Auto landing at 65% battery?

[LSDMT]

first of all – hiding behind "I'm not flying commercially so I can go as high as I want" is seriously an issue. i'm not saying you did that – but there are definitely people that do. Do you remember the plane that crashed into the Hudson river in the United States? It hit a couple geese. hitting a drone could easily cause some serious problems for an aircraft that large or a small as a Cessna.

Second – there was another post somewhere about a guy flying in Hawaii who was near a no-fly zone like yourself. I believe his craft auto landed into the ocean. it is my understanding that no-fly areas extend upwards from the ground like a 'V' so couple that with the fact that the no-fly avoidance system in the phantom aircraft is very conservative. imho, you went up high, the aircraft conservatively thought you were too close to the no-fly zone, it automatically landed.

 

[hph]

Took the Phantom 3 Standard out for a flight today, compass calibrated and GPS locked throughout the flight but twice at around 65% Battery 459 feet and at 45% again a little over 400 feet it changed modes to auto landing, the altitude limit is set at 1650 ish feet, so not sure if it was because I was within a 8 miles of Luton airport .

Could this be a altitude limit as a result of being near a no fly zone? Tho I don't like the idea of it just landing, rather warn me and just stop me going any higher.

I was using Litchi so maybe there would have been warnings in DJI Go

I've had the same thing happen to me using a P3A with a battery that was "60% charged."
Problem is, the battery was stored in that state over a few weeks. Flight lasted about a minute and a half. However, I landed it quickly when the battery indicator on the RC reached 15%.

I was located 9.5 miles (as the crow flies from Google Earth) from the Asheville, NC (AVL) airport, which is at 2162' MSL. My flight area is directly under the approach to its runway 34. I've had the drone up to 3700' MSL (or 1000 AGL) at that spot with no problems. Minimum commercial altitude where I fly is 4300'. That's for IFR. For VFR you're on your own in that mountainous territory.

So, your experience could be more battery-related than location-related. I've never taken off since w/o a fully charged battery. I learned my lesson.

I have never run into any altitude limitations, either. Via the DJI software, my P3A is set at 1200 ft AGL for max altitude. I put a couple of STROBON Standalone strobes (USB rechargeable LiPo battery as part of strobe) on it. Makes locating it easier. If you're purchasing those, do shop around because some prices are NOT customer friendly!!!

 

[Russ43Phantom]

In the UK, it not a legal limit but a guideline set by the CAA. Unless you can show me the statute?????

I guess the real question is what is the low altitude limit for manned aircraft in your area of the UK. Then stay at least 100' below that level. Forget about guidelines and fly safe. Where I live, the VLOS is the greatest issue. Ulra-Lights and sea planes fly over the tree tops and suddenly appear at 200' ... scary.

 

[Philltayl]

I guess the real question is what is the low altitude limit for manned aircraft in your area of the UK. Then stay at least 100' below that level. Forget about guidelines and fly safe. Where I live, the VLOS is the greatest issue. Ulra-Lights and sea planes fly over the tree tops and suddenly appear at 200' ... scary.

There is no 'real' low altitude limit...........other than the ground .but we must be 500' from structures, etc, etc

 

[solentlife]

" battery that was "60% charged."
Problem is, the battery was stored in that state over a few weeks."

P3 batterys have auto-discharge and even if you had it set the maximum number of days till discharge (10) ... the statement is misleading. Sorry.

Auto discharge is designed to bring battery down to sensible storage charge level which is between 3.7 and 3.85V ... about 25 - 60% give or take a bit. The initial figure is below 65% and then a very slow discharge to less than 50% and then after extended period it goes into hibernation at lower figure.

If your battery has sat untouched for a few weeks - it would be in its very slow discharge phase ....

Nigel

 

[mikep2323]

Took the Phantom 3 Standard out for a flight today, compass calibrated and GPS locked throughout the flight but twice at around 65% Battery 459 feet and at 45% again a little over 400 feet it changed modes to auto landing, the altitude limit is set at 1650 ish feet, so not sure if it was because I was within a 8 miles of Luton airport .

Could this be a altitude limit as a result of being near a no fly zone? Tho I don't like the idea of it just landing, rather warn me and just stop me going any higher.

I was using Litchi so maybe there would have been warnings in DJI Go

I've had the same thing happen to me with litchi and it was cause my battery wasn't fully charged at 100%. If I take off with a battery that's a little lower for some reason it keeps trying to autoland. If I had a lower % I would usually fly a little to lower more before I charge it. As soon as I started taking off with fully charged batteries it never happened again.

 

[solentlife]

If your battery is slightly discharged - just plugging into the charger will not charge it. The battery refuses and you get impression that charge is finished and full - WRONG.

First switch ON battery and then plug in charger ........... then you will see charging take place - even if its only a very slight top-up.

DJI say at about 95% or more the battery needs to be switched on to charge... I've found this number to be way of the mark. I have seen less than 90% and I have had to switch on. I now switch on my batterys for charging regardless of start level. This is also necessary when I charge via my LiPo chargers.
This way - I know my batterys are fully charged.

Nigel