Long story short. New pilot over the holidays. Have 10 very good flights on my P3 Standard.
Went out in the front of the house tonight to fly, same place I have flown last 3 nights. Was doing compass calibration, and everything was good.
Did auto take off. Hovered for 10 seconds. Checked controls. Gained altitude and at 30 feet high and 20 feet away, I got compass error. Next thing I knew, my P3 is drifting forward @ 15mph or so.
I gained altitude to make sure I would clear any trees that may or may not come around. @ 100 feet high, I let go of the sticks. Still had 15mph drift.
While I still had a good connection to the P3, I switched to atti mode via the switch. By this time I was pretty far out, at night maybe 400 feet, drift slowed to 5mph, but now a different direction because of wind. I focussed on the red lights. Got my orientation and worked my way back to my location.
Was able to drop down and come in for a safe manual landing. Shut it down and let my heart rate come down.
in hind sight, i did something dumb. just before i began calibrating the compass, my neighbor pulled up in her minivan, and was talking to me about random stuff. 4 feet from me and the drone. But I continued to calibrate. I am almost certain now, her minivan is what caused my problem.
But, thanks to this forum. My 1st 2 or 3 flights included quite a bit of atti time so i knew how to control the P3 when GPS goes away. I will go back into an open field, get a good calibration, and not do a new calibration unless needed.
Thanks agin.
Went out in the front of the house tonight to fly, same place I have flown last 3 nights. Was doing compass calibration, and everything was good.
Did auto take off. Hovered for 10 seconds. Checked controls. Gained altitude and at 30 feet high and 20 feet away, I got compass error. Next thing I knew, my P3 is drifting forward @ 15mph or so.
I gained altitude to make sure I would clear any trees that may or may not come around. @ 100 feet high, I let go of the sticks. Still had 15mph drift.
While I still had a good connection to the P3, I switched to atti mode via the switch. By this time I was pretty far out, at night maybe 400 feet, drift slowed to 5mph, but now a different direction because of wind. I focussed on the red lights. Got my orientation and worked my way back to my location.
Was able to drop down and come in for a safe manual landing. Shut it down and let my heart rate come down.
in hind sight, i did something dumb. just before i began calibrating the compass, my neighbor pulled up in her minivan, and was talking to me about random stuff. 4 feet from me and the drone. But I continued to calibrate. I am almost certain now, her minivan is what caused my problem.
But, thanks to this forum. My 1st 2 or 3 flights included quite a bit of atti time so i knew how to control the P3 when GPS goes away. I will go back into an open field, get a good calibration, and not do a new calibration unless needed.
Thanks agin.
