Well it happened

[Havavision]

Fly away and total destruction..Was flying normal earlier today.. Second flight and demo for prospective buyers it went crazy, extremely fast and no return to home, no control. Have had this for less than a week after many flawless flights on my PV2...Very disappointed Sure would like to know what caused this..Pretty good 2nd post,,,right?? Jerry

 

[Dirty Bird]

Fly away and total destruction..Was flying normal earlier today.. Second flight and demo for prospective buyers it went crazy, extremely fast and no return to home, no control. Have had this for less than a week after many flawless flights on my PV2...Very disappointed Sure would like to know what caused this..Pretty good 2nd post,,,right?? Jerry

How do you know it was total destruction? Did you find it?

 

[MattUNI2001]

Had you changed to NAZA mode and flipped the switch to ATTI to try to regain control?

 

[Havavision]

Yes I found what was left of it. Already on its way back to the place that I purchased it from..
I had it on IOC. It was flying fine. Tried going to fail safe and also shut transmitter off...

 

[plasmo]

Where did you take off from?

 

[dezunka]

I keep seeing stories like this however no one ever gives specifics...

Was this a completely stock P2V+ with factory defaults or had you modified settings using the Phantom 2 Assistant software? Did you have a GPS lock before you lifted off? Answers to these questions might explain why this is happening!

 

[offtosleep]

Everyone will say it must be pilot error...until it happens to them!

Sorry for your loss! I know exactly how you feel.

 

[Flyer91]

Sorry to read about this, and unfortunately to add insult to injury .... many here will find you must have been at fault, and that you are a whiner, and probably an imbecile too, because (in their 'yet untested opinions') Phantoms don't just fly away.
Just ignore them.

I've never actually had one fly away either, but my experiences with them and their inconsistencies taught me to send all the ones I purchased back before their 30 day grace period ran out.
I'm waiting/hoping for them to be less of a "luck of the draw" before I jump back in.
That may take some time, and if the bannings/laws don't make it unprofitable for mfg's to make/sell them, hopefully people like Futaba will jump in and at least make the electronics and firm/software for ones that are a more consistent product. that has a better rep.
But for now we have what anybody should expect when it's a product made in China.
Love the product, hate the track record.

 

[Flyer91]

Everyone will say it must be pilot error...until it happens to them!

Sorry for your loss! I know exactly how you feel.

+1

 

[kgarrison]

My personal experience and that of those around me says that it is not always pilot error, just the vast majority of the time.

Fly-Aways where it remains basically stable and simply seems as if it is under control - usually from not having a good Home Lock or dropping below six satellites locked, this causes it to go into ATTI mode and drift away in the wind. Switching the transmitter to ATTI should regain control. (Pilot error)

Lawn darting where is was flying fine and decides to go into kamikaze mode into the ground are almost always a motor or esc failure or a solder joint coming undone. (Hardware failure)

Completely erratic flight with little to no control is usually electrical interference (outside interference)

Note that each time I said "usually" as there may be cases where something else comes into play.

 

[Skipholiday]

I agree with your hypothesis and love the lawn dart description and hope it neVer happens to anyone. All incidents are bad.
There seems to be no consistency to the failures.

My personal experience and that of those around me says that it is not always pilot error, just the vast majority of the time.

Fly-Aways where it remains basically stable and simply seems as if it is under control - usually from not having a good Home Lock or dropping below six satellites locked, this causes it to go into ATTI mode and drift away in the wind. Switching the transmitter to ATTI should regain control. (Pilot error)

Lawn darting where is was flying fine and decides to go into kamikaze mode into the ground are almost always a motor or esc failure or a solder joint coming undone. (Hardware failure)

Completely erratic flight with little to no control is usually electrical interference (outside interference)

Note that each time I said "usually" as there may be cases where something else comes into play.

 

[Havavision]

When it happened it took off at a speed unheard of. People (that are in the know) couldn't believe how FAST it was going!! Thank goodness it happened where it did and enough people saw the area where it went down. Quite a distance, but well within range.....

 

[EMCSQUAR]

Fly away and total destruction..Was flying normal earlier today.. Second flight and demo for prospective buyers it went crazy, extremely fast and no return to home, no control. Have had this for less than a week after many flawless flights on my PV2...Very disappointed Sure would like to know what caused this..Pretty good 2nd post,,,right?? Jerry

You're quote is very vague, you need to supply more info to us. Describe flying normal. You've had it a week and you're disappointed? I'd like more indept info before I place blame on you or Phantom. When was last IMU advanced calibration? When was last compass calibration? What did it actually do - instead of describing it as "going crazy" Would love to help you out for an answer but all things as posted is pointing to you as an inexperienced pilot blaming gear. Help us, to help you, by providing more details on what actually happened.

 

[plasmo]

When it happened it took off at a speed unheard of. People (that are in the know) couldn't believe how FAST it was going!! Thank goodness it happened where it did and enough people saw the area where it went down. Quite a distance, but well within range.....

i smell something fishy :ugeek:

 

[EMCSQUAR]

When it happened it took off at a speed unheard of. People (that are in the know) couldn't believe how FAST it was going!! Thank goodness it happened where it did and enough people saw the area where it went down. Quite a distance, but well within range.....

Do you have any video to document this incredible flight that was witnessed by people in the know? With all those witnesses did no-one have a camera /phone?

Politely as mentioned in other threads - "no video, no pics = it didn't happen"

 

[Doono]

Fly away and total destruction..Was flying normal earlier today.. Second flight and demo for prospective buyers it went crazy, extremely fast and no return to home, no control. Have had this for less than a week after many flawless flights on my PV2...Very disappointed Sure would like to know what caused this..Pretty good 2nd post,,,right?? Jerry

You got it back, will you show us the video?

 

[Havavision]

With posts from emcsquar I think I'll let this post die before I say something I will wish I haven't said. I have been flying quads pv2 blade 350qx and at least 10 rc planes for quite awhile, so inexperience I think not. There is a definite problem with the plus and if you are fortunate enough to not have a problem I am happy for you. No pictures and it really did happen!, thanks to the rest of you for the responses. Jerry

 

[srandall25]

I personally would be interested in the specifics just to help those of us who have read about these stories and are trying to determine possible causes so that way may somehow avoid them if possible. If you could possibly answer these questions I would really appreciate it. Please don't take offense to the questions as I know some may very well be obvious to you or most.
1) Did you perform the compass calibration prior to flight? If not, was it last performed in the same location you last flew from?
2) Were their power lines or possibly anything nearby that could have potentially caused signal interference?
3) Could you describe the behavior in any more detail? How high was it? Did it exhibit any erratic behavior?
4) Did it respond to any control inputs in any way once you realized that it was flying away uncommandedly,
5) Were you able to connect power to it enough to pull any error codes from it?
6) Did you have 6 or more satellites locked once you started your motors?
7) Did you happen to change out the propellers prior to this flight? If so, did you use DJI props or another brand?

We appreciate your input.

 

[povlhp]

Many people seems to be blaiming bad GPS coverage for the run-aways.

Well, the software should:
1. Not store home point across power off for 60 secs or more. Then it is most likely not valid any more.
2. Not use GPS home point when HDOP gets too bad. Like +/- 15 meters. Actually the manual should list this value, as that is the safety radius that should be cleared before takeoff.
3. Failsafe when no sat coverage (or bad HDOP) is to just land as far as I know.

Noise will not move your GPS position, so don't blame electronic noise and GPS for flyaways.

The only reason I can see for flyaways are software errors, or the P2V receiving signals from another controller. But it should be coded / locked to the device, such that it will not happen.

In the beginning I tested the failsafe go-home from short distance (Phantom mode, had to turn off remote. Never again. You can't regain control). I tested battery low failsafe hovering 5 ft in the air.

I have (in Naza mode) been outside range, and had the P2 go-home. Switched to ATTI, and took over control when in range. (Can't do in Phantom mode).

I can't really see why it would fly away, except some other controller taking over (should not be possible), or it has an old home location. Or, the go-home only uses the compass, and only uses it once, and it has problems in that spot. But I have the feeling, that it is actually using the compass for turning in the right direction, and using the GPS to do further corrections. And most often the GPS reception should be OK high above ground.

Crashes are a different story, could be the vortex rings if flying in no wind, failing motors/propellers, or other mechanical issues.

 

[Log[GER]]

GPS is pretty inaccurate and jumps all the time. I don't understand why they didn't use glonass too. Crossreferenced both positions. Maybe in some years they will use the european pendant Galileo which is pretty accurat.