Fly-A-Aways with P3S

[John in JAX]

Good Afternoon All,

Waiting for Christmas day to "officially" receive my new P3S, and I am home sick, So digging threw the forums.

I noted stories of DJI Mavics and I assume Phantoms too, have been lost. Some of the stories can be attributed to weather, GPS/RTH, but very few operator errors (wink). As an experienced (real) helicopter aircrewman, rookie Cessna 152 driver, and even rookie(er) UAS pilot. What can I expect to be the most likely cause of Fly-A-Away?

 

[msinger]

What can I expect to be the most likely cause of Fly-A-Away?

The tips in the following articles will help avoid a flyaway:

• Tips for Avoiding Common Pilot Mistakes
• Tips for Avoiding a Crash

 

[Bakersfield Quad]

Good Afternoon All,

Waiting for Christmas day to "officially" receive my new P3S, and I am home sick, So digging threw the forums.

I noted stories of DJI Mavics and I assume Phantoms too, have been lost. Some of the stories can be attributed to weather, GPS/RTH, but very few operator errors (wink). As an experienced (real) helicopter aircrewman, rookie Cessna 152 driver, and even rookie(er) UAS pilot. What can I expect to be the most likely cause of Fly-A-Away?

In my opinion, these are your worst scenarios.
Taking off from a Magnetically anomalous area, concrete filled with steel reinforcement.
High winds aloft, fooled into thinking it is calm above or changing conditions.
Flying beyond safe limit, both distance and skills.
All can result in something that could be described as a fly-away. But if it is a failure fly away, it will come without warning.

 

[Alan Russel]

Flying behind an obstacle and losing signal and having RTH elevation to low.

 

[John in JAX]

I have noted the park I will be practicing in, is surrounded with trees and protect from wind on three sides. It was ideal for the park flyer and I never went above the trees. The area is about the size of a football field and should be protected from unexpected gusts.

The specific field is at the other end from bay ball fields and unexpected "guests" so I am hoping the cold (for this part of Florida) will keep the "Looky-Loos" at bay.

 

[WV. Rootman]

John, it takes a pretty good wind to cause a problem. I was flying at Locos park in Jacksonville, Fl. Thanksgiving week with wind at 200 ft. close by with no problem. I also flew Ponte Vedra Beach with some pretty good winds and stayed close. People get into trouble when they fly against the wind coming home. That happened to me yesterday here in WV. As I was flying farther away I increased altitude to keep my signal strong. Near 400 ft. Coming back, I realized I was only flying 6 miles an hour. I switched to sports mode and still wasn’t coming home very well. I went to flying in a diagonal direction to keep from flying directly into the wind and as low of an elevation as I could fly. I got home safely with 40% battery. Always fly cautiously and don’t lose your head.

 

[Meta4]

I noted stories of DJI Mavics and I assume Phantoms too, have been lost. Some of the stories can be attributed to weather, GPS/RTH, but very few operator errors (wink).
As a rookie UAS pilot. What can I expect to be the most likely cause of Fly-A-Away?

Having investigated many lost Phantom incidents, I would say that genuine malfunctions are uncommon and most are due to operator error.
Some of the most common causes we see are:
Poor understanding of how the Phantom is programmed and how to use it, particularly RTH.
Flying off downwind in a wind that is too strong for the Phantom to RTH against it.
Not understanding how winds are stronger at high levels.
Flying behind a building, terrain etc, losing signal and having an RTH height too low to clear any obstacles in the RTH path
Launching from steel surfaces or reinforced concrete (it messes up the compass)
Flying into an area where GPS signal is blocked (a canyon, close to a building etc) and not being familiar with atti mode.

While not a cause of something that might be called a flyaway, the most common cause of crashes is flying close to obstacles like trees, buildings etc.
Do your early flying in a large, open area well away from obstacles.
It's hard to get into trouble if there's nothing to hit.

 

[NM_Quad]

I bought a P2V+ when they first came out and experienced two fly-aways, one perhaps my fault by landing, then taking off again 50% battery without letting the home point reset. Fly-away reports were a daily occurrence with the P2s. I have not seen this, or experienced this with my P3S, which I've had two years and 200 flights. As others have said, most reports are by those who don't want to admit or acknowledge to an operator error. A true fly-away for no reason is a rare occurrence any more. Enjoy your P3S but don't be overly concerned. Read the manual, properly charge batteries, ensure props are tight, stay away from trees and buildings, and start out with baby steps to learn how the P3S responds to flight commands and you'll do fine. BTW, a tree lined park the size of a football field is not all that big. The P3S will cover that length on full throttle in just a few seconds, so use caution. When you first fly your bird, how close it is to things like trees and your depth perception can be deceiving. Hoping to hear about your successful flights and the fun you're about to have. Good flying.

 

[Mark The Droner]

I've RTH'd over 300x. Not a single mishap.

 

[vergecraft]

I am not an expert drone pilot, and I had a scary flight with the P3 in high winds a few days ago.. I lost control totally, the camera was crazy and I thought I was going to lose the drone. I don't know what happened. I calibrated the P3 before flying, This is the video - Losing control of P3S in high winds

 

[LarBear360]

I am not an expert drone pilot, and I had a scary flight with the P3 in high winds a few days ago.. I lost control totally, the camera was crazy and I thought I was going to lose the drone. I don't know what happened. I calibrated the P3 before flying, This is the video.

Let's try and stay on topic here. I see you have started a separate thread moments ago. People can jump on and hopefully help you over there.

 

[vergecraft]

Let's try and stay on topic here. I see you have started a separate thread moments ago. People can jump on and hopefully help you over there.

Sorry man, beginners mistake. My apologies. I thought it would be relevant,

 

[LarBear360]

Let's try and stay on topic here. I see you have started a separate thread moments ago. People can jump on and hopefully help you over there.

Sorry man, beginners mistake. My apologies. I thought it would be relevant,

No harm, no foul. And welcome to the forum!

 

[Travis5049]

I am not an expert drone pilot, and I had a scary flight with the P3 in high winds a few days ago.. I lost control totally, the camera was crazy and I thought I was going to lose the drone. I don't know what happened. I calibrated the P3 before flying, This is the video - Losing control of P3S in high winds

Good example of what not to do. Think like a pilot and don't fly in high winds.

 

[John in JAX]

All good feedback- Using the AWC web site and local news reports should provide decent wind conditions. Being at the field will give (me) a better ideal how those winds are affected by the structures/trees.

Doing research elsewhere regarding fly-aways (specifically DJI products), I found that not knowing the conditions above the ground and not setting the HOME position are major concerns (if not the cause) of many fly-aways.

As part of the before flight check list I have what to do in the event of a fly-away. The assumption is no matter the cause this is a true inflight emergency and can cause personal injury and property damage.For these reasons I have have including intentional ditching the aircraft while it's still in sight. In laymans terms the aircraft is expendable against the unknown results of its loss.

 

[Meta4]

Doing research elsewhere regarding fly-aways (specifically DJI products), ... not setting the HOME position are major concerns (if not the cause) of many fly-aways

Although you will often see people asking if a pilot set the home point before taking off, this really isn't the issue people imagine.
Your Phantom will automatically record a home point as soon as it gets GPS reception.
Normally that will be a short time after you start things up and before you launch anyway.
If you were very impatient and launched early, your Phantom would still record a home point as soon as it gets GPS reception and that would probably be within 100 metres so it wouldn't make much difference.

As part of the before flight check list I have what to do in the event of a fly-away. The assumption is no matter the cause this is a true inflight emergency and can cause personal injury and property damage. For these reasons I have have including intentional ditching the aircraft while it's still in sight. In laymans terms the aircraft is expendable against the unknown results of its loss.

If your Phantom was really flying away, and not responding to your control inputs, you would probably have no way to get it to do anything anyway.
But I think you've picked up a false idea of "flyaways".
The whole concept of a flyaway came about in the early days of drones.
An owner that lost their Phantom without understanding the cause of the incident would say that their Phantom flew away and it was accepted by most people.
But since the Phantom 3 and DJI Go app, we have recorded flight data that allows us to investigate incidents and find out what actually happened.
This has shown that there are quite uncommon genuine hardware malfunctions but the overwhelming majority of lost Phantom incidents are due to operator issues.
Being able to see what causes such incidents also helps everyone to be a better pilot because we know what can cause problems and how to prevent such issues or how to manage them.
I would go so far as to say that there's no such thing as a flyaway.

 

[Neon Euc]

The only real fly away issue is flying in ATTI mode and then lose signal. This is when GPS is turned off. Apart from that you won't have much issue. Make sure you have battery voltage turned on so you can see it in screen and don't take off with a low charged battery. Sounds like common sense but the amount off people who take off on 50% battery for a quick 2 mins flight then complain they lost their drone is unreal lol. Taking off with a half charged battery is a risk as it doesn't give an accurate reading for voltage.

 

[Mark The Droner]

The only real fly away issue is flying in ATTI mode and then lose signal. This is when GPS is turned off. ....

GPS is not really turned off. It's just ignored. If you lose signal, it will still RTH.

 

[John in JAX]

As understand the operation of the DJI GO app , if the aircraft lost signal it would stop where it was and hover until critical low battery. I haven't tested this yet and will research further when I get off work.

 

[Mark The Droner]

No that isn't quite right. If the AC loses signal, it would go to failsafe mode, which means it will do whatever it is you had previously instructed it to do in failsafe mode. The default is RTH. So assuming failsafe is RTH, it would pause/hover for three seconds with no signal, then it would turn to face the home point. Then it would raise as necessary to the minimum RTH height (previously determined by you), then it would proceed towards the home point.

If you had changed the failsafe to hover, then it would hover until critical battery was reached.

If you had changed the failsafe to autoland, it would autoland.