Litchi Mission/First Crash/Learned alot!

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Well today I tried my first waypoint mission with my P3S. It was a simple mission circling the remains of an old abandoned settlement. I set my waypoints and had them all focus on a POI (the remains). I launched the mission and it completed it successfully with a few glitches. The recording was to stop at the 2nd last waypoint then go to the last one and do a panorama, but this did not happen, it kept recording. I had set RTH after the pano waypoint. The phantom returned but there was a tail wind so it was travelling fast and then it began to descend near some trees but in the midday sun I couldn't see it, but could hear it. I thought it was much farther than it was and panicked and cancelled the RTH but by that time it was already near the ground. From what I can tell the phantom crash landed and flipped over. When I got to it the motors were still running but had stopped because of the tall grasses. As soon as I picked it up they were running. I feared the worse but everything seems to be ok. Other than a bit of grass shards and stains she seems to work fine. I quickly did an quick test hover and it seems to work.

Litchi Mission
The Good:
•the waypoint mission completed and RTH initiated like planned
•the phantom seems to be ok but will do some more testing
•got the video I wanted but … (see below)
•my waypoints were set high enough to clear any trees in case it drifted.
•choosing the P3S to learn on was a good choice. It would be a $$$ to crash and damage a more expensive drone.
•I was lucky and learned from my mistakes.

The Bad:
•WOW cruising speed is fast. Need to slow it down ALOT. What is a good speed to set?
•setting RTH on last waypoint was a mistake. Should have just set to hover and brought it in manually
•recording did not stop on the second last waypoint and the pano did not happen on the last one. I re-checked my mission and both were set properly
•was a little more windy than I would have liked (Wind was 20km/h) and there was a tail wind when it was in RTH
•RTH location was off quite a bit (not sure if this was the result of wind) causing phantom to narrowly miss trees.
•phantom crashed (flipped over on landing)

What I learned:
•cruising speed is too fast
•RTH was not the best choice on this mission
•should have stuck with my gut and not flown my first mission in that kind of wind.

Overall, I learned a lot from this mission that will hopefully help me become a better pilot next time. Now to edit the mission and try again.
 
I always make my 1st waypoint the same as my homepoint.
I set my LAST waypoint about 2 feet away from the first waypiont, that way the mission always finishes near me.
The last waypoint is almost like a return to home.
When you edit your footage, you can cut any of the footage you don't need.
 
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Thanks for the tip about the last waypoint - that's a good idea. I think I'll add the last point to the mission instead of using rth
 
I always make my 1st waypoint the same as my homepoint.
I set my LAST waypoint about 2 feet away from the first waypiont, that way the mission always finishes near me.
The last waypoint is almost like a return to home.
When you edit your footage, you can cut any of the footage you don't need.

I do this also, good strategy imo...never had a problem with waypoint missions here. Sorry you crashed, glad it turned out ok [emoji6]
 
I did a quick test flight in my back yard. Used auto take off and let it hover at the take off height. Everything seemed alright - keeping my fingers crossed. I made some adjustments to the mission -slowed the speed to 5km/h and made the last waypoint near my starting point. Just need to try it again, hopefully on a very calm day. The thing that threw me on the first try was how fast it flew at cruising speed. I never really new how fast cruising speed was and when it RTH at cruising speed it likely overshot the home point especially with a tail wind.
 
It can be a little alarming, just go into mission settings and tone down the cruising speed and have 1st waypoint and last waypoint very close to home point. Then you know what to expect...knowing where the bird should go makes RTH comfortable instead of stressful. Hovering at last waypoint also works well for me, I can take over at a safe altitude
 
If I'm fling fast on the way back, I will set 3 way points near the end and reduce speed a little at a time till it's only about 5 mph when the last way point is reached. That way it doesn't go from 30 to 0 all at one time. Close up missions where slow speed is constant, I don't worry about it but I'm always set to hover when finished right next to way point 1. Keep trying, you will get it.
 
If I'm fling fast on the way back, I will set 3 way points near the end and reduce speed a little at a time till it's only about 5 mph when the last way point is reached. That way it doesn't go from 30 to 0 all at one time. Close up missions where slow speed is constant, I don't worry about it but I'm always set to hover when finished right next to way point 1. Keep trying, you will get it.
Thanks for the tips. The whole mission is close by and all within VLOS. I did change the speed from cruising to 5km/h and that changed the mission time from less than a minute to 5 min. If weather holds going to try it again today.
 
Thanks for the tips. The whole mission is close by and all within VLOS. I did change the speed from cruising to 5km/h and that changed the mission time from less than a minute to 5 min. If weather holds going to try it again today.
You realize that you can set the default cruising speed to what ever you want. For example, you create a mission with 20 WP each set to "Cruising Speed". In the mission hub, select "Settings" and set the default Cruising speed to whatever. Save your mission. All 20 WP's will now be set to this new Cruising Speed default.
 
You realize that you can set the default cruising speed to what ever you want. For example, you create a mission with 20 WP each set to "Cruising Speed". In the mission hub, select "Settings" and set the default Cruising speed to whatever. Save your mission. All 20 WP's will now be set to this new Cruising Speed default.
I did not know that! Thanks for that tip. I have my waypoints set to cruising but have set the default cruising speed to 5km/h so that should work. I may go out and try the mission again to see what happens. My pano waypoint didn't work on the first try but I think that was because it was set to POI. Cloudy today so I don't have to worry about the sun.

Thanks again to all who have helped and gave me tips, I really appreciate it.
 
Today, I ran the mission again with the modifications to the cruising speed and the last WP. Everything went well and the mission completed successfully. I'm not sure if the programmed pano at the second last waypoint completed as I haven't looked at the micro SD card yet, but I used Litchi to do a separate pano mission anyway from that point.

Changing the default cruising speed made a huge difference in the mission and my stress level. I actually enjoyed watching it fly its mission, instead of seeing the phantom zip around at top cruising speed in the initial mission.

I have also learned that the waypoint adjustment can be tricky and lots of margin for error needs to be programmed because what I see from the ground is totally different from the air and the google map used to program the WPs is not necessarily accurate in terms of where trees are etc.

Again, thanks for all the help in helping me with my mission.
 
I think I know why my programmed pano did not work at specified WP - I had auto record on. Turned it off and will try mission again tomorrow to see if it works.
 
You can leave auto record on, just stop recording / take still photo /start recording at specific waypoint. These waypoint actions will not work if you're using curved turns throughout the mission. [emoji846]
 
I did have the mission set to stop recording WP before the pano one but it still did not take the pano. Curved turns was off for all of them. Going to try it again today and see what happens.
 
Flew the mission again today but this time with the auto recording turned off and the programmed pano worked so it seems that the auto recording needs to be off. Also, the Litchi manual says that auto recording should be off. I am beginning to love Litchi. The pano function and the Waypoints are very useful. In time I hope to try some of the other specialized features/missions.
 

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