Almost lost my bird today...Did it switch to ATTI midflight?

[Evel_Knievel]

Weird flight today. Almost lost it. VERY high winds (please spare me the you shouldn't have been flying speech) but I have experience flying in high winds so felt semi-OK with the conditions. Log attached. Everything was normal until the bird started drifting. I swear I didn't switch to ATTI (but after looking at the log on healthy drones, that's all I can see). Did get a couple motor overload messages which I have never seen "Warning Motor Overloaded. Aircraft will decelerate to ensure safety".

Summary:
2:06 switch to ATTI to check wind direction and speed at 160'. Go back to GPS once finished.
5:15 bird switched to ATTI (I don't remember switching it but hell might have. Was doing a orbital type shot so might have thought about going into intelligent flight mode...)
5:29 notice it is drifting and initiate RTH. Thought it was a fly away, but after looking at the log it was simply drifting with the wind.
5:38 not responding so initiate RTH again...bird starts climbing to 390'- (hindsight should not have had it climb even further into higher winds...I know.)
6:01 not responding...giving 100% forward stick...nothing. Start descending and finally start to get some response, and make it back.

The thing acted really weird...there is a lot to analyze just thought some of you guys might be able to help me figure out what happened.

Just wondering if when the wind gets too high it somehow switches to ATTI from GPS.

Thanks in advance,
E

 

[Meta4]

The thing acted really weird...there is a lot to analyze just thought some of you guys might be able to help me figure out what happened.

Just wondering if when the wind gets too high it somehow switches to ATTI from GPS.

This is a better way to look at your flight data: Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
It shows the Phantom being in atti twice - from 2:16 - 2:26 and 5:13 - 5:17.
But both times it looks like it was done by switching the controller.
There are none of the usual compass errors that cause the Phantom to go into atti.
And no ... the wind makes no difference to GPS mode.
You could fly in a hurricane (backwards very fast) but it would still keep GPS.

ps ...as you can see comparing your speed and altitude, being up high in a strong wind is not the path to drone happiness.

 

[Evel_Knievel]

This is a better way to look at your flight data: Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
It shows the Phantom being in atti twice - from 2:16 - 2:26 and 5:13 - 5:17.
But both times it looks like it was done by switching the controller.
There are none of the usual compass errors that cause the Phantom to go into atti.
And no ... the wind makes no difference to GPS mode.
You could fly in a hurricane (backwards very fast) but it would still keep GPS.

ps ...as you can see comparing your speed and altitude, being up high in a strong wind is not the path to drone happiness.

Great! Thank you! Nice link to another log viewer as well. I hadn't seen that one.

What about the "Warning Motor Overloaded. Aircraft will decelerate to ensure safety"? I've never seen that and do see in the log that occured at 6:01 and 7:58. Any ideas or experience with that? What is it actually doing when that it "decelerates"? Going to 50%, 75%,....?

Thanks again,
A

 

[ob1415]

My opinion is that your bird encountered strong winds up there and the motors had to work extra hard to keep the bird from drifting, which is likely what caused the overload. Once overloaded, the motor speed decreases, which again set your bird adrift in the wind. You probably regained control once your bird came down to an elevation where the winds stabled off a bit and allowed you to bring her home.

 

[ianwood]

In theory, your GPS coverage can be effected by wind in that the GPS receiver will be pointed at different parts of the sky depending on the winds and how you move through them. This may explain why 4 or 5 satellites dropped at various points. That said, with 10+ satellites your GPS positioning should be fine and would not necessarily explain a drop to ATTI.

 

[Evel_Knievel]

Cool. Thanks, again guys. Making a lot more sense now. Guess the actual limitations of the bird, and my abilities, were just one notch lower than I thought. Things kind of dominoed almost out of control on this one. Live and learn. Hope the conversation helps someone else stay out of trouble.

 

[Evel_Knievel]

In theory, your GPS coverage can be effected by wind in that the GPS receiver will be pointed at different parts of the sky depending on the winds and how you move through them. This may explain why 4 or 5 satellites dropped at various points. That said, with 10+ satellites your GPS positioning should be fine and would not necessarily explain a drop to ATTI.

I can buy that I put it into ATTI accidentally trying to get to intelligent flight modes...pilot error. These flight logs are amazing!