Scary first flight

[Hovtech]

Got my new P2V yesterday. I had viewed most of the important videos on this and the DJI site related to setting up. It was getting dark outside and I had yet to upgrade software. I thought I'd just do a take off and landing in my front yard before it got too dark outside. Put the P2V on the lawn and turned it all on. Set the compass and was ready to fly. Gave it throttle and it tipped over??? Fortunately I was on the lawn and not on the driveway, so no damage to props. When I righted it, it just shot up into the sky, straight up about 100 feet! Now, I'm coming from a year with a AR Drone. I see it way up in the sky and I'm trying to get it down by pulling down on the throttle, but nothing was happening. All I could think was it was just going to drift away in the wind as my AR Drone would have. OK, there goes $1200 on my first flight. Now it was dark. The good news is it just stayed overhead and didn't go anywhere. Fortunately I remembered from watching videos to just turn off the remote, which I did. OMG, it started to come back down. Now I look down the street and a car was coming and my drone was headed to land in the middle of the street. Well as you might imagine there are a lot of lights flashing off and on and the driver must have seen it because he slowed down as I stood at the edge of my driveway, waving at him. The 15 second pause at 60 feet seemed like eternity. Then it continued to come down. The car was inching towards me and a collision with me and my drone. I remembered the video where the person grabbed the drone by the skid to move it. At about 7 feet I reached up and grabbed the drone by the skid and pulled it to safety. Quickly hit the off button and took a deep breath! Disaster averted! Told myself, no more flights until this is completely set up and upgraded and I have completely read the manual and viewed a few more videos. I now realize it is not as simple as the AR Drone.

Thank you to the god of drones for not taking away my new hobby. :>)

 

[neiloakley]

What position did you have the S1 and S2 switches in?

 

[Hovtech]

Not absolutely sure, what do you think I might have done incorrectly?

BTW, have it all updated and watched every video possible. Ready for next flight, but the weather is terrible in Chicago

 

[BadassBlaze]

It wasn't very smart to do your first flight in a neighborhood. Go find somewhere else to get the basics down like a park or soccer field (where I flew mine first)

 

[ZonComGMZ]

Do you remember what color the LED's we're flashing? Sounds like it was in Failsafe mode.

 

[Hovtech]

I did have green flashing lights. I would guess I had both switches up. I believe the problem had to do with not having the software upgrade completed yet. You are absolutely right about not flying in the neighborhood. I realize I dodged a bullet. Flight 2 will be out in our little league park. 4 baseball fields together and no trees. Down the road from this park is an actual RC flying airport. It must be 10 acres or more. Last year I brought my AR Drone there and it amazed me that the regulars were interested in watching it fly. This year when I go back I hope to be proficient enough to impress them. I'll probably become a member of the club too.

BTW, how do you do a flip while in the air? With the AR it was just a double tap on the screen.

Another bad weather day today, depressing.

 

[BadassBlaze]

I did have green flashing lights. I would guess I had both switches up. I believe the problem had to do with not having the software upgrade completed yet. You are absolutely right about not flying in the neighborhood. I realize I dodged a bullet. Flight 2 will be out in our little league park. 4 baseball fields together and no trees. Down the road from this park is an actual RC flying airport. It must be 10 acres or more. Last year I brought my AR Drone there and it amazed me that the regulars were interested in watching it fly. This year when I go back I hope to be proficient enough to impress them. I'll probably become a member of the club too.

BTW, how do you do a flip while in the air? With the AR it was just a double tap on the screen.

Another bad weather day today, depressing.

Soccer fields/baseball fields are good places to learn (for the most part). Good luck!

Also, you can't do flips with it (that I know of...). Maybe there is someone that is skilled enough to fly without all the nanny systems and do it, but I don't want to find out how and crash $1200+ of gear (quad/gimbal/gopro)