ELEVATED LAUNCH FROM LADDER QUESTION - From member

"Did you try actually taking it off from the ladder, to see if putting it back on the ground just before the real takeoff was what was resetting the remembered position back to real ground level? "

Hi Guys! Great video!

Two questions though:

1) Did you try actually taking it off from the ladder, to see if putting it back on the ground just before the real takeoff was what was resetting the remembered position back to real ground level? I don't think it's getting the altitude from a GPS map or anything, or else it would never be able to account for taking off from man-made structures as it obviously does... ( Question based on this clip GROUND ZERO )

2) If it normally auto-lands by returning to the home point and then killing the motors, why would it hover if it thought the ground was 2 meters above the water? Seems like it would still fall into the drink no matter how high it thought the home point was if it kills the motors, unless you regained control with the remote before then. ( Question based on this clip GROUND ZERO )

A lot of negative press here in the states about "drones" this week, mostly because of operators doing stupid things with them - that then reflect badly on everyone in the hobby. It seems like anyone having a mishap with an RC aircraft is likely to be subjected to stiff fines or worse to make examples out of them... This has regrettably convinced me that I can't risk trying to fly something like a Phantom in the very highly populated area that I live in (where any noticeable incident would likely get a lot of bad attention) - at least until DJI can totally eliminate the loss of control problems that people are obviously still having. Maybe someday soon they'll have an automatic detect & avoid system included too...

Keep up the great work! Looking forward to your boating show! Welcome to your new assistant too!

- Warp

Hi Warp,

Thanks for the thoughts! Yes we tried launching direct from 3 ladders in 2 location and 2 different heights. Results the same every time! I think the IMUs sense ground friction or resistance, you can see this the moment the Phantom starts to kick up down trust and then it gently bounces its way to the landing. We did a test on water the other day to see if it would land in the water and it really upset it, but I wasn't prepared to "go all the way" so still an unanswered theory!

2/ The Phantom needs to touch down and stabilize to kill the motors, so my theory was that if an elevated home position was set, it would not stabilise and just sit there until you grabbed it or took control.

Thanks again for your comments, always great to hear what other pilots think.

And yes, I think the DH's will ruin droning for the rest of us......

Also from Member Bruce

> I read the auto-landing section with interest as I've been experimenting

> with this. What I've observed with my Phantom 1.1.1 is that it is going

> through an algorithm where it alternates between a hover and a short,

> rapid descent. It repeats this until it hits ground (and even then

> repeats it a couple of times). I'm thinking that what it is doing is

> watching its accelerometers to see when it hits bottom and in that way

> knows that it has hit land. This is why the elevated take-off is not

> going to work because it is not decending to a preset barometric

> pressure