Flew out too far over the water :O
- Thread starter Turbomania
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2015
- Messages
- 68
- Reaction score
- 18
- Age
- 54
Hi well done on keeping your cool and landing, any chance you would tell me what video setting you use
welTook my bird out in less than ideal conditions yesterday to get a quick feel for my new GL658B Inspire Controller.
Started out with a 10 mph cross wind, as i checked signal strength and what not i hadn't noticed the wind had turned and was 20+ mph. Not a problem for a Phanton 4 you say... It is a bit concerning when you are 15000 ft out over water with a 20 mph head wind to return against. Oh $hit...
The return flight is a nail bitter, you can see it fighting the wind and running out of battery. Had to cancel 1 Autoland at 500 ft out, wasn't able to cancel the last. it was a heck of a landing to say the least.
Hand caught it on the edge of the water with 7% battery..
Newbies, Pay attention to the wind !!! don't be a me
HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters
Thanks bumblebee, Luck was on my side.. most of my copter smarts have come from here, I owe a thanks to all the people that have shared there crash or near crash stories. Something to be learned from most all of them.
1080P 60F,Auto.... I'm old school
Last edited:
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2016
- Messages
- 266
- Reaction score
- 90
- Age
- 62
Thank you for sharing your experience. I couldn't resist the temptation to fly today, even though it was very windy. I thought of your story and kept it close.
Around 31mph is the optimum speed for maximum distance travel vs battery consumption (fuel). Higher speed (i.e. sports mode) will eventually travel shorter distance for the same amount of battery energy.
Great question that I have wondered myself. If battery is critical, is it better to fly in P mode which is slower but will not eat up your battery as fast or S mode which gives you 2x the speed but does it pay off in the end? Anyone know which is best?
Optimal speed vs battery drain is 30/31 mph. Most, and I do this in sport mode. P mode will only get you aprox. 17 mph. With Crash disabled in P mode 27 mph. That would probably get ya close. I'll give it a try. I can rubber band the stick full throttle and let her cruse at 27 mph...lol.. i'm down
Gmass had a similar moment. He fought the forced landing long and hard and it reached land at less than 6' altitude and landed within 10' of the water. Had he waited even one sec longer to turn around he'd be trying to sell a P4 controller and two spare batteries in the classified section.
Last edited:
A pucker moment for sure....lol
The more i look at my return i think you are correct. Mine started autolanding at 544' out. I thought I turned it off. My data doesn't show that. I don't think it can be canceled. It shows change to Sport mode at 416' I was already in Sport mode. It shows Mode Change to Auto land again at 117' ... Like you said, it seemed like i was fighting the autolanding.
I wonder if i had switched to ATTI mode ???
Great save, by the way and thanks for sharing !! Video ?
The more i look at my return i think you are correct. Mine started autolanding at 544' out. I thought I turned it off. My data doesn't show that. I don't think it can be canceled. It shows change to Sport mode at 416' I was already in Sport mode. It shows Mode Change to Auto land again at 117' ... Like you said, it seemed like i was fighting the autolanding.
I wonder if i had switched to ATTI mode ???
Great save, by the way and thanks for sharing !! Video ?
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2016
- Messages
- 299
- Reaction score
- 94
- Age
- 41
I could literally sense ur panic as you looked around trying to find a spot to land!!
Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
That was Sport mode :O 10 MPH with the throttle pegged in Sport mode crossing over those bridges. One heck of a head wind.
Not sure if the wind shifted as much as you were in a semi protecting cove and as soon as you were up at altitude the wind was blowing much harder. Those trees were blocking what was already going on just above.
I find the UAV Forecast App to be a must have app. It tells you the winds in your area at 32 feet all the way up to 3,281 feet. It also has Visible SATs, KP level, visibilty, temp, cloud cover, wind direction a map of restricted areas (Airports and so on.). You can set your max wind you feel is safe to fly in as well as minimum Sats. I am sure there are other apps out there as well but this one works for me.
I find the UAV Forecast App to be a must have app. It tells you the winds in your area at 32 feet all the way up to 3,281 feet. It also has Visible SATs, KP level, visibilty, temp, cloud cover, wind direction a map of restricted areas (Airports and so on.). You can set your max wind you feel is safe to fly in as well as minimum Sats. I am sure there are other apps out there as well but this one works for me.
Last edited:
You are correct my friend... A simple check of UAV would have clued me into what was ahead. I have ran into a couple of "Not Good To Fly" days that were hidden by that cove.
Being a charter boat Capt and pilot, this is a golden rule. Other than calm days, I try to always fly up wind first. In Las Vegas now and winds have been 20-30mph, keeping us from flying mountains outside Boulder City. But flew the inspire and P4 other night in these winds and I have never seen the p4 dance around like it did before, at 240' coming back down wind in sport was like a jet (60mph), but going pass us just a short distance, getting back to our location was a struggle, (10mph). So we quit while we were ahead, nerve racking.
Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots
At 10% the bird starts to autoland. It can't be cancelled but you can maintain altitude by applying throttle as you continue working your way back. You can hold her in the air this way until the battery reaches 3 volts at which point the battery shuts off completely.
Thanks for clearing that up... in the heat of the moment i thought i canceled but looked back at the data and don't see it being canceled. Because you can't...
The log had me wondering as it Changes back to Sport Mode @ 416 ft and then back to Autoland @117.
15m 00s 87.3 ft 544 ft Mode Mode changed to AutoLanding
Q 15m 00s 87.3 ft 544 ft Tip Tips__Critically Low Power. Aircraft Landing
R 15m 04s 76.4 ft 416 ft Mode Mode changed to Sport
S 15m 11s 75.1 ft 117 ft Mode Mode changed to AutoLanding
T 15m 11s 75.1 ft 117 ft Tip Tips__Critically Low Power. Aircraft Landing
U 15m 23s 5.9 ft 9 ft Warning Gimbal Roll Reached End Point
Similar threads
