Received my refurbished phantom 3 standard a few days ago and have been throughly enjoying getting to grips with her.
Stayed in beginner mode for a few flights and today switched that off and flew to about 100m high but kept within about 150m distance. Loving being back flying as I used to fly r/c aircraft.
Now here's the close shave. Flew at the local park until I had around 25% battery then landed ok. Walked home and decided to fly the last 100m down my road at about 2m high honing my skills lol.
Decided to land onto the manhole cover which is in my front garden quite close to a tree! Then a few seconds before touch down the go app says low battery returning to home, which was still logged at the park so the phantom raised up to 20m missing the tree branches by inches and flew over the house back towards the park. Luckily after watching many videos and reading on here I didn't panic but cancelled the RTH and brought her back. Landed with 6% battery.  Rookie mistake, but ended well

Nice save. Be advised the manhole cover may also give you trouble because of compass interference. May want to avoid that as well.

Sounds like you're learning fast!  Good luck

Hello, my fellow newcomer!  Glad to hear you avoided a crash.

Thanks  for the welcome.  I think with any R/C hobby, if you panic, you crash.  Next plan is to get out of the urban area I live (with huge amounts of wifi,power lines,electricity sub stations etc) and see what range I can achieve. So far I get excellent video (magic power mod done) but get a few  strong interference detected warnings.  Firmware is 1.9.20 I think

Alan1978 Posted at 2017-8-26 13:13
Thanks  for the welcome.  I think with any R/C hobby, if you panic, you crash.  Next plan is to get out of the urban area I live (with huge amounts of wifi,power lines,electricity sub stations etc) and see what range I can achieve. So far I get excellent video (magic power mod done) but get a few  strong interference detected warnings.  Firmware is 1.9.20 I think

Very true.  You could also change "panic" to "let your attention lapse" and that would still be accurate.  I found that out the hard way.
Just got to keep practicing.  I think the most important thing is to simply get a good feel for the aircraft, how it performs, and how it reacts to your inputs.

Newbie here as well.  (1st post)   3 months in now and decided to fly under the local bridge here.  Wide river, very tall span (approx 20-30 feet)   Walked down to the bank of the river and flew out over the water, headed about 80 feet down the river and under the bridge. (SLOWLY of course)   Just when I  cleared the bridge I lost all signal and video!!  To make matters worse the river bends there and I lost visual as well.
YIKES  I started to panic and thrust the stick forward for altitude as I figured i'd cleared the bridge. Meanwhile video was coming and going very erratically.  I could almost get a position from the feed and then would lose it again.  Then the hundreds of posts i've read paid off.   DONT PANIC   I took a breath and pressed RTH.  This with no video feed or visual sight.  Soon I heard and then saw the drone returning to the parking lot above the bank where I was sitting.   I cancelled the RTH and regained control.   All this to say DON'T PANIC.  Think through what you might do.   The software and hardware usually perform perfectly and the RTH is always there to help.  Thanks all for your advice to stay calm and not panic.   Saved me and my drone I'm sure.  

Alan 1978 I also fly Planes from 1/72 scale up to 8ft wingspan electric and nitro. I honestly believe its made me a better Pilot the old rule of thumb fly three mistakes high was good for planes not so good for drones as these puppys cant glide like a plane can to get you out of trouble. the planes do however prepare you for panic situations I don't care how good you are eventually the crash bug bite us all and if that doesn't come from pilot error the gremlins make sure it happens. keeping a cool head is a learned skill I think every pilot needs to master. when I taught my son to fly 4ch aerobatic id buddy box him take the plane up throw it into a spin and make him recover it eventually the 3 mistake rule became 2 and then 1 then low level. Drones are way more agile then planes but they are also unforgiving of big mistakes keeping a cool head is always the best way to correct mistakes. when I first started with drones I plowed into everything. I wasn't  flying a drone with alt hold though so constant input to the bird was needed to keep it flying. even though I now have two DJI birds that are easy to fly I still fly that hard one to keep my skills sharp for mistakes.

No... that was a good switch. manual is good.

Practice makes perfect. I 'll look forward wonderful videos and pictures from you.

Wow nice save...and welcome!
For me that is the first example I've seen written on that situation, and you handled it exactly like you should have, good job.  Although, as with any mishaps, or near misses, there is always a chain of events that gets you there.  In this case it was taking back off with 25% battery, that's like taking off in a manned aircraft with min fuel, never a good idea...and 6% whew a nail biter too

Epicdoom 1 Posted at 2017-8-28 16:59
Alan 1978 I also fly Planes from 1/72 scale up to 8ft wingspan electric and nitro. I honestly believe its made me a better Pilot the old rule of thumb fly three mistakes high was good for planes not so good for drones as these puppys cant glide like a plane can to get you out of trouble. the planes do however prepare you for panic situations I don't care how good you are eventually the crash bug bite us all and if that doesn't come from pilot error the gremlins make sure it happens. keeping a cool head is a learned skill I think every pilot needs to master. when I taught my son to fly 4ch aerobatic id buddy box him take the plane up throw it into a spin and make him recover it eventually the 3 mistake rule became 2 and then 1 then low level. Drones are way more agile then planes but they are also unforgiving of big mistakes keeping a cool head is always the best way to correct mistakes. when I first started with drones I plowed into everything. I wasn't  flying a drone with alt hold though so constant input to the bird was needed to keep it flying. even though I now have two DJI birds that are easy to fly I still fly that hard one to keep my skills sharp for mistakes.

Yeah flying 4ch aircraft certainly helps in flying a quad as you already know the 'mechanics' of flight. How an aircraft moves around and how the wind can effect it. Loved my wot4 with a super tiger 51 that was quick, also enjoyed my RAF chipmonk with a saito 56 4stroke

Genghis9 Posted at 2017-8-28 22:54
Wow nice save...and welcome!
For me that is the first example I've seen written on that situation, and you handled it exactly like you should have, good job.  Although, as with any mishaps, or near misses, there is always a chain of events that gets you there.  In this case it was taking back off with 25% battery, that's like taking off in a manned aircraft with min fuel, never a good idea...and 6% whew a nail biter too

Hey genghis. I'll admit taking off with 25% wasn't the best move I've made,lol.   And landing with 6% well at least the battery got a full charge/discharge cycle haha

Alan1978 Posted at 2017-8-30 10:35
Hey genghis. I'll admit taking off with 25% wasn't the best move I've made,lol.   And landing with 6% well at least the battery got a full charge/discharge cycle haha

True that!
Enjoy, Safe Flights!

just two pictures from a few days ago

sunset over peterborough

city to country

nice pictures looks like your cam is tilted slightly right you can try setting the drone on a level surface and recalibrate the camera. had to do that to mine as mine was also tilted slight right

Epicdoom Posted at 2017-8-30 14:12
nice pictures looks like your cam is tilted slightly right you can try setting the drone on a level surface and recalibrate the camera. had to do that to mine as mine was also tilted slight right

Didn't notice that.  Thanks.   Done a gimbal recalibrate and it seems the same so set it with the gimbal roll to 1.5.   Does that seem right or should the calibration get it dead level

mine calibrated it out, but yes gimbal roll setting will do the trick also. It didn't bother me personally to be tilted a little, but many of the pics I take are for the BOSS aka Wife and she wasn't having any gangster lean in the photos lol

Holy cow! nice save.....

nice save.keep on flying.