I don't understand my drone flyaway?

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

All this discussion, and I stopped at reading just a little bit . " was flying in ATTI Mode Far Away" "my phone battery was dead" "my aircraft battery was almost dead". Sorry this happened but WTF all these expert opinions when it is obvious. Then to top it off, "Oh yeah that was a different flight, I was in GPS Mode. Seriously
??????????

True.. but it was all about trying to help him find his drone. Even you read all this way...

 

[Wishbonez51]

I am real glad you found your drone. This is why I am taking steps really slow in learning to fly these highly technical quad copters. There is so much to learn and so much that can go wrong. To imagine the sick feeling I would have watching my P3P fly off into the sunset as I feel hopeless! Way to much money to risk without the proper steps in learning to fly these amazing and addicting drones.

 

[FantomFlier]

There is so much to learn and so much that can go wrong.

While it is obviously advantageous to educate yourself, the single most useful attribute a quad pilot should have is simple common sense. As is seen very often in this forum, it is really not all that common.

 

[dangrand1103]

I thought 400 feet high was the limit. According to FAA rules it is.

 

[Ouze]

So,

A.) Was it OK after drying? Have you flown it again?
B.) Did it crash, or autoland?

Always neat to read stories where a lost drone is recovered, and doubly so when it's a safe recovery... if not a safe flight.

 

[Spooky Maxwell]

How would that have helped you? Unless you intended flying at 6' AGL.

Next time, take your quad to your intended cruising altitude, switch to ATTI mode and let go of the sticks. You will quickly see the direction and speed of the wind, and you can then can adjust your flight plan accordingly.

Great tip. I would have never thought of doing that. My pro has gone over 60 before so I know that I had a strong tailwind.

 

[Bobby Jones]

Hey, there every one, last Saturday I was flying my drone in Atti mode. it was a little gusty and I was flying far aways. Anyway, my phone cut due to the cold weather while my phantom was still in the air and on its way home because of low battery "RTH". But it never arrived! il have looked at the log and the last data I have of it just before the phone cut the drone wasn't going in the good direction even though it said it was going home.

So my question was; What happens to the drone in a case like this?

T

Hey, there every one, last Saturday I was flying my drone in Atti mode. it was a little gusty and I was flying far aways. Anyway, my phone cut due to the cold weather while my phantom was still in the air and on its way home because of low battery "RTH". But it never arrived! il have looked at the log and the last data I have of it just before the phone cut the drone wasn't going in the good direction even though it said it was going home.

So my question was; What happens to the drone in a case like this?

Wind, cold and low battery, words that add many complications to communications and drone operations. The ambient operating temperature for phones and tablets is between 0º and 35º C (32º to 95º F). The operating temperature of the Phantom 4 is 32° to 104° F (0° to 40° C). Yes, they will work in more extreme conditions in some cases but generally not for long or without the risk of damage to the components, sometimes permanent. Also when its cold, your battery life is significantly reduced on most all electronics. Now add, altitude and wind gusts or sustained winds, you have the perfect combination of failure of components. Finally consider that you are "far aways" is you described. By the time your low battery RTH kicks in there simply may not have been enough power to get it back, especially considering wind and reduced battery life due to cold. Communication with your drone or satellites can be interrupted for a number of reasons at any distance which is one of many reasons you should never fly out of line of sight and remain below the altitude limit. This sometimes takes the fun out of flying but the rules are in place for safety reasons. In summary, to avoid loosing another drone in the future, fly using common sense and fly by the rules/laws in place. Happy Holidays.

 

[flyNfrank]

where could I find the DAT flight log?

Retrieve DAT Log Files -

1-Power on the Phantom 3 Pro or Advanced Aircraft.

2-Power on the Remote Controller and launch the Dji GO App if the R/C did not recognize it.

3-Open the Equipment tab and Select your AirCraft device. Enter Camera View.

4-Select the drone icon for MC Settings menu, select Advanced Settings.

5-Scroll menu to, Enter flight data mode.

6-The Dji GO App will prompt you to connect AirCraft to a PC using USB cable. The USB port on the AirCraft is located on the front above camera/gimbal.

7-Once connected to PC Select OK. Now choose which DAT files you want to copy to your PC. The AirCraft creates a .dat file each time the aircraft is powered on. The Largest in file size will generally be your flight targets.

 

[Pogopilot]

yeah I think I will think twice before flying on a windy day ! [emoji23]

Sent from my SM-G925F using PhantomPilots mobile app

Not sure if you can change the title of your original post but this was clearly not a flyaway. Putting that word in the title of your post in this forum is just click-bait and would lead others who have not read the thread to assume that it was indeed a flyaway, laying the blame on DJI. I think that they have done a lot to make sure true flyaway just do not happen. Glad you recovered your drone.

 

[AnchorageAk]

How do you change the title? I can't figure it out.

 

[ImDroning]

Very good thread in many ways. I'm very impressed with the demeanor of the responses. I'm not seeing the "meanness" often seen on other large forums. Hats off to the mods also.... Really great effort to help the OP, going the extra mile to inform.

Glad you found the bird and that it seems to be functioning well. As a private pilot I would hope you can try to keep the quad below 400 AGL. I used to fly that area quite a bit. Don't think I'd like to see a drone at eye level

 

[JerEl]

what do you mean by de-worm it ?


Sent from my SM-G925F using PhantomPilots mobile app

Glad you found your bird. There are many here who offer good advice and into on finding a lost drone and of course, a few who will berate you for doing wrong things. But I will hand it to you for having the guts to ignore the naysayers, paying attention to the folks being helpful, and learning from your mistakes. Threads of this type do a service for others without much flight experience. Thank you for posting your "flyaway". Safe flying!

 

[msinger]

How do you change the title? I can't figure it out.

If this was your thread, you could change the thread title from the top, right of the first post like this:

 

[AnchorageAk]

No not mine. Just getting frustrated I couldn't figure it out. When another person mentioned he was trying to figure it out too, reminded me.

 

[Slackware]

Was the Phantom..... white?.......

Artic camo white.
Question should be. Did it have the prop guard snow shoes on?

 

[Slackware]

See my last picture. It shows last known direction and the end of the yellow line is 3,200 ft distance.

Looks like it was trying to find help at that settlement.

 

[Slackware]

While it is obviously advantageous to educate yourself, the single most useful attribute a quad pilot should have is simple common sense. As is seen very often in this forum, it is really not all that common.

40 years ago my math teacher postulated the average american had the brains of a brick wall. I have yet to prove him wrong. Although lately he might have errored to high.
Dad flew the 1:1 scale ones, and he never could handle the backwards controls when flying models towards himself. Sometimes common sense takes a back seat to learned conditioning.

 

[jordancl11]

Artic camo white.
Question should be. Did it have the prop guard snow shoes on?

that would have been a good thing to have lol

Sent from my SM-G925F using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Slackware]

The idea would be you could get a report of the wind speed at altitude but the ATTI suggestion is a really good idea - thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

Ever hover over your head? Prop wash would render data worthless. Maybe those tubes they use on jets, 4 pointing in all directions. Then any residual air from props would be used to negate self generated wind, leaving the one getting air blown in with the airspeed.

 

[NoBiffBetter]

When I fly when it's windy, I am very cautious .. I'll lick my finger and figure out exactly which way the wind is blowing from.. And I'll fly away from home point going toward the wind, I ALWAYS go toward the wind.. This way the wind will have your back on the way home and help get you home quickly easily and fastly incase of a low battery or other issues you may encounter when far from home.

I can tell you I have flown in some ridiculous wind speeds.. Huge gusts.. Its not even worth the hassle sometimes honestly cuz the whole time your in the air your mostly trying to fight the wind .. The gps hold can only do so much for you in super strong gusts, Iv had gusts come and blow my drone away 500feet like nothing, almost like the drone was in atti mode.. Just simply drifted away .. You gotta think if it's 15-25mph winds on the ground, up in the air, depending on the altitude it can be almost double that... The only times I fly in the wind I do it cuz often we will have 3 or 4 windy days in a row, and sooner or later I get itchy and just can't wait it out anymore and say screw it and go fly. As I have said I have never crashed before cuz of wind or let the wind beat me .. You gotta be smarter than the wind and gotta be very cautious about wind direction and the drones direction .. Wind can also change in an instant. Iv had that happen a few times where I was coming back with mostly a tail wind, then out of no where it starts pushing me from one of my sides pushing my drone wayyy off course.. Luckly, with dropping major altitude as fast as I could and good driving Iv always been able to make her back home. But one of these days I may not be so lucky. This is simply all that prolly happend to your drone.. I'm sure it was on its way home after hitting rth.. It prolly got blown off course do to a wind change and heavy gusts due to your altitude, and the poor quad prolly just fought the wind until the battery finally died and then it fell to the ground ... That's my conclusion

Happy flying ppl, and be careful in wind! It can be our worst enemy


EDIT: Best thing to do if you end up getting caught in some huge/very high winds, and your drone is hardly able to fight it, DROP ALTITUDE , dropping altitude has saved me numerous times, Iv had to drop so low that my quad was basically skimming tree tops, but long as you drop down as low as you can go with out hitting other objects.. The winds will be much less strong and the quad will then usually start to make forward progress again...this can help you big time in a jam. So long as you don't go so low that you just end up in a tree Instead

Iv always found this to be the best way to fight oncoming wind/heavy gusts when I find myself in a pickle


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