- Joined
- Apr 7, 2014
- Messages
- 756
- Reaction score
- 31
I had an idea I hoped would help avoid flyaways. I performed my normal preflight procedure, watched the flashing yellow lights turn to fast flashing green and then slow flashing green. Now I'm ready to fly, but before taking off, I wanted to see if I could verify home and compass with the radar function. I picked up the Phantom and walked about 100ft away from Home and sat the Phantom down pointed 180 degrees away from its initial/Home position.
I expected to see the red arrow point in the opposite direction, which it did, and to see the red arrow move slightly away from Home. I thought this would verify the compass was working well and also verify I had established Home, which would reduce the chance of a flyaway. To my surprise, after a few seconds, the distance from home indicator changed from about 100ft to 0ft.
I hadn't expected that and didn't know what to do with that. It was like the Phantom had established a new Home position. That worried me a little. So, I picked the Phantom up and walked back to where I had established Home originally. To my surprise, now the distance from Home was about 100ft, but after a few seconds, the display turned to zero again. I actually did this twice to make sure.
I thought about stopping at this point and going home to think......but I didn't. I thought maybe this strange behavior had something to do with altitude or setting the Phantom down stationary, so I decided to take off and fly from the first Home position to the other and see what happened. I took off and hovered at about 10ft. Everything seemed normal, so I flew sideways over to my second Home. Once the Phantom got there, it started to fly a little irratically, the lights changed, it ascended by itself and proceeded to RTH right next to me. At that point I decided to just drive home and scratch my head.
So what am I doing wrong? This is a brand new never before flown P2V+ with new batteries, fully charged, freshly compass calibrated. I had at times 11 satellites, although at times I had fewer. S1 and S2 were up and I was in Ready to Fly/Phantom mode. I was flying in the middle of a huge open field with no buildings or trees or large metal objects or anything but dirt and a few weeds. I'm a little worries about this bird. Maybe I confused it, but it now worries me.
I expected to see the red arrow point in the opposite direction, which it did, and to see the red arrow move slightly away from Home. I thought this would verify the compass was working well and also verify I had established Home, which would reduce the chance of a flyaway. To my surprise, after a few seconds, the distance from home indicator changed from about 100ft to 0ft.
I hadn't expected that and didn't know what to do with that. It was like the Phantom had established a new Home position. That worried me a little. So, I picked the Phantom up and walked back to where I had established Home originally. To my surprise, now the distance from Home was about 100ft, but after a few seconds, the display turned to zero again. I actually did this twice to make sure.
I thought about stopping at this point and going home to think......but I didn't. I thought maybe this strange behavior had something to do with altitude or setting the Phantom down stationary, so I decided to take off and fly from the first Home position to the other and see what happened. I took off and hovered at about 10ft. Everything seemed normal, so I flew sideways over to my second Home. Once the Phantom got there, it started to fly a little irratically, the lights changed, it ascended by itself and proceeded to RTH right next to me. At that point I decided to just drive home and scratch my head.
So what am I doing wrong? This is a brand new never before flown P2V+ with new batteries, fully charged, freshly compass calibrated. I had at times 11 satellites, although at times I had fewer. S1 and S2 were up and I was in Ready to Fly/Phantom mode. I was flying in the middle of a huge open field with no buildings or trees or large metal objects or anything but dirt and a few weeds. I'm a little worries about this bird. Maybe I confused it, but it now worries me.