my first fly away

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Vancouver Island British Columbia Canada
Well it happened. I took my poor phantom over to my parents house to show my father. I had told him about the Phantom and he had seen some of my video's but he had never seen if fly. I was looking forward to letting try my FPV fat sharks.
I had recently upgraded to 2.0 but had not flown since. Well I got set up in the back yard.. waited for the green GPS lights to flash and took off. As soon as I got airborn I knew something was off. The Phantom started to fly toward my dad. I corrected this and pushed the sticks to the right to get it out and away and flew out 50 ft to a clear spot ( my parents back yard goes over a cliff and then 40 ft down) I could tell by the way it was flying something was off. I let go of the sticks and the phantom went hard over to the left. I mean it went sideways and power dove into the ground. I watched in horror as pieces went flying as it hit the wet rocks and mud below. My boys retrieved the phantom from the wet ground. 3 blades broken and my FPV card smashed. The battery had popped out and my gimble and gopro were knocked off. The phantom itself seems ok. My gopro on the other hand.... Time will tell . The go pro does now not read the sd card. The great death film of this flight is corrupt and wont play. If I had to hazard a guess I would think that my compass was WAY off. Hindsight said that I should have calibrated the compass first but I have never had ANYTHING close to this happen before.

I will attempt to put the pieces back together in the morning and hope that the little water that may have gotten into my gopro has dried. Time will tell :cry:
 
That sucks. Unfortunately one of the downsides to this thing is that crashes do happen. Hopefully you'll manage to rebuild and get back into the sky soon.
 
Sorry to hear, but at least you're fortunate that you were able to recover _something_ at least. (unlike mine which is still m.i.a.)

It's not the compass that causes flyways. (at least in my opinion). I've read many stories where guys have had flyways after calibrating their compasses as well.
I've driven 40-100 miles away without calibrating my compasses.
-(tho my flyway occurred about 7 miles away).
 
I had recently upgraded to 2.0 but had not flown since

Hindsight said that I should have calibrated the compass first but I have never had ANYTHING close to this happen before.

Had you calibrated the compass at all since upgrading to v2.0?
 
Awful man, I really feel for you. I always dread my first flight after a firmware upgrade. I always now do a full recalibration, not just the sticks. After an upgrade i always do a compass recalibration too even though I'm flying at the same location as before. I'm not saying this is the way to go for everyone but its what I do and I've been ok so far.

Edit: BTW I'm on ver 3.0 with no issues.

Sent from my Galaxy Note 8
 
IrishSights said:
I always now do a full recalibration, not just the sticks. After an upgrade i always do a compass recalibration too even though I'm flying at the same location as before.

I agree, I think after a firmware update you need to treat it as if it's just come out of the box. Recalibrate everything, sticks, gibmal, compass, IMU.... do the lot!
 
Miika said:
Have you imported the default settings that can be found from DJI's website every time you've updated the firmware?

They are only for the Phantom 1. I am not sure but I think the OP has a P2.
 
You didn't say whether or not you had already tried, but you may be able to recover that corrupt file. PM me if you would like some help with it.
 
Gizmo3000 said:
Sorry to hear, but at least you're fortunate that you were able to recover _something_ at least. (unlike mine which is still m.i.a.)

It's not the compass that causes flyways. (at least in my opinion). I've read many stories where guys have had flyways after calibrating their compasses as well.
I've driven 40-100 miles away without calibrating my compasses.
-(tho my flyway occurred about 7 miles away).

A bad calibration is only one of numerous ways in which the compass can cause fly always. If you get the GPS forward adjusted course at significant odds with a nonlinear or simply very off compass heading, throw in some mild gyro errors and you have all the ingredients needed to cross the "fly away" tipping point.

OP, why do you think the compass was way off? How, when and where did you last calibrate it?
 
goldfishrock said:
IrishSights said:
I always now do a full recalibration, not just the sticks. After an upgrade i always do a compass recalibration too even though I'm flying at the same location as before.

I agree, I think after a firmware update you need to treat it as if it's just come out of the box. Recalibrate everything, sticks, gibmal, compass, IMU.... do the lot!
Agree. EPROM flash puts controller like right off the retail shelf. Can't over calibrate compass. Takes 30 seconds. Cheap insurance


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
So this isn't a fly away but a case where the compass was not calibrated after a new firmware. Unfortunately, DJI does not put this type of information in the documentation as it is an expensive lesson to learn.
 
ianwood said:
So this isn't a fly away but a case where the compass was not calibrated after a new firmware. Unfortunately, DJI does not put this type of information in the documentation as it is an expensive lesson to learn.
I kinda remember (memory not that good these days!) after a firmware upgrade is there not a notice to recalibrate? Maybe this should be more specific as to what should be recalibrated? I do everything, sticks, IMU, compass etc.

Sent from Samsung S4 via Tapatalk
 
IrishSights said:
I kinda remember (memory not that good these days!) after a firmware upgrade is there not a notice to recalibrate?

I think you're right, it definately pops up a wee window and talks about calibration.
 

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