Can you fly without satellites, safely?

[MalteseKev]

After a bad experience, I cannot stress this enough. This should be a part of your daily flying duties. Go to a wide open area and put it in ATTI mode on purpose and fly around. I wouldn’t fly to far or too high. Keep it close until you get comfortable with flying with no GPS!!!! Once you get at controlling your drone you can start going out further and higher. I lost GPS while flying and the drone went into ATTI mode and I darn near panicked! I just knew it was gonna fly away. The wind was pushing it away and quickly. I was so focused on preventing a fly away that I completely forgot I had the RTH option which when I engaged it, the drone flew back in a straight line back to me and landed! I was so thankful but used that experience as a daily reminder to go out and practice flying in ATTI mode. Just the other day I flew over an area that caused magnetic interference and it kicked me off GPS! This time I didn’t panic, I flew all the back to me and landed in ATTI mode. I powered everything off then back on. Recalibrated the drone and went right back up in the air without incident.

Hi , been reading this with much interest, I have a P3S and loose signal a lot due to interference. So my question is.. with no GPS or lost connection- will RTH work? If so would take a lot of sweat out my hat when flying in the future... thanks All

 

[MalteseKev]

Hi , been reading this with much interest, I have a P3S and loose signal a lot due to interference. So my question is.. with no GPS or lost connection- will RTH work? If so would take a lot of sweat out my hat when flying in the future... thanks All

I mean S1 toggle

 

[Mio Lac]

If your drone lost GPS, how did it find its way back to the home point?

If your drone lost GPS, how did it find its way back to the home point?

Thanks chuck that’s great advice. I’ll work on that. Tati is my weakest flymode anyways!

 

[Mio Lac]

Thanks chuck that’s great advice. I’ll work on that. Tati is my weakest flymode anyways!

Atti

 

[MtManDavey]

I live and sometimes fly in the deep forest of my property. I may not get GPS signals before launching, so I fly anyway. Once the bird gets high enough off the ground, seems to acquire GPS just fine, but if it does not, I still have control over it and not using RTH, can get it home just fine. I think it will keep good control while in VLOS in any mode.... just need to remember how to get into tripod mode for photography.

 

[Oso]

I lost GPS while flying and the drone went into ATTI mode and I darn near panicked! ... I was so focused on preventing a fly away that I completely forgot I had the RTH option which when I engaged it, the drone flew back in a straight line back to me and landed!

So my question is.. with no GPS or lost connection- will RTH work?

With no GPS, your P3 is not able to find it's way home.

 

[Meta4]

I lost GPS while flying and the drone went into ATTI mode and I darn near panicked! I just knew it was gonna fly away. The wind was pushing it away and quickly. I was so focused on preventing a fly away that I completely forgot I had the RTH option which when I engaged it, the drone flew back in a straight line back to me and landed!

There's some confusion there.
As noted above, your Phantom needs GPS to be able to RTH.
If you want to find out what really happened, go to DJI Flight Log Viewer
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.

 

[cinclodes]

If you want to find out what really happened, go to DJI Flight Log Viewer

My bet would be that it only briefly lost GPS.

 

[Andy9]

I think that at first you should resolve the problem, having no sat. at the place you describe.
If there is no wind then flying in ATTI is almost the same as in P mode. Of course you don't have any other flight modes, that's why the flying in the line of sight is so important.
In the windy situation flying in ATTI mode could be very tricky and because of that it needs practicing.

 

[MalteseKev]

With no GPS, your P3 is not able to find it's way home.

Ok, thought as much... was hoping I’d missed a trick. Just have to keep flying careful. Cheers Guys.