If the vision positioning sensors were turned off, would this give the craft less chance of locating itself relative to the home point ? This same scenario happened to me with my P3A, only at the base of a waterfall. For some reason I wasn't getting any Sats to register in this remote mountain location (maybe just a couple intermittently ). Having flown a couple dozen issue free flights I made a decision to try and fly anyway (still in GPS mode). I did a compass calibration though. As soon as the quad lifted off it started traveling sideways ... there was not even the slightest breeze. I pulled the R/S stick to the left but the quad did not respond. I was afraid to give it altitude because of the surrounding trees (already learned that lesson). The only thing I could think of was to try and land the quad as quickly as possible and you can see the results in the video below at the 3 minute mark. .....
Believe it or not, there's more to the story ! Having tried to analyse what had happened I went over everything in my head and had to assume that I had done something wrong or not done something I should have. I put on a new set of props and took off again from the same spot only this time with a well rehearsed plan of action on my part .... fly the thing left if it's going right. Darn if the exact same thing didn't happen all over again. Inch for inch, the quad took off to the right (you can see the orientation) and I steered left. Once again, the result was a perfect repeat of what's in the video.
The reason I asked the question at the beginning was because I had VPS turned off. Everything else was calibrated perfectly. The craft flew perfectly before and after this event just as it was (and for the following 9 months). I can't believe that all this experience cost me was 4 broken props total.
