Greetings one and all!!!

Well, I finally got up enough nerve to take my new P4 out for a spin.  I  gotta say that I was shaking.  Not from the cold - that came later -  but from fear.  I'm thinking that if I were to post my first experience  on YouTube, it wouldn't go viral.

There was one mishap within two minutes into the flight and it was  TOTALLY pilot error.  I was in beginner mode.  Auto Takeoff was perfect.   I let it hover for about a minute and then sent it away from me to the  default maximum distance of 98 feet. I kept it at around 4 or 5 feet  off the ground.  The next thing I wanted to do was to try out the RTH  just to make sure it worked.  By default. the lowest height for this  maneuver is 30 meters.  To a newbie out for the firs time like myself, 30 meters looks freaking high!!!  It also seemed to be going very fast.  I  panicked and had a vision of it crossing the road and smashing into  someone's house.  My instincts told me to get on the sticks and manually  keep it from doing so.  Yes, me, who's total experience in flying a  drone is to push auto takeoff and then send it 100 feet away from me.

There's one small, spindly tree at that park.  The bird found it.   Pieces of propellers went flying in all directions and the battery flew  out.  It fell from a distance of about 5 feet.  I was afraid to go see  the damage.  Turns out, it was only 3 props.  Good thing it fell on  grass.  I put on new props, put the battery back in and away she went,  good as new.  More good news is that I went through two batteries  without any more mishaps.  I also bumped it up from beginner mode to  normal mode because I wanted it to go further than 98 feet.  I also put  it up 30 or 40 feet a couple of times.  I did rectangles and circles and  had a real ball!!!  I'm hooked.

I can't wait to get out again.  Unfortunately, it won't be tomorrow because it's supposed to rain all day.

I gave the machine a very close inspection when I got it home, looking for any cracks, big or small.  I didn't find any.  I also had a good look at the battery and it looks like it survived as well.  I know I dodged a bullet but I can honestly say that I have learned a LOT from this crash.

congrates on first flight and crash, now that you have those out of the way its smooth sailing from here!!!

Congrats, glad your bird survived! Welcome to the hobby, I'm glad you're enjoying it. Once you become brave enough and have the weather conditions to fly more you'll get even more hooked. Droning is a very fun and rewarding hobby, I'd like to make a recommendation to get an app called UAVForecast, it uses location services to determine if flight conditions in your area are good to fly.

Guess you have no water near your site? Only lack of ponds, lakes, rivers or sea to get lost in would make it aim for a tree
Nice to hear you finally got it to do what it is made for, happy flying.

I'm always impressed when people crash DJIs. Tip: fly above the tallest trees if you want to practice.

Oscar, sorry for the crash and good to hear that your drone doesn't seem to have visual damage other than the propellers. Learn from the wrong and fly with caution.
BTW, since the drone has been crashed, I still suggest that you send the drone in for an overall check since some damages might not be visible. Please contact our support for a further help: http://www.dji.com/support

DJI Thor Posted at 2018-4-4 00:35
Oscar, sorry for the crash and good to hear that your drone doesn't seem to have visual damage other than the propellers. Learn from the wrong and fly with caution.
BTW, since the drone has been crashed, I still suggest that you send the drone in for an overall check since some damages might not be visible. Please contact our support for a further help: http://www.dji.com/support

Yes... fly with caution indeed.  I did learn a very important lesson from this adventure, that being to put just a little more trust in the RTH feature.  I am next to positive that if I didn't touch the sticks it would have landed where it was supposed to on it's own.  It wouldn't have touched the tree.  It's just that I really wasn't expecting it to look as high as it did.I also panicked when I saw how fast it it was going on it's way back.  I guess I can chalk this up to the fact that I only had two minutes of flying experience when the accident happened.

As for damage... I really don't think any.  It only fell about 3 or 4 feet on to grass that is spongy because it is thawing out.  I didn't see or hear anything abnormal.  I'll give it another flight to see if anything is off and if so I'll send it in.

Thanks so much for your reply... very much appreciated!!!   

KedDK Posted at 2018-4-3 21:09
Guess you have no water near your site? Only lack of ponds, lakes, rivers or sea to get lost in would make it aim for a tree
Nice to hear you finally got it to do what it is made for, happy flying.

Thank goodness there wasn't any water where I was flying.  It there was I would be here, crying over the fact that I lost my drone 2 minutes into my first flight!!!

  

djiuser_iGJqCoTNTQSa Posted at 2018-4-3 21:16
I'm always impressed when people crash DJIs. Tip: fly above the tallest trees if you want to practice.

The embarrassing  thing about this crash is that there was only one little tree in the whole park.  It is right on the edge of the park, and nowhere near my flying space.  Beginner's luck, I guess.

Oscar Myer Posted at 2018-4-4 01:27
Thank goodness there wasn't any water where I was flying.  It there was I would be here, crying over the fact that I lost my drone 2 minutes into my first flight!!!

Yes a drowned drone would have been total disaster.
Next time you can try pushing right stick down and see if you can slow it, i know you can speed up the RTH but not tried the other way as i think RTH feels slow while waiting for it to come home.

Edit: i don't hope you now has killed the cat with the drone, noticed it's gone ...

KedDK Posted at 2018-4-4 01:38
Yes a drowned drone would have been total disaster.
Next time you can try pushing right stick down and see if you can slow it, i know you can speed up the RTH but not tried the other way as i think RTH feels slow while waiting for it to come home.

Meh, not so much a total disaster, lost battery was the worst that happened to me when i went in the drink lol

KedDK Posted at 2018-4-4 01:38
Yes a drowned drone would have been total disaster.
Next time you can try pushing right stick down and see if you can slow it, i know you can speed up the RTH but not tried the other way as i think RTH feels slow while waiting for it to come home.

Yeah... the cat got out and I haven't seen him since.  Poor little guy - it is snowing here this morning.  Hope he's not too cold.

My big mistake was to try to take over with the sticks because I had no idea whatsoever what they would do.  It's one thing to read the manual but when I got out there all my knowledge went down with the drone.  Like I said; if I had of  not panicked and left the sticks alone it would have landed on it's own and it wouldn't have hit the tree.  I can honestly tell you here and now that it will be a very, very long time before I take it anywhere near water.

Bashy Posted at 2018-4-4 03:55
Meh, not so much a total disaster, lost battery was the worst that happened to me when i went in the drink lol

You put yours in the drink???  Owch!!!  Did you get it back or is it still down there laying next to the Titanic?

Loki007420 Posted at 2018-4-3 18:33
congrates on first flight and crash, now that you have those out of the way its smooth sailing from here!!!

At least I'm not flying in beginner mode anymore!!!

Congrats - better luck on your next 1000 flights

Rth only reaches a speed of 10m/s wait till you get into sports mode then it becomes fast and fun with speeds in excess of 75kph.
When you do this tho i strongly recommend you do it at altitude higher than any surrounding trees.
If i may make a suggestion ..... if you find yourself in a panick just stop take hands off the controls the drone should just hover in position and wait for your next command.
Unless of course you are in rth mode in which case trust in the drone but keep an eye on it you can always hit the stop icon on the screen or hold rth for a cple of seconds to cancel this feature.
But the best advice i can posible give is to download the manual and read it thoroughly a cple of times make yourself familiar with all the features before you try any further flights.

Hellsgate Posted at 2018-4-4 13:54
Rth only reaches a speed of 10m/s wait till you get into sports mode then it becomes fast and fun with speeds in excess of 75kph.
When you do this tho i strongly recommend you do it at altitude higher than any surrounding trees.
If i may make a suggestion ..... if you find yourself in a panick just stop take hands off the controls the drone should just hover in position and wait for your next command.

Thank you so much for your wisdom.  Being as new as I am to flying drones I'll take any and all the advice and tips I can get from knowledgeable and experienced people like yourself.

I spent all of last weekend reading and then reading twice more the manual.  I also watched so many YouTube videos, I was going cross eyed.  And so I had a fair idea of how it worked before I put it up.  I had it in beginner mode, hit the auto takeoff button and actually maneuvered it around, keeping it close to the ground.  But before I got too cocky I decided to make sure the RTH was going to work.  That's when the trouble began.  I never really imagined just how hi 30 meters would look like from the ground.  I thought for sure that something was wrong and I panicked so I started pulling and pushing on the sticks.  I now know that if I had just let it land on it's own it wouldn't have hit the tree.  The lesson I took away from all this is that I have to put more faith in RTH, just as you say.  I also have to stay calm.

Now, in my own defense   it should be noted that I put on a new set of props, moved away from the only tree in the park, and put it back up again.  After about 5 minutes I put it in normal mode and flew for a good hour.  And I think I did pretty good after the anxiety eased up.  I was doing rectangles and circles, practiced doing the opposite moves with the sticks when the drone was facing me and putting it up and letting it hover at around 30 meters a few times.  All this without any problems.  Not even any close calls.  And this time I let the RTH do it's thing.  And so in the end I learned something, there was no damage to the bird except for the props, so I can honestly say that I really had a blast!  

Loki007420 Posted at 2018-4-3 18:33
congrates on first flight and crash, now that you have those out of the way its smooth sailing from here!!!

Just as Loki stated, now that you have the tough stuff out of the way, read the manual, triple check all of your settings.
I can tell you a short story about one of my mistakes. I changed from metric to imperial on my settings, thinking everything would be adjusted in feet. Wrong, RTH stays in meters....so my P3S went to 120 meters instead of 120 feet!
Yes I panicked,  I was 4 miles from an airport, and told them I would be no higher than 120 feet!
We all have had our moments of Pilot Error!
Enjoy  the rest of your flights!

Next time you panic, press the pause button and stop to relax for a bit, it will patiently wait for you to recover ;)

Oscar Myer Posted at 2018-4-4 04:40
You put yours in the drink???  Owch!!!  Did you get it back or is it still down there laying next to the Titanic?

2ft of fresh water, NEVER try to go under a bridge with a max 6ft sq opening with DJI goggles on lol, got it back, dried it out over night, drone fine, battery terminal (£170 up the swanny)

Oscar Myer Posted at 2018-4-4 14:49
Thank you so much for your wisdom.  Being as new as I am to flying drones I'll take any and all the advice and tips I can get from knowledgeable and experienced people like yourself.

I spent all of last weekend reading and then reading twice more the manual.  I also watched so many YouTube videos, I was going cross eyed.  And so I had a fair idea of how it worked before I put it up.  I had it in beginner mode, hit the auto takeoff button and actually maneuvered it around, keeping it close to the ground.  But before I got too cocky I decided to make sure the RTH was going to work.  That's when the trouble began.  I never really imagined just how hi 30 meters would look like from the ground.  I thought for sure that something was wrong and I panicked so I started pulling and pushing on the sticks.  I now know that if I had just let it land on it's own it wouldn't have hit the tree.  The lesson I took away from all this is that I have to put more faith in RTH, just as you say.  I also have to stay calm.

im really glad everything has worked out fine for you.
i suggest you buy yourself a new set of spare props tho.
oh and by the way welcome to the forum and to a very exciting hobby.
once you get the hang of flying around try taking some simple images and video and by all means share with us.
we have many very experienced pilots here that will be more than happy to pass on many years of flying and photographic experience

Hellsgate Posted at 2018-4-4 22:17
im really glad everything has worked out fine for you.
i suggest you buy yourself a new set of spare props tho.
oh and by the way welcome to the forum and to a very exciting hobby.

After pruning the tree with the first set of props that came with the flying machine, I replaced them with the second set that came with it.  I have another set coming from Amazon.  They should be here today, as a matter of fact.

Oscar Myer Posted at 2018-4-5 07:13
After pruning the tree with the first set of props that came with the flying machine, I replaced them with the second set that came with it.  I have another set coming from Amazon.  They should be here today, as a matter of fact.

sounds like your having fun now!!!

Loki007420 Posted at 2018-4-6 10:35
sounds like your having fun now!!!

I'd be having more fun if it wasn't snowing.  Seems winter isn't going to go down without a fight.

Get out getting some Winter shooting, you'll regret you don't have it when the snow is gone.
Should it go bad again somehow, then the more fresh snow, the softer the crash, a total win-win for newbee practice.