Wandering Phantom 3 Advanced?

R Young · Feb 25, 2017

I have had my phantom 3 advanced since November. Never had any issues with it wandering off while flying. Today I had it at 400ft and it started to wander away (not hover in place). Yesterday the same thing happened and it wandered over 1000 ft away before I realized I wasn't in control. I hit the return button both times and it did come back. Yesterday I didn't calibrate the compass so I thought that was it. Today I did calibrate and it happened. Any thoughts why it's wandering away?

By the way, it hovers just fine at lower altitude. So I know it's not a blade problem.

Richard R · Feb 25, 2017

Two things. First did you confirm that you had the PAF switch in the P position? In the A, it doesn't use GPS to maintain position and will drift with the wind. And winds at 400 ft can be considerably different from those at ground level. How low is "lower"? If you are down close enough, the VPS system can aid in maintaining position.

R Young · Feb 25, 2017

Richard R said:
Two things. First did you confirm that you had the PAF switch in the P position? In the A, it doesn't use GPS to maintain position and will drift with the wind. And winds at 400 ft can be considerably different from those at ground level. How low is "lower"? If you are down close enough, the VPS system can aid in maintaining position.

Thanks for the reply. Yes the PAF was in P. Wind was another consideration I had but if that was the case wouldn't it have had a hard time returning? It stay at the same altitude returning. At lower altitude I meant under 200 ft.

Richard R · Feb 25, 2017

Ok, and higher should give you better GPS so that shouldn't be an issue. Before you try anything else, may want to recalibrate the imu. Realize that wouldn't account for the altitude dependent action, but it's a simple and straightforward thing to do. And check the various threads here, recalibrating the compass everytime is not recommended either by the numerous pilots here or by DJI.

msinger · Feb 25, 2017

A bad IMU calibration would not make your Phantom wander away 1,000+ feet on its own. It sounds like you were flying in ATTI mode. You can confirm that if you upload your TXT flight log here.

R Young · Feb 25, 2017

msinger said:
A bad IMU calibration would not make your Phantom wander away 1,000+ feet on its own. It sounds like you were flying in ATTI mode. You can confirm that if you upload your TXT flight log here.

The flight log on my phone shows that it was in P-GPS mode the whole time.