Scary return to home

[FilmIdol]

I'm not sure I can get help for this, but wanted to convey a very scary circumstance. I was flying down a river on a battery with about 75% power, then flew back. UAV was acting weird, then got the vibration signal that it was running low on battery. I couldn't just return to home because I had trees in the way. So I got it to enough clearing that I could return to home, but the buzzing kept going. I knew I was losing battery fast. The problem was the UAV was about 10' below me because I was on a knoll above the river. The return to home (RTH) got it to about 40' away, over the river, and stopped. I didn't have any control over it at all. As the buzzing turned to almost continuous mode, I thought I was going to lose it in the fast moving river, or at best, crash on the shore. Taking it out of Home mode, I managed to get it to about eye level, and somehow got it close enough to me to grab a hold of, and then the power died. Thank goodness I had it in my hand or it would have crashed.

Anyone else have connectivity problems when the batter is not fully charged? It makes me very nervous to fly it very far.

 

[Colin]

I haven't experienced what you're describing, but there again I never ever let obstacles such as trees, hills, or buildings, come between me and my quad becuase neither 2.4G or 5.8G transmissions are any good whatsoever for cutting through line-of-sight obstacles in the way that the old-school R/C frequencies used to.

Col.

 

[Subtle Shots]

On mine the first battery warning says something like "low battery, limiting your altitude to 180 feet"
Although flying from high ground is my preference i am always very carefully watching my negative altitude readout.
The trees may have blocked your RC signals and immediately started a return to home on its own....until it got close enough to reconnect and let you take control again....or, because the copter was in the low battery pre programed safeguarded scenario, it may have been limiting your climbing ability to save battery and complete the return to home safeguard. ...you did the right thing to override the safeguard and do some on the spot critical thinking. I now watch my voltage levels like a hawk and start getting back home at 10.8 and keep it close at 10.7 and immediately land/catch at 10.6 when the first vibration alarm goes off. Hope this helps

 

[humboldt 707]

I agree with Colin and shots,I own 150 acres in a heavily wooded area and do all my recreational flying there,I don't have a Q,I have a Chroma which is pretty close to the Q.I noticed right off the limited capabilities of the st 10 transmitter while fully charged.it flutters video transmission at times to easily,and I blame my first crash with it partly due to loss of video,being an amateur.Try to fly fully charged always,as far as signal problems go to Carolina Dronz and get one of their range extending antennas for the ST10,one of the best 100$ you can spend,Easily installs to if you do your own work.

 

[stan5686]

GREAT FLYING JOB!!! I had a somewhat similar situation that resulted in a low power landing in the woods and a couple of days searching. I found it though. And now, like Subtle Shots says I watch my battery level very close and also the length of time I'm up. I'm still learning some things about the signal transmission as well. I lose camera signal more than connection with the ST10 though.