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http://youtu.be/x6C_dZ7LMW4
Today I experienced my 1st and hopefully last CLOSE CALL. The good news is I was able to retrieve the P2V without any damage to people, property or itself. I fault myself for most of these events. Hopefully someone else may learn from this event.
I have the P2V in Naza-M mode. I have IOC enabled and the 3rd position on the S1 switch set to "FailSafe". Failsafe is set to "Go-Home and Landing". I also have the repeater modified with a TP-LINK TL-ANT2414A to get more range from the FPV.
It was a little windy at surface level (15 mph) but I didn't think it was too much to overwhelm the P2V. I did some tests on a previous flight about 10 minutes prior experimenting with IOC, FailSafe and setting a new Home Point etc... and everything seemed OK.
I took off from my backyard and went up about 400'. I flew the P2V downwind at 400' until I got a warning on the iPhone saying "Phantom 2 Vision Connection Broken" which means I lost the link to the FPV. Right before I lost contact the P2V was pointing away from me and the camera was facing forward. My 1st instinct was to pull back on the right stick and try to get the P2V closer. I did this for about a minute and I still didn't get the connection restored like I have in the past. So the last time I saw it on FPV it was about 1/3 mile away. After about a minute and not seeing the P2V connection restored or at least trying to get restored I get a little nervous and I flip on IOC Home Lock. At that point I start pulling back on the right stick to get it to come back to it's home position in case it yawed while it was out of sight. I'm still listening to see if I can hear the P2V and checking the FPV all the while pointing the antennae to it's last know position hoping I still have a control link and only lost the FPV. After about 2 or 3 minutes of pulling back on IOS Home Lock and not seeing or hearing the P2V I begin to panic. Where the heck is this thing? So I then do the last thing I could think of which is turning of the controller to trigger a "Return to Home". Still waiting for FPV or hearing the whirring of the motors. Nothing. Try for about 5 minutes. Nothing. Now I'm getting sick in my stomach knowing I might not see my P2V again.
Recovery
My next step was to try to find the P2V. I don't really care now about getting it to come home but I want to know where it is exactly before the battery dies completely. It is about 15 minutes in so I know I have to act fast as I may only have 10 minutes at most to try to find this with assistance from the DJI app. I hop in my car and roll down the window with the transmitter pointed out the window toward it's last know location and towards downwind thinking maybe it can't make it back home because of wind overwhelming it up at 400". So I drive to the end of my subdivision to the main street which is about where I lost contact with it. I get out of the car to try to find it and establish a connection. Nothing. So I go to a cornfield where I think I might get a better line of sight if it indeed did fly downwind and can't make it back. I then remembered there was a compass and position range overlay in the DJI app. I turn that on and I'm seeing my little RED mark of the P2V outside of the range of the furthest range marks. Now at this point I don't know if this was the last known location or if I am getting a live feed of it. I then run closer in the direction of where it is pointing me too and try to get FPV. I then wanted to see if I was indeed getting telemetry data so I turned off the WiFi on the iPhone and turned it on after about 15 seconds. I was able to see the Phantom WiFi signal but still wasn't getting any FPV or seeing or hearing the P2V. Then I point the Antennae in the direction of where it shows it on the Range Marker map and get a little bit of a connection enough so that I can see a photo of where it is at. It looked like it was about 50 ft up on the FPV and I see some houses. I then take a screenshot on the iPhone in case I need to go looking in backyards etc.. so at least I might be able to match up a house color or something to what the frame of FPV saw. I then run back to my car. I am now thinking since the WiFi was showing I was connected to the P2V and I am seeing the Phantom on the Range markers I might be able to use this like a location beacon. I started driving around again with the controller out the window and start driving. I then start seeing the P2V icon on the Range markers getting closer. I had to drive into a different subdivision. I drove for about a minute until I had the P2V icon in the center and start looking around. I am still not hearing the whirring motors but I assumed it autolanded since the last frame I saw was it at about 50 ft and it has been close to 25 minutes into this. So I am now thinking I may be close to this thing or at least close to where it was when I got the second of FPV showing it about 50' up. Then as I'm driving looking left and right at peoples house to see if it on a roof I see my P2V sitting in the center of the street. The last bar on the battery was flashing and it looks like it landed perfectly with no damage. I'm thinking I got there within a minute of it landing. Nobody was around so I picked it up, hopped in my car, Thanked God repeatedly and went home.
So what I learned is that even though winds on the surface may not overwhelm the P2V, winds aloft may. I usually fly upwind, so on the return trip when the battery is at a lower state, I get a tailwind to get me home faster. Today I didn't do that as the wind shifted and I won't do that again. I also will remain vigilant in making sure I can see it at all times and not rely on the Failsafe mechanisms built into the P2V. I thought I had a good home lock before I took off but now I don't know for sure because of all the confusion about what was going on in the moment. Luckily I was recording video the entire time and I will watch it to try to figure out if what I was thinking was happening at the time was indeed happening. BTW it showed Distance as 3073ft.
I welcome comments and discussion about what you would do or what I should have done differently as we are all learning and the more information that is shared the better it will be for all of us.
I now need to go change my shorts from this ordeal
Today I experienced my 1st and hopefully last CLOSE CALL. The good news is I was able to retrieve the P2V without any damage to people, property or itself. I fault myself for most of these events. Hopefully someone else may learn from this event.
I have the P2V in Naza-M mode. I have IOC enabled and the 3rd position on the S1 switch set to "FailSafe". Failsafe is set to "Go-Home and Landing". I also have the repeater modified with a TP-LINK TL-ANT2414A to get more range from the FPV.
It was a little windy at surface level (15 mph) but I didn't think it was too much to overwhelm the P2V. I did some tests on a previous flight about 10 minutes prior experimenting with IOC, FailSafe and setting a new Home Point etc... and everything seemed OK.
I took off from my backyard and went up about 400'. I flew the P2V downwind at 400' until I got a warning on the iPhone saying "Phantom 2 Vision Connection Broken" which means I lost the link to the FPV. Right before I lost contact the P2V was pointing away from me and the camera was facing forward. My 1st instinct was to pull back on the right stick and try to get the P2V closer. I did this for about a minute and I still didn't get the connection restored like I have in the past. So the last time I saw it on FPV it was about 1/3 mile away. After about a minute and not seeing the P2V connection restored or at least trying to get restored I get a little nervous and I flip on IOC Home Lock. At that point I start pulling back on the right stick to get it to come back to it's home position in case it yawed while it was out of sight. I'm still listening to see if I can hear the P2V and checking the FPV all the while pointing the antennae to it's last know position hoping I still have a control link and only lost the FPV. After about 2 or 3 minutes of pulling back on IOS Home Lock and not seeing or hearing the P2V I begin to panic. Where the heck is this thing? So I then do the last thing I could think of which is turning of the controller to trigger a "Return to Home". Still waiting for FPV or hearing the whirring of the motors. Nothing. Try for about 5 minutes. Nothing. Now I'm getting sick in my stomach knowing I might not see my P2V again.
Recovery
My next step was to try to find the P2V. I don't really care now about getting it to come home but I want to know where it is exactly before the battery dies completely. It is about 15 minutes in so I know I have to act fast as I may only have 10 minutes at most to try to find this with assistance from the DJI app. I hop in my car and roll down the window with the transmitter pointed out the window toward it's last know location and towards downwind thinking maybe it can't make it back home because of wind overwhelming it up at 400". So I drive to the end of my subdivision to the main street which is about where I lost contact with it. I get out of the car to try to find it and establish a connection. Nothing. So I go to a cornfield where I think I might get a better line of sight if it indeed did fly downwind and can't make it back. I then remembered there was a compass and position range overlay in the DJI app. I turn that on and I'm seeing my little RED mark of the P2V outside of the range of the furthest range marks. Now at this point I don't know if this was the last known location or if I am getting a live feed of it. I then run closer in the direction of where it is pointing me too and try to get FPV. I then wanted to see if I was indeed getting telemetry data so I turned off the WiFi on the iPhone and turned it on after about 15 seconds. I was able to see the Phantom WiFi signal but still wasn't getting any FPV or seeing or hearing the P2V. Then I point the Antennae in the direction of where it shows it on the Range Marker map and get a little bit of a connection enough so that I can see a photo of where it is at. It looked like it was about 50 ft up on the FPV and I see some houses. I then take a screenshot on the iPhone in case I need to go looking in backyards etc.. so at least I might be able to match up a house color or something to what the frame of FPV saw. I then run back to my car. I am now thinking since the WiFi was showing I was connected to the P2V and I am seeing the Phantom on the Range markers I might be able to use this like a location beacon. I started driving around again with the controller out the window and start driving. I then start seeing the P2V icon on the Range markers getting closer. I had to drive into a different subdivision. I drove for about a minute until I had the P2V icon in the center and start looking around. I am still not hearing the whirring motors but I assumed it autolanded since the last frame I saw was it at about 50 ft and it has been close to 25 minutes into this. So I am now thinking I may be close to this thing or at least close to where it was when I got the second of FPV showing it about 50' up. Then as I'm driving looking left and right at peoples house to see if it on a roof I see my P2V sitting in the center of the street. The last bar on the battery was flashing and it looks like it landed perfectly with no damage. I'm thinking I got there within a minute of it landing. Nobody was around so I picked it up, hopped in my car, Thanked God repeatedly and went home.
So what I learned is that even though winds on the surface may not overwhelm the P2V, winds aloft may. I usually fly upwind, so on the return trip when the battery is at a lower state, I get a tailwind to get me home faster. Today I didn't do that as the wind shifted and I won't do that again. I also will remain vigilant in making sure I can see it at all times and not rely on the Failsafe mechanisms built into the P2V. I thought I had a good home lock before I took off but now I don't know for sure because of all the confusion about what was going on in the moment. Luckily I was recording video the entire time and I will watch it to try to figure out if what I was thinking was happening at the time was indeed happening. BTW it showed Distance as 3073ft.
I welcome comments and discussion about what you would do or what I should have done differently as we are all learning and the more information that is shared the better it will be for all of us.
I now need to go change my shorts from this ordeal
