Phone died mid-flight then crash: Lessons to learn!

[SPPhoto]

Hey All, so this is my first crash after 6 months of owning and using almost daily.

Today my phone ran out of batteries mid flight, the P3A was only 10m away as I knew the phone would die. But I kept flying as I was only at 60% of P3A battery and I had taken off and gone for short test flights without being hooked up to a phone/tablet before. Dumb thing was I pushed the P3A to its extremes as I had always been a filmer so no drastic manurers ever and so now without vision I though what the heck.

During a very tight turn at maximum controller yaw + forward & Left the P3A simply rolled too far then plummeted to the ground from maybe 8m height. The result is a destroyed gimbal but very surprisingly nothing else not even a broken prop, still flies just fine w/o gimbal and just ordered a new one.

Some things that I hadn't expected when the phone died was that
- Camera has stopped recording even tho it was recording previously so no awesome video to upload to YouTube boohoo!
- All flight data stopped recording so I've got nothing to look back at and asses where exactly it when bad.

Lessons
- its not a stunt drone stay away from the extremes
- Just go home if you run out of batteries on the phone/tablet

Funny how these UAVs can be so very stable when used properly but put them into the hands of a twat and they fall out of the skies

 

[Meta4]

Some things that I hadn't expected when the phone died was that
- Camera has stopped recording even tho it was recording previously so no awesome video to upload to YouTube boohoo!
- All flight data stopped recording so I've got nothing to look back at and asses where exactly it when bad.

I can't shed any light on the cause of the crash but losing the phone shouldn't affect your ability to control it and is unlikely to have been a factor in the crash.
As for the video .. I'm guessing that you were recording right up to the crash.
No phone would (again) not have affected anything.
Because you didn't stop recording normally, the video file has not been closed properly.
If you put the card back in a phantom and power it on and off, it will close the file and you'll get to see the video.

 

[n6vmo]

We'll need to see the flight data to determine where your controls were at the time of the crash.

 

[Karanba]

How can a phone left out of batteries when RC is charging it ??

 

[Meta4]

We'll need to see the flight data to determine where your controls were at the time of the crash.

Because the app wasn't running, the only way to get the flight data will be to access the data on the built-in sd card inside the Phantom.

 

[robinb]

How can a phone left out of batteries when RC is charging it ??

The RC does not charge the phone.

 

[Karanba]

Oh, sorry, just got my P3A and it made noise when connected so I thought it is charging it.

 

[happydays]

It does that noise, but then it stops charging.

 

[happydays]

I can't shed any light on the cause of the crash but losing the phone shouldn't affect your ability to control it and is unlikely to have been a factor in the crash.
As for the video .. I'm guessing that you were recording right up to the crash.
No phone would (again) not have affected anything.
Because you didn't stop recording normally, the video file has not been closed properly.
If you put the card back in a phantom and power it on and off, it will close the file and you'll get to see the video.

Less the last 15 seconds or so.

 

[Imabiggles]

The RC does not charge the phone.

For those of us using an android phone - yes the RC charges it (does for a nexus 5, oneplusone and samsung tablet). For those using I-crap, I dont think apple allows it to charge from RC.

 

[Meta4]

For those of us using an android phone - yes the RC charges it (does for a nexus 5, oneplusone and samsung tablet). For those using I-crap, I dont think apple allows it to charge from RC.

Actually, the R/C doesn't supply enough current to charge any phone.
There is just a trickle which is enough to make the charge indicator light up but not enough current to do any charging.

 

[meadams314]

Actually, I've used the RC to trickle charge my S6 and tab s2 when they were dead to the point of not even charging. Plugged them in to the remote for 30 minutes and they'd be at 1 or 2%. Not much but enough to get them charging normally again.

 

[sar104]

Actually, I've used the RC to trickle charge my S6 and tab s2 when they were dead to the point of not even charging. Plugged them in to the remote for 30 minutes and they'd be at 1 or 2%. Not much but enough to get them charging normally again.

Unfortunate that you have to go through that process to get them to the point of being able to charge.

 

[FrequentFlyer]

As a good exercise. Fly without the device, learn what the status LED's on the Phantom mean. The phantom will fly the same except no FPV. So, if your phone or other device crapps out on you, you know how to handle it.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Doink]

The RC does not charge the phone.

I'm pretty certain mine does or did, went out once with 60%, being a Newby i didn't know how much juice an hours flying would use but during flight it had actually gone up 5%, i will test this and check back though, using a galaxy tab s 8.4

 

[Wolfiesden]

Mine charges my Galaxy S5 (very slowly) but the nVidia K1 takes more juice than the RC puts out and slowly discharges during use on the RC.

 

[BVC]

Another ignorant flyer LOL

ahhhh life lessons indeed.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

No need for harsh words. I don't think it's uncommon for a new user to be UNaware that they can fly without a device.

Edit: by 'device', I mean an approved smart phone or tablet in the cradle of the remote control unit.

 

[Tarheal63]

I am not really sure you cannot fly without a device? I have had my Litchi and Go app both crash during flight and the bird stayed in the air.

 

[FrequentFlyer]

I am not really sure you cannot fly without a device? I have had my Litchi and Go app both crash during flight and the bird stayed in the air.

Not really sure what you mean with your double negative. ?


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app