About 5 feet from shore, 2 feet above the surface my new P3 decided that the nice sandy bottom was the ground and it suddenly dropped down into the water. Completely submerged but responded to my up command and rose just above the surface then sank again. Don't make such a stupid, expensive mistake as I did. Over clear water the sensors don't "see" the water surface. Manual warned that. Stupid mistake. Good lesson. Ordering new one.

what ? did it drop because of the VPS ?

Always disable bps above water

Too bad it wasn't BPS, instead of VPS.

B=Buoyancy, it stays afloat
P=Pure for https://www.csdw.org/csdw/pur-packet-technology.shtml
S=Safe, Sure, just dry and fly...

RedHotPoker

It didn't decide it was ground. vps on is fine over water. I do it all the time.

Nicholas Rønsho Posted at 2015-9-6 17:04
what ? did it drop because of the VPS ?

I assume that's why it dropped. There may be another explanation but I'm not sure. Plenty of GPS satellites. It had plenty of battery left  so it wasn't doing an automated landing. I'll study the manual again. Did not know I should have turned off VPS.

RedHotPoker Posted at 2015-9-6 18:03
Too bad it wasn't BPS, instead of VPS.

B=Buoyancy, it stays afloat

Red. You should invent that. P3 with VPS and BPS!

Mate have your tried drying it in a box of rice & new battery?

It was in fresh water for about 20 seconds. Immediately pulled the battery and drained the easy to get water then used hairdryer on cool setting. Has been sitting in front of fan (which I've rotated frequently) for 30 or more hours. Am planning to power it up after another couple days but assured dropping something electronic into water toasted it. Did not have high hopes it will turn on. Is the rice critical? Any kind?

garrylane2 Posted at 2015-9-7 06:12
It was in fresh water for about 20 seconds. Immediately pulled the battery and drained the easy to g ...

sorry garry, not to make light of your situation, but i am pretty sure the type of rice only matters if you plan on eating it afterwards...

my tip for flying over water, which i do quite often, is to not ever fly lower than 3-4 meters. that will usually give you time to do whatever is necessary if your P3 should really want to take a swim.

i hope your P3 recovers!

Sorry to hear.
But there is no reason for this to happen.
Barometer controls your height, apparently, so even if the VPS did detect something, if you did not command it to lose altitude it should have continued to hover, no matter if it is wood, water, sand or snow underneath.
There must be more to this.

This is me in hover over water at 3 feet height.