Risk of "Accidental Power Down in Flight.

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Hi,

My unit has just arrived in Australia where I live - yet to reach my door. In the mean time I thought I would join the forum and ask a few questions. Just for starters - I was reading a review where the dislikes related ... to the possibility of accidentally moving the controller sticks inwards may power down the unit whilst in flight. Bye Bye $$$$$ -

Is this true, or has this been rectified in some kind up firmware update? The thing is - I am the type that may indeed accidentally wind up thumbling into such a scenario - like turn around to answer someone and slip with the fingers - shut down sequence now in process ... 1 2 3 THUD!

Can this actually happen?

TIA

Dave ;)
 
as it knows its altitude i doubt it'd let you do it anyway
 
If you refer to descending with the left stick down after 3 sec it will not stop the motors only if the bird isn't descending anymore.
If your doing the quick stop sequence it will stop the motors immediately no matter were the bird is. But that would be a very odd maneuver, decending fully, yaw @ full force wile going backwards and going to the left.
 
Firstly, I think it extremely unlikely that you would hold the sticks in the required position for a full motor stop.

Secondly, based on your comment, may I suggest a little more concentration whilst flying a $1300 unit / 3lb potential missile. Set yourself some clear flying rules

- never take your eyes of the craft (unless using FPV)
- do not allow distractions / tell others not to distract you whilst flying
- learn to maintain correct stick positions even when your eyes are not on the radio (which will be most of the time considering you should keep eyes on the craft)
- if you do need to turn and talk to someone let go of the sticks so the craft goes into auto hover mode (assuming flying in Phantom or NAZA GPS mode)

If you don't think you can do these then you should seriously question your ability to fly.

Please do not take any of the above as being rude but these are givens for flying anything. Focus and concentration, concentration, concentration :)
 
p fandango said:
as it knows its altitude i doubt it'd let you do it anyway

CSC is an override. It WILL SHUTDOWN the motors.
The CSC stick position is rarely used in flight. Think about it. Yawing right and descend whilst moving backwards and left. That sounds more like a 3D stunting done by Helis.

On a side note, holding left stick down whilst descending will NOT shut the motors UNLESS the alttitude is the same for more than 3 seconds.
 
Just remember there are 4 possible stick combinations that will shut off your motors. Both sticks down and in any corner will do it too but again it would be so rare for someone to try fly like that. There would be reports of crashes if it was a problem.
 
Good to see this place is active. Thanks for the responses. It confirms what what I wanted to know. Now I have a strong impulse to do the impossible.

I checked with my friend since he got home and he also says it's pretty hard to accidentally perform the powering sequence.

Thanks again for the responses.

I'd like to ask another about range - and knowing how far to set it -

Is there anything other than knowing what Terrain not to fly into that I must calculate that the drone does not compassionate for?

Does the Range Radius On screen go in and out according to the many changing variables such as battery drain, weather condition, distance traveled and or whatever ... ???
My mate was saying how the app may warn against following a proposed route if using way points - if you make the points too far apart and or the battery level is insignificant on the hand controller? Or something other?

I guess I got plenty to learn - last thing I want is a fly away ... I can't afford not to know all I need to know. Only other point was being prepared to adjust for the out of sync flying when in FPV. Unfortunately my friend crashed his - I crashed it for him as well, however his crash really messed it up. Coming down - I was heavy handed and his was more about pulling up short of a treeline - delay and or momentum vs battery power. Don't know myself, just saying - I'm not up for smashing mine.

Thanks for the feed back
Cheers.
 
Hi Davekyn

I experienced jus this situation (inadvertedly did CSC in flight) a week ago.
PV2+ was at 30 ft high and 10 ft away. I was looking to Galaxy screen and doing manuevers to get it nearer and lowerer to land.
Did not noticed any abnolrmality till that time but when i took a look on PV2+ it was falling just as a dry leave and i had no time to do anything cose in one second she crashed on ground.
Fortunately all around was enough grass and nobody else ind the area. PV2+ only got 2 broken props and the third cracked.
She has blue prop guards and it seems that right rear one suffered the major impat but did not broke.
I replaced all props by new one set and all is ok, flyed some 15 batteries till now and all is working fine.
Already flyed near 120 batteries till now with no problems, never powered off motors by CSC till that time.
So, true. This can happen.

Best regards : juan
 
She must have been doing some amazing acrobatic manoeuvres before the motors shut off :)
 
You would not put the levers into a CSC position while "doing manouvers to get it nearer and lower to land" and if you were performing moves where the levers might get anywhere near a CSC position, your eyes would be on the Phanton and not the monitor. The bird would be all over the sky like crazy.
What caused that crash was something else.
 
Hi juan,

I can see how people get set in their ways with regard to how they feel something is or is not. Your story is your own and if that is how you feel it went down then so be it. The urge for some to be right all the time is what it is.

SO - I have no problem - thinking that its a no brainier to instead have access to a switch under a lid that slides or pops back in order to power up or down and NOT be accessed by pulling the control sticks in whatever position. The fact that the unit can be powered down in flight makes my wonder on the "fail safe" side of things.

I'm not out to defame the unit - I just bought it! - My wife makes a good point how it's more important that pilots come back to buy more parts than it is to alter what I again - regard as a flaw.

I think instead of trying to justify it with continual user error as seems to be the case with every flyaway that is reasoned out - I'd feel more comfortable with users discussing how to avoid such "accidents" -

Imagine telling a 747 pilot - "oh by the way, if you you move the stick to this position when your trying to avoid turbulence; the plane will fall out of the sky!" LOL ... just saying is all. Again - people can't resist hearing something different.

Thanks for sharing your story - I've been reading more on it and it seems I'm not the only one scratching my head of this issue.

Take care mate.
 
wattsn said:
She must have been doing some amazing acrobatic manoeuvres before the motors shut off :)
Hi Wattsn,
No... only very simple movement to get she nearer and land just in the position i wanted pointing to where i wanted, but
inadvertidely entered in this situation.
After the crash i needed some time to mentally redo what sticks movements i was doing and conclude what happened at the falling time and i only noticed that propellers were stopped or running at very very low speed.
At that time no idea of what was going on and no time for any correcting action cose in one second she was hitting the ground.
From the accident i am taking care on not entering this situation again.

Best regards : Juan
 
Davekyn said:
Hi juan,

I can see how people get set in their ways with regard to how they feel something is or is not. Your story is your own and if that is how you feel it went down then so be it. The urge for some to be right all the time is what it is.

SO - I have no problem - thinking that its a no brainier to instead have access to a switch under a lid that slides or pops back in order to power up or down and NOT be accessed by pulling the control sticks in whatever position. The fact that the unit can be powered down in flight makes my wonder on the "fail safe" side of things.

I'm not out to defame the unit - I just bought it! - My wife makes a good point how it's more important that pilots come back to buy more parts than it is to alter what I again - regard as a flaw.

I think instead of trying to justify it with continual user error as seems to be the case with every flyaway that is reasoned out - I'd feel more comfortable with users discussing how to avoid such "accidents" -

Imagine telling a 747 pilot - "oh by the way, if you you move the stick to this position when your trying to avoid turbulence; the plane will fall out of the sky!" LOL ... just saying is all. Again - people can't resist hearing something different.

Thanks for sharing your story - I've been reading more on it and it seems I'm not the only one scratching my head of this issue.

Take care mate.
Hi Davekyn,

TKS. Paying more attention on flying now... even when sometimes it is very difficult cose always come someone to take a look on Galaxy, to do some question about the bird... and this way ... is prone to do something wrong.

Best regards : Juan
 
Someone mentioned there are 4 CSC positions, but my Phantom (firmware 3.0) only has two - both sticks down & in or both sticks down & out. While I do recall seeing the other two CSC positions listed somewhere as valid, the two "up" positions have no effect. While it is possible to put the sticks in the CSC position during flight, the called upon maneuver would be so bizarre I can't imagine why anyone would attempt to perform it? DJI apparently feels there is a need for an emergency stop, and they have chosen control settings that should not be called upon during normal flight.
 
For anyone thinking the above situation was caused by inadvertently putting the sticks in the CSC position - send your Phantom up 100 feet in a clear open area and put just one stick in the position it would be for a CSC.
Observe the motion of the Phantom.
Try putting the other stick (alone) in the position it would be for a CSC.
The combination of these moves is not something anyone would do "doing manoeuvers to get it nearer and lower to land".
It would send the Phantom spiraling at down full speed - nothing like gentle moves bringing the machine in to land.
If anyone did such a thing close to landing and the motors did not shut down, the Phantom would crash.
Juan's machine fell from the sky but NOT because the sticks were inadvertently placed in the CSC position.
Accidentally putting the sticks in CSC during flight is very, very unlikely.
 
Meta4 said:
For anyone thinking the above situation was caused by inadvertently putting the sticks in the CSC position - send your Phantom up 100 feet in a clear open area and put just one stick in the position it would be for a CSC.
Observe the motion of the Phantom.
Try putting the other stick (alone) in the position it would be for a CSC.
The combination of these moves is not something anyone would do "doing manoeuvers to get it nearer and lower to land".
It would send the Phantom spiraling at down full speed - nothing like gentle moves bringing the machine in to land.
If anyone did such a thing close to landing and the motors did not shut down, the Phantom would crash.
Juan's machine fell from the sky but NOT because the sticks were inadvertently placed in the CSC position.
Accidentally putting the sticks in CSC during flight is very, very unlikely.

Ok Meta4,
What i can surely tell is that left stick was fully down (descending the bird for landing)... tryed to rotate it (yaw i think) all to the right .. but this does not worked with the stick (left) full down but left stick was ready for the SCS.
At that time tryed to bring the bird in my direction ... and apllyied right stick fully left down...

Ok, that is what i think i did and saw the bird falling with stoping motors.
Obviuosly i may be wrong in all this even when i am a newebe on tis all but this was what i concluded that happened.

It woul be interesting for me if you or semeone else can give me an advice on what else could caused the falling / crash for not to enter in this situation again.

Best regards : Juan
 
p fandango said:
as it knows its altitude i doubt it'd let you do it anyway
If you do the CSC (start up procedure) in flight, the motors will stop... There are videos on YT of people flying them fairly high then turning off the motors and letting them fall & after a few seconds they start them up again before they hit the ground. They call it CSC-ing. Why they do it. who knows? Risky if you ask me lol
 

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