My First Near Miss

[erikgraham]

I'd just like to throw in my 2 cents. This won't help you land, but if you find yourself in the same situation as the OP, it's good to remember this:

UP is Safe.

So if your drone is starting to drift and you have time for one panicked reaction, then make sure that one reaction is to push the left stick all the way up and gain some altitude as fast as you can. Up is safe because GPS is better at higher altitude. Up is safe because it's above the trees (trees are the number one threat to drones, they should be outlawed).

Once your up and away to a safe place, you can gather yourself and plan out how and where your going to try landing again.

 

[Barry Poole]

I'd just like to throw in my 2 cents. This won't help you land, but if you find yourself in the same situation as the OP, it's good to remember this:

UP is Safe.

So if your drone is starting to drift and you have time for one panicked reaction, then make sure that one reaction is to push the left stick all the way up and gain some altitude as fast as you can. Up is safe because GPS is better at higher altitude. Up is safe because it's above the trees (trees are the number one threat to drones, they should be outlawed).

Once your up and away to a safe place, you can gather yourself and plan out how and where your going to try landing again.

I agree. In most cases anyway. I only had a small opening in the canopy above me in this situation. Up or a RTH in this case would have spelled disaster. I put myself and Solo in a spot I wasn't prepared for. Shame on me! Lucky for me, we lived to fly again.

 

[Barry Poole]

Another question for you guys. If Advanced Flight Modes are not enabled in the App and Solo loses GPS, will Manual be automatically selected by Solo in order to remain in control?

 

[erikgraham]

Another question for you guys. If Advanced Flight Modes are not enabled in the App and Solo loses GPS, will Manual be automatically selected by Solo in order to remain in control?

Yes. And be ready to hit the FLY button to switch back to GPS mode as soon as the signal recovers.

 

[Barry Poole]

Yes. And be ready to hit the FLY button to switch back to GPS mode as soon as the signal recovers.

Even though NOT ENABLED? I flew yesterday in Manual and there was no comparison to the uncontrollable near miss I had over the weekend. Maybe I didn't have gps loss?

 

[Maddog]

Even though NOT ENABLED? I flew yesterday in Manual and there was no comparison to the uncontrollable near miss I had over the weekend. Maybe I didn't have gps loss?

Yes- manual is always available to Solo so it can turn control over to you if it detects loss of signal or GPS.

 

[Adimuzio513]

Even though NOT ENABLED? I flew yesterday in Manual and there was no comparison to the uncontrollable near miss I had over the weekend. Maybe I didn't have gps loss?

At least when I had my little gps glitch it wasn't drift, it was the gps trying to compensate or find where it was with to few sats. This was in the first weeks so I can't say for sure if that's your issue, but it took a few for the gps loss alarm and manual to kick in. In that time between I was fighting the gps, I hadn't played with manual yet, but it was controlling itself a bit briefly before any loss of gps alarm hit my controller.

 

[Adimuzio513]

This happened in a place with a view of the sky where I would fly my p2 a lot and had a few solo flights there as well. Actually it was about ten feet above my home point, but there are trees on three sides of my yard. All was ok and nothing was broken, but if I had practiced manual earlier I could have avoided the hard landing all together.

 

[Barry Poole]

At least when I had my little gps glitch it wasn't drift, it was the gps trying to compensate or find where it was with to few sats. This was in the first weeks so I can't say for sure if that's your issue, but it took a few for the gps loss alarm and manual to kick in. In that time between I was fighting the gps, I hadn't played with manual yet, but it was controlling itself a bit briefly before any loss of gps alarm hit my controller.

That's interesting. Sounds similar to what I experienced except for no warning. I didn't give it a chance before I had it on the ground. I wished I had got a look at the number of sats I had in lock. I started with six and without a manual scapegoat to turn to. I feel lucky, especially after following the Lost Solo thread posted here!