craft veering to the right

[fly-catchers]

Hi
Just tried my first couple of flights (crashes cough!) Two things. When it takes off it seems to lean downwards to the front so you need to increase the upward thrust straightaway to get it off the ground. When hovering it tends to turn towards the left direction and the nose of the craft always tended to go towards the left. So ended up using the yawl to correct this but it wanted to veer again. Couple of small crashes as I have not had the craft much more than 10 feet or so off the ground. The last crash was into me but grabbed the craft and shut down! One prop is chipped at the end, the others just grass strained. Replaced chipped blade- can it be smoothed down again or best discarded? Only done a compass calibration so far- nothing in the software. No error codes- GPS mode no wind.
Any suggestions?

cheers

 

[oldengineer]

Do the motor's all run evenly / smoothly?

Does one start quicker, or shut down earlier, for instance?

Did you turn the controller on first, before installing the battery in the phantom?

And yes, small nicks and bumps in the prop can be smoothed out.

 

[DeweyAXD]

As above + I'd suggest you get it plugged into the NAZA Assistant and make sure the IMU doesn't need calibrating. After you bump it about abit its not a bad idead to do this.

The other thing to be aware of is the ground you sit it on when you first plug the batt in. If it is uneven I have found the IMU cause mine to float to one side. I'd not expect it to do anything dramatic though. It is a similar problem if you move it around while it is initialising (yellow flashes).

If none of this works properly I'd suggest taking the props off, placing it on a smooth flat table and running the motors up. If it walks itself across the table you know one of your motors is poorly balanced and/or could have a dodgey bearing.

 

[fly-catchers]

Do the motor's all run evenly / smoothly?

Does one start quicker, or shut down earlier, for instance?

Did you turn the controller on first, before installing the battery in the phantom?

And yes, small nicks and bumps in the prop can be smoothed out.

All the motors seem to run smooth and the same and can't see any difference in their start/stop times. I have had the controller on first before fitting the Phantom battery. I did do an advance calibration which the software told me I needed. A bit better on another flight but still the craft is tending to rotate somewhat and one succesful land and two other small crashes!
A few more nicked props- but I have a prop guard fitted as I would imagine at least one would have broken by now!

Does the GPS hovering need a certain distance from you before it gets more stable? As so far I am keeping the craft fairly close and low.

 

[fly-catchers]

The other thing to be aware of is the ground you sit it on when you first plug the batt in. If it is uneven I have found the IMU cause mine to float to one side. I'd not expect it to do anything dramatic though. It is a similar problem if you move it around while it is initialising (yellow flashes).

That way well be the issue. I have watched all the videos but forgot about letting the craft remain stable until it had done all its setup. So I was stuffing the battery back in as soon as I plugged it in! DOH! Batteries currently charging so will give another go later.
One other question with the stock TX I have both controls are sprung to keep them by default in the middle. On the DJI video the throttle was the earlier version and not sprung so when he pulled it down to start the motor it stays there. He them suggests raising it slowly by 50% for liftoff. So when I pull the throttle down should I hold it there and slowly raise it and make sure it does spring back up to the middle position?

I guess as you fly you become more confident- but at the moment its a very scary experience!!

 

[oldengineer]

The spring loading will do exactly what you want.

...Full throttle to lift off, then let go of the stick, to let it fall back a bit, to the height you require.

Btw...Good to see another phantom flyer from Kent.