Had a Fly Away today

[steelpix]

Well...After about two months of successful Phantom flight almost every day, I finally had the Phantom fly away on it's own.

I did all the normal setup before flight. Had all 7 satellites. I never rush that part. I've used FailSafe before and it worked everytime. I even had IOC enabled. No luck at getting either of these functions to work this time. GPS was set on the whole time.

I'm glad I didn't have the GoPro on as I do sometimes. Oh well...I guess my Phantom career is over!

Ron

 

[IrishSights]

Sorry Ron, but a little sketchy if you were looking for help with diagnosis. Just telling us you had a flyaway is maybe what you are doing but its not much help to you or anyone else if you don't have an undersranding as to why you had this incident.

 

[HarryT]

Presumably you had a label with your contact details on the Phantom? You may well get it back, if so.

 

[steelpix]

I understand Irish. Just thought I'd let the Group know it does still happen.

If I had to do it over again, I would install a GPS tracker on it. Let this be a lesson to others to buy the GPS tracker. After three months of flying it successfully and using FailSafe manytimes, I thought I was golden. I'm not looking for help. I don't think anyone could because there are too many variables.

Ron

 

[IrishSights]

Ron, failsafe is exactly that its not meant to be used as a routine method of terminating a flight, think of it as an emergency get out jail free card to be stashed in you back pocket. In the absense of any more information I think this case needs to be put down to pilot error unless proved otherwise. By the way its not a shame for it to be called pilot error, most of us have had pilot errors, some of just just got away with it like me, others lost their Phantoms. Its striving to be better pilots that counts, sometimes by expensive misjudgements. Hope you get back on the saddle.

 

[mighton]

I had a flyaway last saturday. The Phantom 2 Vision was hovering 200 feet away at about 50 feet I took my eyes off it for about 30 seconds . When I looked back it had gone . It was windy ( gusty) so it was very difficult listening out for it . Message on my phone said "lost contact with Phantom"
I turned off the receiver , but didnt get the "coming home" message

I can only assume it tried to return to base and the heavy winds blew it off course and its ended up in some trees

The battery was fully charged and I had only been flying for 3 or 4 minutes
The "where is my phantom " button on the App says it is next to my front door ( which it isnt )

I could still connect to the phantom using the transmitter, wifi extender and my phone
In fact Im still getting a signal

Is this signal a false positive coming from the WiFi extender or is it a sign that the Phantom is near

The trees are still heavy with leaves so it could be lodged somewhere. I have been out in darkness trying to spot the flashing lights

Might have to wait until autumn

I'm on a farm , so theres plenty of open land around

Any advice would be appreciated

I've been flying it for about 6 months in the UK, USA and Caribbean

Thanks

Mike

 

[ProfessorStein]

Irish, I could be wrong, but from steelpix's description it sounds like the fly away happened during normal flight and he was trying to utilize RTH and IOC to RECOVER from the fly-away (in essence, pulling out his get-out-of-jail-free-card)... not that the fly-away happened when he was using RTH to end the flight.

But, conspicuously absent from his description is ATTI. Steelpix, when a fly-away occurs it appears that its usually the result of a GPS problem (caused either by an error in pilot pre-flight, or, on rare occasions, an internal fault). Switching to RTH or IOC will do nothing to help recover out of a fly-away because they all rely on the same GPS data that is faulty.
What you want to do is switch into a mode that does not rely on GPS; ATTI, or, if you're brave, MANUAL. Once the Phantom is free of the GPS "voices in it's head", it should settle down and you'll regain control.

 

[deltamike]

Then there is the old question of the mobile phone switched on ...............................

 

[ProfessorStein]

I had a flyaway last saturday. The Phantom 2 Vision was hovering 200 feet away at about 50 feet I took my eyes off it for about 30 seconds . When I looked back it had gone . It was windy ( gusty) so it was very difficult listening out for it . Message on my phone said "lost contact with Phantom"
I turned off the receiver , but didnt get the "coming home" message

Mike,
Sorry to hear about your crash.


But this doesn't sound like this was a legitimate fly-away as much as a bad piloting decision to fly in gusty conditions (and then to look away for 30 seconds... which, IMHO, is an ETERNITY when you're flying... ESPECIALLY in windy conditions). A Phantom's motors are only so powerful, and can not overcome strong winds to keep station no matter HOW good your GPS lock is.

I'd have to imagine your bird got blown into a tree or forced to the ground.

I can't really speak to the data you're getting back from it now... as, if it crashed, all sorts of instruments could have been damaged.

 

[IrishSights]

I was going by the lack detail, distance out, conditions, environment suroundings, battery level, if he had iosd mini data, if so whats the data, did he try ATTI with iosd mini diamond in the centre. etc coupled with " I've used FailSafe before and it worked everytime."

Its always good in my opinion to try and work out why as it will modify future routines for the pilot and others listening in. It too could be hardware failure...we just dont know.

Anyway, sadly, its gone no matter. Sorry Ron.

 

[ProfessorStein]

Anyway, sadly, its gone no matter. Sorry Ron.

True words.

 

[kirbinster]

I understand Irish. Just thought I'd let the Group know it does still happen.

If I had to do it over again, I would install a GPS tracker on it. Let this be a lesson to others to buy the GPS tracker. After three months of flying it successfully and using FailSafe manytimes, I thought I was golden. I'm not looking for help. I don't think anyone could because there are too many variables.

Ron

Which Tracker would you suggest? How much do they cost? Do you need a monthly contract with a cell provider to use these? I am in the USA and use Verizon as my iPhone provider. Thanks

 

[ussvertigo]

I had a fly away I suspect due to pilot error, I even tried chasing in car, and then on foot across a large cemetery (at night) switching the transmitter off and on along the way but she just kept going. When I got home wife says someone called and said a UFO landed in their yard and scared the hell out of them, and then found my phone number on it. It was approx. 2 miles away. Another lucky break out of many I have had so far with the P2 ( trees, 2 water crashes, side of the house, etc, and I'm also a pilot!) .

 

[ProfessorStein]

Which Tracker would you suggest? How much do they cost? Do you need a monthly contract with a cell provider to use these? I am in the USA and use Verizon as my iPhone provider. Thanks

There are several threads here about GPS tracking. This is just the first one that came up in a search, for me, but it has links to others so it seems like a great place to start:
viewtopic.php?t=22572

But, in general, yes, you'll need some type of cellular provider service. But you can just get a pay-as-you-go plan, in most cases, which keeps the cost fairly low.

There are also trackers that are more geared to pets... that you would stick on a dog or cat's collar in case they get lost. A lot of times they come with a pre-bundled service contract, so you don't have to worry about a SIM card or anything. Though they're probably a bit more costly per month than other solutions.

There are some trackers that automatically report their location back to a website (think "find my iphone"), while others will respond with their location directly via txt when you send them a message. Just depends on personal preference and how much you're willing to spend.

Weight is also an issue. The smaller, the lighter, the better for your Phantom... but not always better for you if it means doing without certain features.

 

[steelpix]

Well, after thinking about my Fly away I had sometime to go over what I may have done wrong.

The only thing that is odd that I did differently was, the day before I tried an experiment by hooking two batteries in parallell and velcroing them to the bottom. All went well and and I increased the flight time from 11 minutes to 18. But I didn't push it and only let it fly about a 100' away.

The next day is wjen I had the fly away. Could the parrallel setup messed my compass up and should I have tried a re-cal of the compass? Of course that couldn't hurt.

Thoughts?

 

[VirginiaBeachDude]

Very sorry to hear that. Never had a case of a fly-away myself!

 

[jimmyjayjr]

I almost had a fly away, a big plane like a DC3 came by low to where I was flying and I would guess the had interferance with my PH2vision of only 2 months old.. It started to go away for no reason. at about 150 feet and maybe a 250 yards away.. I had to run after it, got some control and crashed it..It was alright , the battery and camera fell off. the camera unpluged with no damage. I thought it was gone. the loss of control for a thousand dollar toy. I was in a populated area with stores and roads. Did the big plane upset it. It was on its way to land at a airport about ten miles away and at I would say 2000 feet. I also have a "tile" a new , find my key, type device stuck on the battery, small and sposs to give the location of where it is. Low cost like twenty buck.. amazon sell em, kinda hard to get I had to wait over a year. and only work with apple device. and I have my phone # affixed to the bird itself. Hopefully I don't experence a fly away..

 

[darwin-t]

Well...After about two months of successful Phantom flight almost every day, I finally had the Phantom fly away on it's own.

I did all the normal setup before flight. Had all 7 satellites. I never rush that part. I've used FailSafe before and it worked everytime. I even had IOC enabled. No luck at getting either of these functions to work this time. GPS was set on the whole time.

I'm glad I didn't have the GoPro on as I do sometimes. Oh well...I guess my Phantom career is over!

Ron

Had you reset the limits? On the FC40, the defaults are 2000 yards, over a mile.

 

[darwin-t]

Well, after thinking about my Fly away I had sometime to go over what I may have done wrong.

The only thing that is odd that I did differently was, the day before I tried an experiment by hooking two batteries in parallell and velcroing them to the bottom. All went well and and I increased the flight time from 11 minutes to 18. But I didn't push it and only let it fly about a 100' away.

The next day is wjen I had the fly away. Could the parrallel setup messed my compass up and should I have tried a re-cal of the compass? Of course that couldn't hurt.

Thoughts?

One or both of the batteries may have come loose. This would either cause you to have a swinging weight under it or if they came unplugged, a fall from altitude.

 

[Meta4]

I almost had a fly away, a big plane like a DC3 came by low to where I was flying and I would guess the had interferance with my PH2vision ... Did the big plane upset it. It was on its way to land at a airport about ten miles away and at I would say 2000 feet.

You don't say how close the plane was but unless you were almost close enough to hit the plane, it's hard to imagine it would have any effect on the Phantom at all.