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My scariest flight yet!
- Thread starter Drestin Black
- Start date
- Joined
- May 4, 2016
- Messages
- 97
- Reaction score
- 5
Fly far when you know u wont chicken if something goes wrong...
Sent from my MI 5 using PhantomPilots mobile app
Sent from my MI 5 using PhantomPilots mobile app
Why? Because I could and because I wanted to test range with perfectly clear LOS on full batteries with no, original, intention of coming close to low battery.
Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots
RScariest Drone Moment yet occurred today with my Phantom 4.
Out here at the Blue Water Bridge, in Port Huron, MI. It was 90 degrees out in the open where I sat down and decided to test max range because of the wide open flat waters in front of me.
So, off I sent Casper, my P4 with a pair of copper half-self antenna range "boosters", 60 feet up at 45 mph in sport mode right over the open lake.
5500 feet
11,000 feet
17,000 feet - just over three miles, just what the manufacture claims.
When, suddenly, not a signal failure or other DJI Go app message but:
** iPad needs to cool down before you can use it ** pops up on the screen, and 10 seconds later the iPad just turns off!
Casper is 65 feet up and 3 miles away facing a head wind, in the middle of a lake.
I rush back to the car and turn on the AC blowing on the iPad.
Two minutes later the iPad turns on but it won't connect to the drone.
I try various things including killing the app and relaunching and finally it connects...
Clever Casper, automatic return home mode active! He's been flying home on auto pilot ever since we disconnected. Whew... all is w---
Battery is low message. We should still make it back in a straight line
THEN a moment later it says battery is Critically Low so it's starting automatic landing... In the water!
I kept overriding it and turned perpendicular to land and just went straight for the coast...
WHOOPS, still on the CANADIAN SIDE! Can't land there, they won't dig that.
Force it over the water and it lands on the grass JUST over on the US side, literally seconds left on battery counter. It dies moments after I pick it up from the ground about 100 yards from where I took off. Just outside a Coast Guard fenced area.
WHEW!!! Heart racing the entire time!
Really nice story, heart pumping situation, happened to me too with a few second battery left. Have a beer and celebrate this successful mission. It might happen again.
This brings up an interesting question I have often wondered about but never actually asked anyone.
All of my high-end Futaba radios had fancy GUIs when they first came out. They were somewhat infamous for crashing at very inopportune times on occasion, especially in the early days. One thing they had going for them (and Futaba bragged about this and rightfully so) was the fact that the OS that ran the programming GUI was completely independent of the transmitter Fcns. If that dang thing locked up, you could still fly your aircraft. Thank God, because it saved me a few thousand dollars over the months they were getting it all right.
I have always assumed the same would be true of the DJI TX. I assume that the console is for our benefit, but is not actually needed to fly the aircraft. Given the situation outlined in this thread, and knowing of course, that LOS was actually NOT in play here, but let's assume it was; I would assume that technically, he never actually lost control of his aircraft, right?
Maybe he could have because of distance, but never because the tablet went out, right?
All of my high-end Futaba radios had fancy GUIs when they first came out. They were somewhat infamous for crashing at very inopportune times on occasion, especially in the early days. One thing they had going for them (and Futaba bragged about this and rightfully so) was the fact that the OS that ran the programming GUI was completely independent of the transmitter Fcns. If that dang thing locked up, you could still fly your aircraft. Thank God, because it saved me a few thousand dollars over the months they were getting it all right.
I have always assumed the same would be true of the DJI TX. I assume that the console is for our benefit, but is not actually needed to fly the aircraft. Given the situation outlined in this thread, and knowing of course, that LOS was actually NOT in play here, but let's assume it was; I would assume that technically, he never actually lost control of his aircraft, right?
Maybe he could have because of distance, but never because the tablet went out, right?
You did not have to worry about landing in Canada. We would have charged the battery and sent it back.
Good to hear there was a happy ending.
Good to hear there was a happy ending.
You are correct. I have two flight data files. One shows me heading straight line out and then the unit just suddenly stops and hovers, 3 miles out, 100 feet up, over nothing but fresh Lake Huron. Then it goes into Auto Home and starts back. About 100 yards later it just stops and hovers again. The second file shows me picking it up again and manually driving back.
What I'm assuming happened is: when I lost the iPad I let go of the control stick and it stopped and hovered. Then as I got to the car to cool it off there was a loss of connection with the controller and it entered auto home. But then it regained connection as I was cooling and restarting the app so it went into hover as the auto home was canceled.
Had I more experience and didn't panic a little, I should have hit the return to home button immediately. That would have helped me avoid losing about two minutes flight time before it occurred to me that I was still in controller coms, just not the visual flying app.
Now, due to the heavy head wind it faced on the return trip, this all still remains a bit dramatic because a simple return home wouldn't have made it as a straight line return would have ended approx. one minute out over the water.
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I'll bet bridge and border patrol would have been cool with it too; "ello, just need to nip on over to your beach and retrieve my aircraft"You did not have to worry about landing in Canada. We would have charged the battery and sent it back.
Good to hear there was a happy ending.
Yeah. Nobody would've bothered him. Not on that border, I would certainly hope.
Fantastic. Exactly what I wanted to hear/know.
Which, again to me, brings up an interesting point/argument. I've been flying movable wing rotary RC aircraft for years. Orientation is second nature to me, but this certainly makes a case for what we used to call "smart mode" in the early days. I think DJI calls it "home lock." There is certainly and arguably a case to be made for flying in "smart mode," especially when flying out of LOS or in a strange place.
I'm a purist because I go back a long ways, but I'm way past the point of saying, "You should never fly that way because it's just not right." BS. You fly the tech available to you that best suits your needs at the time. That's like saying we shouldn't fly with altimeters since we can look out the window and tell how high we are. It is nothing but sheer arrogance for someone to tell a newbie, or anyone else for that matter, that they should never use "smart mode" in a given flying situation.
Had you been in "home mode," you could have simply pulled straight back on the right-hand stick, took your hand off the left, and hauled its *** straight back at you in sport mode just as hard as you could fly. I'll argue with any old time heli pilot that wants to argue that that's a **** good way to fly, especially in that situation.
You were "blind" and couldn't see. Nothing like a straight-back essentially "auto-pilot" to get you back safe as quickly as possible. Certainly makes a case for "smart mode" when flying out of LOS is a possibility, doesn't it?
Fantastic. Exactly what I wanted to hear/know.
Which, again to me, brings up an interesting point/argument. I've been flying movable wing rotary RC aircraft for years. Orientation is second nature to me, but this certainly makes a case for what we used to call "smart mode" in the early days. I think DJI calls it "home lock." There is certainly and arguably a case to be made for flying in "smart mode," especially when flying out of LOS or in a strange place.
I'm a purist because I go back a long ways, but I'm way past the point of saying, "You should never fly that way because it's just not right." BS. You fly the tech available to you that best suits your needs at the time. That's like saying we shouldn't fly with altimeters since we can look out the window and tell how high we are. It is nothing but sheer arrogance for someone to tell a newbie, or anyone else for that matter, that they should never use "smart mode" in a given flying situation.
Had you been in "home mode," you could have simply pulled straight back on the right-hand stick, took your hand off the left, and hauled its *** straight back at you in sport mode just as hard as you could fly. I'll argue with any old time heli pilot that wants to argue that that's a **** good way to fly, especially in that situation.
You were "blind" and couldn't see. Nothing like a straight-back essentially "auto-pilot" to get you back safe as quickly as possible. Certainly makes a case for "smart mode" when flying out of LOS is a possibility, doesn't it?
I agree TOTALLY on "Fly what you got" - if it can do something "better" then screw how it was done before, do what you can with what you got, "better"
Something I do not know; when it's in Automatic Return Home, CAN I switch from P to S mode and have it continue to fly ARH? And/Or, While in ARH can I hit the throttle full forward and have it return faster? I was under the assumption that ARH was flying back as fast as it can (in the given mode p/m)
Any data on that?
Don't know but I can tell you this. I'm going to play with it LOS in the next couple of days and find out. This thread has motivated me.
Next time I do a long range run it's going to be over land or at least I'll run along the beach - why I didn't do THAT is ... argh... stupifying! Had I simply run along the beach on the US side, even if only a little way out in the water, I could have got essentially the same wide open LOS results but in a low battery situation it would have been a quick jaunt perpendicular and coming down on land. It's weird now that I literally sat down on a park bench, lifted off looked at 100% battery, saw Lake Huron and thought; I'll go that way... as long as I can go... and without further thought I was a pilot across vast seas
Dammit, I paid $100 for a happy ending yesterday. I could have just come here and got one for free
It was about 90'degrees out in direct sunlight. It was the second flight, first lasted about 20 min. iPad didn't feel very hot. In a stream of cool air from my SUVs A/C only took two mins to cool enough to restart.Great story, and congratulations you have survived
I think the best thing to learn here is to fly into the wind and have a tail wind on the return trip , just in case.
I have a Litchi mission set up to go about 4 miles and had to make sure I have safe landing areas in the flight path in case of an emergency landing. Also , going to be flying it along a seldom used road and have someone drive under it on it trip to report back and recover if needed.
I have a Litchi mission set up to go about 4 miles and had to make sure I have safe landing areas in the flight path in case of an emergency landing. Also , going to be flying it along a seldom used road and have someone drive under it on it trip to report back and recover if needed.
Ever been around large bodies of water much? He more than likely had a tailwind coming back.
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