Went to Atti-Mode then Crashed

[Stigandi]

First off.. I LOVE my P3P. I've had it a month now and live on the coast. I've probably done 20-30 full length flights so far, mainly out over the shoreline or water. I always fly in P-mode. Last night the iPad started saying atti-mode and the P3 went all loopy for a few second then recovered. A few minutes later it started saying that again and did a full speed sweep through the neighborhood descending and slammed into a neighbor's house and driveway. I was lucky to find it. Neighbor was not happy and the P3 is pretty beat up. Blades broken, one light broken, one arm a bit mangled and battery was ejected and smashed. Amazingly, after some TLC, the P3 seems to have everything still functioning, but with a few battle wounds. Any suggestions on what would have caused this? I haven't done any firmware updates. Thanks,
Rob...

 

[NickCopter]

My only guess would be an accidental flip of the switch, changing it to ATTI mode.

Hope you get everything resolved and figure out the issue.

 

[caffeinated]

Atti mode in and of itself should not cause descent. It may drift with the wind but altitude should remain constant.

Edit: Do you have the flight log from the device and also from the phantom?

 

[Stigandi]

Atti mode in and of itself should not cause descent. It may drift with the wind but altitude should remain constant.

Edit: Do you have the flight log from the device and also from the phantom?

No I don't.

 

[Meta4]

If the Phantom goes into atti mode (either because you flip the switch or lose sats) ... nothing happens except the Phantom will drift with the breeze.
It should maintain altitude and won't go zooming off anywhere and you would still have full control.
Going to atti is not something that would cause a crash.
Sounds like something much more than going to atti mode occurred in this case and the atti indication was only a small part of the malfunction.
This one is definitely a case for DJI to have a look at the flight record.

 

[Meta4]

If you have the Phantom, you have the flight log.
The P3 has a sort of black box recorder.

 

[Phantom751874]

No I don't.

Read the manual and get your flight log and cached video is you had video caching on.

Based on your description I find it hard to believe your P3 was ok afterwards?

 

[Stigandi]

OK.. I'll go look into that. One arm has some buckled seams, but I just did a short flight and it seems ok. I guess one thing to note is I crashed it earlier last night before the incident. I took off and flew into a tree and it landed below in 2 ft tall grass without incident. I have read that the IMU needs calibrating after such incidents (which I just did). Both erratic behavior incidents occurred on the next flight. Any relationship?

 

[Chicago1]

First off.. I LOVE my P3P. I've had it a month now and live on the coast. I've probably done 20-30 full length flights so far, mainly out over the shoreline or water. I always fly in P-mode. Last night the iPad started saying atti-mode and the P3 went all loopy for a few second then recovered. A few minutes later it started saying that again and did a full speed sweep through the neighborhood descending and slammed into a neighbor's house and driveway. I was lucky to find it. Neighbor was not happy and the P3 is pretty beat up. Blades broken, one light broken, one arm a bit mangled and battery was ejected and smashed. Amazingly, after some TLC, the P3 seems to have everything still functioning, but with a few battle wounds. Any suggestions on what would have caused this? I haven't done any firmware updates. Thanks,
Rob...

You said "live on the coast". I have heard of salt water "spray" affecting the components inside the Phantom.

 

[Joe Lipinski]

Could absolutely be a relationship. The IMU (inertial measurement unit) helps keep the craft stable throughout flight. When you crash, The values the IMU uses to calculate (and compensate) for inertial movement tend to be off and can cause erratic movements. Anytime you crash you should always perform a cold IMU, Compass & Gimbal calibration. Also be careful to check the props for damage - someone on the forums had a hairline crack in one of their props after a light crash and then after they flew it again - the crack went critical and caused a more

 

[Stigandi]

I did a couple flights tonight, probably totaling 4-5 miles out over the beaches and water. No issues. Like I said, there is some damage but everything mechanical seems ok. Hoping it was the light crash and lack of IMU calibration that caused it to go all wild and crash. Or a damaged prop as mentioned. One other note is that this was the first time that I was flying the P3 from inside the house. It was close enough that loss of signal wasn't an issue, but could there have been radio interference that would have caused this?

 

[bbfpv]

I did a couple flights tonight, probably totaling 4-5 miles out over the beaches and water. No issues. Like I said, there is some damage but everything mechanical seems ok. Hoping it was the light crash and lack of IMU calibration that caused it to go all wild and crash. Or a damaged prop as mentioned. One other note is that this was the first time that I was flying the P3 from inside the house. It was close enough that loss of signal wasn't an issue, but could there have been radio interference that would have caused this?

If I understand you correctly, there was a previous crash and you did not recal the IMU afterwards? If so, when was the previous crash in relation to this one?

 

[happydays]

Was there any chance of magnetic interference? Any power lines around? Have you flown in that area before, trouble free? My guess would be the first crash messed something up inside.

 

[bbfpv]

Also, Alaska is probably not a good place to fly during a massive solar storm. Not saying it's the cause, since it sounds more like an IMU calibration issue, but just throwing it out there.

 

[PhantomState]

Agree w/bbfpv. Kp-Index is high. Near the Minneapolis/St. Paul area of Minnesota, the northern lights were flashing/waving across most of the sky last night. Haven't seen them like that here in 30 years.

GPS/GLONASS signals can be messed-up. So, if flying in P mode, could cause a problem. Atti mode would work fine though. I've read/heard different theories on the effect or lack of effect of solar storms on P mode flight.