Hello folks,

I do not have very much time on my new P4P.  However, on March 21, 2019, I was at the point where I started to explore the Intelligent Flight Modes and the various flight modes.  I started with S-mode.  So far so good.  I got a little farther away then I probably should have when I noticed my battery was dropping.  Here is where it gets a bit foggy.  It either started to return to home or I enabled RTH from the controller.  Either way, I'm pretty sure I canceled it because it was not returning home.


So after a brief panic.  I did two things.  1) A double pressed the RTH button on my controller.  Nothing happened, no beeps no visual indication on the screen that it was returning home.  2) I took note of where the unit was, dropped altitude and flew to a field I was familiar with.  I tried several more times to press the RTH.  I believe I also played with the flight modes, attempting to place it in P-Mode, thinking this was my issue.  No success here.  However

I started to fly back home manually, as my heart raced.  As I got to my property, I was flying over a grassy field.  It was then that it force-landed about 200 feet away.  Whew! that was close!


Can the flight log show what did I do wrong?


Thanks!

Here is my flight log:  https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/G6TZDZ1LBHNPCPMBXEA3/

That’s a bummer. Hope you can find her errors, so as not to duplicate this flight...


Glad it happened over grass not water...


RedHotPoker

From your story, it would appear that you pressed the RTH button quite a few times, which is not good. You press it once, if you press it again, it will cancel RTH. So it would appear you invoked RTH, then cancelled RTH several times. Double pressing does the same thing.

That would be the appearance, for sure.



RedHotPoker

Yes, I'm very glad it was not over water!  Once I noticed it was not returning home.  I only pressed RYH once (double hit the H button on the controller.  When nothing happened, it was at that time I tried again.  Then I tried messing with the flight mode and tried again.

I may attempt a similar flight pattern once the rain breaks.  

It is very hard NOT to get nervous when first learning to fly your phantom. The RTH is something a lot of users do not completely understand and can be nerve racking for sure. Like Geebax has already said, the multiple button presses can undo what you are wanting. Again, understanding how the RTH feature works is important, and you might want to read up on it a couple times. It is hard to be patient when you don't know where your phantom is, but you have to have faith! It will return in most cases. Remember if it is out of your site and /or lost it's signal from your receiver, it will trigger the RTH after a predetermined amount of time, without you doing anything. When it gets close enough to regain the signal, your pressing the RTH button will cancel the RTH on you. The best thing to do in my opinion is if you lose signal, or has completely gone out of your site, remember there are a couple of built in safeguards...……..after a short interval on lost signal it will trigger the RTH, and if you haven't turned off the smart return to home, it will trigger the RTH when the battery level reaches the point to where it thinks it can't get back home. Best advise might be to practice the RTH feature while keeping the phantom within sight so you know what to expect.

RicardoGray Posted at 3-24 14:12
It is very hard NOT to get nervous when first learning to fly your phantom. The RTH is something a lot of users do not completely understand and can be nerve racking for sure. Like Geebax has already said, the multiple button presses can undo what you are wanting. Again, understanding how the RTH feature works is important, and you might want to read up on it a couple times. It is hard to be patient when you don't know where your phantom is, but you have to have faith! It will return in most cases. Remember if it is out of your site and /or lost it's signal from your receiver, it will trigger the RTH after a predetermined amount of time, without you doing anything. When it gets close enough to regain the signal, your pressing the RTH button will cancel the RTH on you. The best thing to do in my opinion is if you lose signal, or has completely gone out of your site, remember there are a couple of built in safeguards...……..after a short interval on lost signal it will trigger the RTH, and if you haven't turned off the smart return to home, it will trigger the RTH when the battery level reaches the point to where it thinks it can't get back home. Best advise might be to practice the RTH feature while keeping the phantom within sight so you know what to expect.

Thanks.  I have practiced the RTH quite a bit actually.  I think the battery power was low enough where I lost signal and it was not accepting my commands.  That may explain why my stick commands were unresponsive for a few seconds as well.

Rick_U Posted at 3-24 13:57
Yes, I'm very glad it was not over water!  Once I noticed it was not returning home.  I only pressed RYH once (double hit the H button on the controller.  When nothing happened, it was at that time I tried again.  Then I tried messing with the flight mode and tried again.

I may attempt a similar flight pattern once the rain breaks.

You do not need to 'double hit' the button. Simply press the button and hold it until the ring around the button on the RC unit illuminates. It is then in Return To Home mode.

You got lucky looks like.  Those battery warnings always mean business.  

I had a look at your flight log and it would appear you ignored all the warnings that the aircraft was sending you. You are lucky that it got back at all. You got warnings about low battery, yet you continued to fang along in sport mode at 200 feet or more in altitude, despite strong wind warnings. The wind speed at higher altitudes can be quite strong, so if you get 'strong wind' warnings, you should descend to a lower altitude and and be ready to fly home if the battery gets low. It is not a good idea to keep flying about when the battery is down to 22%, I come home at 35% just to be safe. And belting along in sport mode eats up battery power, so if the aircraft is struggling to return, come down to a lower altitude and fly home under normal speed settings.

Can the flight log show what did I do wrong?
Yes ... and it's a lot more useful than guessing what might have happened.

Your data shows that your drone started to RTH at 16:44 with battery at 39% and 6137ft away and was coming home nicely.
You cancelled RTH at 17:47.2 and went to P-GPS but left the drone just hovering.
At 18:08 you switched to aiit and still left it hovering ... except it was now able to be blown backwards at up to 20mph.
At 18:22.8 you started to fly in P-GPS ... but in the wrong direction, then left it hovering again.
At 19:23.3 you started to fly back properly ... but you used Sport mode which burns through batteries faster and gives less "miles/gallon".

You never lost signal so all of this information (and more) was available on your display .
It shows a lack of understanding of where the drone was and what it was doing.
RTH did not fail.
It was working nicely to bring the drone back for the one minute you used it.
It was most of the piloting that followed that failed.

Wow,  you appeared very lost out past a mile.  If you would have kept some left stick up,  and full forward you could have made it back to home.   But this is a WIN in anyone's pilot log!!!

Congrats on sticking with it,  as many who do lose their AC just give up and don't continue to TRY.

Randy

Labroides Posted at 3-24 18:27
Can the flight log show what did I do wrong?
Yes ... and it's a lot more useful than guessing what might have happened.

This is exactly what I needed to hear.  So thank you.  I'm both impressed and surprised the flight log was interpreted such that it painted a perfect representation of what I was doing.  Furthermore, showed my state of mind.  Yes, I ignored the warnings because during my previous flights in my backyard, I was able to continue flying longer.  In my original question, I purposely asked what can the log show what I did wrong.  I knew it was something I  did wrong.  Thank you for setting me straight.  I'm fortunate to come away with a "warning"
I was able to better review the log myself and now see what you are saying.  The hovering and going the wrong was was the panic time.  Yes, the log is a telling story.  Thanks again!

rwynant V1 Posted at 3-24 18:28
Wow,  you appeared very lost out past a mile.  If you would have kept some left stick up,  and full forward you could have made it back to home.   But this is a WIN in anyone's pilot log!!!

Congrats on sticking with it,  as many who do lose their AC just give up and don't continue to TRY.

Vey encouraging words Randy.  Thank you.

Geebax Posted at 3-24 18:23
I had a look at your flight log and it would appear you ignored all the warnings that the aircraft was sending you. You are lucky that it got back at all. You got warnings about low battery, yet you continued to fang along in sport mode at 200 feet or more in altitude, despite strong wind warnings. The wind speed at higher altitudes can be quite strong, so if you get 'strong wind' warnings, you should descend to a lower altitude and and be ready to fly home if the battery gets low. It is not a good idea to keep flying about when the battery is down to 22%, I come home at 35% just to be safe. And belting along in sport mode eats up battery power, so if the aircraft is struggling to return, come down to a lower altitude and fly home under normal speed settings.

Thank you Geebax.  See my other replies.  Same thanks goes to you and everyone here taking the time to help out.

Rick_U Posted at 3-24 20:49
Thank you Geebax.  See my other replies.  Same thanks goes to you and everyone here taking the time to help out.

Aloha Rick,

     You got some really talented guys here who want to help and you have a survivor's attitude.  A good lesson learned - and that includes after you came to this Forum for help!

Aloha and Drone On!

Hi Rick,

Had a look at your flight too, nice to see a log from a P4pro.Never saw  "GPS_Atti_Limited" as a flight mode.
And can you switch a P4P manually to ATTI mode? (i think i see this in your log)

The RTH was activated by you, by button press on the controller.
Your P4P did turn towards home and distance to home did decrease slowly.

GoHome started with the P4P heading 114m home heading 230. (d = distance to home now 6145 ft)
After 8 seconds P4P pointed to home, heading 239, d = 6175 (turn over right)
After 55 secs distance now 4887, see chart for this info as well.

RTH cancelled and you managed to fly it back home manually !!  

You said "Nothing happened, no beeps no visual indication on the screen that it was returning home."Do not understand that, as i think that in the app you must have seen that the distance was decreasing and that your P4P was heading home (red arrow compass) and closing in.

But happy to see that the autolanding wasn`t far away from your HP.

cheers
JJB

JJB* Posted at 3-25 07:11
Hi Rick,

Had a look at your flight too, nice to see a log from a P4pro.Never saw  "GPS_Atti_Limited" as a flight mode.

JJB,

First of all, I find it truly amazing the amount of support and information received in this forum.    Those graphs are super cool!  How do I get these?

The one thing I'm not good at yet is looking/trusting my screen data.  Analytics such as distance, speed, height are metrics I need to practice viewing when flying.

As far as my comment about not seeing or hearing anything after pressing RTH,  I tried again this afternoon.  I'm double pressing the RTH button and I believe I need to hold it down.  During the RTH, there is a distinct beeping and an icon showing it is returning home.

Rick_U Posted at 3-25 19:00
JJB,

First of all, I find it truly amazing the amount of support and information received in this forum.    Those graphs are super cool!  How do I get these?

I'm double pressing the RTH button and I believe I need to hold it down.
A single press is all that is needed.
Press and hold till it beeps.
Press again and you cancel it.

Analytics such as distance, speed, height are metrics I need to practice viewing when flying.
Learn to use the radar display.
It will show you where the drone is and which way it is pointing
That and the speed/distance numbers are your most important indicators.

Rick_U Posted at 3-25 19:00
JJB,

First of all, I find it truly amazing the amount of support and information received in this forum.    Those graphs are super cool!  How do I get these?

Hi Rick,

i made a video about that compass in the app, see this > https://forum.dji.com/thread-144696-1-1.html
Even with a video link loss this data is displayed, so always possible to fly back manually by using this

Charts is from FRAP, ses this > https://forum.dji.com/thread-145649-1-1.html (for window users)

cheers
JJB