The main reasons for lost Phantoms.

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Most all of the stories of lost phantoms fall into two basic categories that are:
1. I have lost sight of my phantom or I don’t know what direction it is pointed in anymore and I can’t figure out how to bring it back to me.
2. The Phantom is in GPS mode but is no longer responding to my commands on the controller and it is flying off in some random direction that you didn’t want it to go.
3. You have had a hardware failure such as a battery, prop or other failure.

For #1 requires that you have already connected the Phantom to a computer and turned on IOC (Inelegant Orientation Control) then switch to home lock and pull down on the right sick. No matter what direction the phantom is in this will request it to fly directly home to you. It will not land doing this it will just come back to over your head. You can then fly it down to the ground from that point. For information on how to turn on IOC view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iysLuAr8_3g

For #2 the most likely reason for this issue is that the GPS or Compass is giving the Phantom bad data and the GPS autopilot going crazy. To fix this you need to switch the phantom into ATTA mode as soon as possible. At this point you MUST manually fly the phantom back to yourself. Turning off the controller and attempting a return to home will make this situation much worse because the GPS or compass is giving the unit bad data and that is what would do the return to home. If you are not confident that you can fly your phantom back in ATTI mode from where it is you’re in trouble because you have no other choice.

For #3 you really can’t do anything. This will happen with all units at some point… And for this reason I can’t stress strong enough for you to avoid flying over people, cars or water. At some point you will have a prop fail, or a battery or something… No hardware is perfect so understand you are always ultimately responsible for what or who your Phantom hits even if it is a broken prop at 1000 feet up… You are the one that flew up 1000 feet and you have to accept that if it hits a car causes an accident or hurts someone your to blame not DJI!

I know GPS mode is great and it is very easy to fly and makes life simple. But it also requires that GPS and compass and many other complex things work. Technology fails often and the more complex the technology is such as the Phantom GPS mode the more likely it will fail. You should master ATTI mode prior to taking your phantom more than 20 feet into the air.

Turning off your controller as a way to bring it back is an "emergency mode" configured for when you have NO other choice. If you have to turn off your controller you are basically giving up. While the phantom can do amazing things, we need to know our own personal limitations and fly within them.

We all need to become better pilots first.
 
The post is very concise, and I appreciate the input.
What I really can not seem to understand is why in any combination of light sequence you would get a green that would
indicate do not fly. An example is when the controller is getting poor data... the lights flashes green, then red, or a
yellow. Why any combination of green should tell you NOT to fly is past my understanding. I guess it is mostly that
there are so many combinations of light sequences that they ran out of ways to tell us what is happening. My very first
flight was good, second fair, and the third I misunderstood the lights and ended recovering for my favorite quadcopter
stopping tree. No damage, but I really have to study the combinations of lights.... :oops:
 

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