Holy cow, what a night. Phantom 4 beware

[dirtybum]

If you want to blow smoke do it somewhere else . Takes a big hole to bury a horse.

This seemed like the perfect place for it! I already gave my advice to him, everybody else already gave their advice/criticism,so why beat a dead horse, let's just have some fun now[emoji41]

 

[Dirty Bird]

Reading your account I'm guessing the real problem here may have been not taking into account wind direction. The flight computer takes into account everything EXCEPT wind since it has no knowledge of wind. Day or night, if you are going to fly far, ALWAYS HEAD OUT INTO THE WIND (or at least with the wind hitting the front of the Phantom at an angle). That way when the flight computer calculates it's time to turn around you'll have a cushion with the tail wind pushing you along.

Glad you were able to recover your Phantom without damage.

So let me preface this with I wont be doing this again.

I got my new phantom 4 and was so impressed with its distance over my standard. Tonight around midnight, I decided to send it out and really see how far it would go. I launched and off I went. This is where I screwed up. I put it in sport mode thinking I could cover more distance faster. Well I did that, got about 11,600 feet away. Signal started fading and returning home. By this time it was at maybe 40-45% battery and still a ways off. I started to panic and tried to cancel return to home so I could get it in sport mode to come home quicker.

What I didnt account for was that when it returns to home, it comes back at regular slow speed even though you were flying in sport. Battery hits 25% and I really panic, its still like 9000 feet away. I run inside, grab my car keys and haul *** down the road with the remote thinking I could get closer and land it. I got closer and last I saw was 5% battery, 7000 feet away and a height of about 390 feet.

I was in full panic. I thought this thing could drop out of the sky anywhere and at the very least the drone is trashed. I drive around trying to find this little side road where it was last located on the mapping. I knocked on this ladies door and asked if I could use my flashlight to look around her property for it. She was not happy but finally said yes. I looked around, no luck.

This is large tree, farms, residential and wide open areas. I highly doubted Id ever find this. I found another side private road and drove it to the end where this large horse pasture was. I knock at the trailer for the owners and no answer. Then I turn around and see it!! Its beyond the fencing inside with the horses and flashing red in the grass. This was an amazing feeling.

At this point, I think to myself there is no way im going in there and walking without getting permission. Its midnight and I don't want to get shot out here. I call 911 to get an officer to help me locate the owners and give some credibility to me. I then look over and walking with a flashlight and gun is the husband of the first lady I talked too. Oh ****. I tried to yell to him what I was doing but no luck, he was calling 911 too. I knocked at the door of the horse peoples home and out comes another guy with a gun. Totally understandable at night. If it wasnt about to rain and $1400, I wouldnt have been out there.

Cops show up and calm the situation down. I went back there with the owner and got the drone. IT WAS PERFECT. Minor dirt but not damaged one bit!! I have no idea how this is possible since it ran out of battery at 400 feet unless they are programmed to auto land at some point instead of come home.

I owe that guy a beer, apologized again and went home completely relieved. Despite the capabilities of the phantom 4, I wont be doing that again. So warning, if you use sport mode, make sure you have the battery to get home!

 

[BriRi]

After reading this a second time I don't believe it . SHOW us the flight record and prove it.

Yep... I asked for log or at least screenshot of the flight a long time ago... OPs lack of response says a lot


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[YCampCub]

Yep . Looks like old 50 is lost in the wind again.

 

[Timtro]

What part of "no night flight" and "within visual line of sight" do you not understand? This is the kind of behavior that gives dumb politicians all the excuse they need to write more and more dumb laws. If you can see 9,000 feet away you must be part owl (NOT!). Time to wise up.

 

[zander lane]

...must agree - if you're gonna go rogue, keep it on the down low - just give a dropbox link to people if you wanna show your exploits - but don't openly talk about it online like its standard operating procedure and give the government more ammo to make the whole drone hobby scene be relegated to a tiny remote field an hour outside of civilization where you wait in a long line, have to purchase insurance and it's $10 for 20 minutes of flight time

#dronesmart

 

[snowghost]

I have no issues with night flying regarding the FAA. They don't specifically mention that. VLOS. Which is much better at night IMHO.

 

[Monte Olsen]

Why would anyone want to post a narrative here? A few people offered good, supportive and constructive responses. But, for crying out loud, do some of you people think a guy would make a story like this up? Why? I appreciate his story, accept it for what it is and appreciate the folks who offered constructive advice. The rest of you ought to rethink your replies.

 

[djphantom2015]

This is my 3rd drone and am a skilled flyer. I underestimated the new sport feature and the drones ability to come back. After watching flight map, when I made the turn to come home I had 77% battery. Felt that was plenty to get home. It wasn't. I screwed up.

I hardly believe this story is true, and also you define yourself a skilled flyer!!!! If this is how professional flyers act then we are all doomed.

 

[BriRi]

Why would anyone want to post a narrative here? A few people offered good, supportive and constructive responses. But, for crying out loud, do some of you people think a guy would make a story like this up? Why? I appreciate his story, accept it for what it is and appreciate the folks who offered constructive advice. The rest of you ought to rethink your replies.

How hard is it to post a screenshot? Easier than calling 911 for a non emergency? BS story unless proven otherwise.



Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[suck it up]

Really guys.........

 

[Frankc]

Good story. The thing that worries me most is all these guns. Do you really pull out a gun if someone knocks on your door at night? If you get caught walking or opening a door at night with a gun over here, England, you would more than likely end up going straight to prison. I heard Americans are keen on their weapons but not to the extent where if someone walks on to your property you run the risk of getting shot.

Back to the subject in hand. Glad you got your P4 back. Lesson learned. If nothing else you now have an interesting story to tell.

 

[YCampCub]

10/4

 

[snowghost]

Good story. The thing that worries me most is all these guns. Do you really pull out a gun if someone knocks on your door at night? If you get caught walking or opening a door at night with a gun over here, England, you would more than likely end up going straight to prison. I heard Americans are keen on their weapons but not to the extent where if someone walks on to your property you run the risk of getting shot.

Back to the subject in hand. Glad you got your P4 back. Lesson learned. If nothing else you now have an interesting story to tell.

My house is completely fenced in. If somebody knocks on my door at night, I will have a gun in hand.

 

[YCampCub]

Had relatives from England visit the USA they never held a gun until I took them to the trap range were they shot trap and enjoyed it. They could not believe that I had the freedom to own and shoot firearms at leisure. Like I say never tell anyone you don't own a gun let them guess.

 

[Phantom fool]

Good story. The thing that worries me most is all these guns. Do you really pull out a gun if someone knocks on your door at night? If you get caught walking or opening a door at night with a gun over here, England, you would more than likely end up going straight to prison. I heard Americans are keen on their weapons but not to the extent where if someone walks on to your property you run the risk of getting shot.

Back to the subject in hand. Glad you got your P4 back. Lesson learned. If nothing else you now have an interesting story to tell.

People who dwell in cities or even suburban areas have no idea what it's like living in a rural area. A knock on your door in the middle of the night is more likely to be someone checking to see if the house is occupied before breaking in rather than a panicked copter owner. The person knocking is also more likely to be armed and dangerous. I know this from experience. I also know from experience that if the one deputy on duty at night is on the far side of the county when you call 911 it takes 27 minutes for him to arrive. The bad guys know this too.

 

[Frankc]

So glad I live where I do then. We do not have street lights around here, pretty rural. I have no qualms about walking the dog in the dark or answering the door to strangers. No doubt its perhaps not quite the same living in the big cities. Mass immigration is changing things over here. I suppose its only a question of time.

We have what we call public footpaths crossing fields, going through farms, gardens etc. Never once thought anyone would approach with a gun. I did get threatened with a knife once, in London. Simply told him if he did not walk away Id break his arm. He left.

 

[peterepeat69]

I think you owe that guy a case of beer, not just a beer, lessons learnt here indeed


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Jussaguy]

If it hasn't been said, I hope you went home and put a little charge in the battery. You can quickly degrade the battery, if not brick it if you leave it on empty.

Also, I am not a "pilot error" pointer but there were a myriad of things you could have done to have had an easier time and not had to rely on luck.

It's a good thing you live in sticks so you had a very good chance of a random safe landing.

However, you could have returned home just as you got there. There is no worse flier than a panicked one. You could have left it in sports mode and just watched the map and fly it back. You got scared and initiated an RTH and my guess is you did some movement that caused you to lose more battery. If you got there with over 70% you should have been able to get back unless the wind was so bad that you shouldn't have been flying in the first place.

Also, while flying at night, you should be a skilled flie. You are essentially flying what's called "instrumentation" because you are relying solely on your instruments but that seems above your skill level at this point, no offense but we all have to learn.

Then, once you felt the need to get in the car and find it, all you had to do was get somewhere near it, create a dynamic homepoint (reset the honepoint by going to the MC settings and engage a new honepoint wherever you now are) then re-engage the RTH.

Also, how did you not know where it was? You have a GPS marker that you can drive up to. Go to the blue dot.

Hope you learned a couple lessons, as you got lucky but hope you learned a little about flying your UAS at long distances. You might have had 3 before but apparently, you were not ready for instrumentation, long range night flying!

Fly safe. Hope I didn't come off as pompous. I am certainly not the kind of guy to say that but this was petty egregious.

Your title says "beware" but this is really just a warning to fly within your knowledge. You weren't wrong for going far, you were wrong for going far without the knowledge on how to properly do it.

It's not just knowledge either by the way. If you are panicky, you're not flying well even if you are a good pilot. Go listen to Sully land in the Hudson. Seriously, go listen to that audio. That's how you ncan need to be during a "crisis". My method when I'm in a scary situation is to just come to grips with a lost bird and anything at all back is gravy and I've yet to crash an advanced bird.

Off soapbox.

 

[Fitcherama]

People who dwell in cities or even suburban areas have no idea what it's like living in a rural area. A knock on your door in the middle of the night is more likely to be someone checking to see if the house is occupied before breaking in rather than a panicked copter owner. The person knocking is also more likely to be armed and dangerous. I know this from experience. I also know from experience that if the one deputy on duty at night is on the far side of the county when you call 911 it takes 27 minutes for him to arrive. The bad guys know this too.

If you don't have guns in the first place, you don't get the trouble. Here in the UK it is a very rare situation where guns are involved. It's a great shame that every few months in the USA there is another mass shooting at a school. So utterly pointless and avoidable. This first amendment thing needs to be modernised and the need to have a gun dependent on a little more than 'the right to bear arms!' You wouldn't need one out there in the countryside if the bad guys didn't have them themselves. You make your own problems with that one.



Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app