I was doing some low and slow figure 8s with my 3DR quad in the park when suddenly it started a fast climbing turn, heading for points south, until it crash landed about 30 feet up in a tree:
http://www.droneshare.com/view/t7kv6k
The log shows it switched to RTL failsafe mode, presumably due to low battery, prior to heading for parts unknown, but it sure didn't look to me like it was heading back to the launch point. Any idea where it thought it was going?
George
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Learn how to fly before using any auto command
Best of luck
I always keep my hand on the switch ready to flip back to manual mode whenever I'm in an auto mode, but in this case it was already switched to manual mode. So the correct course of action would have been to switch it to an auto mode and then back to manual, which I expect would have kicked it out of RTL. I'm afraid I lacked the presence of mind to realize that in the few seconds between the time it suddenly started flying away from me and when it crashed into the tree.
It did occur to me at the time that shutting off the transmitter might force it into a failsafe RTL, so I tried that, not realizing it was already in a failsafe RTL.
My question though is where was it going? I thought maybe it was heading toward some leftover waypoint in another part of town, but it shouldn't do that in RTL mode. Can you see any indication in the logs why it would fly suddenly away from the launch point? I can try and retrieve the flash logs if that might help.
I'm certainly open to any learn-to-fly resource suggestions you may have. I did a lot of flying of non-autopilot quads before getting this one, but that's not good preparation for situations where the copter just suddenly starts flying itself fast away from you.