(Whew!) almost lost it

[diomark]

Was launching/flying from my backyard as I always do (I live in SF, and have a great view of the city from our place..) - but it was foggy today.. and I lost sight of it.. pulled it back, but couldn't see it.. After a few minutes, gave up and turned the controller off.. few minutes later it comes from behind my house (whew.. didn't realize I had overshot my house.. good thing I turned it off..)

But I had a hard time controlling it (started drifting off behind my house again), so turned transmitter off a second time.. took forever to come back, but it did.. Took control of it again and flew it in..

In hind-sight, I never switched back to GPS mode from atti - so it was drifting w/ the wind and difficult to control..

But whew.. almost wet my pants there..

-mark

ps - I was taking control/landing it as during my GPS homing test, it landed on our fence about 20m out.. (and back then, I didn't know how to re-gain control; luckily it didn't give/take any damage..) - and this time around, it looked like it would try to land on the roof.. (GPS in urban environments.. lesson learned.. don't trust it 100% but it'll get the bird mostly back )

 

[Roadkilt]

It's funy, after over 100 flights I still get nervous when its a small dot far away, I'm like a mother with a kid playing near traffic. My heart starts to quicken and the adrenaline creeps up....and up! I've had two runaways, likely my fault even though I blame radio antenna, one wet crash in a river upside down, one tree, and numerous tip over prop grinders. Almost all in my first twenty flights. Most cases of problems was reacting poorly to trouble and hitting buttons and trying things rapidly and wrongly. Lots of practice really helps calm the thumbs, you know which switch is live and orientation becomes steadier. Practice!

 

[jumanoc]

Every time I take off, I say bye-bye to my phantom and all stuff on it. I don't know if i'll see it again. Thats a rule for RC Aircraft hobby. :shock:

 

[diomark]

Fog doesn't help.. Couldn't see it at all. And at one point I couldn't hear it and was worried it had crashed..

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

 

[GeneL]

Every time I take off, I say bye-bye to my phantom and all stuff on it. I don't know if i'll see it again. Thats a rule for RC Aircraft hobby. :shock:

Yep! It's like any kind of flying, you do everything you can to minimize the risk before you shove the throttle(s) forward. Even so, you have to be aware that what you're about to do might not end well, and you have to be OK with that. If you're not, then you're best off not doing it at all.

Diomark, it sounds like you're doing all you can to figure out what happened and make sure it won't happen again, but you haven't said anything about selling your Phantom and quitting!

 

[diomark]

Just got mine last week. Why would I sell it?

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Jenniar]

Phantom sounds great and I want one now.

 

[scocheezy]

This is my first week with my Phantom and I too experienced that feeling of panic when my Phantom in Atti mode began drifting away, out of sight, and all my carefully acquired theoretical knowledge of how the remote worked evaporated from my mind in an instant. I didn't know which way it was pointing.

Fortunately, after regaining my composure, I remembered had programmed a switch on the remote to return to base...and it worked.

However, while sleeping, my mind wondered why I couldn't just flip into HL mode and pull the stick back to make the Phantom go in reverse to return to me (regardless of its actual orientation). This should work now matter where it is in relation to the transmitter and which way the craft is oriented, right?

 

[diomark]

However, while sleeping, my mind wondered why I couldn't just flip into HL mode and pull the stick back to make the Phantom go in reverse to return to me (regardless of its actual orientation). This should work now matter where it is in relation to the transmitter and which way the craft is oriented, right?

In theory, yes.. and I was trying to get it back this way..

But when it's right near you in HL mode, it'll switch to CL mode..

and in my case, I couldn't see it due to fog.. so had no idea if it was near or not..
-mark

 

[u4na]

However, while sleeping, my mind wondered why I couldn't just flip into HL mode and pull the stick back to make the Phantom go in reverse to return to me (regardless of its actual orientation). This should work now matter where it is in relation to the transmitter and which way the craft is oriented, right?

Yes, but you need to knock it into GPS mode from Atti for HL to work (I forgot to do this recently myself)