Flyaways?

[Trackman1]

Why the Critical Low Battery at 18.13 at 24%. He doesn't even get yellow cells until a second later and only for short time.
Does he have his critical Low set at 24 instead of default 10%?

 

[flyNfrank]

Yeah I saw the Home Lock and other data in his converted log that I have.

He has the 1st & 2nd Battery warnings set at 50% & 24%. So this may explain why there was odd things taking place at certain points?

Prior to the auto landing, he was flying in home lock mode. Perhaps that's why he noted the odd flight behavior here:


Then, the mode changed from home lock to auto landing. I don't think it's possible that it could have been trying to RTH and auto land at the same time. It appears like he was manually increasing the altitude to attempt to counteract the auto landing. I did not confirm by checking the stick positions, but that would be the next step if we wanted to dig into this further.

 

[Trackman1]

Thanks Frank.
I see a few people in the forum set the critical battery higher. To me that could be a fatal mistake
as it will force a landing much sooner.

 

[m0j0]

So this was not a flyaway. There are a number of circumstances that went into play but not a flyaway.

 

[flyNfrank]

So this was not a flyaway. There are a number of circumstances that went into play but not a flyaway.

In my opinion, any flight that does not respond properly to user commands is a flyaway.

 

[Fantasmagorico]

Fantasmagorico, you can see your flight in my log viewer here.

At 17m 29s into your flight, your battery hit the critical low level and your Phantom started to auto land. While there is no way to cancel that landing, you can give your Phantom full throttle up and steer it to a safe landing location. If you do this for a long enough period of time though, the battery will eventually die and your Phantom will drop like a rock (as seen at the end of your flight).

Other than being in ATTI mode while being pushed by the wind, I'm not sure why you were not able to bring your Phantom close to the home point. Is it possible that you were disoriented by the forced auto landing?

It's important to watch your battery voltage while flying (see more details here). Your Phantom was about 392 feet in the air when the voltage was at 3.6V and 146 feet when you hit the critical low battery level.

Thank you for the analysis. Please note that at 8:16 RTH was initiated. When it climbed to the fail-safe altitude of 400 feet, I lost sight of it. I next saw it when it was trying to auto land a couple of hundred feet from the home point, over a busy intersection. That's when I tried to take over. What you are saying makes sense. I was trying to take it up, but it wanted to come down. What I don't understand is why it would not accept my control. I had it set to Smart Return to Home. From that point on, I kept trying to bring it back, but it wouldn't get closer. I could fly it sideways to some extent, but not toward the home point. The whole time I kept trying to stop it from auto landing. That must have been why the battery was fried. So the question is, why wouldn't it allow me to exercise manual control, especially to bring it toward the home point?

 

[Fantasmagorico]

The a/c was in the process of climbing up to 400ft when the battery expired. The flight log shows the a/c spent most of the end of the flight climbing in altitude rather then being landed. It was attempting to RTH when you were trying to take over. When you stopped it would go back to climbing to the 400ft height. All of that activity drained the battery that much quicker.

Thank you for the analysis. Please note that at 8:16 RTH was initiated. When it climbed to the fail-safe altitude of 400 feet, I lost sight of it. I saw it when it was trying to auto land a couple of hundred feet from the home point, over a busy intersection. That's when I tried to take over. What you are saying makes sense. I was trying to take it up, but it wanted to come down. What I don't understand is why it would not accept my control. I had it set to Smart Return to Home. From that point on, I kept trying to bring it back, but it wouldn't get closer. I could fly it sideways to some extent, but not toward the home point. The whole time I kept trying to stop it from auto landing. That must have been why the battery was fried. So the question is, why wouldn't it allow me to exercise manual control, especially to bring it toward the home point?

 

[Fantasmagorico]

So this was not a flyaway. There are a number of circumstances that went into play but not a flyaway.

I agree with the post below. Any flight that does not respond to the commands is a flyaway.

 

[Fantasmagorico]

Prior to the auto landing, he was flying in home lock mode. Perhaps that's why he noted the odd flight behavior here:
Isn't auto land part of RTH? You don't have to check the position of the sticks. I was trying desperately to keep in from landing in the middle of a busy intersection. The question is, why wouldn't it allow me to take control manually? In the past, I have interrupted landings and taken manual control without any problems.

Then, the mode changed from home lock to auto landing. I don't think it's possible that it could have been trying to RTH and auto land at the same time. It appears like he was manually increasing the altitude to attempt to counteract the auto landing. I did not confirm by checking the stick positions, but that would be the next step if we wanted to dig into this further.

 

[Fantasmagorico]

Prior to the auto landing, he was flying in home lock mode. Perhaps that's why he noted the odd flight behavior here:


Then, the mode changed from home lock to auto landing. I don't think it's possible that it could have been trying to RTH and auto land at the same time. It appears like he was manually increasing the altitude to attempt to counteract the auto landing. I did not confirm by checking the stick positions, but that would be the next step if we wanted to dig into this further.

As I said, a while after the RTH was initiated, I got the message "Aircraft Descending." That's when I saw it again, and it was indeed descending. I tried to keep it at altitude to prevent it from crashing in the street. At that point, it stopped responding correctly to my inputs.

 

[CafeRacer]

It's generally user error, most often not reading the manual and following good practice instruction.

It is however the nature of the beast, there will always be a risk that you could lose or destroy it for a whole host of reasons.

Ultimately, if you cant afford to lose it then it's probably best not to buy it in the first place.

I have to respectfully disagree on that, I didn't buy mine under the pretense that if I can't afford to lose it I shouldn't have one in the first place. I will however meet you in the middle and say insurance may be a happy medium.


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[shockwave199]

Maybe this video will help.

. It was taken a couple of days before the mishap and it shows part of the same flight path. At the 1:48 point, you can see straight ahead the large, empty parking lot where I calibrated the compass and took off from. If you look closely, you can see a speck at the far end of the lot. That was my car. The home point was about 20 feet in front. At about 2:15 is where the bird decided to land and I tried to take over the controls. At 3:04 to 3:16 you can see the causeway. The bird ended up in the water next to this causeway, behind the spot marked by the boat shown on the extreme right.

If this was your choice of flight paths, thank goodness it ended up in the water. Do the general public a favor- don't buy another one. I actually expected you to crash into a high rise at one point. What about this decision to fly that area made sense to you on any level? I watched in horror as your bird bounded around like a 3 year old just learning to walk. I really don't mean to take anyone to task but I have to say that flight was one of the more irresponsible ones I've seen in quite a while. Not cool.

 

[peterepeat69]

Well, it happened to me today and I don't think I made any error. My P3P had taken off from a big, empty parking lot near Fifth Street in Miami Beach and I flew it above and slightly off Alton Road toward the area of South Pointe, a distance of 2,389 feet (according to my flight log), less than half a mile, on a clear line of sight without obstructions. I had flown this route previously without incident. I lost RC signal and the aircraft initiated RTH a few seconds later. I was using the DJI Go app with the latest firmware (2.8.0) and had set it to Smart Return to Home. I was using Home Lock as the intelligent flight mode and, just in case, had set the failsafe altitude to 400 feet because there were buildings in the area and I know from experience that RTH does not always take place in a straight line. In any case, no building was in the flight path. I lost sight of the bird momentarily as it rose, but made eye contact again after I got the message "Aircraft Descending." Unfortunately, it was descending over the busy intersection of Alton Road and Fifth Street, about two hundred yards from the home point. I took over manually and cancelled RTH. However, no matter how much I tried, the aircraft would not move toward home. It kept drifting to the sides and toward a building. I managed to keep it away from the building and moved it toward the channel of Miami Beach Marina to prevent it from dropping on the McCarthur Causeway or on the boats in the Marina. Again, I had a clear line of sight without obstructions. From there, I kept trying desperately to bring it back, but it was as if there were an invisible barrier that it couldn't cross at about 200 yards from me. I could move it right or left on an arc, or away from me, but not toward me. The reactions to the stick were erratic, so that if I moved it to the right, it would turn left first, and then right, for example. The moment I let go of the controls, it wouldn't hover, but drift away fast. There was an 18 mph wind at 300 feet according to my UAV Forecast app, but only 10 mph at 30 feet according to my Drone Buddy app, and it was not blowing against the bird, but rather slightly across, and should have blown it closer to me, not farther. At that point, the bird was at a height of about 100 feet. I turned it to face every which way and moved the stick in every direction, but nothing worked. It just refused to return home. Eventually, the battery ran out and my dear, five-month old Phantom found a watery grave in Biscayne Bay. I am very upset and it seems that this is definitely a software problem, not pilot error. In fact, I had noticed a slightly different version of this problem before. I like to take control of any RTH maneuver toward the end for a softer landing; if you let the P3P land on its own, it tends to land too hard. Sometimes, when the bird was about 20 feet from me, it would refuse to come closer. I accounted for that eventuality by taking off only from areas with plenty of room to land. I thought that was quirky, but never imagined that the Phantom would refuse to get closer than 200 yards. There is definitely a factory problem. What a bummer!!!

Answer to this is never fly in wind ever it's my golden rule


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[peterepeat69]

I ordered a p3p and am worried about the bird flying away on me after seeing several reports of this happening. Has anyone here had a fly away due to mechanical error or is it almost always users error and not a problem with the p3. I am worried about losing my $1000 investment. Any input would be appreciated.

Fly always always happen in wind, never fly in wind ever


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[Meta4]

Fly always always happen in wind, never fly in wind ever

Flyaways are exceptionally rare with the P3 and not wind related.
Your Phantom can handle a lot more wind than you imagine.

 

[peterepeat69]

Flyaways are exceptionally rare with the P3 and not wind related.
Your Phantom can handle a lot more wind than you imagine.

I guess it depends on the type of fly away, heard many a story of people losing their bird at the beach with off shore winds.


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[Meta4]

I guess it depends on the type of fly away, heard many a story of people losing their bird at the beach with off shore winds.

If you mean cases of users flying too far downwind and not being able to make it home, that's 100% user error and not a fly away.
P3 flyaways are so rare that you can't talk about different types of flyaways.
Most of the incidents that get labelled flyaway are user error or misunderstanding.

For an event to be a flyaway, the Phantom has to fly away ignoring control inputs.
If the Phantom does exactly what the pilot tells it too but can;t return because of poor piloting, that isn't a flyaway.

 

[peterepeat69]

If you mean cases of users flying too far downwind and not being able to make it home, that's 100% user error and not a fly away.
P3 flyaways are so rare that you can't talk about different types of flyaways.
Most of the incidents that get labelled flyaway are user error or misunderstanding.

For an event to be a flyaway, the Phantom has to fly away ignoring control inputs.
If the Phantom does exactly what the pilot tells it too but can;t return because of poor piloting, that isn't a flyaway.

Indeed and there are people that claim black and blue that the bird was ignoring their commands when a sudden gust of wind carried the bird away, in this case we never really know if it's an authentic electronic failure, which is really the definition of a genuine fly away.


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[Meta4]

Indeed and there are people that claim black and blue that the bird was ignoring their commands when a sudden gust of wind carried the bird away, in this case we never really know if it's an authentic electronic failure, which is really the definition of a genuine fly away.

But the app acts like a flight recorder so that the flight data can be analysed and the cause of the incident can be found.
A case where we never really know if it's an authentic electronic failure could occur with a P2 but doesn't happen very often nowdays with the P3.

 

[m0j0]

In my opinion, any flight that does not respond properly to user commands is a flyaway.

Ordinarily I would agree. But in this case it appears that the bird did exactly as programmed. It auto landed on a user assigned critical battery level. To me that is not a fly away. Also if you fail to properly set RTH and it goes where you tell it.. Also not a fly away... If you have a bad mobile signal and your bird flies to a location that your crappy phone tells it to go to in follow me mode.. Not a fly away.