What can happen and What to do when it does happen

[HussainT]

Hi Guys,

So i am relatively new to these drones, but thus far i have not had any issues or close calls with my Phantom 4 (aH). However i wanted to reach out to the community to see what kind of issues can occur and what to do in such a situation. So i thought i could post this and get everyones help to compile a list of things that can happen and what we can do to prevent it from happening.

1. Fly-a-ways
Problem - I am unsure how this happens, is this due to signal loss or strong winds or something?
Solution - Not sure what the solution can be. I am assuming running towards your drone to try to get signal back. Also has anyone looked into any trackers that can be placed on your drone?

2. Loss of signal
Problem - Again, unsure what exactly happens but i am assuming the GPS signal is lost suddenly due to some interference.
Solution - Again, running towards the drone? Trying to fly it back to you. Return to home activation

Please feel free to chip in and also help with my questions!

Thank you so much guys.

 

[alokbhargava]

Technically a fly-away can happen due to excessive wind forces that phantom can't take on or in a situation where drone doesn't know where to go further correctly. If the wind pressure is too low, immediate steps would be to lower the altitudes and also try to continuously control it to move to safer location for landing. If compass goes haywire, it starts moving possibly into wrong directions. Move it to ATTI mode if you can handle it or lower it down and land it. I hv not come across these situations so I sometimes wonder if these are real situations

If GPS is lost, you get message on your remote and be prepared to handle with no GPS mode. You need practice to work in ATTI mode.

Normally when we say signal is weak or lost, it's referred to communication signal and not GPS. If signal is lost but GPS remains, drone will come back to home point assuming you have set RTH correctly.

 

[CaptainDrone798]

Hi Guys,

So i am relatively new to these drones, but thus far i have not had any issues or close calls with my Phantom 4 (aH). However i wanted to reach out to the community to see what kind of issues can occur and what to do in such a situation. So i thought i could post this and get everyones help to compile a list of things that can happen and what we can do to prevent it from happening.

1. Fly-a-ways
Problem - I am unsure how this happens, is this due to signal loss or strong winds or something?
Solution - Not sure what the solution can be. I am assuming running towards your drone to try to get signal back. Also has anyone looked into any trackers that can be placed on your drone?

2. Loss of signal
Problem - Again, unsure what exactly happens but i am assuming the GPS signal is lost suddenly due to some interference.
Solution - Again, running towards the drone? Trying to fly it back to you. Return to home activation

Please feel free to chip in and also help with my questions!

Thank you so much guys.

The following get classified as fly-aways by most Phantom owners, although many are preventable. Note: In many cases where the term fly-away is used, the Phantom is not recovered:

- Return to Home Point not recorded at takeoff.
- RC in moving object over water (boat). Dynamic Home Point continuously changes and is lost once signal is broken (distance/interference). Phantom returns/lands in water.
- Phantom loses GPS signal after losing connection with the RC.
- Phantom has a compass calibration and or IMU problem which interferes with proper GPS orientation (hence the reason the Phantom 4 has two of each).
- Phantom return to home height is too low and hits obstacle.
- Phantom is flown to far and has insufficient battery power to return home due to wind or poor compass orientation.
- Phantom is flown out of line of sight and crashes into an object unknown to the pilot.

 

[Meta4]

1. Fly-a-ways
Problem - I am unsure how this happens, is this due to signal loss or strong winds or something?
Solution - Not sure what the solution can be. I am assuming running towards your drone to try to get signal back.

Flyaways? In almost all cases, what gets called a flyaway is an inexperienced operator who lost his Phantom due to confusion, misunderstanding or error.
Some common causes include not knowing how to use the RTH function, flying too far downwind in strong winds, flying behind terrain or tall buildings without appropriate RTH settings, unnecessarily recalibrating the compass in a bad magnetic environment and giving the compass a bad calibration.
The Phantom 3 & 4 are very well programmed and genuine flyaways are extremely rare.

2. Loss of signal
Problem - Again, unsure what exactly happens but i am assuming the GPS signal is lost suddenly due to some interference.
Solution - Again, running towards the drone? Trying to fly it back to you. Return to home activation

You shouldn't lose GPS unless you fly somewhere your view of the sky is blocked.
Loss of signal isn't a GPS issue, it's a loss of the signal between your controller and the Phantom.
It could be caused by poor antenna orientation, flying behind trees or obstacles or flying too far away.