Close Call

[drifter]

Hi all need some advice.
I was on my 4th flight today and the bird kept going straight up. It would not respond to the controller so I turned off the controller to activate the fail safe mode. Fail safe mode worked but the bird descended fast on the last couple feet making for a rough landing which caused the bird to tip on its side before I could shut it down. Thankfully I have prop guards.

So…I flew another flight with a new battery and everything worked without a problem. My question is should I recalibrate everything including the IMU or do you think it was just a fluke problem?

 

[paulajayne]

Did you have a good GPS lock? Did you calibrate the compass?

 

[drifter]

yes and all batteries were fully charged.

 

[IflyinWY]

Could the throttle have been pushed up while you plugged in your battery?

 

[drifter]

No, but I'm going to update my firmware so I'll be doing the calibration again anyways...I'll keep you posted if it happens again.

 

[drifter]

Just for future reference what happens to the controller stick control if GPS isn’t fully locked in before a flight while in Phantom/GPS mode?

 

[Peter Patricelli]

One possibility.....of flying directly overhead and holding the controller vertical.....so the antenna is pointing straight up.....there can be a dead zone where you lose control. So if the bird is directly overhead and starts climbing....it could keep right on going for awhile. The answer to the dead zone effect is to turn the controller/antenna horizontal. Antennas, both Tx and Rx transmit and receive best perpendicular to their long axis.

That may or may not have been your problem but one thing to think about.

 

[N017RW]

One possibility.....of flying directly overhead and holding the controller vertical.....so the antenna is pointing straight up.....there can be a dead zone where you lose control. So if the bird is directly overhead and starts climbing....it could keep right on going for awhile. The answer to the dead zone effect is to turn the controller/antenna horizontal. Antennas, both Tx and Rx transmit and receive best perpendicular to their long axis.

That may or may not have been your problem but one thing to think about.

With regards to the emphasized sentence above...

Antenna's work best when their polarization axis are parallel to each other not perpendicular.