What happens when I fly out of range

[dirtbikejoe36]

Hello, I have quite a few flights under my belt in a wide open area. I have a 3 standard. I want to shut off the distance limit and see how far I can go. I have read many forums of people pushing the distance. I know my standard won't go very far. My question is what happens when it loses connection with the controller. I do have fail safe rth enabled at a safe altitude to come back. Once it goes out of range will it engage in rth within 3 seconds? What happens? Thanks and sorry for the total novice question. Remember I have a standard.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[OrlyP]

Barring any technical glitch and assuming that the Home point was properly set, if you set it to RTH upon signal loss, that's exactly what the Phantom will do.

 

[Bob8619]

Just be aware that your remote can lose signal from the Phantom but your phantom may still be getting signal from the remote. In that scenario RTH won't be automatic. I always toggle my RTH switch just to be safe when I have a connection issue.

 

[tcope]

If the Phantom is below RTH altitude it will climb to the height. If it's above that altitude it will stay at that higher altitude. It will then fly back to the home point (where you took off). If I recall correctly it will hover until critical battery and then land. In any case, you can take control of the P3 once it's within range again by switching to Atti mode and back to GPS.

 

[sudarwika_bali]

Set your Failsafe to Return To Home. and you will fly worry-free

sent from new bie


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[dirtbikejoe36]

Just be aware that your remote can lose signal from the Phantom but your phantom may still be getting signal from the remote. In that scenario RTH won't be automatic. I always toggle my RTH switch just to be safe when I have a connection issue.

I have read that this isn't recommended and it should be done from the app? I've hear about fly always. But as I said, the more you read the more scared you get. I always manually set my home point after it does it automatically to ensure its accuracy. I'm just so nervous to send it until I lose connection. Was everyone nervous the first time they did it with there standards? What kind of range do you get with no mods and all stock


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Meta4]

My question is what happens when it loses connection with the controller

Re-read the failsafe RTH section in the manual then go to a good large open area and fly out about 100 feet.
Switch off your controller (to simulate lost signal) and watch what happens.

 

[Meta4]

Just be aware that your remote can lose signal from the Phantom but your phantom may still be getting signal from the remote.

In that situation, you should still have full control through and be able to fly back anyway without needing RTH.

I've heard about fly always. But as I said, the more you read the more scared you get. I always manually set my home point after it does it automatically to ensure its accuracy.

There's no need for that. If you hear the app tell you that the home point has been recorded - it has.
You can check on the map if you want a double check.
In hundreds of flights, I've never seen it get home point wrong..
The programming waits till it has a good GPS fix before recording home.

 

[dirtbikejoe36]

Thank you meta!! One more question. If the controller signal has been lost (such as to far out of range) and it comes back to home. When the signal to the controller is regained, will the feed come back to my phone to cancel rth and land manually. I have to land on a pad because of snow cover.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[dirtbikejoe36]

Perhaps one more question. When I look at my healthy drones report it tells me that "mode changed to gps Atti" the s1 switch is supposed to be up and in p-gps. Which it is. I see I have 10-15 satellites. Does this mean that I haven't flown my drown in p-Gps yet, and have been flying it in Atti mode the whole time? If so I'm confused because I was in beginner mode for 2 of these flights with multiple flight modes disabled.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Meta4]

Thank you meta!! One more question. If the controller signal has been lost (such as to far out of range) and it comes back to home. When the signal to the controller is regained, will the feed come back to my phone to cancel rth and land manually.

Yes.
You can cancel RTH at any time if you have control signal.
There's no need to wait around while RTH slowly comes home and you can usually find a better landing spot than a blind bit of programming can.

Perhaps one more question. When I look at my healthy drones report it tells me that "mode changed to gps Atti" the s1 switch is supposed to be up and in p-gps. Which it is. I see I have 10-15 satellites. Does this mean that I haven't flown my drown in p-Gps yet, and have been flying it in Atti mode the whole time? If so I'm confused because I was in beginner mode for 2 of these flights with multiple flight modes disabled.

HealthyDrones seems to show all flying in normal GPS mode as GPS-Atti.
Don't worry about it.

 

[Bob8619]

My range so far is 2600' in my residential area before losing video feed. At the beach I've been to 4600' with full control and video. Could have gone further as I still had full bars but the return trip was against strong winds so wanted to make sure I had enough battery to make it. No mods just stock.

And to the other poster, I only toggle it if I don't see it. Otherwise I do fly it back.

 

[dirtbikejoe36]

Thanks for your help everyone!


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Dino62972]

So i've not had a problom with RTH, i make sure home point is recorded in GPS befor take off and i have it set to smart rth in the app if it loses signal. I have toggled the switch a couple flights when the app said RTH failed for insurance and it came back. Yesterday was really un-nerving, i flew a distance of 7027.5ft without losing signal but i was so far away over a long long tree line i intiated RTH in the app. It came back, i wish i had gotten video.

 

[solentlife]

If the Phantom is below RTH altitude it will climb to the height. If it's above that altitude it will stay at that higher altitude. It will then fly back to the home point (where you took off). If I recall correctly it will hover until critical battery and then land. In any case, you can take control of the P3 once it's within range again by switching to Atti mode and back to GPS.

No .. it will RTH and then auto-land ...

But it is better to flick S1 to cancel RTH when you have it near enough to be able to land yourself.

The two things to remember are :

Flick S2 till you get the RTH click in ... that's if you lose Video or screen and no idea what its doing.

Flick S1 to regain control to manually land once its close to you to see ... note that if RTH - the AC will be FACING THE HOME POINT ....

Nigel

 

[solentlife]

I have read that this isn't recommended and it should be done from the app? I've hear about fly always. But as I said, the more you read the more scared you get. I always manually set my home point after it does it automatically to ensure its accuracy. I'm just so nervous to send it until I lose connection. Was everyone nervous the first time they did it with there standards? What kind of range do you get with no mods and all stock


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

Absolutely no need to go manually setting Home Point ... and using S2 is perfectly safe - anyone who recc'd not to use S2 is talking through their 'proverbial' .....

I regularly flew my Standard out to over 4000m .... in fact I flew to over 5000m but made mistake of going out that far AFTER already using part of my battery ... if I had just done 5000m straight - she would have got home !! But ignore that .... standard with stock should be good for 700 - 900m rural and 300 - 500 urban.

Don't forget also that RTH does not work if initiated at 20m or less from Home Point - all it will do then is land without coming home.

Nigel

 

[solentlife]

There are claims that RTH flies slow ... that is actually NOT correct.

RTH is governed by the Flight Controller and it sets a power level to maximise DISTANCE it can fly. The RTH speed will vary depending on distance OUT from home point and also the information it receives from GPS - the information will allow FC to calculate speed and power needed.

In the case of switching to ATTI mode to go home ... a) you need to know where the AC is and if Video / Telemetry is lost - you don't know ! So let FC do it ... b) at great distance your manual flying may incur greater power drain and you DON'T get home all the way.

Having been a standard owner and pushed distance limits numerous times - points a and b are well observed and anyone can watch my videos on youtube "solentlifeuk" ... where I have many with full screen recording showing RTH speeds / battery levels / distance out etc. You can even see the video where I lost it finally into the river after running out of battery - through my own fault.

Nigel