ATTI mode for the first time and critical battery juice drop

[SamuelA]

So was out for a five battery drain flight on a nice (45 degree) day in Chicago on Sunday.

On a large field, I was interested in running the batteries down to about 5% so I can do a full charge on each later.

Side note: on 4 of the 5, I had the dangerous situation where the battery had 12% or so and dropped down to 2% in the blink of an eye. I’m kind of bummed about that. It’s going to limit my flying distances in the future as I’ll be overly concerned about safety and retrieval.

Anyhow, I was interested in trying ATTI mode. Wow, what a nerve wracking experience (until I got a hang of it). The XSP maintained altitude without input, but a 5-10 mph wind carried the bird where ever it blew. Once I countered the wind with stick input, it was kind of fun operating in that mode.

Anyone else have experience with ATTI and/or critical (unexpected) battery power loss?

 

[Fly-a-holic]

I'm going to blame the battery drain problem on the temperature. We never heard of this until winter and it's the first winter for the Evo. I know a lithium polymer battery doesn't like the cold and when they're in an Evo they are 4 cooling fans right above it. Lol
Was your batteries cool to start with? Try and warm the batteries to 90F or so before you fly. Sounds like they got cool right at the end of your flight. Take precautions when warming batteries and never leave them unattended. I wouldn't go over 90 although mine have been 130 after a summer flight on a 95 degree day.

ATTI mode obviously doesn't use GPS to lock your drone into position but there's settings that use the bottom cameras for landing and to help hold position when GPS is not available.
Hope that helps. Let us know.

 

[SamuelA]

Hi Fly,
Thanks for the response and suggestions. Yes, it was about 45 out when I started. And the batteries were at the minimum safe flying temp (I think 70).

I do remember this happening for the first time this past summer on a warm day.

ATTI was fun And educational to try but GPS is the mainstay.

 

[norman.hicks.35]

After starting out with a small non-GPS drone, I find the Evo really easy to fly in comparison.