Precautions to prevent common crash causes?

[nonflyingbrick]

Hey crew, I’ve been looking around the forum and the web for a while and I’m having a bit of trouble finding an updated guide on avoiding common mistakes that lead to crashes with the Phantom 3 Advanced/Pro. I seem to find stuff for older Phantoms, etc.

What I try to do is remember to choose an appropriate Failsafe setting in the DJI Go app. When there’s any chance I could be flying under tall trees, I set the Failsafe option to Hover, so that if I lost the control link and Failsafe RTH was activated, the drone wouldn’t try to ascend to the failsafe height (which would crash it against a tree). When I’m sure I won’t fly under trees or other obstacles, then I set the Failsafe option to Return-to-home. Is there any disadvantage to setting Failsafe to Hover?

I also take care when descending, making sure I don’t accidentally trigger a CSC and shut down the motors in flight by going down and in (or out) all the way with both sticks. (It’s a bit scary that you can accidentally make the drone fall like a brick by doing that, although hopefully you’d never do it by accident.)

Other than that, I calibrate the compass before every flight, and check the IMU calibration status every now and then (so far it says calibration not necessary when I check the status, and hopefully that's reliable info).

Thanks in advance.
Matt

 

[Dirby]

fly in large open field read the manual.
stay below 400 feet.
stay away from buildings.

 

[witold]

The biggest cause of crashes is people flying close to things as they try to video something. One mistake, one move in wrong direction, and that's it.

RTH issues are probably a distant 2nd. There's quite a bit of these videos where RTH triggers and flies the quad straight into a building.

What else is there? Just random issues... The two things above are what you should always think about.

 

[bobmyers]

Hey crew, I’ve been looking around the forum and the web for a while and I’m having a bit of trouble finding an updated guide on avoiding common mistakes that lead to crashes with the Phantom 3 Advanced/Pro. I seem to find stuff for older Phantoms, etc.

What I try to do is remember to choose an appropriate Failsafe setting in the DJI Go app. When there’s any chance I could be flying under tall trees, I set the Failsafe option to Hover, so that if I lost the control link and Failsafe RTH was activated, the drone wouldn’t try to ascend to the failsafe height (which would crash it against a tree). When I’m sure I won’t fly under trees or other obstacles, then I set the Failsafe option to Return-to-home. Is there any disadvantage to setting Failsafe to Hover?

I also take care when descending, making sure I don’t accidentally trigger a CSC and shut down the motors in flight by going down and in (or out) all the way with both sticks. (It’s a bit scary that you can accidentally make the drone fall like a brick by doing that, although hopefully you’d never do it by accident.)

Other than that, I calibrate the compass before every flight, and check the IMU calibration status every now and then (so far it says calibration not necessary when I check the status, and hopefully that's reliable info).

Thanks in advance.
Matt

1. Get in a large open field -- fly out about 200 to 300 feet -- set and try out each Failsafe Option, so you know exactly what each option does.
2. Never shut down the motors either in the air or on the ground with a CSC. Only use CSC in an emergency. When you land, always stop the motors by holding the left stick all the wayback.
3. You don't have to calibrate the compass before every flight. Only if you are 100 miles or so from you list flight.
4. Read and study the attached Help guide-- it has a huge amount of good information that will help to keep you and your Phantom safe.
5. Fly gently, taking small steps until it becomes second nature, like driving a car.
Cheers-- Welcome to the forum

 

[cdronefly]

The single best way to avoid crashes is to use the Phantom for what it is made to do - a flying camera to take some video or pics.

Those who fly it for fun and put many hours on it taking video the whole time (which they will never use) are using up the tool without getting the true benefit. The more you fly, the more the odds work against you.

I look at the Phantom like a car or other tool - if you just drive around to put miles on your car, you will wear it out sooner and also are more likely to get in a crash.

And, yeah, don't calibrate the compass each flight. You will likely cause more problems than you solve. Most of the crash stories I read related to compass failure start with "I calibrated the compass and then....."

Setting the home point in an open area is always smart......as is carefully checking it before you take off to make sure it's where it should be.

Other than that, the P3 seems amazingly reliable.

Oh, here's one not mentioned yet. Don't panic when the app crashes! Always remember that you have full R/C control so don't start pressing RTH buttons and fiddling with your smart device - just pilot the craft back to a safe position (or land) and then restart your device and/or app.

Another - enable multiple flight mode and practice the ATTI setting - just in case you want to try that as a safety if your bird decides to fly away due to a GPS or compass glitch.

 

[duse500]

Don't get overconfident..

 

[robinb]

Trees can sprout very quickly and appear from nowhere.

 

[nonflyingbrick]

Cool, good tips. I've taken due note of them. Thanks in particular to bobmyers for the long help PDF. I'm going through that one.
I am uneasy about venturing further than about a half mile. By the time the video link strength is anything less than 5 bars I begin to get the drone back closer. I understand the control link should go a bit further than the video link and I'm trying to be very conservative not risking losing the control link. I'm flying in a big open country side area, way above all trees and with the failsafe options correctly configured, so my only concern is that if I lost the control link and the failsafe return to home didn't work as expected I'd be screwed (say if the drone flied out in the other direction, because of some GPS glitch). Would you guys say that's unlikely, very, extremely? I usually have 12+ satellites. So far every time I've tried the manual return to home (smart RTH I believe) it has worked perfectly.

Also, what happens if failsafe RTH is activated but there is not good enough GPS signal?

Matt

 

[jsposito]

At fairly long distances, over 100 feet - Objects, like trees, houses, seem closer to my eyes LOS - but FPV is the accurate distance yet appear further away. It was a bit of learning curve for me. For me anyway.

Pre check props,
Make sure sd card is all the way in
memorize where the power lines are
use roll either left or right away as you approach residential area
On RTH I slow down the landing, sorry too much stress i think on the landing gear at the default speed
Include in preflight - check all battery cells in the app and when appropriate for an instant even when flying
For me, sport mode is safer than ATTI, P being the most safe.\

Happy Flying!