Well, fast forward to Christmas Day 2013. After charging up my battery, and putting new AAs in the controller, I decided to take the Phantom out for a spin and see if I could actually get it up and running (having not used it since May). After letting it cycle through, I'm getting one green, then five more greens in rapid succession.
With the GPS on, I lift off. The unit immediately starts hauling *** in one direction or another, and the only way I know how to shut it down is to lower the throttle so it does a "soft crash".
So far no real damage, which is good.
I'm suspecting that I did not install the propellers properly. I know in the videos it says to follow the direction on the blades and make sure they're matched up to the arm.
But, on my blades, I have two embossed direction indicators. Each blade also has "DJI" embossed on one blade, and what appears to be a part number embossed on the other blade. The direction indicator next to the DJI goes in one direction, and the direction indicator on the other blade goes in the opposite direction. What's not evident (at least I haven't found it yet) is what do you use to determine if you've got the proper propeller on the proper motor? Or is it a case that the propellers need to be installed so that the indicators are on the bottom (facing the ground)?
I can understand that they have to be right, and I think that's what's causing my problems in flight. But it's not obvious to me how to figure this out. Any suggestions?