Over reliance on failsafe

[Ozzyguy]

Im curious as to the amount of posts reporting that people are regularly using the failsafe feature.
To my mind this is just as the name suggests a back up, not something that I rely on.
Perhaps people need to work on their flying skills more and are getting themselves all mixed up orientation wise and can't recover to a state where bringing their phantom back without it is possible.
Personally I've only used this feature once. When I first purchase the quad, to make sure it worked.

 

[ElGuano]

Im curious as to the amount of posts reporting that people are regularly using the failsafe feature.
To my mind this is just as the name suggests a back up, not something that I rely on.
Perhaps people need to work on their flying skills more and are getting themselves all mixed up orientation wise and can't recover to a state where bringing their phantom back without it is possible.
Personally I've only used this feature once. When I first purchase the quad, to make sure it worked.

I never actively use it, though it's been triggered on me several times (once in a while when flying long range and the antenna gets occluded). I don't see failsafe as too much of a crutch unless people are intentionally fly without looking until the thing is completely out of visual range. FS/RTH as an autopilot function is pretty reliable as long as you're careful getting GPS lock upon take-off.

The guys who fly around for a bit, then hit the FS switch and watch it come back, are just taking advantage of a regular feature, like GPS position hold or GS waypoints. I don't fault anyone for doing that.

I am really not a big fan of the method of intentionally turning off the tx to trigger FS, though. You lose control of the quad, and something can go wrong if you try to turn it on again, eliminating any contingency options.

 

[panhygrous pantler]

Agree 100%.

It's a safety net but many folks report using it regularly and intentionally.

That's odd.

 

[fly-catchers]

I remember seeing a video where a guy was "demonstrating" this feature to a friend. Only trouble was the craft almost got caught in some overhead powerlines and landed the other side of the fence the guy had taken off from! Even the DJI very basic instructions stress you should not use this feature unless really needed. I prefer home lock and course lock if I get confused over the direction of the craft when its some distant away.

 

[QYV]

To my mind

exactly.

Perhaps people need to work on their flying skills more and are getting themselves all mixed up orientation wise and can't recover to a state where bringing their phantom back without it is possible.

Perhaps you need to work on not making assumptions and criticizing people just because they don't think and act exactly the same way as you?

ok now that we've gotten the smartassery out of the way, I'll be serious. Failsafe is a feature. A feature that will, when utilized, bring your phantom back overhead then begin a descent. Who are you to criticize people who choose to utilize the feature voluntarily? Maybe not everyone has a nice FPV system? Maybe not everyone is as skilled as you. Maybe the wind blows or someone makes a mistake, maybe they're irresponsible or just plain lazy (me). Does it matter? It's a Return To Home feature and it's their Phantom. What point is there creating a thread like this? To try to let everybody know you're better than them? That seems to be your point.

Failsafe is effectively a RTH autopilot. I'm personally a bit annoyed with the forced 2m/s descent rate in the latest firmware, I know how to descend to avoid vrs and I think descent rate limit should be a user defined feature just like the height and distance limits. If I'm 200 meters or more up in the air, at MAX descent rate that's over a minute and a half of pure, boring descent. I choose to trigger failsafe (via the switch) and let the Phantom do some of that work for me. If it's there, why NOT use it? Whenever I want, I flip the switch back and resume normal control. Where's the harm in that? I do agree with a previous poster that turning OFF the RC isn't the proper way to do it, hence why DJI gave us the option in the assistant software.

Am I RELYING on it to return my Phantom safely? No I'm choosing to. What business is it of yours? (hint: none) and before you say what business is it of mine, I'm not the one who created a trolling thread trying to belittle people. Nothing about your post was constructive.
Do you have the same criticism for people who enable Naza mode and then need HL to bring it back?

 

[Ozzyguy]

Ok before anyone else gets offended Let me clarify. My advice to fly more was not intended as an insult. I don't think any one of us wouldn't jump at the chance to fly more
I wanted to open up a conversation for people to state their reasons like you just did. Other people can join in and defend their own reasons. I just personally find it odd that people do this. I too would definitely use it in some of the situations you mention.
A few people on here have stated the they think the wind speed has overcome the return to home speed.

So my main point is fly more enjoy more and remember the limitations of any aid you use.
Oh and one should probably should check someones post count before making troll accusations.

 

[Madwak]

Another important thing to note is that when using fail safe the phantom flies a lot slower than when you are in control, so if you are already struggling with high winds then switching to fail safe is going to make things worse

 

[QYV]

There's no relationship between post count and making a troll-y post, anybody can do it at any time but I'm willing to say I misinterpreted your message. Your first post really doesn't seem anything like your second but hey I'm certainly not trying to create an enemy or any bad blood around here... it seemed like you were just trying to bash so I stood up for the other side

From a certain perspective I agree with you: people shouldn't fly careless and RELY on failsafe to save them or the equipment. Every pilot should get to know their equipment and capabilities before they start pushing the envelope.
I also don't see any harm in electively using FS as I described before and I acknowledge there are assumptions I make, including a proper home lock location (which I always advise people to test at short range before using it at long range) and an unobstructed path home which shouldn't be a problem at high altitude.

I stand by advising newer pilots to stick to Phantom mode and just enable the failsafe switch (since it's not out of the box) as opposed to Naza mode with CL/HL/ATTI/etc since imo (I say imo a lot to indicate it's just my opinion, not a fact) it's easier to have things go wrong in Naza mode with all the various combinations of the toggle switches (remember we're talking about newer pilots).

I also agree that Failsafe isn't the way out of a situation where you're struggling with high winds... you shouldn't really be in that situation in the first place but at least it would point the Phantom towards home eh? I was actually curious about this myself the first few times I tested Failsafe: what orientation would the phantom take? Mine always points the "front" towards home and then flies "forward" until it gets overhead. Assuming (there it is again! I know...) they all act that way, say you're flying a non-fpv system and several hundred meters away and somehow got into trouble with the wind, triggering failsafe would at least turn the phantom pretty much straight towards home and you could deactivate failsafe and give it full throttle forward and head back home. just a thought... but now we're back full circle to the original idea that indeed you shouldn't RELY on failsafe to get you out of a jam you shouldn't be in heh

 

[Kelso Kubat]

To my mind

exactly.

Perhaps people need to work on their flying skills more and are getting themselves all mixed up orientation wise and can't recover to a state where bringing their phantom back without it is possible.

Perhaps you need to work on not making assumptions and criticizing people just because they don't think and act exactly the same way as you?

ok now that we've gotten the smartassery out of the way, I'll be serious. Failsafe is a feature. A feature that will, when utilized, bring your phantom back overhead then begin a descent. Who are you to criticize people who choose to utilize the feature voluntarily? Maybe not everyone has a nice FPV system? Maybe not everyone is as skilled as you. Maybe the wind blows or someone makes a mistake, maybe they're irresponsible or just plain lazy (me). Does it matter? It's a Return To Home feature and it's their Phantom. What point is there creating a thread like this? To try to let everybody know you're better than them? That seems to be your point.

Failsafe is effectively a RTH autopilot. I'm personally a bit annoyed with the forced 2m/s descent rate in the latest firmware, I know how to descend to avoid vrs and I think descent rate limit should be a user defined feature just like the height and distance limits. If I'm 200 meters or more up in the air, at MAX descent rate that's over a minute and a half of pure, boring descent. I choose to trigger failsafe (via the switch) and let the Phantom do some of that work for me. If it's there, why NOT use it? Whenever I want, I flip the switch back and resume normal control. Where's the harm in that? I do agree with a previous poster that turning OFF the RC isn't the proper way to do it, hence why DJI gave us the option in the assistant software.

Am I RELYING on it to return my Phantom safely? No I'm choosing to. What business is it of yours? (hint: none) and before you say what business is it of mine, I'm not the one who created a trolling thread trying to belittle people. Nothing about your post was constructive.
Do you have the same criticism for people who enable Naza mode and then need HL to bring it back?

blah blah blah QRV, save your rambling and know it all for your wife :shock:

 

[QYV]

I already apologized and made up with Ozzy so I'm afraid you're going to have to try a lot better than that if you want a rise out of me, but speaking of my rises and wives yours is a pretty big fan of what I know.

 

[Ozzyguy]

Booya!

 

[steveeds]

I think out of my limited amount of flights I turned the controller off about 1/2 the time, it was my personal main panic mode first response call and it never failed me, Now if I used my ego I wouldn't now still have it in the box

They made it idiot proof, this is good.
They made it for the pro's, this is also good for them

I also think when you live in a country where there's "a bush" in the middle of it with nothing around for several thousand miles you have good line of site

 

[WessexWyvern]

Suggesting that there is some sort of problem relying on fail safe mode to return home is like saying that people shouldn't be relying on GPS mode either.

 

[Mori55]

When I get disoriented or lazy I use HL is that ok ? :roll: