Nearly averted disaster...Autopilot

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Mooresville, NC
Was flying around a water tower today using Autopilot. Had an orbit pre setup and saved. After I took off and reached the orbit altitude, I switched to F-mode and engaged the mission. The bird did an orbit fine. I then disengaged and adjusted the radius to get in a bit closer. When I reengaged the mission, it started orbiting and when it got on the back side of the tower turned directly in toward the tower. I was watching the screen as the big bulbous tower was getting bigger and bigger on the screen. I quickly switched to p-mode and pulled down on the right stick. I couldn't have been more than a few feet from crashing. Anyone have any issues with disengaging mission, making some changes and reenganging?


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The first orbit was actually at a lower altitude and traveled behind the tower with no degradation in the rc or video signal m


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The logs don't show that I lost signal plus if I had lost signal, switching over to p-mode wouldn't have helped. Also, wouldn't the bird just hover with lost signal?


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This is strange..... i change parameters on the fly without issue. Have a very close look at your modified settings. Look at the log carefully also, could it be that you were orbiting ckose enough to get compass issues?
 
I checked and no compass errors although there probably should have been. Any way I can check the settings after I made the changes? Wondering if I inadvertently switched from poi orbit to operator or something dumb like that.


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I didnt want to assume anything but it will likely be in your settings somewhere. The few suprises i had with autopilot where when i made changes in flight and it was my settings, user error.....
 
Can I ask how close was the bird to the tower when it took off and how close were you intending to take it.


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I had the same issue. The closer I brought it in to the water tower I noticed one side was closer to the other. All I did to start the poi was record the center point and fly out and record the outer point and start. It should have been centered, right?

688d70d98c45b223abc2b300f254d6de.jpg


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I had the same issue. The closer I brought it in to the water tower I noticed one side was closer to the other. All I did to start the poi was record the center point and fly out and record the outer point and start. It should have been centered, right?

688d70d98c45b223abc2b300f254d6de.jpg


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Looks like your is flying in an oval around the tower. I try not to change parameters on the fly.
 
From the no response to my question. Too close to a structure.



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Django, sorry but I took off about 150m from the tower. The first orbit was about 200' radius then I disengaged, changed it to about 125' and increased the altitude. When I reengaged, it went about 1/4 of the way around and turned directly towards it.


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DRE, I would think it should be centered. The Google pic of your tower shows a straight down view (no parallax). If your poi was center on the top, it should have been centered. My tower is shown at an angle so I placed the poi at the center of the base. Wondering if that has something to do with my results.


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The google earth pic of our local tower is at an angle also and I'm having a hard time getting an accurate orbit the camera doesn't focus correctly.

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Was flying around a water tower today using Autopilot. Had an orbit pre setup and saved. After I took off and reached the orbit altitude, I switched to F-mode and engaged the mission. The bird did an orbit fine. I then disengaged and adjusted the radius to get in a bit closer. When I reengaged the mission, it started orbiting and when it got on the back side of the tower turned directly in toward the tower. I was watching the screen as the big bulbous tower was getting bigger and bigger on the screen. I quickly switched to p-mode and pulled down on the right stick. I couldn't have been more than a few feet from crashing. Anyone have any issues with disengaging mission, making some changes and reenganging?


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

My guess is that somehow you reset the point of interest slightly.
 

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