Lost my new DJI Vision to Lake Michigan today

[elijahallen]

I'm having some bad luck lately. After owning and flying my DJI phantom 1 for a year and a half it flew away a few weeks ago and even though I was bummed I was happy to have a good reason to upgrade so I bought the s-tuned DJI phantom 2 vision plus and have been flying it for the past 4 days. The wind has been 15-20 but it was very stable and easy compared to my DJI 1. I was getting confident with it fast and today decided to send it out over the water at 500ft to capture some nice fall colors. The wind was a lot stronger up there and it started to get away from me to the point where I turned the controller off hoping it would make its way back but the wind was to strong and I watched it land in the water about a half mile out

 

[job2310]

I'm having some bad luck lately. After owning and flying my DJI phantom 1 for a year and a half it flew away a few weeks ago and even though I was bummed I was happy to have a good reason to upgrade so I bought the s-tuned DJI phantom 2 vision plus and have been flying it for the past 4 days. The wind has been 15-20 but it was very stable and easy compared to my DJI 1. I was getting confident with it fast and today decided to send it out over the water at 500ft to capture some nice fall colors. The wind was a lot stronger up there and it started to get away from me to the point where I turned the controller off hoping it would make its way back but the wind was to strong and I watched it land in the water about a half mile out

Bummer dude! Did you try switching to Atti mode to see if you could gain ground prior to turning your controller off?

 

[varangian]

Sorry to hear about your phantom. I have a nagging concern when flying over water, the larger the body, the more I'm concerned. I've had some erratic behavior with my AR Drone which caused it to crash upside down into water, but I was able to retrieve it before water got to the electronics.
As you know, the wind speed aloft can be quite a bit stronger than at ground level. I assume the RTH couldn't compensate for it before running out of power. I lost a FC40 and immediately replaced it because they are fun to fly, but if this one goes it's back to flying my cheaper quads.

 

[Meta4]

For anyone else in a similar situation.
Consider coming lower to find less wind.
RTH speed is not max speed so it is better to have control rather than let RTH handle things like this.

 

[elijahallen]

I agree, this was a huge lesson learned. I was careless and I lost sight of the drone and panicked. By the time I regained sight the battery was too low to do anything so I helplessly watched it crash into the deep blue lake michigan water. Here is a video I took in the same general area but not on the shoreline. Its beautiful up here right now! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8QsKyZ ... TM_cosHhOg

 

[Meta4]

I lost sight of the drone and panicked. By the time I regained sight the battery was too low to do anything

Expensive lesson
The other thing that is important in this situation is the radar display on the app shows you where your bird is and which way it is pointing. You don't have to be able to see the Phantom to pilot it home safely.
Just use the radar to turn the Phantom to face you and bring it straight home.

It's a good idea to get to know the Phantom and how it works in a nice safe open area before getting too adventurous.
It only takes 5 minutes to learn to fly a Phantom but it takes many flights to become familiar with what can go wrong and what you need to do to safely handle those situations.

 

[Koz]

I agree, this was a huge lesson learned. I was careless and I lost sight of the drone and panicked. By the time I regained sight the battery was too low to do anything so I helplessly watched it crash into the deep blue lake michigan water. Here is a video I took in the same general area but not on the shoreline. Its beautiful up here right now! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8QsKyZ ... TM_cosHhOg

I think that we've all been in the situation where we lose site of the aircraft and it makes your heart skip a beat or two. When that happens my first bit of advice is to take your hands off the sticks and scan the skies instead of trying to look around while still flying.

But the most important piece of advice I can give is to fly in NAZA-M mode at all times and when you lose site and begin to panic flip it into Home Lock and pull back on the right stick and bring it in. I have a lot more confidence in doing this than shutting off the controller and going in to fail safe. If I ever need Fail Safe I prefer to be in NAZA-M so I can flip the switch back to GPS mode once the aircraft is in site.

I know a lot of people (and I'm not implying you are one of them) are intimidated by NAZA mode. They shouldn't be. In my opinion it's a much safer and more responsible way to fly.

I've used Home Lock on 3 or 4 occasions and it's a real life saver.

 

[DrD]

Koz is right on, home lock would be my last ditch effort.

One other thing, if its discovered that you're still losing ground bringing it directly back in home lock, you might try making headway at some small angle away from your direct approach. The wind vector will be different, and perhaps work for you. Hard to think of things like that in the spur of the moment, though. Then too, you need altitude to clear those **** trees at the edge of the lake!

 

[arizeda]

I agree, this was a huge lesson learned. I was careless and I lost sight of the drone and panicked. By the time I regained sight the battery was too low to do anything so I helplessly watched it crash into the deep blue lake michigan water. Here is a video I took in the same general area but not on the shoreline. Its beautiful up here right now! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8QsKyZ ... TM_cosHhOg

I think that we've all been in the situation where we lose site of the aircraft and it makes your heart skip a beat or two. When that happens my first bit of advice is to take your hands off the sticks and scan the skies instead of trying to look around while still flying.

But the most important piece of advice I can give is to fly in NAZA-M mode at all times and when you lose site and begin to panic flip it into Home Lock and pull back on the right stick and bring it in. I have a lot more confidence in doing this than shutting off the controller and going in to fail safe. If I ever need Fail Safe I prefer to be in NAZA-M so I can flip the switch back to GPS mode once the aircraft is in site.

I know a lot of people (and I'm not implying you are one of them) are intimidated by NAZA mode. They shouldn't be. In my opinion it's a much safer and more responsible way to fly.

I've used Home Lock on 3 or 4 occasions and it's a real life saver.

Thanks for this tip!