Sad fly away story?

[PeterW_R]

Hi guys,

Today I've flown my phantom from my usual liftoff point near the coastal line. The DJI Vision App reported 4 satelites, this is quite common in my location so I went up in Atti mode as I always do and at about 100 meters height with the DJI Vision App showing 8 sattelites I entered GPS mode. I then toggled the S2 switch 5 or 6 times to set a new home point .

After a few seconds and 88% battery, I lost complete connection throught the phantom vision App, I wasn't too scared because the wind was mild and I knew I had set my home point pretty high, so I turned the remote controller off to trigger failsafe mode.

I waited and waited and waited, but after 15 minutes my phantom did not come back :shock:

What's weird is that after about 10 minutes I was able to access the phantom wifi again through my phone, the DJI vision App Camera did not report anything but I was able to go to settings and press the find my phantom button. The map showed that my phantom current location was about 80 meters away (possibly in the terrace of a local Hotel).

I went there, to the exact point reported by the App, but no one had seen anything. Oddly I was still able to catch the phantom Wifi in the Hotel Terrace and I kept on searching until the signal disappeared and a few hours afterwards until sunset.

I wouldn't qualify myself as an experienced pilot, but I have flown my phantom about 20 times without hardly any incident (appart from a mild colission with a tree). It was my fourth time flying in NAZA mode and I must have read the manual about three times.

I now fear the worst, my beloved phantom 2 Vision + might be gone forever! What saddens me the most is that I can't find a logical explanation, what could possibly had gone wrong? Is it something that I did? Pilot error or maybe a flyaway bug?

Your thoughts would be very appreciated.

EDIT: I did an advanced callibration this very same week, I also did calibrate the compass before lifting off, I'm also sure there was no metal interference near my phantom before liftoff.

 

[Doono]

Don't know if this is relevant. When manually recording home lock in Naza mode, left switch (s2) from middle position to down position, quickly 5 times or more, finishing in the up position. I don't know what happens if you switch from up to down quickly 5 times or more, but if that were to set home position manually, I think it would be in the Naza M manual (it's not). Of course, I don't know if you did this, just mention it for your consideration.

 

[PeterW_R]

Don't know if this is relevant. When manually recording home lock in Naza mode, left switch (s2) from middle position to down position, quickly 5 times or more, finishing in the up position. I don't know what happens if you switch from up to down quickly 5 times or more, but if that were to set home position manually, I think it would be in the Naza M manual (it's not). Of course, I don't know if you did this, just mention it for your consideration.

Good point, I might be wrong on this but I trust the home point was correctly set because the satelite icon in the App showing 8 satelites went from gray to blue inmediately after flipping S2 switch and the radar screen showed my home icon very close to my cellphone icon in the radar screen, can't confirm if the leds of the phantom flashed green as the sun was pretty high in the horizon and was mainly reliying on DJI Vision App to pilot.

 

[tizzl10]

you should NEVER take off without properly setting the home point. i do not at all trust the "fly until you get satellite lock" method that some people do. if i dont have 6 or 7 satellites at take off, i do not take off. thats just me though. others may disagree but you will see them either disappear from this forum or post a fly away thread.

 

[Flyer91]

you should NEVER take off without properly setting the home point. i do not at all trust the "fly until you get satellite lock" method that some people do. if i dont have 6 or 7 satellites at take off, i do not take off. thats just me though. others may disagree but you will see them either disappear from this forum or post a fly away thread.

Folks ... listen to this man.
He has logged many flights on both the Plus and the P2V, and has flown missions out to beyond 10,000 ft successfully.

Sorry for the loss of yet another Phantom.
It sucks to continue to read about people having that result, irrespective of whether it's their fault or not.

 

[phantomguy]

you should NEVER take off without properly setting the home point. i do not at all trust the "fly until you get satellite lock" method that some people do. if i dont have 6 or 7 satellites at take off, i do not take off. thats just me though. others may disagree but you will see them either disappear from this forum or post a fly away thread.

same here. I never lift off at all without at least 7 sats. Period.

Also to the original poster, did you have a sticker on the bottom of your Phantom with your phone number and reward? That tip saved me $1300 a few weeks ago...more details on that later...

 

[Dirty Bird]

you should NEVER take off without properly setting the home point. i do not at all trust the "fly until you get satellite lock" method that some people do. if i dont have 6 or 7 satellites at take off, i do not take off. thats just me though. others may disagree but you will see them either disappear from this forum or post a fly away thread.

Agree 100%! I never take off without a firm satellite lock...ever! If I see anything but green flashing, she stays on the ground!

 

[Flyer91]

you should NEVER take off without properly setting the home point. i do not at all trust the "fly until you get satellite lock" method that some people do. if i dont have 6 or 7 satellites at take off, i do not take off. thats just me though. others may disagree but you will see them either disappear from this forum or post a fly away thread.

same here. I never lift off at all without at least 7 sats. Period.

Also to the original poster, did you have a sticker on the bottom of your Phantom with your phone number and reward? That tip saved me $1300 a few weeks ago...more details on that later...

+100 on the sticker advice!

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

I too have never trusted the idea of resetting home point in the air, and I have never taken off without home lock. Furthermore I wait until I see the second set of rapid green flashing lights that can come 10-20 seconds after the first, something I'm sure a lot of people dont wait for. Sorry for your loss, did you at least have your phone number on it?

 

[tizzl10]

here's another tip for you new flyers. once you get satellite lock of atleast 6 or 7 satties, fly out atleast 60 feet. yaw left or right just to get the aircraft *** end away from you..switch to "home" on s2 and test your home lock for a few seconds. she should come back to you regardless of the orientation. the reason i say this is because if you just test going straight out without yawing to turn the phantom, you may get a false indication that it is indeed coming back home simply because the *** end is pointing towards you ( this is really hard to explain ). if you cant get what im saying, refer to my videos..i always do this as further confirmation that home point is set.

 

[Drone996]

I too have never trusted the idea of resetting home point in the air, and I have never taken off without home lock. Furthermore I wait until I see the second set of rapid green flashing lights that can come 10-20 seconds after the first, something I'm sure a lot of people dont wait for. Sorry for your loss, did you at least have your phone number on it?

Ahem. The first set of rapid green flashes are not Home Point being set (which is different than Home Lock - but I digress). They indicate that the nose direction has been recorded (via the compass). The second set of rapid green indicates that Home Point has been set.

I have never had any issues flying without setting the Home Point (hilly environment) because ATTI works just fine - and delivers smoother video.

I've also set the Home Point once up in the air many times. Again - no issues.

 

[Drone996]

here's another tip for you new flyers. once you get satellite lock of atleast 6 or 7 satties, fly out atleast 60 feet. yaw left or right just to get the aircraft *** end away from you..switch to "home" on s2 and test your home lock for a few seconds.

This assumes that those "new flyers" have switched from Phantom mode to NAZA-M mode and enabled IOC.

 

[BlackTracer]

I could be wrong about this but having Grey sat icon or blue sat icon is not related to having a home position. The icon is blue when you have telemetry and Grey when you dont. That was coincidence. Having the phantom 300 ft up and flicking that switch and assuming a home position was set is just not good practice. Sorry. The only sure way to test your home position is to have it in sight and bring it back with HL or initiate an RTH and watch it fly home to you. I ALWAYS test my home position with HL before flying off into the wild blue yonder. It only takes a minute or less. I am very sorry for your loss but you broke rule one to prevent a flyaway which is verify a home position. Again I am very sorry yours flew away.

 

[sar104]

If you had wifi connection with the aircraft and it was reporting position then it must have been there somewhere. On the roof, perhaps? Was it not possible to use wifi signal strength to narrow down the location?

 

[Dirty Bird]

Although I must say I have never seen my P2V+ give a 2nd set of rapid flashing green & have watched it for a few mins sitting on the ground

Mine always displays two sets of rapid green flashes. Usually 10-15 seconds apart.

 

[Thesmokeshow]

hey sorry you had a crashed.

People should never turn off there controller to get it to come home please!!

your leaving it up the the sky gods to return your bird!! keep it on and try to regain control in atti mode at least.

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

I too have never trusted the idea of resetting home point in the air, and I have never taken off without home lock. Furthermore I wait until I see the second set of rapid green flashing lights that can come 10-20 seconds after the first, something I'm sure a lot of people dont wait for. Sorry for your loss, did you at least have your phone number on it?

Ahem. The first set of rapid green flashes are not Home Point being set (which is different than Home Lock - but I digress). They indicate that the nose direction has been recorded (via the compass). The second set of rapid green indicates that Home Point has been set.

I have never had any issues flying without setting the Home Point (hilly environment) because ATTI works just fine - and delivers smoother video.

I've also set the Home Point once up in the air many times. Again - no issues.

Ahem yourself haha.
Ok from the day I bought my first phantom vision non + my official dji dealer who is a huge multirotor flyer himself said never take off until you get the second set of flashing green lights. Since that day I never have and I always get the second set. I'm due to ring him tomorrow so I'll find out definitively what each one means exactly because I have just searched for an hour and cant find out in any dji manual or from any reputable source that explains the first and second set of green lights. Until then I'm waiting for the second set everytime because I have never once ran into a single bad flight characteristic.

 

[sar104]

In Naza mode the fast flashing green lights indicate both course lock and home lock set. From the Naza guide:

• If you use the IOC function, please be aware of the Forward Direction of Course Lock Flying, and the home point of Home Lock Flying. There are two ways to record the forward direction and the home point: Manually and Automatically. You may choose any one record method. The LED will blink Green quickly if successfully recorded.
  
  Automatic:
  
  Course lock: 30 seconds after you power on the autopilot system.
  
  Home lock: Before takeoff, the current position of the aircraft will be saved as the home point when you start the motors for the first time after 6 or more GPS satellites have been found for 10 seconds.

I'm not convinced about the motor start though - I've seen more than one set before that happens.

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

Yeah I always get the second set before I turn on the motors

 

[lizard]

4 - satellites only? - maybe the GPS issues reported below could be the cause
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV0rOBewNf0