flipped in to fail safe.

Now that the firmware is fixed and its still here at my place waiting for him to come get it this weekend. I Have flown it many times with out a hitch just to be sure its now just as reliable as mine.


and one other funny thing that involves the guy who's house it crashed on. lol He has actually been thinking of buying one for awhile. But was still on the fence about if he should get one or not. Till one came crashing out of no ware in to his house and being he flys rc planes and never seen any thing ever take a hit like that and survive so intact. It made up his mind and he now definitely wants one. lol lol

 

[Beario]

I think he will not regret getting one, well as long as he sets things up the right way