warning regarding banked turn feature

Buckaye · Sep 1, 2014

Hey guys...

Well I had my second wreck in two nights... I am so lucky that only minor damage occurred. Last night's crash was caused by setting waypoint altitudes too low. Tonight's crash was caused by using the banking turn function. The banking turns on waypoints work... but be aware that it cuts off a VERY large part of the corner (imagine rounding off a right angle in a square). I thought I had given the Phantom plenty of room to make a turn and it banked sharply and went into a tree. I had to use a ladder and two poles zip tied together to get it out... of course... it fell on the sidewalk (a sidewalk surrounded by soft grass LOL) - bent the gimbal pretty severely... was able to straighten though.

One broken blade and the shell has a small crack near one of the vent holes.

Replaced the blade... re-attached the gimbal- and took her for a test flight. All appears well - nice GPS lock - gimbal is functioning properly.

I have used two of my (hopefully) nine lives.

I have learned that I need to get the Phantom at a high altitude before doing any automated flight patterns... too many things to run into near the earth

cmturn0 · Sep 2, 2014

Hmm, interesting I have not run into this problem. I will usually set the first way point as close to my takeoff spot as possible to prevent this issue you mentioned of hitting things as it climbs between way points. That being said, it will usually go straight up to the height I set on way point #1 before moving onto way point #2.

Buckaye · Sep 2, 2014

cmturn0 said:
Hmm, interesting I have not run into this problem. I will usually set the first way point as close to my takeoff spot as possible to prevent this issue you mentioned of hitting things as it climbs between way points. That being said, it will usually go straight up to the height I set on way point #1 before moving onto way point #2.

even if that waypoint is relatively close to the launchpoint?

the banked turn function (of course) has no hover timer - so I am wondering if it behaves differently...

cmturn0 · Sep 2, 2014

yeah, I have gone back and changed every turn to banked in my last couple missions. I have seen it pop up a warning (seems intermittent, hasn't done it last few times) about my first turn being banked, or adaptive banked. But I never understood why, have just clicked "Ok" upload, and haven't had any problems. It has always climbed to the altitude of the first point before moving on. Whats the point of being able to set altitude for way points if it doesn't go to that altitude before continuing to the next point?

Buckaye · Sep 2, 2014

cmturn0 said:
yeah, I have gone back and changed every turn to banked in my last couple missions. I have seen it pop up a warning (seems intermittent, hasn't done it last few times) about my first turn being banked, or adaptive banked. But I never understood why, have just clicked "Ok" upload, and haven't had any problems. It has always climbed to the altitude of the first point before moving on. Whats the point of being able to set altitude for way points if it doesn't go to that altitude before continuing to the next point?

I wish I would have gotten that warning before I had to extract my Phantom from a tree

- was my fault... I was being aggressive in my waypoints - but yeah. I would think it would prioritize Altitude over the turn in the programming... but alas - no bueno lol

RipperFox · Sep 5, 2014

Thanks for the heads up.

GearLoose · Sep 10, 2014

I prefer to take off and hover for several seconds, just to be sure that everything is ok, then climb to an altitude close to that of the first waypoint before initiating the mission. There are lots of trees where I fly so with the outdated views from Google Earth on the iPad Ground Station I've learned to be very cautious about obstacles. A cottonwood tree here can easily grow several feet or more a year -- and I swear that there's at least one tree here that moves into my mission path when I'm not looking. You can't be too careful!

Buckaye · Sep 12, 2014

GearLoose said:
I prefer to take off and hover for several seconds, just to be sure that everything is ok, then climb to an altitude close to that of the first waypoint before initiating the mission. There are lots of trees where I fly so with the outdated views from Google Earth on the iPad Ground Station I've learned to be very cautious about obstacles. A cottonwood tree here can easily grow several feet or more a year -- and I swear that there's at least one tree here that moves into my mission path when I'm not looking. You can't be too careful!

Yeah! Trees seem to move around on me too!

SteveMann · Oct 25, 2014

I watched a tree walk across a street once. It was a small mudslide in California during a rare rainstorm. (California has two seasons, Fire and Rain. Everyone else calls it Summer and Winter).

GearLoose · Oct 26, 2014

To follow up on my wisecrack about trees... last week I decided to try photo mapping using a grid style waypoint mission. Everything was going great until the Phantom reached the last leg of the flight, which was supposed to be over our cabin, 100' AGL. Well, turns out the iPad's GS app didn't clearly show the extent of the huge spruce tree that overhangs our back porch. To my horror the Phantom flew right through a gap in the branches, face-planting against the trunk of the tree, then tumbling down through a gauntlet of thick branches. Destroyed the gimbal, which is still somewhere up in the tree, along with my GoPro.

Moral of the story: you can't trust trees!