I have noticed that so many reports of out of control, random fly aways, unpredicted flight etc, always seem to start with an out of control flight to the left. Why is this? is it due to the direction that the props are rotating or a quirk in the flight management program?

I blame the penguins....

johnwarr@live.c Posted at 2014-12-23 05:01
I blame the penguins....

.....or a political bias possibly- maybe a communist plot?

rod@voxvideopro Posted at 2014-12-23 05:13
.....or a political bias possibly- maybe a communist plot?

More likely than not, pilots that want to be hot shot pilots without reading the manual.

That guy..you know..the guy on the left..its his fault...

One has to wonder if they veer to the right in the southern hemisphere?

Gerry1124 Posted at 2014-12-23 06:11
More likely than not, pilots that want to be hot shot pilots without reading the manual.

or a bug in the software, Gerry...
I can show you a video of my flyaway aprox 8 days ago. The drone goes or rotates... to the left

You can start screaming "user error" - but the drone not only keeps going straight in that direction, but rotates meanwhile, maintaining its course straight. That thing is way more difficult to accomplish. By looking at "returns to home", I've seen a similar pattern. Therefore, not really a pilot error.
In my case, I blame it on potential drop of GPS converage. I've learned there was a solar storm that day. And, meanwhile, I did that GPS cable shield fix + I'm prepared to switch to ATTI in case of any other potential flyaway.

Without logs, you can't really determine exactly what was going on. I'm not sure how much testing / QA goes into Phantom software, especially considering there are so many factors/variables involved (weather, flying styles, GPS coverage, potential incorrect sensor readings, etc)

I did not say ALL, so please don't put words in my mouth.   Most people, when you ask basic questions, they have no idea of the answer what they did.  I can make mine rotate and still go in a straight line.  Why yours turned, I wouldn't know, I wasn't there.  It's called being in course lock.  Some are legitimate failures of the hardware or software.  I got my first one in April and a second one in June that was crashed.  Bought it on Ebay to be used as spare parts, since it still functioned ok.  Just the shell was broken.  I just transferred the insides from the broken one to the new shell. Haven't flown it yet, weather has not been cooperating.  Probable 75 flights or more on the first one without any difficulties so far.

droneflyers.com Posted at 2014-12-23 07:07
One has to wonder if they veer to the right in the southern hemisphere?

HMMMM.....   like that....

Gerry1124 Posted at 2014-12-23 09:13
I did not say ALL, so please don't put words in my mouth.   Most people, when you ask basic question ...

yes, you're right.. you can do that in course lock or home lock. But the remote has to be in NAZA mode - not my case at that moment.
Sorry if you consider that I put "words in your mouth". I've just said "or a bug".
I actually agree there are many user errors due to pilots "without reading the manual".

ciprianboboc@gm Posted at 2014-12-23 09:30
yes, you're right.. you can do that in course lock or home lock. But the remote has to be in NAZA  ...

Fair enough.

The NAZA is probably - in terms of percentages - the most reliable and tested (numbers!) F/C around in the hobby price grade. As you mentioned, it's likely not the F/C or software anyway - more likely the GPS and Compass problems.

Reliability is always a matter of price/performance. I was watching a NOVA special on military drones and the pilot was flying it and he lost signal right there on the spot while he was being filmed by the documentary makers! It came back after 10-20 seconds. If he was flying a rotor craft as opposed to a winged "glider", that might have been the end of it!

DJI has many many engineers on staff and has constantly tweaked the little things...like exactly what happens on various failures, etc.

I think it's really important to use the ATTI mode when you don't need GPS. One recent crash was described on another forum as the guy flying 15 feet above the ground - under a canopy of trees - down his own street while walking behind the quad. There was no wind. There is no reason for a GPS lock in such a situation - in fact, if the quad get's some kind of return to home signal, it's going to shoot right up in the sky or do something else crazy.

Another variable that many people don't consider is the cheapo transmitter (the older one - I haven't looked at the new one). I get to thinking that I am trusting the entire quad to these flimsy switches (S1 and S2)....thinking out loud, I'd like to have more beefy switches that have a "switch lock" on them so they don't accidentally get into positions I don't want them to.

droneflyers.com Posted at 2014-12-23 07:07
One has to wonder if they veer to the right in the southern hemisphere?

Hi, Yes! I posted this and am in New Zealand. I have had one quirky and unexplained dive to the left.  Just one and I have flown a lot!  
But I suspect that it may have been a poor compass calibration as I had calibrated on a cricket pitch that, although synthetic grass, I later learned had a concrete foundation.- yep,I reckon reinforcing rods stuffed up my compass calibration as it only happened as I came in to land on the pad. Recalibrating away from this area and all returned to normal.

I experienced my first incident of uncontrolled, quirky behavior yesterday---resulting in a rough landing as I struggled to regain control---but I suspect I shouldn't have calibrated the compass a mere twenty feet away from a huge piece of steel equipment in the giant sand pit I was flying over---Also, at the time it went crazy, it was only about 80' above a power line.  (a small power line---dead-ending at one house back by the pit.)

ciprianboboc@gm Posted at 2014-12-23 08:54
or a bug in the software, Gerry...
I can show you a video of my flyaway aprox 8 days ago. The dron ...

if you are in Corse Lock, you can rotate it will going in one direction and it will keep going in that direction. Very useful while filming. Just an unintentional flip of that button.. and there you go. Could that be it?

bymac77@gmail.c Posted at 2014-12-25 10:21
if you are in Corse Lock, you can rotate it will going in one direction and it will keep going in  ...

not at that time, because my remote was not in NAZA mode... really, it's not very important anymore because I was eventually able at that time to land my Phantom safely; I've just wanted to understand what was going on in order to avoid a similar experience in the future

Learn how to land "to hand" you will save props, escs and gimbal.