I thought I had Lost My Quadcopter

[wdfifteen]

Took my grandson and dogs to the park. It's a big open space, perfect for flying. He's flow the 'copter a few other times so I turned him loose with it and played with the dogs. I was about 100 yards away when he started yelling that it, "took off." I told him to take his hands off the controls and don't do anything, but when I got to him he had panicked and had both the altitude and forward motion paddles at full lock. The 'copter was nowhere in sight. I turned the transmitter off and thought, "If the auto-homing feature is ever going to work, let it be now." We watched and waited, and waited, and watched. After what seemed like forever we saw a speck on the horizon that got bigger and bigger. Damn thing flew itself back and landed right where it had taken off.
It's just an old DJI Phantom, but still nice not to lose it.

[Hugh R]

We had one for filming and the FAA was there to observe since it was considered commercial, not recreational. It took off and never came back. Commercially is an official incident.

[rattlsnak]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

We had one for filming and the FAA was there to observe since it was considered commercial, not recreational. It took off and never came back. Commercially is an official incident.

ha ha ha too funny...!!

My brother has a DJ Phantom III and you can program it to follow you around at specific points.. You can be riding dirt bikes or something and it will be there 5 feet over you or behind you, or whatever, the whole time filming.. Pretty cool..

[vonsmog]

My six rotor one lost a motor while over the bay last 4th of July! Started falling out of the sky, but then caught it self and I was able to limp it back to shore. If it was a four rotor it would have been lost.

[Khal]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Took my grandson and dogs to the park. It's a big open space, perfect for flying. He's flow the 'copter a few other times so I turned him loose with it and played with the dogs. I was about 100 yards away when he started yelling that it, "took off." I told him to take his hands off the controls and don't do anything, but when I got to him he had panicked and had both the altitude and forward motion paddles at full lock. The 'copter was nowhere in sight. I turned the transmitter off and thought, "If the auto-homing feature is ever going to work, let it be now." We watched and waited, and waited, and watched. After what seemed like forever we saw a speck on the horizon that got bigger and bigger. Damn thing flew itself back and landed right where it had taken off.
It's just an old DJI Phantom, but still nice not to lose it.

You really can pucker up when these things go missing. I flew mine out 3 miles and could only see it via the GPS and front screen. The newer versions have dual batteries so if one fails it won't fall out of the sky. They are quickly becoming really solid flying machines but those are in the 6 grand price range.

I never have and ever will fly mine over people or crowds. When I was in Hawaii this SOB was trolling the beach hovering just 15 feet over hot chicks, who loved the attention. Then for some reason he flew his toy over me about 40 foot up. I hard to try really, really hard not to walk over to the pilot who wasn't far away and tell if you ever fly that over me again I'll break your sht infront of everyone.

I don't mind the buzz sound once in a while on the beach but I'd hate to see these things go so cheap its nonstop buzzing on vacation.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Khal

You really can pucker up when these things go missing. I flew mine out 3 miles and could only see it via the GPS and front screen.

I have a lot of trouble seeing mine at 500 yards. I can see the quad, but not how it's oriented. I started taping an LED flashlight to the bottom, facing the front. With the flashlight on i can tell which way the quad is oriented. No more pushing a paddle to see which way the machine moves - that doesn't work too well when it moves away from you!

[rattlsnak]

Does your not have the green and red lights on the bottom?