I was trying out flying arducopter for the first time and took it out into the lawn. I have limited experience flying with autopilots, gps, stabalize etc. I have more experience with normal RC helicopters/planes. I armed the board and started flying. Then I felt that I lost control, the copter started gaining altitude, and maybe was just going to hover on it's own, but I dropped the throttle stick as this is my normal reaction when I want something to go down. The copter would not go down, so I instinctively shut off my radio because I think this should engage the return to launch feature and the copter b-lined it towards my neighbor's house. Was the GPS sensor wrong or was it something else?
Luckily my neighbor was nice enough to give me back the copter (never met them before). It made a pretty loud smashing sound against their roof/house and luckily as far as I know it was only my copter that is damaged. I don't know where it would have gone if it didn't hit their house. Feeling pretty lucky to get it back and that no one is hurt. Also glad the board and most of the electronics are mostly intact.
Replies
George, you will have to look at the logs
Thanks. Looks like my neighbors house was the RTL point. I see the RTL stage was activated and then the copter went in that direction.
So Should I get a better GPS module?
No just wait longer before you start flying once powered up.