I have been flying my DJI Phantom 3 Standard drone for several months with great success, but today I finally tried on of the Intelligent Mode features, namely the "Point of Interest" function. It was easy to set up and I had the drone circle my house. It went around almost 2 full times when I then decided to take over and land it. Since the drone had been doing so well, I stopped watching the display screen on my phone and apparently the drone became disconnected (the green bar had turned gray at the top of the display screen and read "disconnected").

At first it seemed like I could control the drone to bring it down but it still seemed to want to either continue in it's Point of Interest orbit, or something else. I tried hitting the little stop sign icon that allows you to end the Point of Interest function, but since the drone was disconnected, it didn't have any effect. But the whole time the joysticks would still move the drone in different directions, but when I let off it would make it's own movements (would not hover in place). So with no camera connection I'm trying desperately to bring the drone back to me as it began flying away over trees at the edge of my property. I finally was able to bring it close enough to pull a controlled crash landing and luckily nothing was damaged but man that was scary!

So long story short, when your drone becomes "disconnected" is there a way to get out of Intelligent Mode since the DJI app appears to be rendered useless? Could I have just flipped S1 or something to regain control (I was too frazzled in the moment to think of trying this).

Thanks in advance.

Disconnect means the app is no longer connected with the RC. Since you still have stick control all is not lost. Switching S1 to ATTI mode will probably put the AC into hover mode. It will drift since GPS is turned off. Gain more in altitude and fly to a landing spot. Reinstall the app.  

Switching the unit to ATTI mode would have allowed for you to regain control. When you play back the flight in the Go app, do you see any other error messages prior to it disconnecting?

Flipping to atti mode would cancel the POI.
But there's no need to leave it in atti.
Just a quick on/off and back to GPS mode and you have full control.

Flipping to ATTI and back to GPS mode is a quick way to get out of an Intelligent Flight mode and is a time saver on any of the new flight platforms!

Just to be clear, My S1 switch was in the down position (F Mode). I had done this upon direction of a tutorial on POI. Was that the correct/necessary position or no?

When you guys say "GPS Mode" which position is that? I'm assuming that GPS is the "P-Mode" which is the top position (and ATTI would then be the middle position).

Please confirm, and thanks for the replies!

You're correct, your S1 switch in the up position is P-Mode (GPS). Middle position is ATTI mode. Down is F-Mode (flight mode). Switching the S1 switch from F-Mode to ATTI or P-Mode will end your POI flight.

Thanks.

Ok time for a quick n00b question: Which mode is best for manual flying? I believe I've mainly left it in ATTI mode (middle position), but I'm thinking I should maybe be in GPS mode?

CraigArtzner Posted at 2017-5-10 05:13
Thanks.

Ok time for a quick n00b question: Which mode is best for manual flying? I believe I've mainly left it in ATTI mode (middle position), but I'm thinking I should maybe be in GPS mode?

In atti mode you don't have the position holding ability that GPS gives.
The Phantom also won't stop when you release the sticks and will act like driving on ice with no brakes.
As a new flyer, P-GPS mode is almost certainly the most useful mode for you (and 99%) of other flyers as well).

CraigArtzner Posted at 2017-5-10 05:13
Thanks.

Ok time for a quick n00b question: Which mode is best for manual flying? I believe I've mainly left it in ATTI mode (middle position), but I'm thinking I should maybe be in GPS mode?

Post #9 hit the nail on the head.

That is why it's so important to practice such things in the simulator -
1. u have to know how to abort
2. the controls in various modes do different things, so you got to know what those are
Glad you did not lose it, but this just shows how many people do not take the time to know things well, and it is a complex aircraft - it is VERY EASY to make a small mistake that has significant consequences... I've made a few ;) One resulted in a crash, thankfully easily fixed....