Flyaway in "Follow me" mode

Gpanek · Apr 29, 2016

I have a rather new P3A and was trying out the follow me mode, when the drone took off flying backwards. I hit the RTH button and it stopped and came back but I don't know what might have caused that. I was having difficulty reading the screen on my droid phone because of glare but I kept getting some kind of warning about altitude must be between 10m-120m, so I kept raising it and hit accept. Then it turned and shot backwards like a bat outta hell. Any ideas of what might have happened? here is the video

Jussaguy · Apr 29, 2016

Holy crap! At 37 seconds you were one lucky dude!!!

Impossible from the video alone to see what happened. Post the logs and post the RC button pressing video of the flight. Do you know where in talking about?

Records from healthydrones would be good.

Yes, can see that what you said happened from the video but can't get the why from just that. Do know you are so lucky you didn't hit that power wire. That would have been bad for the bird.

gtpark · Apr 29, 2016

Not a fly away since you were able to regain control. You should change the title.

Gpanek · Apr 29, 2016

gtpark said:
Not a fly away since you were able to regain control. You should change the title.

I have to say, I froze. I'm new at this and so far Phantom has performed amazingly, so I was in shock to see it take off like that. Almost couldn't believe my eyes. Now I know I coulda just flipped the switch back to P right away. Now I know but still can't figure what happened. This happened twice in a row and this is a video of the second time. I thought the logs might tell me if I had pushed course lock or something other than follow me but not. Not being able to properly read the app because of glare is driving me nuts.

kphantom · Apr 29, 2016

Gpanek said:
I have a rather new P3A and was trying out the follow me mode, when the drone took off flying backwards. I hit the RTH button and it stopped and came back but I don't know what might have caused that. I was having difficulty reading the screen on my droid phone because of glare but I kept getting some kind of warning about altitude must be between 10m-120m, so I kept raising it and hit accept. Then it turned and shot backwards like a bat outta hell. Any ideas of what might have happened? here is the video

Wow. You are lucky. The phantom barely missed the power lines. Did anyone notice all of the microwave point to point dishes in the tower on the right of the video a minute or so in after the flight? I suspect they interfered with the links. Thoughts?

normr · Apr 29, 2016

Looked like you almost caught some wires right before you took control back

Same thing happened to me a few times when I had my P3, the first couple of times I tried follow me mode, after like the 3rd try it would start following like it was supposed to, I never figured out why it happened.

Gpanek · Apr 29, 2016

kphantom said:
Wow. You are lucky. The phantom barely missed the power lines. Did anyone notice call of the microwave point to point dishes on the right of the video a minute or so in after the flight? I suspect they interfered with the links. Thoughts?

Yeah, the power lines freaked me out when I saw them on the vid. This park is sanctioned for drones so I thought the dishes wouldnt have any affect, but maybe thats it.

Gpanek · Apr 29, 2016

normr said:
Looked like you almost caught some wires right before you took control back

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

Yup, I dodged a bullet there.

MrMcfly · Apr 29, 2016

First thing I noticed is that huge tower off to the right (39 seconds in the clip)... I don't fly near any transmission towers, because they're
transmitting signals that might interfere with your signal, the compass (yes, the compass) or the sensors used to
control the Phantom 3.

Those disks on the tower look like Line Of Sight Network antennae. If they are, they can cause electro-magnetic interference.
Not saying that's definitely the cause... I just know a little about LOS Networks... I avoid them. Bad Joo-joo.

Glad you got your bird back!! Happy ending. Came too close to that power line though!

Gpanek · Apr 29, 2016

MrMcfly said:
First thing I noticed is that huge tower off to the right (39 seconds in the clip)... I don't fly near any transmission towers, because they're
transmitting signals that might interfere with your signal, the compass (yes, the compass) or the sensors used to
control the Phantom 3.

Those disks on the tower look like Line Of Sight Network antennae. If they are, they can cause electro-magnetic interference.
Not saying that's definitely the cause... I just know a little about LOS Networks... I avoid them. Bad Joo-joo.

Glad you got your bird back!! Happy ending. Came too close to that power line though!

Yeah, I was slow to react. Froze. But now I know just to flip the switch back to P mode. I didnt think the towers would be a problem because this park is sanctioned for drones UIVs. In fact, earlier I had flown much closer to the towers than I was when this happened and had no adverse reaction.

thunderbird · Apr 29, 2016

Snap that was close, U bird flew away like got possessed lol, Honestly bro try upload logs, that might help

normr · Apr 29, 2016

How much do you think he missed the wire by?

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

GT500BILL · Apr 29, 2016

A rch, I would say...

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

bk1 · Apr 29, 2016

went through customer service hell with dji, but the headaches turned out to be worth it. after reviewing my flight logs they determined no pilot error, they replaced my flyaway phantom.i`ve had new one for about two weeks now, so far so good

Meta4 · Apr 29, 2016

Gpanek said:
I have a rather new P3A and was trying out the follow me mode, when the drone took off flying backwards.
Any ideas of what might have happened?

Without flight data people can only guess and a lot of guesses will be quite wrong.

Go to https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides

flpholt · Apr 29, 2016

I think you should set rth higher too that wouldn't clear a lot of things

Gpanek · Apr 29, 2016

thunderbird said:
Snap that was close, U bird flew away like got possessed lol, Honestly bro try upload logs, that might help

I was anxious to see the log but when I went to upload them off my droid the .txt files for today were not there. Other days were there but not today. I wonder if the last update changed something with them.

Gpanek · Apr 29, 2016

Meta4 said:
Without flight data people can only guess and a lot of guesses will be quite wrong.

Go to https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides

First thing I looked for but there were no log .txt files for today on my phone. Go figure.

Meta4 · Apr 29, 2016

Gpanek said:
First thing I looked for but there were no log .txt files for today on my phone. Go figure.

That would be very unusual
Look in your flight records.
Is there a record of the flight here?

Gpanek · Apr 29, 2016

Meta4 said:
That would be very unusual
Look in your flight records.
Is there a record of the flight here?

yes, i do have this but the detailed version which is usually a file like this DJIFlightRecord_2016-02-12_[15-33-10].txt
for today is not there. Other days are there but nothing for today. I cant figure it out.