I just wanted to share my experience and lessons learned from the other evening, Then I experienced what happens when your Phantom Vision 2+ unexpectedly drops below 6 satellites when over 1,200 feet down range. I was flying in NAZA mode and had a confirmed home point set, which I verified in my normal pre-flight routine. Fortunately, I was using the new beta version of iRec on my iPhone, so I captured a record of exactly what happened. Without that record, I am sure I would have lost a lot of confidence in the bird, which after 50 flights, I have had nothing but positive experiences until the other night, which in the end turned out to be a positive experience from a learning perspective.
So, I took off with 7 satellites showing connected and was flying primarily watching the bird and not looking at my iPhone. I was just over 1,200 feet away at 130 feet up, when I noticed the bird start to drift or "fly away" unexpectedly. Now, I was looking at my phone, as I was getting ready to take a still pic, and in hover mode. However, I wasn't and hadn't been monitoring how many satellites I had locked into. So, when the started to drift in the wind I couldn't understand what it was doing, that is when I decided to flip the S2 switch to HL (all the way down to the 3rd position) and pull back on the right stick, which should have brought the bird back in my direction. Unfortunately, it started to pick up speed and fly very fast away from me, to right of where I was standing. So I immediately let go of the right stick, and while it slowed down it continued to fly away. Then it seem to stabilize, and I noticed from the radar that it was pointed in my direction. So, forgetting I had the S2 switch in the HL position, I pushed forward on the right stick attempting to fly it back in my direction. However, it then began to fly away again very fast, because the front of the bird was pointed at me! So, once again I let go of the right stick, decided I had enough, and flipped the S1 switch down into FailSafe and to my relief the bird finally started heading home. I was dumbfounded until I got home and viewed the iRec video on my iPhone, which explained everything. Please take a look at the video, which again is what was recorded on my iPhone. https://vimeo.com/103619686
This was all caused, because I didn't realize I had lost GPS and Home Position and my actions of trying to trying to put my bird in S2 HL made everything worse! Fortunately, GPS kicked back in or I am not sure what would have happened?
Lessons learned:
1. Always check http://satpredictor.navcomtech.com/ to make sure I am flying at an optimal time of day with plenty of available satellites.
2. Flying with only 6 or 7 satellites warrants staying pretty close to home, where I can always see visually the orientation of the bird. Flying long distance in any kind of wind with low satellite coverage is just asking for trouble.
3. When the bird is moving, when it should be hovering, 1st check the number of satellites and ensure home position is still known. If the Distance shows N/A, and sats are < 6, then home is lost and you must fly as though you are in ATTI mode. So check the orientation of the bird, by looking at the radar and try to start flying back toward your position. Flying in HL will only make things worse if the bird isn't properly lined up, which in my case the other evening it wasn't.
4. Always record my flights using iREC (sort of like a black box), which clearly helped me understand what went wrong. I had a theory that I had dropped below 6 sats, but without evidence, I would have never known for sure.
Hopefully my experience and mistakes made here might help others. In the end, the Phantom Vision 2+, did everything it was designed to do. Thankfully this had a happy ending.
So, I took off with 7 satellites showing connected and was flying primarily watching the bird and not looking at my iPhone. I was just over 1,200 feet away at 130 feet up, when I noticed the bird start to drift or "fly away" unexpectedly. Now, I was looking at my phone, as I was getting ready to take a still pic, and in hover mode. However, I wasn't and hadn't been monitoring how many satellites I had locked into. So, when the started to drift in the wind I couldn't understand what it was doing, that is when I decided to flip the S2 switch to HL (all the way down to the 3rd position) and pull back on the right stick, which should have brought the bird back in my direction. Unfortunately, it started to pick up speed and fly very fast away from me, to right of where I was standing. So I immediately let go of the right stick, and while it slowed down it continued to fly away. Then it seem to stabilize, and I noticed from the radar that it was pointed in my direction. So, forgetting I had the S2 switch in the HL position, I pushed forward on the right stick attempting to fly it back in my direction. However, it then began to fly away again very fast, because the front of the bird was pointed at me! So, once again I let go of the right stick, decided I had enough, and flipped the S1 switch down into FailSafe and to my relief the bird finally started heading home. I was dumbfounded until I got home and viewed the iRec video on my iPhone, which explained everything. Please take a look at the video, which again is what was recorded on my iPhone. https://vimeo.com/103619686
This was all caused, because I didn't realize I had lost GPS and Home Position and my actions of trying to trying to put my bird in S2 HL made everything worse! Fortunately, GPS kicked back in or I am not sure what would have happened?
Lessons learned:
1. Always check http://satpredictor.navcomtech.com/ to make sure I am flying at an optimal time of day with plenty of available satellites.
2. Flying with only 6 or 7 satellites warrants staying pretty close to home, where I can always see visually the orientation of the bird. Flying long distance in any kind of wind with low satellite coverage is just asking for trouble.
3. When the bird is moving, when it should be hovering, 1st check the number of satellites and ensure home position is still known. If the Distance shows N/A, and sats are < 6, then home is lost and you must fly as though you are in ATTI mode. So check the orientation of the bird, by looking at the radar and try to start flying back toward your position. Flying in HL will only make things worse if the bird isn't properly lined up, which in my case the other evening it wasn't.
4. Always record my flights using iREC (sort of like a black box), which clearly helped me understand what went wrong. I had a theory that I had dropped below 6 sats, but without evidence, I would have never known for sure.
Hopefully my experience and mistakes made here might help others. In the end, the Phantom Vision 2+, did everything it was designed to do. Thankfully this had a happy ending.
