Hi,

Something amazing happened to me the other day. I miss calculated the altitude needed to circle around a church tower, and managed to lose signal when the tower got right between me and the phantom. I was far away; the quadcopter immediately activated the return to home function. Took a few seconds before it flew right into the church tower; fell about 20 meters before it activated it motors again and regained control to continue it's path home. There was no damage on the phantom. Only a few marks on the propellers. It's really amazing how it regained control; I've got it all recorded. I would like to hear what the developers have to say about this. Was it meant to behave like that? Has this happened to anybody else?

It might sound crazy, but I was so happy when it flew back, that I both kissed and hugged the phantom.

Please post to you tube.. Would love to see it.

toddf.perkins@g Posted at 2015-8-25 03:44
Please post to you tube.. Would love to see it.

I don't know if that's a good idea though, correct me if I'm wrong. I always try to fly responsibly and take the safety of people around me dead serious. This however isn't something I'm proud of. There were people around the church, and the joy I felt when it flew back wasn't because I got the phantom back, but because no one got hurt.  Now the reason I'm not sure if it's a good idea to expose the video on youtube is because I don't know how it would look like in the eyes of the people making decisions about RC flight in general. I see so many other irresponsible hobbypilots on the youtube where the go beyond insane flying and still post it on the youtube to get ratings. What I'm trying to say is, I'm afraid it might damage the community.

lt sounds like you were flying responsibly, close to the bird and in the line of sight. This is what they want. l don't think they realize that the FPV gives a mostly better view (not always) of how close objects are, and even when close to the bird, it can be hard to judge depth by eye.

Ok, I'm letting the video go public for a while, here is the link.

Mr.buGSy Posted at 2015-8-25 04:07
Ok, I'm letting the video go public for a while, here is the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= ...

The luck of the Irish was with you. I guess you won't forget to set it higher from now on.

jimcloud74@yaho Posted at 2015-8-25 04:29
The luck of the Irish was with you. I guess you won't forget to set it higher from now on.

Indeed. This was quite an experience. Good to have when flying the Inspire or S1000.

Mr.buGSy Posted at 2015-8-25 04:07
Ok, I'm letting the video go public for a while, here is the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= ...

wow thats amazing,  you got lucky.  Thanks for showing the video.  

wow! I was suspect of your story that it took a hit, fell and caught itself, but you posted the vid. Nuts man!! I got RTH at 100ft, I better be aware of my flying area.

You are right not show this video AT ALL beyond 00:47 !! and also there might be damage to the structure and you could be liable for the damage if the video gets viral.
And one might figure out you work for ericsson as it seems you took of from there parking lot.

xaq7@hotmail.co Posted at 2015-8-25 04:52
wow! I was suspect of your story that it took a hit, fell and caught itself, but you posted the vid. ...

Yeah, my new experience tells me to plan my flightpath and calculate the RTH altitude correctly for each flight. The phantom is a tough mother though

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-25 05:03
You are right not show this video AT ALL beyond 00:47 !! and also there might be damage to the struc ...

You make valid points......

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-25 05:03
You are right not show this video AT ALL beyond 00:47 !! and also there might be damage to the struc ...

I don't think there was any dammage to the tower(metal vs plastic). The upper part of the church is made of copper and it's design to take a beating(from strong winds and such). But the reason I held it private was for the other thing I described in my post. Thanks for your concern though!

Wow, that's incredible! Amazing recovery! Made my stomach churn as it was heading for the spire.

Ballsy to share your story and video.  Not sure I would say you were "flying responsibly," with the amount of distance from takeoff point.  You lucked out on this one.  Could have been drone crashes into church tower and falls on Pastors head.

I was hoping you might have crashed into the second church spire on the way back... indicating your drone is possessed.. :-)

Skater67 Posted at 2015-8-25 05:46
Ballsy to share your story and video.  Not sure I would say you were "flying responsibly," with the ...

I wouldn't call it ballsy, but I understand you're point. May it be luck or divine intervention, I'm happy no one got hurt. And the reason I'm sharing this is firstly to share my experience, and show the amount of ingenuity in this marvelous quadcopter.

damian Posted at 2015-8-25 06:04
I was hoping you might have crashed into the second church spire on the way back... indicating your  ...

You just gave me an idea for a theme song for that video

vu.q.le@outlook Posted at 2015-8-25 06:20
Wow! It's an amazing and funny video. You really need to add a good song to this video. A good tune  ...

Buy a Phantom and make one.

vu.q.le@outlook Posted at 2015-8-25 06:38
Don't hate.

LOL, not hating   Pull the plug already, you're missing all the fun.

Mr.buGSy Posted at 2015-8-25 06:09
I wouldn't call it ballsy, but I understand you're point. May it be luck or divine intervention, I ...

Hahaha ..... that's amazing.  I think you cut the end of the video so that we couldn't see your soiled pants.  

I'm actually glad you shared this cause it helps to remind everyone about POI flying and the possible loss of signal once the P3 reaches the far side of the object.  I'll always keep this in the back of my head from now.

Glad the story had a happy ending.

Wow that was amazing. You did get very lucky.

Nail biting for sure,   It's awesome that the motors restarted,  I am willing to bet if they were stalled out the second time,  the CPU would just shut them off and leave them off to try to save on prop damage,    The reason I said this is due to my experience of my phantom crashing (no damage) and stopping two of the props, the bird then attempting to restart then failed again.  When I set it down on the pad, I did a CSC to restart and found that only two props started and started to tip-over the phantom, did a CSC again to stop them.  I re-powered the Phantom then everything worked again flawlessly.   Can you imagine doing a auto take-off not knowing the two props wouldn't start!   Come to think of it, I think I did see a video here awhile ago when a new owner complained that his bird took off and "flew" sideways and crashed right after lift off!  Food for thought......

Mr.buGSy Posted at 2015-8-25 04:07
Ok, I'm letting the video go public for a while, here is the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= ...

Maaannnn , Amazing . I would have not believed it.
Only DJI can make a quad that can recover like that
Thanks for sharing the video

My P3 got hit by a RC plane yesterday while it was hovering at about 150 ft,it tumbled down 70 feet and recovered to fly back home.
I thought it was toast. Great logic built into these drones.

You can see that at 3.22 mins into my flight I was hit.  Flight Log

Mr.buGSy Posted at 2015-8-25 04:07
Ok, I'm letting the video go public for a while, here is the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= ...

Now that is way too cool.  Must have felt like being on a roller coaster the feeling of utter despair as it is running into the spire and then elation when you realized it recovered and you had control again!

Mr.buGSy Posted at 2015-8-25 06:09
I wouldn't call it ballsy, but I understand you're point. May it be luck or divine intervention, I ...

Its about the integrity of the operator/pilot.  Divine intervention, no way, but it was a church?  I would chalk it up as one heck of a lucky, learning, experience and keep on flying.  The area was beautiful and it looked like a perfect time of the day to film.  I would replace the props that struck the tower plus complete an IMU and compass calibration before flying.  Also check the entire airframe including the battery slot and contacts.  Just my opinion.  

Wow, there's certainly still a huge luck factor here, but you may have been aided by the recent firmware addition to stop the props when they meet resistance.

Lucky recovery!

Was anyone else yelling at their screen saying "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, move out of the way, go higher, go to the right" or was it just me?  Very glad no one was injured, no property damage, and you recovered your bird.  Yes, SOMEONE was watching out for you higher than that Church.

hehe yep noooooooooo

Mr.buGSy Posted at 2015-8-25 03:56
I don't know if that's a good idea though, correct me if I'm wrong. I always try to fly responsibl ...

1-How was that Los? You must have really good eye sight.
2- should set Rth to higher than any obstacle around you in ur flight path

I'm glad your p3 did not get damaged, or anyone else for that matter

thank you for share it with us.
i'm still new with the P3 and some points i learned from this are:
- always set your RTH altitude limit over the object & obstacles near it
- doing POI orbit is high risk when there's a time we lost sight with the P3
- never push it to fly near its max distance limit

more things we learn can make us more responsible during flying it. thank you.

Hi there. Great that you got your Phantom back unharmed & thanks for sharing the video of it, it gives us hope should something go pear-shaped.

BUT....

Please tell me that you are the proud holder of permission to fly where you were at the time?!?!?


If I were you, I would take that video down before it starts some nonsense in a local paper. There has been enough crazy press here lately. ;)

Flyhigh7887 Posted at 2015-8-25 15:32
Hi there. Great that you got your Phantom back unharmed & thanks for sharing the video of it, it g ...

Hi,

Not sure if I understand your question right, but if you're wondering if I had permission to take areal video of the area I was flying, then I guess the answer is yes. I wasn't flying commercially, and you don't need permit for that. But when I do fly commercially of course I would have permit from Länstyrelsen (County Administrative Board) or Försvarsmakten(Armed Forces/The military). You're wrong about the location though

And to assure you, I'm not trying ruin anything for anybody. I take this dead serious and love flying. Do not misstake me for Stefan Ekstam on youtube, with his "DJI N550 Hexacopter crash" video.

Cheers

Amazing video.. wow - so lucky!!!

Mr.buGSy Posted at 2015-8-25 16:20
Hi,

Not sure if I understand your question right, but if you're wondering if I had permission to  ...

yeah, i know i was, it was Säve (Gothenburg City Airport) CTR you were flying in.  still a no no without permission...

not trying to be a PITA, just sayin...