My "Fly Away" Fear….

[Kapitan]

All…

I've just discovered this great hobby about 10 days ago and have been searching it online ever since. I am within week from ordering a Phantom 2V+ but….

I'm seeing an uncomfortable number of youtubes/videos about "fly away" problems with the Phantom's.

Is this genuinely something that I should be concerned with? I realize things may not go perfect but when hearing of someone's $1,400 investment (if you can call it that) just flying away never to be found again. I'm having a hard time getting my head around this aspect of it.

I figure this can't be too common or DJI would not be in business.

I would appreciate your opinions and thoughts about this!!

Thanks

Pat

 

[timschick]

Keep the flying simple until you get comfortable. I think flyoffs are directly proportionate to pushing distance limits and not ensuring proper preflight calibrations and Home set. Play it safe for a bit till you get good. It's fun (and stressful sometimes!)

One comment I won't forget that proves true: "Welcome to flying drones; you will crash."

 

[J Dot]

It happens,
Just get a personal tracker ( ie: tk102b )
Instal on your bird, and have fun!

Make sure you follow the rules to a T,
Do not cut corners!

Keep firmware updated ( all )
Keep app updated
Follow all preflight procedures,
Make sure compass is calibrated before first flight,
Or whenever you move locations to fly, keep track of
Your mod values, always make sure you have a good home lock,
And good GPS signal, before liftoff. You will be just fine!
I have P2V over 200 flights, NO ISSUES!

Worrying gets you NOTHING!

Watch this:
http://youtu.be/2bxjL7wFyb8

Take care, fly safe!
( welcome aboard! )

 

[Kapitan]

Jerry and Tim…

Thanks very much for the welcome and explanations! This does make me feel a lot better about going forward…! Thanks fellas!

Pat

 

[syotr]

I figure this can't be too common or DJI would not be in business.

Ha Ha! Quite the contrary. In almost every flyaway account I have read, the owner orders another one. It's actually good for business.

 

[QYV]

Jerry and Tim…

Thanks very much for the welcome and explanations! This does make me feel a lot better about going forward…! Thanks fellas!

Pat

afaik most of the early fly-aways were on the non-Vision models. On the gimbal/gopro Phantom 2's (non-Vision) you are NOT supposed to run the gopro's wifi as the signal can interfere with the remote control and that was leading to flyaways.

The Vision models do NOT suffer from that problem as their RC control is on a completely different set of frequencies... that's why you use wifi to watch live FPV.

I really don't think you have much to worry about... in terms of a flyaway I agree with earlier posted you almost certainly will crash almost all of us do

 

[rrmccabe]

It helps to take time to learn and understand what the phantom is thinking. It changes with each firmware update!!!!

I am new and am starting to understand why it does some things that perplexed me at first.

In an open and safe location learn to switch off GPS and fly attitude, force it into return to home mode. Do these things under your control before you need to use them.

 

[Cajvol94]

My "Fly Away" Fear….

Like all said read the instructions and watch and re-watch as many videos as possible. Main thing is the home point and all GPS locks.
I panicked 2 days ago as I wanted to test the range and took it up as far as I could. I turned my head and looked right at the sun by the time my vision(eyes) cleared I had no clue where it was. Talk about a bad feeling. I hit the RTH switch and still panicked as I didn't hear or see anything for a minute or two and then I hear the "flying bee swarm" and it was 100' over my head. Shew I was nervous. But like advertised the RTH works! Good luck

 

[Original poster]

Re: My

Like all said read the instructions and watch and re-watch as many videos as possible. Main thing is the home point and all GPS locks.
I panicked 2 days ago as I wanted to test the range and took it up as far as I could. I turned my head and looked right at the sun by the time my vision(eyes) cleared I had no clue where it was. Talk about a bad feeling. I hit the RTH switch and still panicked as I didn't hear or see anything for a minute or two and then I hear the "flying bee swarm" and it was 100' over my head. Shew I was nervous. But like advertised the RTH works! Good luck

Sounds like you need FPV

 

[kydan]

Most flyaways seem to be pilot error. Too many times I've read of a newbie taking off without having a deep understanding of the quad itself.

Read the manual a lot, search this forum like you're doing, stay within line of sight in your first 20 flights, practice flying in manual when you can to learn the orientations (that way if it starts to fly away in GPS mode you can flip it to manual and bring her back somewhat safely), and don't update the firmware until it's been tested out from the general population first...to name a few.

 

[Cajvol94]

Re: My "Fly Away" Fear….

Like all said read the instructions and watch and re-watch as many videos as possible. Main thing is the home point and all GPS locks.
I panicked 2 days ago as I wanted to test the range and took it up as far as I could. I turned my head and looked right at the sun by the time my vision(eyes) cleared I had no clue where it was. Talk about a bad feeling. I hit the RTH switch and still panicked as I didn't hear or see anything for a minute or two and then I hear the "flying bee swarm" and it was 100' over my head. Shew I was nervous. But like advertised the RTH works! Good luck

Sounds like you need FPV

I have FPV with the FC40 but the wifi range is roughly 300-400' and I was way past that. I hope to upgrade to a better FPV system.

 

[BlackTracer]

practice flying in manual when you can to learn the orientations (that way if it starts to fly away in GPS mode you can flip it to manual and bring her back somewhat safely)

I have never run across a single flyaway story where the pilot recovered it in manual mode, have you? If so please refer me to the thread as I would like to read about it and learn from it. Most if not all flyaways are the result of complete non-response from the transmitter. Even turning it off has no effect. No offense, just sayin'. Is there any guarantee that it will even switch to manual if you can't even get it to switch to atti, or RTH by shutting off the transmitter? I do agree it is another possible option however in a fly-away situation.