Has anybody NOT had a flyaway or some sort of control loss?

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I just got a Dj Phantom 1.1.1 and while reading up on the led lights, imu calibration, compass calibration, etc., it's hard not to come across all of the horror stories. I guess my question is are there people who have owned this for at least 6 months to a year that have not had a flyaway or some sort of situation where you lost control of the phantom?

My understanding is that if you lose control or it starts to fly away, you switch to atti mode, if that doesnt work switch to manual mode (i configured the 3 switch down to be manual mode), and lastly if that doesn't work to turn off your transmitter.

I know one guy who had a flyaway in a big open field, after he let the IMU warm up, he did a compass calibration with over 6 sats, made sure there were several green quick flashes for home lock, and nothing he did helped him. Scares the crap out of me!
 
Re: Has anybody NOT had a flyaway or some sort of control lo

50 + flights, no Phantom P2 problems here.

With 33yrs. of R/C aviation experience I can say all my past plank and heli incidents were human error of some kind.
 
Re: Has anybody NOT had a flyaway or some sort of control lo

Same, been flying the same Phantom for almost a year now and the only one time I've ever had control loss or uncommanded flight heading is when I stupidly left the gopro wifi on. That was in my first month of ownership, and never had an issue since.
 
Re: Has anybody NOT had a flyaway or some sort of control lo

no issues here, i am terrified of having a fly-away so got a gps tracker on order anyway
 
Re: Has anybody NOT had a flyaway or some sort of control lo

p fandango said:
no issues here, i am terrified of having a fly-away so got a gps tracker on order anyway

Can you explain what this does or how it works and how much they cost? Is it a more accurate way to see how many sats there are?
 
Re: Has anybody NOT had a flyaway or some sort of control lo

N017RW said:
50 + flights, no Phantom P2 problems here.

With 33yrs. of R/C aviation experience I can say all my past plank and heli incidents were human error of some kind.

Did you have any close calls and if so, any tips for a beginner?
 
Re: Has anybody NOT had a flyaway or some sort of control lo

a year and a half, and hundreds of flights, and my Phantom 1 is still solid.

*but* can't say so much for my F450 which flew away from me, never to be seen again. it was in GPS , hovering just a few dozen feet up, and took off with a mind of it's own. :(
now i fly with a GPS pet tracker, makes me much more confident I'll never lose another quad.
 
Re: Has anybody NOT had a flyaway or some sort of control lo

Gizmo3000 said:
a year and a half, and hundreds of flights, and my Phantom 1 is still solid.

*but* can't say so much for my F450 which flew away from me, never to be seen again. it was in GPS , hovering just a few dozen feet up, and took off with a mind of it's own. :(
now i fly with a GPS pet tracker, makes me much more confident I'll never lose another quad.

I asked this above, but i will ask you again. What is a GPS tracker help with? Does the phantom not have its own GPS? Any GPS trackers that you recommend?
 
Re: Has anybody NOT had a flyaway or some sort of control lo

bobdob said:
p fandango said:
no issues here, i am terrified of having a fly-away so got a gps tracker on order anyway

Can you explain what this does or how it works and how much they cost? Is it a more accurate way to see how many sats there are?
this is what i've bought LINK. It was recommended to me by the shop that i buy all my Phantom/GoPro bits from who have tried it & said it works well. You put a sim card in it, charge it & turn it on when your about to fly. & if you do have a fly-away call sim & it replies with a text message with a link to a map with its location on
 
Re: Has anybody NOT had a flyaway or some sort of control lo

p fandango said:
bobdob said:
p fandango said:
no issues here, i am terrified of having a fly-away so got a gps tracker on order anyway

Can you explain what this does or how it works and how much they cost? Is it a more accurate way to see how many sats there are?
this is what i've bought LINK. It was recommended to me by the shop that i buy all my Phantom/GoPro bits from who have tried it & said it works well. You put a sim card in it, charge it & turn it on when your about to fly. & if you do have a fly-away call sim & it replies with a text message with a link to a map with its location on

That's pretty cool, but will the gps tracker interfere with the phantom in anyway to make it actually fly away or act weird? I know you can't have the wifi on a gopro on, so I feel like having an actual gps tracker on it might make it act wonky.
 
Re: Has anybody NOT had a flyaway or some sort of control lo

Although GPS does create a little bit of RF (every device that is on creates a little RF), it is nothing near having the RF from a 2.4ghz transmitter of the GoPro trying to blast it's little hear out to reach an iPhone… I would not worry about the RF emissions of a GPS when compared to a video link.
 
Re: Has anybody NOT had a flyaway or some sort of control lo

Had my Phantom for just under a year. Zero issues. Not one, of any kind. Probably a couple hundred flights.
 
Re: Has anybody NOT had a flyaway or some sort of control lo

NCHoytArcher said:
Had my Phantom for just under a year. Zero issues. Not one, of any kind. Probably a couple hundred flights.

That's impressive, any tips for beginners? Anything you recommend pre-flight and during flight to keep things going without issue?
 
Re: Has anybody NOT had a flyaway or some sort of control lo

No problems with P2 flying capabilities here.

Had 1 gimbal failure - replaced by my dealer / dii

Had 1 human error (me) resulting in a trashed Phantom.

Preferred the speed capabilities of earlier versions of code 1.08, 2 .

Love Ian Woods Futaba profile.
 
Re: Has anybody NOT had a flyaway or some sort of control lo

ver 1.1.1 since dec 2013-no problems.
 
Re: Has anybody NOT had a flyaway or some sort of control lo

110+ flights with a Phantom 1.1.1 since october 2013, never had a problem.

My tipp: Go through the checklist. Be aware of the environment you are in. Never fly stressed... Mistakes always happens when you're not concentrated...

Good luck!
 
Re: Has anybody NOT had a flyaway or some sort of control lo

4 months of phantom 2 flights and no problems so far *knock on wood*.

One VRS on auto-descent during a calm day, but I was really asking for it as I wanted to exploit the 2x faster descent speed of the RTH feature. 4m/s soon became 6-7 before I managed to pull out.

Not doing that again.
 
Re: Has anybody NOT had a flyaway or some sort of control lo

Have my FC40 for 6 weeks. Minimum is 10 flights a week so close to 80 flights by now.
Had one fly away, the second day I had it, because of a failing battery connection. Can't blame the Phantom for that. It even survived the 'controlled' crash in the hedges without a scratch. If you're interested in the footage, look here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyL9CTMJwMs&list=UUpovdMAGJHvLKADs5Fsv5Rg

Other than this, never an issue. Wonderful little machine!

AFAIK, fly aways are almost always caused by human error like: not waiting for GPS lock, not installing the software and doing the appropriate calibrations, not reading the manual, or hardware related isues like a bad battery, a loose (solder)connection, or extreme radio interference from a camera e.g.. These are all things we can never blame the Phantom but ourselves only. We just need to check things regularly.
 

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