Stupid Drone crash

[Dounin Front]

Here's what I've learned: When the controller announces the aircraft will land in 10 seconds and you are over a big pine tree, you are probably screwed.
If you have a little time left in the battery and you think you can make another round--forget about it.
It's not that easy to pilot when the drone is hidden behind a tree and the autopilot failsafe is trying to bring it straight down.
The return to home feature can become problematic when your takeoff point is under the roof on the patio. And even that's not bad if you don't wait till the battery level is critical to land it. Panic does not help!
The good news is it landed upside down and was not damaged at all.

 

[Orion55]

how low was the battery?

 

[Dounin Front]

how low was the battery?

I was out a ways when it hit 30%. It dropped to 10% pretty fast and started its descent. I couldn't see how close I was to that ponderosa pine. It's hard to do the right thing in an emergency. I should never tried to run out the battery.
That was just the last little bit of the flight. It was above the roof for a bit where I couldn't see it during RTH 100' up. It was a mess of my doing.

 

[RoyVa]

Enjoy and welcome to the elite. We all do those crazy little errors one in a while. I also found out when it is auto landing and about 20 ft off the ground don't flip the S1 to regain control. She dropped like a rock but was able to recover 1 ft from from ground. Cheeks are still tight from that attempt. Glad you didn't have any damage.

 

[BigAl07]

Glad it all turned out fairly well for you.

I'd highly suggest sacrificing a few batteries now and again just testing "Worse case scenarios". This way when (not if) something like this happens you are much less likely to panic and you can do the right thing to save the aircraft.

Keep in mind that it seems (and possibly does happen) that the time from "getting low" to the battery being "critically low" is a split second. You're much better off the land with 40% remaining than try to push it and end up with an unexpected emergency descent.

 

[flyNfrank]

I'm pretty sure if the aircraft is descending, you can hold the stick in the up position. The aircraft at this stage will not climb in altitude, but it will maintain altitude as long as you continue hold the stick in the up position. However, if in the critical stage, it may not honor this technique. I have not flown the P3 in this stage recent enough to remember if it will maintain the altitude or not.

 

[Dounin Front]

I'm pretty sure if the aircraft is descending, you can hold the stick in the up position. The aircraft at this stage will not climb in altitude, but it will maintain altitude as long as you continue hold the stick in the up position. However, if in the critical stage, it may not honor this technique. I have not flown the P3 in this stage recent enough to remember if it will maintain the altitude or not.

I think you are right. My real panic started when RTH was trying to land it on my roof where I couldn't see it. I canceled that and was moving it to where I could see it and it would not land in a tree. That's when it went critical and started landing. The video shows I was having some success moving it away from the tree, but I must have backed off of the sticks before it was clear and it continued descending into the branches. It must have been a pretty soft landing, albeit upside down

 

[Dounin Front]

The racers often say, "Fly it like you stole it." better advice for us would be, "fly it like you were in it."
We would likely be a lot more careful.

 

[Jeriami]

I'm pretty sure if the aircraft is descending, you can hold the stick in the up position. The aircraft at this stage will not climb in altitude, but it will maintain altitude as long as you continue hold the stick in the up position. However, if in the critical stage, it may not honor this technique. I have not flown the P3 in this stage recent enough to remember if it will maintain the altitude or not.

It will maintain altitude, and will allow you to move in any direction, you slowly release full throttle up to descent on your own terms. I learned this coming back from a long trip & luckily was able to keep my cool & do this to land on my own terms with critical battery flashing.

 

[Corvette595]

I take off from my deck which is shaded by large trees. I just happened to think about the problem it would be if I were not able to take control if it went into RTH. It would try to land in my trees. To avoid this, I always fly it out into a clear spot out in the yard, hover and reset my HOME location. It only takes a couple of seconds. In theory, I could hit the RTH button and go in the house, get a beer and come back to a safe Phantom.

 

[flyNfrank]

I think you are right. My real panic started when RTH was trying to land it on my roof where I couldn't see it. I canceled that and was moving it to where I could see it and it would not land in a tree. That's when it went critical and started landing. The video shows I was having some success moving it away from the tree, but I must have backed off of the sticks before it was clear and it continued descending into the branches. It must have been a pretty soft landing, albeit upside down

I had an experience with one of my whitepines behind my house while beta testing someones app earlier this year. The video is around 4 minutes but it's worth watching. Btw, this is one of two saves I've been lucky enough to keep from crashing while in a big-time tumble.

 

[2tButton]

Everyone learns from their mistakes. Also spend some time and read this forum to learn from others mistakes too. Read your instruction manual 3 times and understand the systems and failsafes in your phantom. But if anyone tries to take off under a roof!!! You are asking for problems. Commen sense please...

 

[Dounin Front]

Everyone learns from their mistakes. Also spend some time and read this forum to learn from others mistakes too. Read your instruction manual 3 times and understand the systems and failsafes in your phantom. But if anyone tries to take off under a roof!!! You are asking for problems. Commen sense please...

I agree in principle about taking off under a roof, but it has worked perfectly for me for 20 or more times. From my deck I have a clear view over the trees for miles. I use RTH all the time and just cancel it before it's overhead. I screwed up flying off to the side when the battery level was getting low. BTW- I keep the VPS off because it would cause major problems in this environment.

 

[brianld]

I had an experience with one of my whitepines behind my house while beta testing someones app earlier this year. The video is around 4 minutes but it's worth watching. Btw, this is one of two saves I've been lucky enough to keep from crashing while in a big-time tumble.

Crazy. How did you pull it out of the free-fall / tumble? Hope I never need to, but would be good to know.

 

[Dounin Front]

I had an experience with one of my whitepines behind my house while beta testing someones app earlier this year. The video is around 4 minutes but it's worth watching. Btw, this is one of two saves I've been lucky enough to keep from crashing while in a big-time tumble.

WTF happened? I hope you sent the beta back to them. Great save though.
Why only 8 sats? Was that all a Vision plus was capable of?
Loved the Gary wright!
Where was that taken?

 

[olof Ekbergh]

I am glad your MR is fine. This is how you learn.

It is fine to fly under roofs or in dense forrest. Just remember you are on your own, like with any traditional RC aircraft. In those conditions I fly in atti only and never take my eye of the MR. It is fun to fly down a forest path or follow a stream with overhanging branches, I have even flown around a waterfall where I had to take off and land on a boardwalk under a dense canopy with less than a foot to spare flying out and returning, this was in a F450, no problem, just concentrate hard and shoot by feel. Or have someone else give verbal gimbal movement instructions. It is fun and rewarding.

Also to me I trust time as much as the telemetry in the app. 14 minutes is always safe with a fully charged battery. So after 12 minutes I like to be in close. I have over 40 RC aircraft and I always use time as my primary indicator of when to land. I have never had a crash in any of them from low battery. Conservative is good. And I never fly out of visual range. Shooting video or stills I always have a spotter if I have to look at the screen.

For solo complex shooting I like the different auto pilot Apps. This way I can keep an eye on the MR while the flying and camera work is automatic. If I don't like the look of things I just take over.

The Auto Return to Home is nice, but I never count on it, too many things can, and will go wrong sometime.

 

[flyNfrank]

Everyone learns from their mistakes. Also spend some time and read this forum to learn from others mistakes too. Read your instruction manual 3 times and understand the systems and failsafes in your phantom. But if anyone tries to take off under a roof!!! You are asking for problems. Commen sense please...

It's obvious you have yet to read your manual 3 times. Most all P3 owners know that the P3 was also designed to fly indoors, under a roof where there is no GPS signal. So let's see what you learn from your mistake.

 

[flyNfrank]

WTF happened? I hope you sent the beta back to them. Great save though.
Why only 8 sats? Was that all a Vision plus was capable of?
Loved the Gary wright!
Where was that taken?

What happened was, the IMU was trying to function from 2 sets of flight info at the same time and became confused to the point the IMU locked up. Later that night I wasn't so lucky as in trying an updated app version it still did the samething except not being able to it I crashed. I was also 60ft less in altitude with not as much time to react. The a/c bounced off my roof and became an expensive rebuild project that I have not completed.

Before the P3 the most satellites we would ever receive was around 12. And 8 satellites at 150ft or so was considered normal. I live in Indiana.

On that particular crash I was able to bring it out of the tumble by holding up on both sticks which gave the a/c max up & forward. The real saver was the 260ft altitude most likely, and not my skills.

 

[Dounin Front]

It's obvious you have yet to read your manual 3 times. Most all P3 owners know that the P3 was also designed to fly indoors, under a roof where there is no GPS signal. So let's see what you learn from your mistake.

I actually have read the manuals extensively and follow all the threads.
VPS would not be appropriate on my covered deck because It's 15' above the ground. I imagine it would blast into the ceiling when coming in across the grass below. I do acquire 13 sats before taking off however. It's never been a problem for the P3.
I had just finished a long waypoint mission 500m out and around and thought I would finish off the battery before landing. Well I almost finished the P3 instead!
Thanks for your advice - I have learned a lot from this blunder.

 

[Dounin Front]

What happened was, the IMU was trying to function from 2 sets of flight info at the same time and became confused to the point the IMU locked up. Later that night I wasn't so lucky as in trying an updated app version it still did the samething except not being able to it I crashed. I was also 60ft less in altitude with not as much time to react. The a/c bounced off my roof and became an expensive rebuild project that I have not completed.

Before the P3 the most satellites we would ever receive was around 12. And 8 satellites at 150ft or so was considered normal. I live in Indiana.

On that particular crash I was able to bring it out of the tumble by holding up on both sticks which gave the a/c max up & forward. The real saver was the 260ft altitude most likely, and not my skills.

There was one point in your video where the camera was looking down through the landing gear, but we were seeing the sky above!