I'm new to flying drones and I know the question seems to come up now and then, but I'm having issues with very, very, very slow descent speed with my Phantom 4 in P mode. I know it's supposed to descend at 2m/s, but I get nowhere near that, I wouldn't be surprised if I'm at 0.3m/s. It takes a looooong time to get the bird down no matter if I do a straight vertical descent or if I try and go down and move in any direction as I do so. I tried sports mode and that seems to work better, the bird comes down way, way faster.

Am I doing something wrong or is the Phantom 4 in P mode supposed to come down that slowly?

"I know it's supposed to descend at 2m/s, but I get nowhere near that, I wouldn't be surprised if I'm at 0.3m/s. "

Short of killing the motors, there's nothing that would make you descend faster.
Instead of wondering and guessing, look at your instruments on screen and see exactly what your descent rate is.  It's the number labelled VS (vertical speed)
You can also check in the playback of your flight records in the app.
FYI descent speed = 3 m/sec in GPS mode and 4 m/sec in Sport mode

The same happend to me the other day with my P4. I was thinking that was a problem with the unit. But then I upload my flight data in Healthy Drones and at the moment of my decent, the P4 was flying with 29 knot wind gust. The way to go is with the Sport mode so you can use the full power of the motors to compensate with the wind. My advise is to review your flight data.

Hello jonaspeterson,you can try to calibrate the vision system via the latest DJI Assistant 2 in PC. Here is the tutorial:

If it could not work, I'd suggest you to contact our tech support as below:
Email: support.us@dji.com

bayguy69 Posted at 2016-8-30 20:20
The same happend to me the other day with my P4. I was thinking that was a problem with the unit. Bu ...

This happens in all weather conditions.

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2016-8-30 16:59
"I know it's supposed to descend at 2m/s, but I get nowhere near that, I wouldn't be surprised if I' ...

"Descent speed = 3m/s"

Me = 0.3m/s

DJI Mindy Posted at 2016-8-31 11:47
Hello jonaspeterson,you can try to calibrate the vision system via the latest DJI Assistant 2 in PC. ...

I'm on a mac, I can't get Assistant 2 to work on it. When trying to launch the app I get an error message saying it's not a valid Electron app and then a link to here:

https://github.com/electron/electron/tree/v0.36.8/docs

jonaspeterson Posted at 2016-9-1 03:49
I'm on a mac, I can't get Assistant 2 to work on it. When trying to launch the app I get an error  ...

Never mind, got it to work after some meddling.

jonaspeterson Posted at 2016-9-1 04:11
Never mind, got it to work after some meddling.

Problem solved after calibrating the Vision Positioning System. Descent speed now normal.

Thank you

jonaspeterson Posted at 2016-9-1 04:27
Problem solved after calibrating the Vision Positioning System. Descent speed now normal.

Thank y ...

Glad to hear that.

Most of the time, drifting and slow flight is IMU related and doing an IMU calibration brings things back.

DJI Mindy Posted at 2016-8-31 20:23
Glad to hear that.

I had the same problem extraordinary slow descent with Phantom 4 Pro Plus.... I upgraded my firmware on my remote and drone and that solved the problem.... then calibrated my  MIU and compass....  at first it looked like it didn't work but after a few times it clicked in and works fine now.

Buddhamu Posted at 7-28 13:22
I had the same problem extraordinary slow descent with Phantom 4 Pro Plus.... I upgraded my firmware on my remote and drone and that solved the problem.... then calibrated my  MIU and compass....  at first it looked like it didn't work but after a few times it clicked in and works fine now.

Hi Buddhamu, thanks for sharing your suggestion, hope you enjoy flying the drone.