Had an accident need input

[Roccot312]

I'm from Chicago and it's been in the 60s the last couple of days and I've been flying as much as possible. The past couple of days I been driving all over the city filming. I've been flying for over a year now and never had an accident with my p3s. I always calibrate my drone on each power up. But I've been reading that you really don't have to, and that you can do more harm if you calibrate it in the wrong place like next to a metal object that might not be visible like a pipe underground or rhubarb in the sidewalk. So I for went these step and did not do a calibration because of insurity of this location and the night before I calibrated it in a perfect spot. The park I was at is in the middle of some high-rise buildings that probably have a lot of wifi going on. It is also on the Chicago River and the grass area is a slopping hill. I was already weary of these obstacles and didn't want to lose or crash it. I check the compass senor and it read 1630. But I didn't listen to that little voice I just wanted to get photos from this location. So I took her up manually she went straight back and crash landed into the grass hill upside down . THANK GOD NO DAMAGE [emoji44] Props were dirty but no damage to them. Drone all good camera perfect. The flight lasted 10 seconds, went 25ft. I started with 8 GPS satellites but it drop 7 at the end. It also went from p-gps at takeoff and crashed in p-atti. I didn't switch it into attitude mode it did it on its own and the wind was blowing at about 12mph.

What are your thoughts about what I could off done differently and MOST IMPORTANTLY what could i do to make sure that this doesn't happen again to me. If it went forward instead of backwards it would of been in the river



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[MacPhantom]

Question.. When it crashed did it lose altitude or did it fly into the rising ground? The reason I ask is that when it drops to ATTI mode it will drift in whatever direction but it should still hold altitude.

It sounds like you had a compass error that caused it to switch modes at a time when you were not expecting it?

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[sar104]

With only 7 satellites, more likely it just lost GPS lock and simply drifted with the wind. Did it head downwind from the takeoff point?

 

[Vega]

I too, am from Chicago and have been flying in this great weather. I think the no calibration has nothing to do with your incident. I've not calibrated for months, took it to Kansas where I took great videos and then back to Chicago where I fly at night. I've had no problems. Also, you and I are under that stupid new Chicago ordinance that says you have to get every land owners permission to fly over their property. INSANE B.S.. If anything, you were near Wolf Point by the Chicago river where the wifi signals are just overwhelming I think. Just my 2 cents. Enjoy the weather and drone on in Chicago!!!

 

[Travisimo]

Did you lose connection to the controller? Does your flight log show any compass errors? Sounds like either compass problem or perhaps the wind just blew it into the hill. Did you try taking control of it or did it just happen too fast?

Just for the record, you are right that you do not need to calibrate before each flight (nor should you). I calibrated once when I first got my P3S several weeks ago and have not needed another calibration since (after about 30 flights). If you go to a location that is very far from where you calibrated, then it would be wise to recalibrate. But I've flown mine all around a fairly big metro area with no need for recalibration.

 

[Roccot312]

I don't think I lost altitude, I took off and away it went with the wind. it happened so fast no time to react. I didn't lose connection to the controller I just wasn't able to respond fast enough and I probably pick a bad take off area. It doesn't show a compass error on the flight log. I just want to be able to better predict something like this before I take off I know how to handle it in p-atti mode but wasn't ready for to switch right as I took off.
Never heard of wolf point... I was at Montgomery Ward Park (grand Ave and the river) and the park is flanked by 3 residential high rises which most have 100s of different wifi signals.

So would I be stupid to go back to this location to try and fly again??? And if not what do you guys think I should do differently to ensure a safe voyage


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[sar104]

I don't think I lost altitude, I took off and away it went with the wind. it happened so fast no time to react. I didn't lose connection to the controller I just wasn't able to respond fast enough and I probably pick a bad take off area. It doesn't show a compass error on the flight log. I just want to be able to better predict something like this before I take off I know how to handle it in p-atti mode but wasn't ready for to switch right as I took off.
Never heard of wolf point... I was at Montgomery Ward Park (grand Ave and the river) and the park is flanked by 3 residential high rises which most have 100s of different wifi signals.

So would I be stupid to go back to this location to try and fly again??? And if not what do you guys think I should do differently to ensure a safe voyage


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From that it really does appear to me that you just lost GPS lock. Taking off with 7 or 8 is marginal, especially if you are in an area of poor sky visibility. Not necessarily a problem provide that you are willing to accept, and respond to, sudden transitions to ATTI mode.

 

[Loz]

I agree with previous comment - it sounds like Phantom lost GPS lock and therefore dropped into ATTI mode. This means AC will drift with the wind and NOT stop as you may know - it just keeps going until you manually fly it back.

Sounds like this unfortunately surprised you and you either did not recognise what was happening at the time or possibly had not practiced how to fly in ATTI mode and lost control - does this sound like what happened? Just trying to assist you here not judging.

If it did, best advice is to practice ATTI mode flying - it's in these situations, for us all, that practicing the worst case scenarios improves chances of avoiding accidents, just like driving a car. Best wishes


- Phantom P3A & P3P -
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[RodPad]

@Roccot312 , upload your log, it may take out the guessing.

DJI Flight Log Viewer

Copy / Past the results URL, if you want to share it.

Rod

 

[Roccot312]

Here the link to the flight record. It's yaw error, not sure what that is. I know yaw means the drone is rotating


Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com



HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters



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[Loz]

I'm no pro at reading logs, so happy to be corrected here but isn't that log showing take off in GPS-ATTI mode not P-GPS mode (meaning, if I've got this right, the RC mode switch was in ATTI mode not P mode?). This I believe means take off in ATTI, no GPS assisted flight/hover available in this mode.. AC would drift with wind , and respond to any manual controls etc..


- Phantom P3A & P3P -
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[sar104]

Here the link to the flight record. It's yaw error, not sure what that is. I know yaw means the drone is rotating


Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com



HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters



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That does look like a compass error, not a loss of GPS positioning. Yaw/compass errors do sometimes cause the FC to drop out of GPS into ATTI. I would recalibrate the compass and try again.

 

[DanMan32]

... or rhubarb in the sidewalk.
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I just hate it when there's vegetables in the cement. It just ruins your day.

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[Roccot312]

I'm no pro at reading logs, so happy to be corrected here but isn't that log showing take off in GPS-ATTI mode not P-GPS mode (meaning, if I've got this right, the RC mode switch was in ATTI mode not P mode?). This I believe means take off in ATTI, no GPS assisted flight/hover available in this mode.. AC would drift with wind , and respond to any manual controls etc..


- Phantom P3A & P3P -
Sent from my iPad Pro using PhantomPilots App

I noticed that atti mode on Healthydrone but phantomhelp has p-gps mode then going into atti mode. I always do a check list and making sure that the switch is GPS mode is #5 on it so I'm sure I took off in gps mode

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[Roccot312]

I just hate it when there's vegetables in the cement. It just ruins your day.

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I meant rebar stupid voice to type

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[RodPad]

I just hate it when there's vegetables in the cement. It just ruins your day.

OMG, LOL, I can't stop laughing,

Rod

 

[RodPad]

Yes, HD, is really limited to try to figure out what happened.
Your were in the correct mode.
You had enough satellites.
If there is a conflict with the compass and the GPS compass, then it goes into Atti mode.
I guess the yaw error comes up because the Phantom thinks it is twisting and the remote is not telling it twist?

Paging @msinger or @Meta4 or anybody that can confirm my answer

Rod

 

[Roccot312]

.

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[Meta4]

I'm no pro at reading logs, so happy to be corrected here but isn't that log showing take off in GPS-ATTI mode not P-GPS mode

You must be looking at the HD log.
GPS-Atti is the way HD shows P-GPS mode

So I took her up manually she went straight back and crash landed into the grass hill upside down ... The flight lasted 10 seconds, went 25ft. I started with 8 GPS satellites but it drop 7 at the end. It also went from p-gps at takeoff and crashed in p-atti. I didn't switch it into attitude mode it did it on its own and the wind was blowing at about 12mph.

What are your thoughts about what I could off done differently and MOST IMPORTANTLY what could i do to make sure that this doesn't happen again to me.

This is the shortest flight log I've examined.
The whole flight was over in 10.4 seconds so there isn't much to work with.
The launch point has 30 storey buildings blocking half of the horizon which will block a lot of satellites.
The number of satellites is between 7 & 8 which probably was enough to maintain GPS mode.
The big issue is the yaw error that appears at 8.9 secs - the same point where the Phantom drops into atti mode.
A yaw error is like a compass error and has similar effects including forcing teh Phantom to ignore GPS and go into atti mode.
Going into ati mode doesn't cause a Phantom to lose altitude, but it can drift with the wind.
Looking at the joystick input, I see extreme stick movements, (perhaps an attempt to CSC?).
These joystick movements account for the loss of altitude and probably some of the horizontal movement.

I'm wondering about your take off location.
In Google Earth it appears to be a reinforced concrete path.

As well as calibrating close to steel, you can also have serious problems launching from steel (and reinforced concrete because it's half steel).

Here's an explanation of what that does to your Phantom.
Looking for Trouble ??

 

[RodPad]

Thanks,
I booked marked the looking for trouble from one of your post a couple of days ago.

Rod