What will happen if I lose satellites mid-flight?

Joined
Sep 16, 2015
Messages
18
Reaction score
11
Age
47
My school has just put me in charge of the school's brand new Phantom 3 Advanced and expects me to use it to take lots of videos in and around the school. The only problem is we are a school in the city, surrounded by tall buildings. If I go to the school roof I can get an unstable 8 satellites and it WILL mark a home point. My question is, what will happen when I am flying around the school and the satellite count drops to 5 (as it frequently does). Does it A. Still use those satellites to maintain any sort of positioning? and B. Will it return to home if it loses connection with the RC?
 
It will return home if it loses connection with the rc just make sure you have it set to do so and a good return to home altitude.
 
My school has just put me in charge of the school's brand new Phantom 3 Advanced and expects me to use it to take lots of videos in and around the school. The only problem is we are a school in the city, surrounded by tall buildings. If I go to the school roof I can get an unstable 8 satellites and it WILL mark a home point. My question is, what will happen when I am flying around the school and the satellite count drops to 5 (as it frequently does). Does it A. Still use those satellites to maintain any sort of positioning? and B. Will it return to home if it loses connection with the RC?
Do you have any experience flying quad copters? or is this your first circus? You will at least need some ground school and training before trying the Phantom out around the school, even if you have had some quad experience. There are a lot of things that you need to learn to keep you out of trouble.
If you have 5 satellite's, you probably will not have a stable fix on the aircraft, and you may wind up flying in Atti (manual) .

Cheers and welcome to the forum:)
 
It'll go into atti mode if you lose satellites which means it will hold height but won't stop laterally as in when you take your hands off the sticks she'll keep going in that direction or go whatever way the wind is blowing. I'll agree with @bobmyers ask more questions before you have to climb on a roof and fly around kids. I don't think you are in a perfectly safe environment mate :confused:
 
  • Like
Reactions: bobmyers
And tell your bosses they are going to pay when you hit a tall building, tree, child, person. This is an oldie but a goodie but maybe worth showing to your bosses what happens when a phantom goes AWOL in a city, enjoy :D
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
Last edited:
And tell your bosses they are going to pay when you hit a tall building, tree, child, person. Thus is an oldie but a goodie but maybe worth showing to your bosses what happens when a phantom goes AWOL in a city, enjoy :D
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
Wonder how many he had? :D obviously had prop guards on-- but looked like it was all manual. P2 I assume??
 
Wonder how many he had? :D obviously had prop guards on-- but looked like it was all manual. P2 I assume??
No it was a p1 with no prop guards and managed so many amazing hits before she fell. That was one of our first "oh no he didnt" youtube videos that we used to laugh at before we realised there were gonna be another few hundred dumbasses following him. He kinda stole my thunder but I managed to drink more than him and not crash. Even got to go on TV after I pulled my son's tooth out with a drone after that haha
 
No it was a p1 with no prop guards and managed so many amazing hits before she fell. That was one of our first "oh no he didnt" youtube videos that we used to laugh at before we realised there were gonna be another few hundred dumbasses following him. He kinda stole my thunder but I managed to drink more than him and not crash. Even got to go on TV after I pulled my son's tooth out with a drone after that haha
I have an uncrashed P1 with prop guards in a case-- That is what I learned on:D:D:D:D:D
 
Remember, return to home makes a bee-line, it doesn't see buildings or trees in it's path, so it may not be that useful to you.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: dirkclod
For the uninitiated. . . Bee healthy, eat your honey!!

A bee line means taking the shortest route or a straight line between two points ("As the crow flies"):

RedHotPoker
 
WOW. That's about it from me. Clearly misguided decisions, I would suggest that seeing as you don't know what you are doing and intend doing it around a school you should step back from the copter. If it goes wrong I would argue it could be considered involuntary manslaughter or somtin simular. Take the kids on a field trip and practice loads in open spaces first.
 
Thanks for the reply! Actually, I am not a newbie per se. I've been flying small quads, the Phantom 2V+, and now I personally own a P3 along with being in charge of the school's P3. I guess I am just trying to figure out how she will fly in these less than optimal GPS conditions. I wouldn't normally fly unless I have solid GPS. The P2 would have gotten a lock at 6 or 7 satellites and even with 5 would still hold a somewhat stable position in the sky. The P3 shows P-opti mode when I have less than 8 satellites. So I am wondering if it totally disregards the satellites and essentially goes into atti mode since I will be above the altitude where opti works. Or does it use what satellite information it can get even though it does not show GPS mode activated.
 
Just practice in Atti mode plenty, before any involved missions... ;-)

The more you familiarize yourself with the Phantom 3 in all modes, the better off you will be, to handle any adverse conditions that may arise. If, they ever do.

RedHotPoker
 
  • Like
Reactions: RyanHK
I remember that with the P2, DJI said if you took off with 6 satellites it would not initiate auto return, bur rather land where it was when it lost connection with the RC. What was never really clear to me is if you started with a GPS lock and a home position, but then lost satellites in the air, would it be able to find its home point again or just land right where it was flying? That's kind of the problem I am facing here and I don't want to test it in an urban environment. PS... for those concerned. We have no plans to fly over students. They just want aerial shots of the school.
 
I remember that with the P2, DJI said if you took off with 6 satellites it would not initiate auto return, bur rather land where it was when it lost connection with the RC. What was never really clear to me is if you started with a GPS lock and a home position, but then lost satellites in the air, would it be able to find its home point again or just land right where it was flying? That's kind of the problem I am facing here and I don't want to test it in an urban environment. PS... for those concerned. We have no plans to fly over students. They just want aerial shots of the school.
If it lost GPS, it wouldn't know where it was or how to get home. How could it, right? It would switch to ATTI mode as has been noted already. You would need to be able to control it in that mode until you landed or aquired a GPS lock again.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JoBe
Seems as though the P3 P&A models are a whole new animal from previous Phantom versions. So I would suggest you thoroughly read the updated P3 manuals and not rely on any previous knowledge from older birds behaviour. The new Go App and latest FirmWare have several new key safe features. Be sure you understand them. Set your Return To Home height and make sure it wasn't set to Land or Hover. Try out the features and notice how it responds. There are dozens of helpful YouTube videos, & more new ones every week.

The majority of intelligent pilots here, are quite verbal in their beliefs of safe flying practices.
And won't hesitate to loudly say so.

RedHotPoker
 
Winds between large buildings can be quite treacherous and unpredictable in terms of speed and direction. So master you atti-mode flying first!
 
Thanks all! I will certainly work on flying in ATTI mode. LOL... but sheesh some of you were quick to jump on me as an inexperienced flyer chopping up children and crashing into buildings. I am here because I am a responsible flyer trying to get all the information I can with an unfamiliar scenario before I try to tackle that challenge. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mal_PV2_Ireland

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,358
Members
104,935
Latest member
Pauos31