Vision 2 fly away

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Had my first fly away today,,,lucky recovery no damage,,,very lucky /i just finnished over water,,,,had a low battery warning for about 20 seconds as /i tried to fly towards me and land it became uncontrolled,,,stick inputs did not respond,,,,started to fly backwards away from me uncontrolled,,,,just before it went out of sight and was loosing alt,.i poowercut off with the sticks on the controller and that was it,,,,used find my phantom in the app and located it about 500 yards in thick dune overbrush,,,no damage props intact,,,,very strange,I am wondering of i hit the S1 switch by accident bringing her in ,,,,anyways if anyone else has had this issue,let me know,,,this was about my 20-22nd flight,,,1st fly away,,,scary,,,,
 
just powered the video off and was coming back to land and it appeared to rock side to side then went straight back,,,tried to correct,,no controll as it flew away from me in an out of control wobble,,I powered motors off right before it went down behind some small trees into a sand dune thicket .. it was gusty at the shore today, I had flown two previous flights about 9 minutes each on the same battery just prior to this doomed flight,, but in a different location a half mile down the beach, it was really stable in some gusty conditions on the two prior flights with no issues at all, was very impressed with how it flew in the gusty conditions today,,,but the loss of control was puzzling.... even though there was nobody around and it stayed over land, I was still scared, I need to test fly this several more times before I am confident with this unit..i used the "find my phantom" in the droid app which did work well.
I am going to power up the assistant software and see if any calibration is needed,,,the battery warning went off and it was about 20 seconds after that first warning alarm as i was starting back to land,,,it went bizzerk! no inverted flight... but side to side wobble, then flew in reverse away from me,,,,as I saw it was going down for sure, I powered the motors off since water was near and hoped for the best possible outcome, which happened, it was hung up in some heavy brush, hadnt yet hit terra firma,,,I have the video just before this happened. will post shortly..I am wondering if i hit the s1 switch from the top position to the middle position since i was wearing gloves, i noticed the transmitter s1 switch was in the moddle position after I got back to my vehicle and looked everything over, not sure if that happened when I walked out to retrieve or if I hit it when I clicked the video off on the app just prior to landing,,,,or in this case crash landing,,,,ouch!
 
This question was brought up awhile back, but at the time there too were many "alleged" fly-away's and insufficient data. Your experience matches almost exactly what was suggested. Putting intermittent connections aside for the moment, could it be that excessive vibration causes the IMU to be inundated with wild number changes from its sensors, essentially overloading the autopilot with "To Do's" to correct its attitude, velocity, & position... sending it off this way/that way trying to complete a list of tasks?

If its too busy processing tasks, your stick requests would be delayed and could be perceived as erratic flight when they took effect seconds later, instead of immediately. Only DJI may know for certain, but here's the link to the post & where this hypothesis came from: http://www.phantompilots.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6030&p=44878

iDrone (the Very) :geek:
 
After careful review of my actions during preflight preparation or the lack thereof,,it appears to me this fly-away was the cause of pilot error and lack of attention to detail in preparation for flight including disregard for weather conditions ,,


1. I moved the aircraft after initialization then just prior to compass calibration, that's a no-no & I know its a no-no and I did it anyway.. ???? I just remebered I had powered up on my tailgate, then moved it 4 feet away onto the ground then calibrated the compass there,,,,,,not the way to do it....


2. I may have hit the GPS mode into Failsafe by accident while wearing gloves while flying it back home. this can easlily happen if not paying attention to your fingers....


3. every one of my props were un-balanced. never checked them, assumed they are pre-balanced,,,nope....they are not....


4. it was overcast,,,winds were 17- mph somewhat sustained....stay under 11-12 mph if possible...clear weather helps alot...


I have read several threads about vibration affecting the performance of the NAZA..receiving corrupt IMU data potetially causiing the loss of control or fly aways. these systems being so technically advanced and reliable, have limitations when overloaded or corrupted... I noticed in the video just prior to the fly away,, there was alot of vibration and jello effect that I have not seen on prior flights under much less wind,, it was windy,,,


My lessons are hard learned,,,


1.pay close attention to detail,,

2.balance props,

3.fly in suitable weather. clouds can affect sattellite reception...wind will increase vibration.. vibration is a killer,,,,,

4.pre-flight correctly. combine with step 1 of this list...

5.land, abort flight if initial take off looks shaky,,,re-check everything power cycle and re-calibrate.

6.becareful with the transmitter buttons know what you are touching,,

7.refer to 1. and 4.


Even though I have several years of RC airplane experience, this system requires very careful preparation and a full understanding of the system and its potential llimitations, proper flight training in a safe open area to get completley familiar with is a must. this requires 100% attention to detail and concentration when flying.


This was my 21st flight with the Vision 2 and i was quickly getting overconfident with it, its systems and the pre-flight preparations. I was rushing thru pre-flight steps..... this will bite you hard, forgeting essential steps and procedures will be disasterous,emphasis on "will"...it will bite you,,,, take an extra minute to re-check everything before takeoff, safety of the flight should be number one, lucky for me I get another shot at this, had it went in the ocean or far worse.... into someone or something, it would have been a nightmare, it can happen, it will happen if we are not careful and 100% attentive..its back to flight school for me...
 
Thank you for posting that - it's a great lesson for all of us. No matter how many checklists you have, how much preventative maintenance you do, all that good stuff, it's far too easy to get over-confident or just plain excited to fly.

I had a lucky escape when, whilst keen to show off to a family member and to find shelter from a cold breeze, I compass calibrated in the lee of my car, quite close to metal railings as well! It was so obviously a Bad Thing To Do, but the keenness of my relative and the coldness of the wind overrode everything I knew. Luckily I got it grabbed out of the air despite it bucking around all over the place (thank you Hubsan X4 for teaching me nose-in flying!), recalibrated in the open field and had a great subsequent flight (until my fingers got too cold, anyway).

I used to fly microlights and I would specifically ask passengers to stand quietly away from me and the aircraft when I was pre-flighting so that I would not be distracted by them and their questions and potentially miss something. If the Vision was big enough to carry us up I'm sure we'd all take out pre-flight routines a bit more seriously!

Thanks again for posting.
 
That's one of the trickiest thing to 'manage' in this hobby...

Most of the things that we have to be aware and careful of, are invisible.

GPS signal... check
Compass directions... that too
Radio frequencies.... yep

Yet all three of them are critical to the operation of our crafts.

We have no idea how many satellites the GPS has just by looking at the craft... nor if the Compass is calibrated well... nor how strong of control signal it's getting or if there's any detrimental interferences in the area, or even if something (leaves? fogs? heatwave?) will affect or block our signals...
 

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