First post, aaand it's a flyaway...

[SamTheMan]

Bit of a bummer this... I only had the thing a week. This happened:

Edit: video deleted due to reasons of paranoia.


It'll need a shell, and the vertical arm of the gimbal (hanging from the yaw motor down to the roll motor) is bent to the left from the impact. It actually ended by hitting a brick wall though it's hard to see in the vid it happens so fast.

Pity my first post couldn't have been on a happier note but there it is.

 

[twistedme]

Hallo,

See my post here viewtopic.php?f=19&t=20509

I think we had, or maybe still have, the same problem. I see on Your video the same maneuver that You can see in my. Lost control and it flies a path recalling the hook straight to the ground.

I know what You feel. My first crash cost me new gimbal, the second, although it looks worse luckily only one broken propeller. But the worst thing is that the Phantom for me has become now unpredictable. And instead enjoy flying it, I'm afraid that once again lose control of it.

 

[laselvasurf]

Sorry to see this. How many flights have you had with this phantom? Do you have much experience with any other RC aircraft before it?

 

[ianwood]

I see some rather strong TBE in that video. This is indicative of a compass problem. Please share you compass mod value and tell us where and how you did the compass calibration (e.g. in an open field, on the beach, on the road/sidewalk, on your deck, etc.).

 

[SamTheMan]

I was flying line of sight (eyeballing it) - no FPV installed yet.

At its furthest away, about 360 meters, it was pretty much a dot in my vision, so I actually put it in slow forward flight and then yawed around to the left, so that I could tell when it had turned back around towards me by observing its lateral motion. I could see the dot start moving left, but then it stopped moving left (and started moving right a little), at which point I knew it had turned around and was facing back towards me.

It was in GPS mode. I never had it on the PC before. I had it a week at the time. The compass calibration was done at the roadside.

A guy who knows a bit about them has told me since that mobile phone signals might throw the compass out of whack, and I did have my phone in my pocket at the time. Dunno whether that would have anything to do with it or not.

When it crashed, it impacted against a concrete wall. Unsurprisingly it's pretty well wrecked.

The MC Board, GPS Module are a writeoff best I can tell, the Naza V2 has signs of stress on the casing and is probably a goner too. Also possibly x2 ESC's. And the shell and props needless to say.

Hmmm... Is it even worth emailing DJI to complain about this, or am I just going to get passed around and fobbed off, or straight up told to get lost? To anyone who emailed them, what was your experience?

If I thought it was worth firing them off an email I'd give it a shot, but if I would be wasting my time I'd just suck it up and fix the thing myself.

 

[JDN]

I was flying line of sight (eyeballing it) - no FPV installed yet.

I'd be curious to know whether you had sight of it, whenever it started veering toward the ground. If so, and you felt like you had control before it veered off on its own, I'm wondering about some sort of WiFi interference from maybe a nearby wireless router in one of the homes. It seemed you were flying rather low to me, when it took off on its own. I'm also curious to know whether you were on firmware 3.04 or 3.06? Do you know? Anyway, sorry for the crash....All these crashes are convincing me that not everything is as wonderful as the advertising leads you to believe!

 

[HarryT]

As a fellow newbie, I'm very sorry this happened to you. Your flying is very "bold" for only a week's experience!

 

[noiseboy72]

Hmm, flying in the UK, over a congested area and crashing into a house...

I would delete this video as you are flying illegally and make sure you get some insurance.

Would you fly a conventional model aircraft in that sort of proximity to houses? I think the answer is no, so don't take your quad there.

Sorry, can't help on what caused the crash though. I doubt it was interference though.

 

[SamTheMan]

I was flying line of sight (eyeballing it) - no FPV installed yet.

I'd be curious to know whether you had sight of it, whenever it started veering toward the ground. If so, and you felt like you had control before it veered off on its own, I'm wondering about some sort of WiFi interference from maybe a nearby wireless router in one of the homes. It seemed you were flying rather low to me, when it took off on its own. I'm also curious to know whether you were on firmware 3.04 or 3.06? Do you know? Anyway, sorry for the crash....All these crashes are convincing me that not everything is as wonderful as the advertising leads you to believe!

Yeah I could see it clearly when it went out of control. I don't know which version of firmware was on it.

 

[Steelej]

Honestly, a week of flying and you go 360 metres away! When I was learning RC Heli's I spent 6 months learning to hover tail in then nose in before proper flying, again 360 metres away is madness. This is part of the problem that people with Phantoms are not learning to fly, out of the box up in the air no idea what to do and it's DJI's fault, no wonder they're crippling the phantom with firmware updates!

John.

 

[peter mclachlan]

Honestly, a week of flying and you go 360 metres away! When I was learning RC Heli's I spent 6 months learning to hover tail in then nose in before proper flying, again 360 metres away is madness. This is part of the problem that people with Phantoms are not learning to fly, out of the box up in the air no idea what to do and it's DJI's fault, no wonder they're crippling the phantom with firmware updates!

John.

I have to agree it took me 6 months or longer to fly my heli I have been flying for 30 yrs , it aint DJI's fault its the TOOL holding the radio , for gods sake learn to fly first 360 mtrs insane 50 mtrs yes max limit till you know what you are doing , DJI are crippling the phantom with added software trying to make it safer because it has to compensate for idiots
just my two bobs worth

 

[creativedogmedia]

Honestly, a week of flying and you go 360 metres away! When I was learning RC Heli's I spent 6 months learning to hover tail in then nose in before proper flying, again 360 metres away is madness. This is part of the problem that people with Phantoms are not learning to fly, out of the box up in the air no idea what to do and it's DJI's fault, no wonder they're crippling the phantom with firmware updates!

John.

I have to agree it took me 6 months or longer to fly my heli I have been flying for 30 yrs , it aint DJI's fault its the TOOL holding the radio , for gods sake learn to fly first 360 mtrs insane 50 mtrs yes max limit till you know what you are doing , DJI are crippling the phantom with added software trying to make it safer because it has to compensate for idiots
just my two bobs worth

How do you really feel?

 

[fxmodels]

Well without being as harsh, I have to say that flying any multicopter until its a tiny black dot in the sky when you have limited experience and no first person view is very risky to the people below you who are the unwitting subjects in the drama that could unfold should anything bad happen. And it is true that because of flying it THAT far away and posing such risks to other people's life and property, that you will find yourself on the lesser side of sympathy. Although Peter's words seem harsh, you have to suck it up, accept teh criticism and re-think your entire approach to flying these craft.
DJI is understandably stuck between a rock and a hard place on this issue because dont forget that the FAA can tell them they cant sell that product here... So they want to play nice and the FAA isnt willing to shut down the industry. Not yet. Irresponsible flying however could change ALL of that.

 

[Elwood58]

And never even hooked it up to a computer? Did not know what version of software? Did not even calibrate? Sounds like the first half of that flight was success by accident.

 

[Fyod]

Considering what the package containing a drone with very sensitive electronics goes through getting from a factory half way around the world all the way to your doorstep, thorough setup, computer calibration and a few flights of practice with close-proximity testing should be common sense.

 

[peter mclachlan]

yes I know I sounded very harsh but the truth is we as pilots have got to stop being so bloody nice about these people that are buying phantoms and just unboxing them straight out the back yard and off we fly , oh hell my quad has flown off but no its not my fault must be software or hardware or something someone else done , but not my fault ok lets just blame DJI , me I sell them yes a lot of them but everyone who collect on from me , I take out the back and explain how they need to sit down and read the manual , and when finished go back and read the manual over again , then go watch youtube videos on the phantom there are great tutorials on using these great toys but please understand they are a computer that flys
pete

 

[MenaceCat]

I was flying line of sight (eyeballing it) - no FPV installed yet.

At its furthest away, about 360 meters, it was pretty much a dot in my vision, so I actually put it in slow forward flight and then yawed around to the left, so that I could tell when it had turned back around towards me by observing its lateral motion. I could see the dot start moving left, but then it stopped moving left (and started moving right a little), at which point I knew it had turned around and was facing back towards me.

It was in GPS mode. I never had it on the PC before. I had it a week at the time. The compass calibration was done at the roadside.

A guy who knows a bit about them has told me since that mobile phone signals might throw the compass out of whack, and I did have my phone in my pocket at the time. Dunno whether that would have anything to do with it or not.

When it crashed, it impacted against a concrete wall. Unsurprisingly it's pretty well wrecked.

The MC Board, GPS Module are a writeoff best I can tell, the Naza V2 has signs of stress on the casing and is probably a goner too. Also possibly x2 ESC's. And the shell and props needless to say.

Hmmm... Is it even worth emailing DJI to complain about this, or am I just going to get passed around and fobbed off, or straight up told to get lost? To anyone who emailed them, what was your experience?

If I thought it was worth firing them off an email I'd give it a shot, but if I would be wasting my time I'd just suck it up and fix the thing myself.

I have to agree with the other posters, its pretty crazy to fly that far away until you've mastered the controls. BTW, I suspect you were NOT flying in GPS mode. With the current firmware, airspeed is limited on GPS mode and the P2 was going faster than 10m/s for sure at some parts. I suspect you were in ATTI at least at some parts of the flight; perhaps during the crash as well. Its very easy to accidentally flick the switch and them forget about it.

 

[OI Photography]

I suspect you were in ATTI at least at some parts of the flight; perhaps during the crash as well. Its very easy to accidentally flick the switch and them forget about it.

...or to lose GPS for any number of reasons and be forced in to ATTI mode without realizing it happened.

 

[Doctor Drone]

By any chance was your Gopro wifi on??

I've been hearing that is the cause of most flyaways

 

[csivet]

has anyone ever seen any video about flyways of dji s1000, or s800? . i think this problem related with the naza controller.