What to do when in-flight issues occur ?

[Whiskey_Throttle]

Does anyone have a failure mode and accommodation summary to help new users as they start to expand their range of flight operation?
I’m thinking of the occasional issues that happen in-flight that we have to address. The list below include several issues I have seen - I am sure there are many more. While most are relatively straight forward to address – it would be nice to have corrective action thought out ahead of time instead of pondering the best course of action while the quad is 400 ft in the air and a long way from home.

1) Tablet Disconnect (GO Message “Disconnected”) Light on remote stays green
2) RC Disconnect (GO Message "Aircraft Disconnected") Light on remote red
3) Image Transmission Lost
4) Lost GPS Signal
5) Compass Calibration Error in Flight
6) Wind increased in flight such that drone not making headway towards home

 

[tcope]

1) Land as soon as safely possible
2) Land as soon as safely possible
3) Land as soon as safely possible
4) Land as soon as safely possible
5) Land as soon as safely possible
6) Land as soon as safely possible

 

[Mark The Droner]

Certainly. I'd say all veteran pilots have experienced most of these situations.

1) Every day. Screen freezes. Just wait until I get back into range.

2) Every day. Just wait until it turns around and I get back into range.

3) Every day.

4) Never happens to me unless I'm just about to land.

5) Never.

6) Yes. Drop altitude. Clenching jaw seems to help somewhat. So does wringing hands and mumbling to myself. Makes for an exciting flight and a story you don't generally share on the forum.

 

[tml4191]

1) Land as soon as safely possible
2) Land as soon as safely possible
3) Land as soon as safely possible
4) Land as soon as safely possible
5) Land as soon as safely possible
6) Land as soon as safely possible

That sums it up ^

 

[AWD]

Certainly. I'd say all veteran pilots have experienced most of these situations.

1) Every day. Screen freezes. Just wait until I get back into range.

2) Every day. Just wait until it turns around and I get back into range.

3) Every day.

4) Never happens to me unless I'm just about to land.

5) Never.

6) Yes. Drop altitude. Clenching jaw seems to help somewhat. So does wringing hands and mumbling to myself. Makes for an exciting flight and a story you don't generally share on the forum.

Pretty much sums it up for the listed "problems".

On the wind crisis, if it's strong enough to make you believe you'll have problems, try to do most of your flying "upwind" so that the trip back to Home won't be fighting the elements to make it back safely.

As to the references to "Land, Land, Land" well it would take some very extreme emergency situation to make me even THINK about landing immediately from any situation while flying. I'm sure tcope was just making a facetious comment in the thread.

AD

 

[Richard R]

Plan ahead! double check that your RTH settings are correct (RTH if signal lost, RTH height tall enough to avoid all potential obstacles).

 

[Dirby]

you don't need to be hooked up to a tablet or phone to fly your phantom.
if you screen drops out and there is nothing on the screen just fly it back to your home point and land it.

 

[tcope]

As to the references to "Land, Land, Land" well it would take some very extreme emergency situation to make me even THINK about landing immediately from any situation while flying. I'm sure tcope was just making a facetious comment in the thread.

Nope. I think if someone wants to plan out what to do in advance for these situations the best response would be to first consider landing as soon as safely possible. In all cases mentioned there is a problem that needs to be corrected. If I'm giving advise to the masses in every situation it would be to return and land in order to correct the situation. I don't see how anyone could go wrong in applying this action.

If the response is "wait until it gets back in range".... then either control has been lost and nothing can be done anyway or the person is flying back to them, as I recommended.

Seriously... look over the posted situations again and apply when I posted. Can you disagree?

 

[AWD]

Nope. I think if someone wants to plan out what to do in advance for these situations the best response would be to first consider landing as soon as safely possible.

Ooops, my bad. When I read your original post it looked like if "anything happened, just land now" which obviously is not what you wrote.

Landing as soon a safely possible is, of course, correct.

AD (sheepishly returning to lurker mode to recharge the batteries and get back out for another few flights!)

 

[k9time]

I like running a screen recorder on my tablet. After the incident is over I can analyze what I was doing vs what the AC was doing and come up with a better plan if it was to happen again. Most of the time I would rather watch the screen recording than the actual footage from the Ac.

Sent from my SM-T817V using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Whiskey_Throttle]

Plan ahead! double check that your RTH settings are correct (RTH if signal lost, RTH height tall enough to avoid all potential obstacles).

Spot on - planning ahead is exactly what this post is about. Correct RTH settings and verifying home point set correctly are key to failsafe processes working. Knowing what to do when signal interference occurs, GPS signal loss, etc occurs during flight was the rest of the "planning ahead" I was looking for.

 

[Whiskey_Throttle]

I like running a screen recorder on my tablet. After the incident is over I can analyze what I was doing vs what the AC was doing and come up with a better plan if it was to happen again. Most of the time I would rather watch the screen recording than the actual footage from the Ac.

Sent from my SM-T817V using PhantomPilots mobile app

Interesting - I will have to try running a screen recorder.

 

[Whiskey_Throttle]

Certainly. I'd say all veteran pilots have experienced most of these situations.

1) Every day. Screen freezes. Just wait until I get back into range.

2) Every day. Just wait until it turns around and I get back into range.

3) Every day.

4) Never happens to me unless I'm just about to land.

5) Never.

6) Yes. Drop altitude. Clenching jaw seems to help somewhat. So does wringing hands and mumbling to myself. Makes for an exciting flight and a story you don't generally share on the forum.

Certainly. I'd say all veteran pilots have experienced most of these situations.

1) Every day. Screen freezes. Just wait until I get back into range.

2) Every day. Just wait until it turns around and I get back into range.

3) Every day.

4) Never happens to me unless I'm just about to land.

5) Never.

6) Yes. Drop altitude. Clenching jaw seems to help somewhat. So does wringing hands and mumbling to myself. Makes for an exciting flight and a story you don't generally share on the forum.

Thanks - your actions for sudden wind increase also worked for me, though sphincter tightening was also part of the process. Would switching to ATTI or Sport mode be a next step if the bird continues to struggle ?

Many of these – like image transmission lost – are indeed pretty much every day occurrences for many of us. I usually just increase altitude until image transmission is restored – then use that distance from home as the edge of operation for that flight. Was thinking this would be reasonable guidance for newbies first encountering this in flight. Others may have better suggestions.

 

[Mark The Droner]

ATTI is actually the "Sport Mode" for P2s and P3s, although there is no mention of it in the manuals. Last month I did 65 mph ground speed flying with a 20 mph tail wind and since my AC maxes at 30 mph or so (according to the manual), it doesn't make sense. The truth is, it does 30 mph or so in GPS mode, but in ATTI is runs like a Ferrari. And that means the battery strength is going to drop like a stone.

That's the long answer.

The short answer is, no, using ATTI probably won't solve your problem. You'll make better headway but you'll end up landing short of home. Also, it's not good for the battery to exhaust it so thoroughly. A lot of them are ruined after such a flight.

The REAL solution is to not put yourself in the situation in the first place. I use uavforecast and also windytv (thanks again to TJ) before each flight, the latter which deserves a lot more attention than it's getting.

For example, if I look outside right now, it's dead calm. Do I fly? No, not before checking the forecast because I'm in a shallow valley which is enough to hide the wind. So I check the forecast. Uavforecast says wind is 10 mph at 400' and it would be a tail wind going out for me. But it's on the increase since it will be 11 mph in 15 minutes. That is not good news. It means the help you get going out is more than canceled coming back and it'll be like running up the down escalator.

But then I look at windytv, and GFS shows 15 mph tailwind going out at 330 feet and it's increasing.

No flight this morning for me.

 

[Xenomorph]

So I check the forecast. Uavforecast says wind is 10 mph at 400' and it would be a tail wind going out for me. But it's on the increase since it will be 11 mph in 15 minutes. That is not good news. It means the help you get going out is more than canceled coming back and it'll be like running up the down escalator.

But then I look at windytv, and GFS shows 15 mph tailwind going out at 330 feet and it's increasing.

No flight this morning for me.

Wow that UAV Forecast is a cool site! I see it has wind speed listed, but how do I know the wind speed at different heights?

 

[Mark The Droner]

You can change all sorts of stuff at the top of the page - including height.

Yes it's great and it's easy to read at a glance, but for solid info, I think windytv is better when it comes to wind because it has better tools and more varied sources. Wind is the site's specialty.

None of these are rock solid though. They can be off a bit so you have to be cautious.

 

[Xenomorph]

You can change all sorts of stuff at the top of the page - including height.

Yes it's great and it's easy to read at a glance, but for solid info, I think windytv is better when it comes to wind because it has better tools and more varied sources. Wind is the site's specialty.

None of these are rock solid though. They can be off a bit so you have to be cautious.

Thank you, I'll be sure to check out windytv as well!

 

[k9time]

Interesting - I will have to try running a screen recorder.

But remember Whiskey if your tablet/ phone is already prone to freeze ups it isn't going to help running a screen recorder as it will stress the tablet that much worse. AZ Screen Recorder for android is what I use and there are settings to turn it down a little if it's to much. Good flying..

Sent from my SM-G935V using PhantomPilots mobile app