Thoughts on Erratic Flight

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Hi All,

First, thanks to everyone who makes this forum such a great source of information. Got my P4 for Christmas and have learned tons (and continue to do so) because of this resource. So thanks! At this point, I've logged about 8 hrs in 51 flights in varying conditions...and mostly without incident.

On to my question. So I launched my P4 today without issues. Flew it a short distance away on a normal route. Turned back toward home and put it in Sport. No problems at that point. I was planning to take some photos of the house after our recent snowfall, so switched back to P, and started having issues.

As I tried to bring the drone back over the house, it began drifting with the wind as if in ATTI. I gave it full throttle, but didn't receive any significant response. As I watched it continue to drift for a few seconds with no response from the throttle input, I initiated RTH ... which worked perfectly.

Hoping someone can glean information from the flight log information I've included.

As a side note (not sure if it's relevant or not), I had a partially uncontrolled flight about a week ago. Launched the drone and it immediately flew itself into a nearby tree. It freed itself and I was able to land it. In reviewing that flight log (which I can include), the drone immediately had several compass errors. I chalked that up to launching too close to some residential power lines (lesson learned). I've flown the drone a couple time since with no issues.

Anyhow, here is today's log. Thanks in advance for your thoughts. The issue occurs as the drone traces the slight southeast arc.

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
 
You are correct in one thing. Your throttle was very minimally responsive, if at all. The following chart only reflects the time from when you switched in to sport mode forward. Also, there appears to have been 2 RTH commands. The first one @219 seconds and the second @272.7 seconds. The throttle appeared normally responsive until you switched out of Sport Mode to P-GPS.


SPEED VS THROTTLE.png
 
Thanks Fly Dawg. Not sure what the second RTH was, but it at least explains why the drone was hovering 260 feet above the home location for so long before descending.
 
You are correct in one thing. Your throttle was very minimally responsive, if at all.
FYI, by "full throttle", the OP really meant full elevator.
 
As I tried to bring the drone back over the house, it began drifting with the wind as if in ATTI. I gave it full throttle, but didn't receive any significant response. As I watched it continue to drift for a few seconds with no response from the throttle input
Your Phantom was responding, but not as quickly as you expected since wind was a huge factor in this flight. The winds were at least around 15-20 MPH with gusts up to 25-30 MPH.

The following message appeared a few times during your flight:
"High Wind Velocity:Fly with caution and ensure the aircraft remains within your line of sight."
 
The following message appeared a few times during your flight:
"High Wind Velocity:Fly with caution and ensure the aircraft remains within your line of sight."
You are correct on full elevator. I took it literally from the OP's statement, and did not look at the other RC inputs. I am sure wind had a lot to do with the sluggish controls, but I never saw any of the "High Wind Velocity" messages in the csv file or I most likely would have checked the other inputs. I think we can chalk this one up in the "Too Windy" to fly category.
 

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