Oh my god, the scariest thing just happened when I was flying. My phantom 3 went out of control as if I hit something and I thought it was a lost cause for a momment. I was able to regain control but not all of the controls were working correctly. I was able to successfully guide it back to where I was with the gimbal going nuts and I had to run to catch it out of the sky. I hit the video button right as I sort of regained control, and that is the video above. No immedaite damage, feathers, or blood, to the body after a brief close inspection. I am extatic that I was able to retrieve it. I was at about 350 feet when this happened and after looking at the flight record the phantom 3 switched to atti-mode at the momment these events took place. (and yes there were no planes or helicopters around) (also haven't done the most recent firmware update yet).

looks like compass interference, can you upload your flight logs so we can see it more clear

http://1drv.ms/1W6MMRs uploaded the .dat file to my onedrive

And heres a video of the flight recorder =)

It is not the smartest thing to do  flying your copter in the dark...

giant Posted at 2015-10-22 10:51
It is not the smartest thing to do  flying your copter in the dark...

It wasn't as dark as it seems in the video, the sun just went down but the sky was still lit up. I use an ND4 filter when I fly so naturally the video will look darker than reality. Plus I wasnt really focused on adjusting the iso at the momment.

Timmmjohnson94 Posted at 2015-10-22 10:23
And heres a video of the flight recorder =)

Were you giving those erratic inputs on the sticks.

It looks to me like the Phantom was doing exactly what the stick inputs were asking it to do.

And it had initialized the low battery landing mode, you see the warning come up.

Timmmjohnson94 Posted at 2015-10-22 17:20
It wasn't as dark as it seems in the video, the sun just went down but the sky was still lit up. I  ...

OK excuse me, it looks really dark indeed.

Westside Osprey Posted at 2015-10-22 13:17
Were you giving those erratic inputs on the sticks.

It looks to me like the Phantom was doing exa ...

I think you might need to rewatch the video a few times and look at the whole picture because it seems you might be missing a few things

Wow, your horizontal speed registered 56mph at one point.  That's cookin.

Timmmjohnson94 Posted at 2015-10-23 08:52
I think you might need to rewatch the video a few times and look at the whole picture because it s ...

I was referring to your left/right stick movements I see it full left and full up and full down at times. Very quick changes.

I never give more than maybe ¼ stick left or right, or up and own on the left stick especially if you are in trouble. I tend to leave the sticks centered not put in multiple quick commands. And when you do an input start slow and ease into the input. Smooth usually gets you back in control, unless there is a communication problem. This is especially true if you are far from the aircraft. When you are close in you can be more violent on the controls, because you can really see how the aircraft is reacting, far away it is hard to see especially if it is a bit dark.

I was wondering if it was you doing the inputs or if there was some malfunction or a bad log?

Westside Osprey Posted at 2015-10-23 10:20
I was referring to your left/right stick movements I see it full left and full up and full down at ...

I don't go easy on the sticks all the time but I believe there was some type of malfunction, given the fact that the craft initiated landing mode at 30% when it was supposed initiate at 15% (30% should be low battery warning 15% is critical). Also it climbs to 426 feet on its own when its only set to 400 feet max. The craft also accelerates to 56 mph at one point with light wind in the area, and if you watch the sticks I am barely touching the accelerator at that point and I am mostly using the rudders to guide it back (I don't know how that worked, but it did). I started my phantom 3 back up when I got home and everything seemed fine so far, but I have yet to do a test flight.

Timmmjohnson94 Posted at 2015-10-23 11:58
I don't go easy on the sticks all the time but I believe there was some type of malfunction, given  ...

I think the way it works in the GOapp is the P3P makes sure it can get back, so if it is far away or high and it will take a while to get back, it will initiate return and land early enough to make it back.

Some one may correct me about this. But if I am right this is a very good thing.

Personally I try never to land with less than 30% left in the Lipo. If you fly below 20% you will damage the Lipo. This comes from many thousands of hrs experience flying using Lipos. I have over a hundred of them for my 40 actively flying Lipo powered models. So I see between 30 and 20% as the emergency land state. I have flown emergency situations with people and even dogs chasing planes in the runway trying to land large model planes. When this happens typically the Lipo will puff and have much reduced charge capacity, so I then retire them to the recycle bin in the local hobby shop.

Likely a bird was drawn in by the lights.

looks like you got caught in VRS