Although a full member I am an infrequent user of a DJI Phantom 3 Advanced following crashing my Standard model and removing and destroying the camera and have had the Advanced for about six months now but have not used it a lot.
Last week I was using it to video a roof on a building for a “friends of” group where I am a member to see if I could find where a leak in the roof of one of the buildings was coming from. There was some strong gusts of wind, although the drone seemed to cope ok, and when finished I pressed the return to home icon on my notebook and the drone rose then went to come back in but was going to land in a different part which was fenced off so I tried to bring it down manually just by using the sticks.
This is where the fun started.
I was trying to manoeuvre the drone to my location but then it started to drift and in panicking I caught the GPS switch which I put back into the correct position but the drone would not respond to any input I put into the sticks and would not come back and the controller was bleeping away. Eventually it was heading for a roof that had a bush growing out of the edge of the roof line and, fortunately, it hit the bush then crashed down the side of the building, which was about 30-40ft high, and landed softly firstly into another bush then into some long grass with no damage, phew.
Can anyone please help me as to what might have gone wrong, what can I could have done to regain control and what I can do to prevent it happening again as I feel a bit too stressed to use it again at present as to have it doing what it wanted and not under my control was worrying to say the least.
Thanks
We will need to see the Airdata
Can you please share it here
I’m sorry but with being a newish person, less than 2 years of very infrequent flying, I don’t know anything about Airdata, where to find it and let alone how to share it. I’m sorry but all this is strange to me, I am retired but did use computers in my previous job so am reasonably Tech savvy but this is new to me.
Ok, start by joining airdate, you can create a free account
Once you have joined we will guide you through the process of uploading the flight logs
There are some helpful articles here as well
and videos
Do I download it onto my notebook, laptop or mobile?
Then do I have to connect the control unit up to it
No, its a website, set up an account and log in, there is also an app you can download to your phone
No, it can pull the data from your DJI account
For me, I use my Android (Phone) and the DJI App to help fly the drone. (View live stream on phone) - the flying app
I then install the Airdata app on my phone. Then link the flying app to the airdata app by entering the key in the options of flying app.
Hope this helps.
I’ll get my notebook, which I use to fly it, down from my loft room in the morning and load it up.
Thanks people I will let you know what happens tomorrow - bed calls.
Sounds like when you put the “GPS” switch (I presume you mean the P-A-F switch on the top) it didn’t go all the way into P (position) mode, and was left halfway between A (Atti) mode and P mode. The later GL300 models had this switch configured P-S-A which kept Position mode away from Atti mode.
When I have checked my tablet this morning it looks also like the configuration of the control sticks had gone haywire and changed their configuration in mid flight - R to L and vica versa !!! Don’t know how the hell that has happened, I checked the flight log and it just kept flying away from me and didn’t seem like any input I did made any difference.
I did check the P-S-A switch during the flight and did knock it into mid position but switched it back to P as soon as I noticed and that’s when the bleeping started
Have you got PSA or PAF?
Sorry P-A-F.
Phew, had to go up into the loft room to get the drone
Slow down mate, life’s too short to rush!
If you’d got PSA, you would have had the wrong transmitter! It would possibly have worked but not properly.
I realise that as the Advanced and Pro use lightbridge comms
So does the GL300C Ver2 for the Phantom 4 series
The chart isn’t mine, it’s from Phantom Drone Forum
As regards the switch, to prevent it getting caught again I think a bit of tape over it to prevent it getting caught but it doesn’t solve the question of what the bleeping was or why the sticks changed modes mid flight
Airdata will help
I can’t understand the mode change, but the beeping could be a low battery or the controller losing connection to the drone. Did the light at the front of the controller change colour (purple/blue/red)?