My first crash, what to do now?

[Jason Church]

Hello everyone,

New to the Forum and a big fan.
I have had my Vision 2 Plus for about a month now, just over 40 flights. Have not had one problem till yesterday. I am in British Columbia Canada and just returned from vacation in Nevada State. When I got home I calibrated my vision on my laptop and went out to fly and noticed that my altitude numbers were off on my app by about 40'. Finished my flight, went home, re calibrated on my computer and my numbers were still off. Back home and repeated the next day. On this flight the numbers were still off but as I was flying I noticed my video on my phone (through the vision app) was stuttering. At that moment as I was flying in a forward direction my quad did a full backflip and lost all it's lift and came down to the ground hard landing on its skids. I gave it full throttle and it regained it's altitude where I left it in a hover, (it was about 30' from the ground when it flipped 40' away from me) I started bringing it back to where I was when one of the rear props decided it had had enough and it didn't want to hang around anymore and off it went. My Phantom tumbled from about 30' to the ground bending an arm and sending the camera to join the departed propeller.

Now I'm assuming there was interference somewhere that caused the backflip (I was in an area that I usually fly trouble free) and I was in GPS mode with 6 satellites (pretty sure of that) I'm a proficient flyer. Does anyone know where I stand when I call the store that I bought it at (flying cameras who have given great customer service) and if I have any chance that it may not be a pilot error issue.
By the way I have been running Version 2.0 the whole time I've had it with no glitches at all other than the altitude numbers being off the last couple flights.

Thank you to anyone's input in this matter.

Jason

 

[dkeshish]

You mention you plugged into your computer and recalibrate. My question is did you do the compass dance at the flight site? Sounds like a compass issue. Im not a pro so dont take my word for it. You need to always recalibrate your compass when flying in a different location. I do it every time. Even at samee location

 

[Jason Church]

Yes, I calibrate the compass every time I fly in the field, even when just swapping batteries. I will see what the tech at flying cameras has to say about it when I take it in for repairs.

Thanks for your input.

Happy flying.

 

[Doono]

Yes, I calibrate the compass every time I fly in the field, even when just swapping batteries. I will see what the tech at flying cameras has to say about it when I take it in for repairs.

Thanks for your input.

Happy flying.

Hi Jason,

It is not necessary to calibrate your compass before each flight or when swapping a battery.
Actually it is not recommended.
You should (re)calibrate your compass
-before your very first flight of course
-when you go flying in a different area/country
-when your Phantom is flying in circles during hovering
-when your Phantom does not fly in a straight line

Geert./.

Listen to geert.

 

[EMCSQUAR]

Jason, your crash sounds like it was compass related by your description. I'd suggest doing an advanced IMU calibration then doing compass calibration noting compass #s should be between 1200 - 1800. Erratic flying can be caused by a number of things but start with basics.

 

[Jason Church]

First of all thanks Geert, was not aware that you could over calibrate your compass. Secondly I have finally figured out what the problem was. I was not calibrating my compass properly. When I first got my Phantom I read the manual, watched videos everything before I flew it. One video I watched was a guy who said that the more north you go the more your Phantom will toilet bowl. (I'm up in Canada) so when it toilet bowled I thought this was normal, after 5 min it would stop.

The first few times I calibrated I did it properly and everything was awesome, but somewhere along the line I got off track and when in calibration mode I would do the first part right and get solid green lights but the second step I started doing wrong, instead of putting the Plus on its nose and "spinning" it I would put it on its nose and "cart wheel" it. (I'm quite embarrassed mentioning it). When I did this I would not get a "yellow green yellow green" lights nor would I get a "yellow red yellow red" so it didn't occur to me that something was wrong, and I guess the trip to Nevada and back to Canada really threw the compass off to the point that the GPS and compass were so tired of fighting each other that when one gave up it flipped backwards.

I am positive this is what happened.

Thanks for all your suggestions guys, I learned about the over calibration thing and it's much appreciated.
Here is the video of it flipping, it's right at the end of the video and the music is pretty heavy so just turn your speakers off or fast forward to the end.

http://youtu.be/86eLVCOWkLo

Thanks again, was an expensive lesson but a lesson learned.

 

[JWarren]

I'll will certainly listen to Geert and his superior wisdom, but I don't think any harm can come from calibrating your compass before each flight besides the extra wear on the S1 switch. Even then you don't have to ride the thing like a bucking bull to get it into calibration mode. I generally fly from 2 locations, 30 miles apart or so, and if I'm switching from one to the other, I do calibrate. I've experienced no problems (yet) from doing this.

Regards,
J.

 

[WmWmson]

I for one would like to thank you for figuring out what went wrong and letting everyone know. I had a Phantom 1 for about 8 months and now have my PV2+. I know there may be some interference or glitch's that may cause some of the problems I read about but I also think a lot are pilot error. It doesn't mean your a bad pilot if you make a mistake. All of us have or will sooner or later. But by letting everyone know what happened we can all learn. Your bad luck may save someone else.

I'm sorry for your lose but again thanks for the honest answer to what happened. I learned several different things from this post. Good luck with you future flying.

 

[Mori55]

I really don't think you can over calibrate your compass , you may wear your switch out sooner. I don't calibrate Everytime , but there's plenty of pilots who do.

 

[Deleted member 6917]

Strange thing about compass calibration. I received my P2V+ about 2 months ago. Calibrated the compass at my home in VA. Then went on a sailing trip in Grenada up to St. Lucia. Flew off the deck of the sailboat several times at different islands and did not recalibrate the compass and everything was normal. I also got back from Mt. Rainer this week where I flew four flights again without recalibrating the compass and flights were flawless...ether landing at my feet or just catching it. I have 2 other Phantoms and a Cinewing 6HL. I flew the Cinewing in Portland with VA calibration and no problem. Seems like you guys get all bent out of shape on recalibrating your compass every time you fly. If I get the three green go lights....I fly. Maybe I am just luck by not recalibrating in different countries and different states?