I was goofing around on YouTube looking at videos of Phantoms doing this and doing that and found the ones on the "return to home" feature. In both of the videos I watched, the guys flew off a ways, turned off the remote, and then the Phantom flew up or down to 60', and then flew back to over where they had originally taken off. Both videos showed the Phantoms auto landing within one meter of the original take off spot.
I decided to give it a whirl from my backyard which was a bad idea, in hindsight, and as I flew my Phantom away, I turned the remote off. I then lost sight of it and went into panic mode. I turned the remote back on, hoping to gain control again and then started pushing up to see if it would go high enough for me to see it again. I didn't. I turned the remote off again. So I set out after it in my truck asking neighbors if they had seen it. One young woman and her mother had said they heard a buzzing sound, but didn't think much of it or see anything. After 20 minutes or so of canvasing the neighborhood and looking in my backyard to see if it came back "home", I set out with "Missing" signs and posted them around where I suspected it to be. I then went to the only two entrances, exits of our subdivision and posted signs. I returned to where the mother and daughter were raking leaves, and where I had posted a sign, because I thought that from where I was, it should have been in that area. RIGHT across the street from the women, were two men looking up onto the one man's roof. Lo and behold, my Phantom had safely auto landed on his roof, without wrecking anything. I decided to give the guy a reward for not getting pissed and destroying my toy.
So, two lessons I have learned.
One: Don't ignore the low battery lights flashing on the back. Bring it down, and recharge and live to fly another day.
Two: Don't do test flights in a neighborhood. I'm pretty sure I won't be flying from my backyard anymore. :geek:
I decided to give it a whirl from my backyard which was a bad idea, in hindsight, and as I flew my Phantom away, I turned the remote off. I then lost sight of it and went into panic mode. I turned the remote back on, hoping to gain control again and then started pushing up to see if it would go high enough for me to see it again. I didn't. I turned the remote off again. So I set out after it in my truck asking neighbors if they had seen it. One young woman and her mother had said they heard a buzzing sound, but didn't think much of it or see anything. After 20 minutes or so of canvasing the neighborhood and looking in my backyard to see if it came back "home", I set out with "Missing" signs and posted them around where I suspected it to be. I then went to the only two entrances, exits of our subdivision and posted signs. I returned to where the mother and daughter were raking leaves, and where I had posted a sign, because I thought that from where I was, it should have been in that area. RIGHT across the street from the women, were two men looking up onto the one man's roof. Lo and behold, my Phantom had safely auto landed on his roof, without wrecking anything. I decided to give the guy a reward for not getting pissed and destroying my toy.
So, two lessons I have learned.
One: Don't ignore the low battery lights flashing on the back. Bring it down, and recharge and live to fly another day.
Two: Don't do test flights in a neighborhood. I'm pretty sure I won't be flying from my backyard anymore.
:geek:
