Last night I wanted to try to get some night shots of Grand Rapids, MI. After practicing outside of my own house I decided to go closer to downtown and get some cool shots of the buildings and streets all lit up. The first place I stopped was looking into downtown over the main highway and I got some pretty good shots. Then I decided to see if I could get some good shots of the merging of 2 major highways.
So I moved to a side street that cut through the confluence of exits and onramps that I wanted to shoot. And this is where things get a little dicey. The road that I choose is an over pass perfectly situated to pretty much launch streight up and take the shots. The part I did not think about was the interference that all the metal that the bridge was made of would have on the calibration of the compass. I do the calibration and it seemed to be fine, but the second I launced the P4 started to move irattically. I was only about 4 feet off the groud but I was near the edge of the bridge with a curb for the sidewalk, the railing and of course a 30 foot drop to the highway bellow. Oh yea and did I mention that this was a active road with occasional cars driving buy? Well it was...is. Anyways I had a really exciting few seconds as I imediatly attempted to land without taking out any of the roters or worse. This was harder than mearly reading it sounds as the P4 kept drifting. After several terrifying seconds I was able to land it safe and sound.


Things that I learned:

Don't calibrate on large metal things
Don't trap yourself in an area that is to small to land

There is a happy/meh ending though. I was able to find a good location to launce and then fly over to where I wanted to take the shot. And here is the meh part; what I thought would be an epic shot was actually pretty unimpressive as you can see by the attached picture.

That is way I do not fly near any interstate freeways.  

And this is why there will be more regulations.  At least it looked fairly quiet.

The calibration is way more sensitive than you think. Even calibrating by a single car can be difficult; I've had calibration fail multiple times standing within seven feet of a car and nothing else, and moving a bit further away fixed it.

WOW, you did get lucky. You have to make sure to calibrate away form anything metal. AND if you fly close to metal it may affect the compass too.

Right, this is why we ALL need to practice flying in ATTI mode, and practise ATTI a lot (including me). We must also practice to quickly shift to ATTI mode if any abnormality happens   

Flyin'Bryan Posted at 2016-3-19 00:53
it took you almost crashing your bird to realize not to calibrate near metal things did you not read ...

Thank you for your feedback.

Kirtus Posted at 2016-3-19 09:03
Thank you for your feedback.

Just one more tip, you do not have to calibrate your compass every time you fly, it is a myth. Do one good calibration in a park on grass and then leave it alone. And never calibrate on a concrete surface, as it likely will have rebar in it.

Yeah, you only need to recalibrate the compass, if & when you are about 200miles away from your last good calibration point...
I will only recalibrate mine after a firmware or Go app update has been completed. Or when I travel a great distance...

RedHotPoker

That is really helpful Geebax and RedHotPoker. I have been calibrating every time because that is what I have seen and red online.

Since Monday when I made the decision to buy my first quadcopter I have been devouring materials to learn all that I can. I have read all of the manuals that came with the P4 and the full version that has been posted on here. I have also watched no less that 40 hours worth of educational video (some of it was edutainment) but none of that makes up for actual in the field practice.

I looked at my experience on the bridge last night as a valuable lesson that I am glad that I learned while I am still cautious (not as cautious as I should be I know).

Thank you again for all of you that have given me feedback/advice I value all of you.

Kirtus

RedHotPoker Posted at 2016-3-18 22:16
Yeah, you only need to recalibrate the compass, if & when you are about 200miles away from your last ...

I've recently found even 200 miles away I don't need to calibrate the compass.  I believe it can be different in different parts of the world though depending on how much magnetic variation there is in your part of the world.  I'll only calibrate it now if it tells me to or if I update the firmware.

Flyin'Bryan Posted at 2016-3-19 00:10
Can we get compass calibration at the Bermuda Triangle?  Or will our Phantom just disappear into t ...

Your Phantom will be fine, it just won't have anywhere to land when the boat you're on disappears.{:2_36:}

(still not sure of the meaning of these coolmonkeys)

nigelw Posted at 2016-3-18 23:41
I've recently found even 200 miles away I don't need to calibrate the compass.  I believe it can be ...

Spoke too soon...I had my first compass error yesterday.  I was 166 miles away from my previous calibration location as the crow flies.  Just as my P3 flew into a cloud & disappeared I had the lady in the RC tell me it was in ATTI mode!!

I think I'll re-calibrate every time I'm more than 20 or 30 miles away now, just to be sure.

nigelw Posted at 2016-3-19 08:33
Your Phantom will be fine, it just won't have anywhere to land when the boat you're on disappears. ...

Try this....http://emojipedia.org/
or this....http://www.popsugar.com.au/celeb ... 39445#opening-slide

or actually none of them, really kind of weird actually...but i think they are a play on the ole...hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil monkeys...anyway...could be wrong but not worried...they don't eat much....