This could possibly be one of the best tips for flying your vPlus that you come to know as of today. For those of you flying with firmware version v3.0.6 there is something you may not know about that could help to keep you loosing your vPlus during a number of possible situations.
I'm going to tell you what that something is by way of an example that you have either already experienced, or it is one that you are familiar with.
You decide to fly your quad on a day that is just a little windy, maybe a 10-15mph every now & then. Because it's not a constant wind, you figure it should be that bad and you just wont fly real high or too far away. So you begin your flight by waiting to lift off until you receive the 6 satellites. In Naza mode(not sure about phantom mode on this one)You take off and sudden remember reading where I'm now mentioning how it is important not to take off until after receiving all Green Lights Only. I Naza Mode I have found you need wait another 15-20 seconds when there is no red light in the sequence string flashing. All green lights mean a positive home point lock. Ok now to continue.....you realize you launched early while a red light was indeed flashing. You can hover above your home point and wait for the all green lights, you just may have to fight the wind some in maintaining the quad to be above the home point. This wont cause any problems, your quad will think the ground is where it marked home point, but will still land itself ok when that time comes. You may see numbers at that time like -11,-12,-13, and so on.
So you're in GPS mode on your controller and fly up around 400ft because at this height you see your uncles house. You see that he's home so you take a couple pics. In the process you look at your controller and notice it shows your distance number to be 527ft, and right away you flip your camera straight down and sure enough you realize the quad has drifted from the Home Point Line. You begin thinking how and why the quad drifted. This might be the time in when you learn that just because it's not that windy on the ground, there can always be upper wind currents to deal with. So with panic setting in fast, you yaw your quad in the direction of the Home Point. Everything looks lined up so you full throttle the controller only to find out that you are not getting anywhere! You glance at the monitor and see that you are now 677ft in distance. The wind dies down and you flip the switches on your controller to RTH, You see the distance number begin to drop and finally you take a moment to take in a deep breath. You can hear your quad again for the 1st time, however it grabs your attention because it sounds as if it is wide open buzzing like a swarm of bee's. In looking at the distance number you see a frightening 743ft. You run the numbers in your mind and know you are getting extremely close to your quads point of no return.......
Ok now the news you've all been waiting to reading! Actually the example I described above is one very similar to one I just experienced two days ago. And if it were not for what I'm about to tell you, I would have lost my quad. So, I hope my advice will help someone from loosing their quad.
In the above situation where I mentioned pointing the quad toward your home point, what you want to do at this is switch to ATTI mode and guide the quad home. I know some are saying "WTF that's it"? But the answer is Yes. At some point DJI increased the power when flying in atti mode. I wanted to bring this up now in such a way to help save your *** should you get into something like I've described above. Know now that I have only tested in Naza mode.
I don't know exactly how much of a gain there is, but I feel like it is a lot. I have been playing around with tailwinds and with a 3-4mph tailwind I managed 67.8mph. Any tailwind above 4mph, for whatever reason, the quad would slow down in mph to the upper 50's.
I also happily discovered that when in atti mode now the descending rate has also increased. Again, I don't know the actual limit for this yet. But I did manage to look over a couple of flights I logged and found one that reached up to 10.5mph. Of coarse if you descend in atti just beware a head of time that you will most likely need to switch back & forth from atti to gps mode to keep the quad from drifting to far away depend on wind conditions.
One last little tip I'd like to throw in here while I have your attention. For those of you that want to know what your true wind direction is, while hovering at whatever flying height, flip to atti mode for a few seconds on your controller. The direction in which your quad travels is your true wind direction at the time of flight. This is good to know info because there very well could be a situation that when you become better at flying you'll find in some cases it may be best to out around rather then in a straight line.
Now go out have some new found fun with your quad in atti mode. (*May possibly only apply to naza mode?)
I'm going to tell you what that something is by way of an example that you have either already experienced, or it is one that you are familiar with.
You decide to fly your quad on a day that is just a little windy, maybe a 10-15mph every now & then. Because it's not a constant wind, you figure it should be that bad and you just wont fly real high or too far away. So you begin your flight by waiting to lift off until you receive the 6 satellites. In Naza mode(not sure about phantom mode on this one)You take off and sudden remember reading where I'm now mentioning how it is important not to take off until after receiving all Green Lights Only. I Naza Mode I have found you need wait another 15-20 seconds when there is no red light in the sequence string flashing. All green lights mean a positive home point lock. Ok now to continue.....you realize you launched early while a red light was indeed flashing. You can hover above your home point and wait for the all green lights, you just may have to fight the wind some in maintaining the quad to be above the home point. This wont cause any problems, your quad will think the ground is where it marked home point, but will still land itself ok when that time comes. You may see numbers at that time like -11,-12,-13, and so on.
So you're in GPS mode on your controller and fly up around 400ft because at this height you see your uncles house. You see that he's home so you take a couple pics. In the process you look at your controller and notice it shows your distance number to be 527ft, and right away you flip your camera straight down and sure enough you realize the quad has drifted from the Home Point Line. You begin thinking how and why the quad drifted. This might be the time in when you learn that just because it's not that windy on the ground, there can always be upper wind currents to deal with. So with panic setting in fast, you yaw your quad in the direction of the Home Point. Everything looks lined up so you full throttle the controller only to find out that you are not getting anywhere! You glance at the monitor and see that you are now 677ft in distance. The wind dies down and you flip the switches on your controller to RTH, You see the distance number begin to drop and finally you take a moment to take in a deep breath. You can hear your quad again for the 1st time, however it grabs your attention because it sounds as if it is wide open buzzing like a swarm of bee's. In looking at the distance number you see a frightening 743ft. You run the numbers in your mind and know you are getting extremely close to your quads point of no return.......
Ok now the news you've all been waiting to reading! Actually the example I described above is one very similar to one I just experienced two days ago. And if it were not for what I'm about to tell you, I would have lost my quad. So, I hope my advice will help someone from loosing their quad.
In the above situation where I mentioned pointing the quad toward your home point, what you want to do at this is switch to ATTI mode and guide the quad home. I know some are saying "WTF that's it"? But the answer is Yes. At some point DJI increased the power when flying in atti mode. I wanted to bring this up now in such a way to help save your *** should you get into something like I've described above. Know now that I have only tested in Naza mode.
I don't know exactly how much of a gain there is, but I feel like it is a lot. I have been playing around with tailwinds and with a 3-4mph tailwind I managed 67.8mph. Any tailwind above 4mph, for whatever reason, the quad would slow down in mph to the upper 50's.
I also happily discovered that when in atti mode now the descending rate has also increased. Again, I don't know the actual limit for this yet. But I did manage to look over a couple of flights I logged and found one that reached up to 10.5mph. Of coarse if you descend in atti just beware a head of time that you will most likely need to switch back & forth from atti to gps mode to keep the quad from drifting to far away depend on wind conditions.
One last little tip I'd like to throw in here while I have your attention. For those of you that want to know what your true wind direction is, while hovering at whatever flying height, flip to atti mode for a few seconds on your controller. The direction in which your quad travels is your true wind direction at the time of flight. This is good to know info because there very well could be a situation that when you become better at flying you'll find in some cases it may be best to out around rather then in a straight line.
Now go out have some new found fun with your quad in atti mode. (*May possibly only apply to naza mode?)
