- Joined
- Jun 8, 2016
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Yesterday afternoon I was out with my Phantom 3 Professional and what a time it was.
It was a little windy, (14mph). I was up about 100 feet when suddenly I a gust of wind took the Phantom off to the west in a rather hurried fashion. I tried steering it home but I guess the wind was so strong at that altitude it just seemed to take over.
In a bit of a panic, I hit the return to home button and heard the voice of the Phantom say "Initialising Return To Home Function." The Phantom rose to a new altitude and kept flying away to the west. I had lost control so it seemed.
A few seconds later it disappeared over the tree tops which were over 100 feet as I watched in horror on the video on the iPad Mini, the Phantom crashing into the top of a very tall Poplar. You could also see the subsequent tumbling down of the Phantom from the tree top, and then everything just stopped dead!!
Now the fun began. My son ran off toward where he thought the Phantom hit the top of the tree but didn't see any sign of it. He asked me to review the video which we did and he was able to figure out by some fence rails stacked on the property, about where it had hit a tree, and so off he went to look there. After about a half hour search, he found the Phantom on the ground at the base of the tree with one of the quick disconnect propeller guards badly broken and one propeller was broken off about two inches from the end.
The top shell is a little out of alignment with a gap between the seams. (I haven't figured out how to fix this case damage yet). There's a tiny piece of white plastic sticking out at that point preventing me from snapping the case back into place there. Oh, and the battery was lying about five feet from the Phantom when my son found it.
That was about the extent of the damage. I was extremely happy that the day before, (Saturday) I had installed the Killer RC Gimbal Guard I bought earlier at $47.99 The camera and gimbal were intact and working just fine.
DIAGNOSIS
I figured, as I said, that after hitting the RTH function, the wind at the higher altitude was just a bit too much for her and off she went. When I got home however, I noticed that I must have inadvertently slipped the Flight Mode Switch over to the "A" ("ATTI") mode and that's why the wind caught it a took it away.
CONCLUSION
I need a lot more practice at (lower altitudes). More practice on calmer, less windy days, and just generally do a lot more reading. At 70 years of age, this isn't a toy to be messed with. It's a serious piece of photographic equipment that I purchased, thinking it would be a breeze to fly and take photos and video.
Make no mistake. They aren't difficult to fly, but they do require a very keen and concentrated mind when operating. There's a lot to think about when operating one of these types of birds and one must be "on his game" with complete and full attention to detail while the Phantom is in the air. I made a mistake yesterday, but I hope to learn more and try again real soon. Perhaps flip it back into the beginner mode for a while until I get a lot more experience and feel more comfortable with it. The video I get I'm quite happy with. It's my Phantom Flying skills that needs a lot of work.
All in all I was very lucky to have my son with me as it was he who found it and saved the day. It's working fine again and I chalk that on up to pure luck.
If anyone can give me an idea how to fix the out of alignment body parts I'd very much appreciate it.
Bud
It was a little windy, (14mph). I was up about 100 feet when suddenly I a gust of wind took the Phantom off to the west in a rather hurried fashion. I tried steering it home but I guess the wind was so strong at that altitude it just seemed to take over.
In a bit of a panic, I hit the return to home button and heard the voice of the Phantom say "Initialising Return To Home Function." The Phantom rose to a new altitude and kept flying away to the west. I had lost control so it seemed.
A few seconds later it disappeared over the tree tops which were over 100 feet as I watched in horror on the video on the iPad Mini, the Phantom crashing into the top of a very tall Poplar. You could also see the subsequent tumbling down of the Phantom from the tree top, and then everything just stopped dead!!
Now the fun began. My son ran off toward where he thought the Phantom hit the top of the tree but didn't see any sign of it. He asked me to review the video which we did and he was able to figure out by some fence rails stacked on the property, about where it had hit a tree, and so off he went to look there. After about a half hour search, he found the Phantom on the ground at the base of the tree with one of the quick disconnect propeller guards badly broken and one propeller was broken off about two inches from the end.
The top shell is a little out of alignment with a gap between the seams. (I haven't figured out how to fix this case damage yet). There's a tiny piece of white plastic sticking out at that point preventing me from snapping the case back into place there. Oh, and the battery was lying about five feet from the Phantom when my son found it.
That was about the extent of the damage. I was extremely happy that the day before, (Saturday) I had installed the Killer RC Gimbal Guard I bought earlier at $47.99 The camera and gimbal were intact and working just fine.
DIAGNOSIS
I figured, as I said, that after hitting the RTH function, the wind at the higher altitude was just a bit too much for her and off she went. When I got home however, I noticed that I must have inadvertently slipped the Flight Mode Switch over to the "A" ("ATTI") mode and that's why the wind caught it a took it away.
CONCLUSION
I need a lot more practice at (lower altitudes). More practice on calmer, less windy days, and just generally do a lot more reading. At 70 years of age, this isn't a toy to be messed with. It's a serious piece of photographic equipment that I purchased, thinking it would be a breeze to fly and take photos and video.
Make no mistake. They aren't difficult to fly, but they do require a very keen and concentrated mind when operating. There's a lot to think about when operating one of these types of birds and one must be "on his game" with complete and full attention to detail while the Phantom is in the air. I made a mistake yesterday, but I hope to learn more and try again real soon. Perhaps flip it back into the beginner mode for a while until I get a lot more experience and feel more comfortable with it. The video I get I'm quite happy with. It's my Phantom Flying skills that needs a lot of work.
All in all I was very lucky to have my son with me as it was he who found it and saved the day. It's working fine again and I chalk that on up to pure luck.
If anyone can give me an idea how to fix the out of alignment body parts I'd very much appreciate it.
Bud
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