Saved the video!

When the Phantom spun around to face me was not my input and i had no control of it after that. As I lost site of it i thought i heard is hit a rock and turned off the controller. I never saw it climb and return to me. You can see me walking away in total shock, packing up and getting in my car, and to think it was heading back to me! The camera is in perfect shape. Two motors overheated. Ill be sending it to DJI tomorrow. Ill put some photos of the damage.

gasquetmike@gma Posted at 2015-5-21 03:34
When the Phantom spun around to face me was not my input and i had no control of it after that. As I ...

i cant seem to get a photo to download?

So it wasn't that far away from you? The video is great BTW. Glad you got it back!

Raybro Posted at 2015-5-21 03:58
So it wasn't that far away from you? The video is great BTW. Glad you got it back!

crazy story huh?

gasquetmike@gma Posted at 2015-5-21 03:38
i cant seem to get a photo to download?

Click on "Advanced" and upload the photo into your reply from there, a bar will appear above the reply box, after you've confirmed the image, you will see the option to use

gasquetmike@gma Posted at 2015-5-21 03:34
When the Phantom spun around to face me was not my input and i had no control of it after that. As I ...

When the Phantom spun around to face me was not my input and i had no control of it after that

At that point, it was behind the tree and a LOS triggered a RTH mode.  It will rise to your preset altitude you set and fly directly back to the GPS point for home, then come straight down.  Since you took off at the edge of the bank, it will come back to that point within 2 meters of it.  It came down within that 2 meters, but it was over the bank.  Had it come down on the road, it would have landed and turned off the motors.  Since it was over the bank and lower than the home point, it went to ATTI mode and just drifted with the wind as it was still coming down to crash.  You could have recovered control when it cleared the height of the tree by flipping the S1 switch to ATTI mode and back to GPS mode and had full control to land.   Read the manual about regaining control as this is a pilot error for the crash.

Here's some screenshots on adding a photo

Gerry1124 Posted at 2015-5-21 04:21
When the Phantom spun around to face me was not my input and i had no control of it after that

At ...

Pilot error hell-0, as i said above,when it spun around to face me while flying up river, I did not make it do that. It spun on its own and From that point on i had no control, and thinking it had crashed when it went from view I turned of the RC and quit looking and i never saw it again.It did come back to me but i had no idea until i saw the video today..

the rest...
Edit: last 2 are in wrong order

gasquetmike@gma Posted at 2015-5-21 04:28
Pilot error hell-0, as i said above,when it spun around to face me while flying up river, I did no ...

When you went behind the tree and out of sight of the camera for a few seconds, that is the time you lost connection.  The Return to Home mode will turn your Phantom around to face home point, rise up to the preset altitude,  fly home, hover for a second and descend until it lands at the home point.  That is what it did in the video.At 1.29, you went to the left and out of sight of the video,   You lost sight of the Phantom and RTH kicked in after about 3 seconds.

Gerry1124 Posted at 2015-5-21 04:32
When you went behind the tree and out of sight of the camera for a few seconds, that is the time y ...

I concur.
Gerry is absolutely correct... After reading all the manuals about 3 times and watching many videos on the failsafe/return to home, I could see that's exactly what your Phantom has done...

BazzaVMC Posted at 2015-5-21 04:36
I concur.
Gerry is absolutely correct... After reading all the manuals about 3 times and watching  ...

But your not hearing what im saying, why did it spin and not take any of my inputs (before) it went behind the tree? I didnt spin it around, it did that itself , I tried to move left, tried home lock, to bring it back, and tried to climb (all ) before i lost sight of it? This is all early on in the video BEFORE it goes around the corner?

BazzaVMC Posted at 2015-5-21 04:29
the rest...
Edit: last 2 are in wrong order

I have tried everything and i cant get the photos to load on the page???damn..

gasquetmike@gma Posted at 2015-5-21 04:44
I have tried everything and i cant get the photos to load on the page???damn..

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

gasquetmike@gma Posted at 2015-5-21 04:43
But your not hearing what im saying, why did it spin and not take any of my inputs (before) it wen ...

You might have just nudged the side stick not knowing it.  It doesn't take very much input from the stick to turn it.  If I hold the stick,  I cannot fly a straight line, I have to let go of the throttle stick,  It turned in less than 1/2 second,  Just a nudge from the side and the machine will spin very quickly.

Gerry1124 Posted at 2015-5-21 04:46
You might have just nudged the side stick not knowing it.  It doesn't take very much input from th ...

I hear you, but knowing it was heading to the other side, I tried to turn, tried s2 to home lock pulling the stick back to me and tried to climb higher all with no effect? can you explain that?

gasquetmike@gma Posted at 2015-5-21 04:52
I hear you, but knowing it was heading to the other side, I tried to turn, tried s2 to home lock p ...

You had probably already lost control signal.

I wouldnt have a problem taking blame if I could understand what I did? If you watch the video, the phantom goes to the center of the river and starts heading up river, it then spins around to face back at me, I guess i could have made it spin but it wasnt intended. The phantom started heading to the right side of the river and i knew i was going to lose site of it. At  THIS time i tried to go to the left, and nothing happened, i then switched the s2 to home lock, brought the stick back to me again and nothing happened, i then lost sight of it and tried to climb up, which it didnt do. i then thought i heard it hit a rock and turned off the phantom. I sat there for a few moments looking up river at the spot i had last seen it , i was totally in shock. I figured it was crashed on the other side of the river. i never looked or saw it climbing up behind that tree or heading back to me. I didnt hear it either, the river was very loud at that spot, now i wonder what i thought i had heard that i thought was it hitting a rock? So again, my question is what caused it to NOT respond to my inputs BEFORE It was turned off and went back to its home point?

gasquetmike@gma Posted at 2015-5-21 05:16
I wouldnt have a problem taking blame if I could understand what I did? If you watch the video, the  ...

Did you happen to notice how many sats you had when it first turned to face you?  You were in a steep valley and a very restricted view of the sky.You might have had 60% or less of a view of the sky instead of the 180 % view.  It might have already switched to ATTI mode without you even realizing it.  The wind would cause it to drift and turn in the valley without you even touching the sticks. It only took a few seconds from the first turn toward you until it disappeared behind the tree.  Once behind the tree and very close to the slope of the hill, you lost signal control and it started rising at an even speed indicating at that time, it was in RTH.
I got to close to the movie screen one time and it lost enough of a view of the sky to lose sats and switch to ATTI mode.  Before I realized what was going on, it was pushed down and under the screen and crashed into a pine tree which was behind the screen.

Gerry1124 Posted at 2015-5-21 06:15
Did you happen to notice how many sats you had when it first turned to face you?  You were in a st ...

now this sounds feasible! I didnt notice how many sats i had. I thought Home lock would bring it back no matter what? I wont fly there again!

Interesting video. I have a eerily similar event in my archives which Gerry described above:

Totally immersed with watching the bird maneuver in the sky, I flew behind a building and lost Line Of Sight (LOS).
I got a control signal lost message on my iPhone.
In the recorded video, the Phantom stops, turns around travel towards Home as it was above RTH altitude.
Once its over the building and I regain LOS, I flip S1 to ATTI then back to GPS and I'm in control again.

Wow, that whole area looks like a well designed Phantom trap! Glad you got it back, but obviously a bit worse for the wear.

Even RTF can malfunction when you are that closed off from open sky. The P3 would probably act better due to the addition of the Russian satellites and lightbridge.

gasquetmike@gma Posted at 2015-5-21 04:28
Pilot error hell-0, as i said above,when it spun around to face me while flying up river, I did no ...

re read what Gerry is telling you .

it did as programed. you are correct it did begin to return on auto and turned itself. again as it is programmed to do.

At any point you are in LOS you could have regained flight control away from the RTH by flipping S1 fro GPS to ATTI to GPS..... you would then be able to fly normally.

Not a fly away --- it performed fine!


sorry for your damage loss and really glad you still have it

good luck and have fun flying!

Gerry1124 Posted at 2015-5-21 04:32
When you went behind the tree and out of sight of the camera for a few seconds, that is the time yo ...

Good to see you Gerry!

Gerry1124 Posted at 2015-5-21 06:15
Did you happen to notice how many sats you had when it first turned to face you?  You were in a ste ...

That was the video you posted? I was wondering what was going on when it went behind the screen. I understand now. I thought maybe you had taken your eyes off of it and it just sailed off behind the screen into the trees.

In hindsight, since the battery was still on, would  the find my phantom function in the app have helped mike locate the phantom after it crashed?

Godfrey Posted at 2015-5-21 09:56
In hindsight, since the battery was still on, would  the find my phantom function in the app have he ...

no, it showed the last home point 20 miles away? I dont know how it knew to come back to the correct point?

Raybro Posted at 2015-5-21 09:54
That was the video you posted? I was wondering what was going on when it went behind the screen. I ...

That was the video I had posted.  I got to close to the screen and it was only my third flight.  The screen shielded half of the sky so my sats dropped.  The wind took it down and blew it below the screen only to crash behind it hitting a tree.  Totally my fault.

Gerry1124 Posted at 2015-5-21 10:04
That was the video I had posted.  I got to close to the screen and it was only my third flight.  T ...

My near disaster last Sunday.
This is what you don't want to do! Poor mission planning. Everything is good to go now.....after a good drying out. Shows you how much rain we have had in Texas. I got lucky this time.
http://youtu.be/vsljLhXNtas

Gerry1124 Posted at 2015-5-21 10:04
That was the video I had posted.  I got to close to the screen and it was only my third flight.  T ...

owwwwww! that hurts to watch

gasquetmike@gma Posted at 2015-5-21 13:03
owwwwww! that hurts to watch

The only thing that I had to replace was 1 prop guard.  It landed in the sand and started to dig 4 holes back to China.

Wow your lucky it didn't land on the road and get run over by a car. You can see the way it was shaking the motors were still running.

Why can't DJI put something in so if the phantom flips over it shuts it self off after a few seconds?

tonyray955 Posted at 2015-5-21 13:12
Wow your lucky it didn't land on the road and get run over by a car. You can see the way it was shak ...

It ran about 20 seconds before I shut it down with the tx.  It went under the screen into the trees.  That is the first and last time I crashed it.

Gerry1124 Posted at 2015-5-21 13:15
It ran about 20 seconds before I shut it down with the tx.  It went under the screen into the trees ...

I was talking about Mike's it flipped over and was still running when the video ended.

tonyray955 Posted at 2015-5-23 09:45
I was talking about Mike's it flipped over and was still running when the video ended.

That  sucks , but  good thing  you were on th3 ground  instead  of falling  of tbe sky from 100  feet