- Joined
- May 15, 2013
- Messages
- 43
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Well I experienced my first phantom loss last night.
A still clear evening with 4 charged lipos, that'll do nicely.
I flew it a long way away, then turned right so I knew which way it was pointing and I could see how far away it was, then carried on turning and headed in the initial direction, towards a distant building.
I then lost sight of it, no problem, I engaged HL and pulled back on the right stick, still nothing visible - don't make it worse, think - ah remember to switch to gps then pull stick back with HL, did that, still nothing. This looks like a job for RTH, engage RTH with right switch, still nothing.
Much hedge and fence climbing ensued, however light was failing and the field I thought it was in was occupied with a small herd of very boisterous bullocks - there were also a group of farmers taking part in a shoot.
My gps phone on the phantom was telling me it was not in the field I thought it was, so checked what I could of the field, and where the gps said it was, found nothing and resigned myself to it having to have a night in a field as I didn't want to get trampled or shot. Checked with the farmers that it was OK to search the next day, no problem.
Took a day off work today and got up early and headed off in torrential rain to find it.
I found it, and am currently drying it out.
Seems like my battery died after about 3 minutes of flight - I have my RTH button set to RTH not land (I fly over water so RTH seems more sensible on signal loss) as after my slow HL pull back with GPS on (after I remembered) the phantom did a controlled landing. It toppled over and 2 props carried on idling for approx 1hour 'til it beeped
Lipo was puffed this morning, and I've already binned it - never liked that one anyway, had a connector that was always too tight.
Let's hope it dries out OK
Lessons learned
Remember to enable GPS mode before using HL
Enable the most accurate GPS mode on your on-quad phone
Enable the loudest ringtone on the on-quad phone possible
Cattle should be treated with respect, but eventually get tired of a man walking up and down a field looking in grass for his quad
I need new wellies, mine leak
A still clear evening with 4 charged lipos, that'll do nicely.
I flew it a long way away, then turned right so I knew which way it was pointing and I could see how far away it was, then carried on turning and headed in the initial direction, towards a distant building.
I then lost sight of it, no problem, I engaged HL and pulled back on the right stick, still nothing visible - don't make it worse, think - ah remember to switch to gps then pull stick back with HL, did that, still nothing. This looks like a job for RTH, engage RTH with right switch, still nothing.
Much hedge and fence climbing ensued, however light was failing and the field I thought it was in was occupied with a small herd of very boisterous bullocks - there were also a group of farmers taking part in a shoot.
My gps phone on the phantom was telling me it was not in the field I thought it was, so checked what I could of the field, and where the gps said it was, found nothing and resigned myself to it having to have a night in a field as I didn't want to get trampled or shot. Checked with the farmers that it was OK to search the next day, no problem.
Took a day off work today and got up early and headed off in torrential rain to find it.
I found it, and am currently drying it out.
Seems like my battery died after about 3 minutes of flight - I have my RTH button set to RTH not land (I fly over water so RTH seems more sensible on signal loss) as after my slow HL pull back with GPS on (after I remembered) the phantom did a controlled landing. It toppled over and 2 props carried on idling for approx 1hour 'til it beeped
Lipo was puffed this morning, and I've already binned it - never liked that one anyway, had a connector that was always too tight.
Let's hope it dries out OK
Lessons learned
Remember to enable GPS mode before using HL
Enable the most accurate GPS mode on your on-quad phone
Enable the loudest ringtone on the on-quad phone possible
Cattle should be treated with respect, but eventually get tired of a man walking up and down a field looking in grass for his quad
I need new wellies, mine leak