Just purchased a Phantom Vision after all the publicity from 2014 CES. I have been in the television production industry for over thirty years with a great deal of technical experience. I printed out and read the fifty page manual very carefully before assembling the Phantom. I followed the set up and calibrating instructions very carefully also . I went up to the roof of my apartment building which is large,flat and very open with no obstructions or wires. Before taking off the green LEDs was flashing properly indicating GPS operable. At first the Phantom flew just fine and started practicing the recommended initial flight exercises. About eight minutes into the flight the Phantom started to drift and climb at an alarming rate. Slowly pulled the throttle down but the Phantom kept drifting and climbing till it was out of site. I never lost twelve hundred dollars, even in Vegas that fast in my life. I purchased it from B and H in New York and they are trying to help me. I was sent a report to fill out apparently there has been quite of few of these incidents happening. I have been unable to reach DJI since this happen. I only get a message saying our message box are full call back again another time. I have tried four days straight with no results. I then went on line and searched Phantom Vision fly aways and I was shocked on what I found. I wish this was exposed before I spent 1200.00 hard earn dollars.
Phantom Vision Fly Away
- Thread starter TUL
- Start date
Did you upgrade your firmware to the latest version before your first flight? So sorry to hear about this happening. Are you in a high RF area?
What was fixed in the newer firmware to prevent flyaways?
Detecting radio interference better, or something else?
Any details on this fix?
The battery data fix was to prevent falling out if the sky.
Thanks for the education, Gary
Detecting radio interference better, or something else?
Any details on this fix?
The battery data fix was to prevent falling out if the sky.
Thanks for the education, Gary
Sorry to hear of your misadventure. But fly away problems have been largely corrected in the current firmwares. One of the things addressed is if interference from other sources caused your Phantom to fly for more than x number of seconds it would cause the Phantom to automatically stop, And if out of range, fly back to your designated home point. Did you check to make sure your Phantom and your RC controller had the current firmwares before take off? Was your initial compass calibration done in an open grassy field far from obvious sources of interference? To be honest with you it probably wasn't the best judgement call doing your first flight on the top of an apartment building. At least not until you've flown in a large open grassy area and fully vetted the Phantom to make sure everything was okay and you had a good compass calibration. Anyway best of luck with B n H and DJI, though I don't honestly expect they can do much for you. For all they know you could just be saying you lost it, there is no way of substantiating your claim of loss or a real non user error related fly away. Also what attempts did you make to recover the Phantom. Did you follow any of the guidelines in the Preventing and Recovering a Phantom from Fly Away thread?
I have been flying remote control planes for over 15 years, and never had a fly away or heard of anyone that has. Why are people so accepting of these. DJI needs to step up and fix the issue or stop selling the product until they do
hancop said:
Probably because you are very experienced at flying RC's and the group you hang around are experienced to. The average Joe off the street plucks down $1,200. and wham he is on the roof of his building setting off in the air like it's a firework, I know I was very aggressive in flying my P2V the first few weeks but since then I learned how to think and act and understand the capabilities and the complexities of this flying machine. Understanding that the software needs to be given attention to frequently, on and on.
So "By the grace of God go I", but now I think and act like a pilot who needs to be in control of a complex flying bird. I also know the risks and therefore have flown my P2V over the surf and other bodies of water.
Just my two cents.
I always RTFM, then find a forum for my expensive toys to learn from others...
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk
hancop said:
You'll be an extremely competent pilot, then, and could probably nail a dead stick landing every time. As quads are inherently completely unstable they need a sophisticated computer control mechanism just to stay in one place without plummeting, let alone hold a height within 2ft, a horizontal location within 6ft, in wind, without any inputs from the transmitter. Add in modes like IOC where it will always fly in the same absolute direction irrespective of it's actual orientation and other options and you can start to see where paying attention to things like compass calibrations, satellite reception, environmental intereference, etc become very important in comparison to most RC planes (which, by the way, most people probably wouldn't think of flying off their apartment roof!).
However, for a real test of those stick skills you can always try manual mode with none of the flight aids activated! :shock: (Not recommended unless very experienced, by the way!)
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