Need to Know: The Phantom cannot avoid obstacles during Failsafe. So it might be a good idea to try Regaining 

 Control as soon as you can. 

 Need to Know: In FAILSAFE mode, the aircraft speed is really slow and if you are low on battery it may 

 be an issue! 

 2- Regain Control: 

 This will depend on the position of the S1 switch (GPS or ATTI) when the Failsafe was triggered. 

 S1 was on ATTI: You will get back control as soon as signal is recovered. 

 S1 was on GPS: You WILL need to toggle the S1 switch to ATTI once to regain control. If the signal is 

 recovered, you will get back control; switch S1 back to GPS. 

 If you do not toggle the S1 switch, you won’t be able to control anything. Why? Because it’s the 

 “Phantom’s Flight Control System” that controls your aircraft now and land it automatically (it 

 will not exit the Failsafe mode by itself even if the signal is restored). So remember to switch 

 S1 from GPS (top) to ATTI (center) then back to top position after you regain control. 

 (The GPS > ATTI > GPS Flipping Sequences). 

 Need to know: What will happen if you have manually reset the Home Point way up in the air and Failsafe 

 activates; will it kill the motor when it reaches the Home Point and crash down? 

 Not to worry! The Phantom will just slowly descend until it cannot descend anymore. Once it feels 

 that the altitude is no longer changing for about 3-5 secs, it will turn off the motors. 

E- GPS Lost

 GPS ATTI 

 

 You are flying in GPS mode (S1 in the upper position) and suddenly the Phantom starts drifting when you let go of 

 the sticks OR you see the Rear Led suddenly slowly flashing Yellow. First thing to do is check the number of 

 satellites on the DJI Vision Camera screen (top right corner). If there are less than 6 sat, you've lost GPS and are 

 now flying in ATTI mode (Note: you won’t get any warning from the DJI Vision App). You WILL have control but it 

 will be a bit harder to fly/land because of the drifting. 

 It’s always a good idea to keep an eye on the number of satellites when flying. Especially if that number changes 

 rapidly over a short period of time meaning, maybe, you have an unstable GPS signal. 

 GPS Lost maybe cause by several factors, like: 

- You’ve decided to take off even though satellites signal were unstable or merely got 6 satellites. 

- Flying under or near something that may have blocked the “Line of Sight” between the GPS Module and 

 Satellites: Trees, Buildings... 

- GPS system might be damaged (after a crash, a hard landing) 

 Best thing to do is to try to stabilize as much as you can and see if you can regain GPS (moving up a bit might 

 also help) OR learn how to fly in ATTI mode...very, very fast. So now might be a good idea to do some ATTI 

 flying\landing practice, just to be prepared for this kind of situation. 

 Need to Know: When GPS is lost, Flipping S2 to H/L won't work because H/L, just like FAILSAFE/RTH, is dependant 

 on having enough satellites to properly triangulate. Flipping S1 to Failsafe will caused it to land straight down; in 

 which case you will have 3 things to remember : obstacle, obstacle and obstacle. 

 On the other hand, if GPS was ok (6+ sat) and the Phantom is still drifting away: Check out the Flyaway section. 

Page 17 
F- Flyaway. The worst nightmare of all pilots...!

 A flyaway is a scenario where the Phantom pilot will suddenly lose control of the Phantom during a flight 

 resulting in lost or damaged units. If your Phantom starts flying away ignoring your input, try these steps, 

 only progressing if no success: 

 Need to Know: If you lose GPS while flying, the Phantom will enter ATTI mode and MAY get blown away 

 (drifting in the direction it was flying before losing GPS). This is not a Flyaway, it is normal. Just follow the 

 instructions in the GPS Lost section. 

 

 1- Immediately switch from GPS to ATTI mode by putting S1 in the middle position. 

 You will be flying without GPS. Meaning the Phantom will not automatically hold its horizontal position and 

 without position hold it will drift. Home Lock(HL) will not work since Home Lock changes to Course Lock if your 

 S1 switch is in ATTI. 

 If the Phantom seems to respond in ATTI mode and you have some control, manually increase altitude quickly 

 to avoid obstacles and try to bring it back. From time to time, retry GPS mode (S1 Up) to see if you have 

 regained control in GPS mode. 

 If the Phantom is out of sight and you are unable to use FPV (DJI Vision Camera feeds has stopped) you won't 

 be able to fly it in ATTI mode (you’ll be blind as a bat), go to step 2. 

 2- Initiate the FAILSAFE by putting S1 in the down position or by turning off the Remote Control. 

 If GPS is lost, the Phantom automatically switches to ATTI mode. It will attempt to land slowly wherever it is 

 (possibly land in a tree or crash into whatever the wind blows it into). BUT a soft landing is better than a drop. 

 If it has GPS or regains GPS, it may fly home. In which case you might be able to get back control by flipping 

 S1 to ATTI, then to GPS. 

 3- Send the CSC to kill the motors. You’d rather have a crash landing than a lost Phantom. 

 Very last resort. If it's out of sight this will prevent it from getting further away but if it's out of sight you will not 

 know if Step 2 was effective so be very careful with this one. 

 You should try ATTItude mode before Failsafe, as several people have had no luck with Failsafe even with good 

 satellites connection. If the Failsafe does not work, kill the motors before the Phantom goes out of range. It is 

 unlikely you will be able to search several square miles and find your Phantom when it goes in a changing direction 

 at full throttle. 

 Be sure to read the “How to avoid flyaway / Recover from a flyaway” sections. 

G- Vortex Ring State (VRS) (Text by damoncooper)

 If you are a new Phantom pilot and don't know what VRS is or how to avoid it, you may risk losing your investment 

 to a mysterious type of crash that will appear like your quad just dropped from the sky for no good reason. 

 Wind speed and direction, stick inputs (rapid yaw has been implicated on multiple occasions) and a host of other 

 factors make VRS a possibility. The results are frequently a crash or loss, especially if flying long distance or over 

 water. If you want to know more about VRS mechanics: Settling with Power. 

 I think it's critical that pilots (new and old alike) be able to recognize the early signs of VRS and have a VRS 

 "escape plan" they are prepared to execute immediately. 

 Be sure you watch: 

 - Quadcopter "Wobble of Death": VRS Recovery and Avoidance and 

 - How to avoid/recover from Vortex Ring State. 

Recognizing VRS 

VRS (Vortex Ring State) is most often caused by descending straight down too quickly. 

If flying line of sight, it can look like a "wobble" or oscillations around one or more axis. On FPV, the signs are 

usually the landing gear oscillating in and out of view and/or uncontrolled yaw movements. The first signs can 

quickly be following by a rapid uncontrolled descent/drop from the sky. 

Escaping VRS

Page 18 
At the first signs of VRS something like the following make a good escape plan: 

1) Release throttle. 

2) Push Forward or Sideway at full thrust to get clean air and try to "punch out" of the vortex. If possible, punch out 

 into or across the wind (upwind or crosswind). 

3) Flip to ATTI mode. 

4) If uncontrolled yaw/rotation is occurring, apply opposite yaw to stabilize heading. 

 Avoiding VRS

Of course, none of this guarantees you WILL escape VRS, so it's highly preferred to avoid VRS altogether if possible. 

Tips I've gathered from extensive reading on this topic as well as my own sad experience include: 

1) Don't fly when wind speed is >13-17mph. DJI is explicit about this in the manual. Beaufort scale 4 for those of 

 you who prefer that sort of thing. Remember that winds aloft can differ greatly from wind speed on the ground. 

 A quick flip to ATTI mode aloft and observing drift or observing the OSD horizon line in GPS mode can help 

 gauge wind speed and direction at your flight altitude. 

2) Limit your "straight down" descent speed. 

3) Never descend straight down, especially if coming down fast. Maintain lateral movement when descending to 

 keep the quad in "clean air" (zig zag, side-to-side, circle, etc).. Always descend at an angle (preferably into the 

 wind) - Fly forward and down OR while flying a circle - Circling down in small spirals. 

4) Avoid fast yaw movements where possible and avoid fast yaw combined with descent. You can enter your own 

 prop wash and provide the conditions for VRS. 

5) There have been many reports of users with prop guards and heavily laden quads encountering VRS. Many 

 observers appear to agree that using prop guards appears to increase the chances of invoking VRS. 

H- Low Battery

 The Phantom has two levels of battery warnings: Low Battery Level Warning and Critical Battery Level Warning. 

 The battery warning level is no longer set by battery level. It's now controlled by estimated flight time remaining. The 

 thresholds for these warnings are automatically determined based on the current aircraft altitude and its distance 

 from Home Point. The yellow and red zones will grow or shrink depending on how far away your phantom is from 

 home point. Yellow is low battery warning, red is RTH. 

 

 If you enabled “Low Battery Auto Go Home” (using either the DJI Phantom Assistant or DJI Vision App) and the 

 battery level reaches the Low Battery Level Warning, a message will appear on the DJI Vision app screen. Tap 

 “Go Home” to have the aircraft return to the Home Point(RTH) and land automatically, or “Cancel” to resume 

 normal flight (be sure to land it manually, ASAP). If, after 10 seconds, no action is taken, the aircraft will 

 automatically go home and land. Personally, I have it disabled because RTH flies very slowly and odds are it may 

 not make it back anyway. Home lock and full back on the stick is much faster. Be sure you always keep an eye on 

 your battery status, if you disabled it. 

 When the battery level reaches a Critical Battery Level Warning, the DJI Vision app screen will flash red and the 

 aircraft will automatically land straight down and power off the motors after landing. 

 You may be able to keep it aloft by applying some throttle to manoeuvre to a safer area, but at that point you are 

 flying on borrowed time - you can't really know how quickly the battery will die. If the Phantom happens to be 

 fighting the wind, it could be much quicker than you think. And when the battery is exhausted...well you know 

 what’s gonna happen! 

 

 With the new firmware: the Phantom has maximum descent speed set to 0.6m/s when the aircraft’s altitude is less 

 than 10m and descending automatically (for example in failsafe mode). The maximum speed of descent remains 

 2m/s in other flight conditions (DJI way to try minimizing VRS). If you are way up in the air, you might find this 

 painfully(read stressfully) slow... So plan ahead. Remember to always keep an eye on your battery status versus 

 your current aircraft location. Know when it's time to come back safely. Personally, when I'm near 30%, I make sure 

 I'm close to my Landing Location. Better safe than sorry! 

 Need to Know: Avoid Over Flying your Battery. Over flying battery times can damage battery cell and life 

 expectancy. It is recommended to bring your aircraft on the ground when battery level is around 30%. 

 

 Be sure to check the “Battery Status” Section. 

Page 19 
Landing (What? You are still in the air...You’re Goodddd)

Need to Know: Pay particular attention to the Vortex Ring State (VRS) while descending (discussed earlier). 

- To land, hover over a level surface and gently pull down on the throttle gently to descend. To minimize flip over 

 (especially if it’s windy), try to avoid unnecessary Forward, Backward and Lateral movement when landing. 

If it’s really too windy, you may want to hand catch the phantom, but please know what you're doing and be 

very CAREFUL; you could get hurt. 

- After landing, execute the CSC command or hold the throttle at its lowest position for 3 seconds or more until the 

 motors stop. 

- Don’t forget to stop recording after you land (wait for the recording to stop before shutting down) 

- Shut Down the equipment in the following sequential order: 

 (Be sure you watch: ON and OFF-The Proper Procedure) 

 a. Phantom Smart Battery then Remove the Battery (just in case you think it’s Off, while it’s Not...) 

 b. Remote Control 

 c. Range Extender 

- Before moving/storing away the Phantom: Re-Attach Gimbal Clamp and Camera Lens Cap. 

Need to Know: Sometimes, it can be hard to pull out the battery (humidity/temperature/slippery fingers...). So I 

recommend you put the Gimbal Clamp back on before trying to remove the battery to help protect your "very 

expensive" Gimbal from flopping around when trying to take off that d... battery. Watch this first: Easy & Hard Ways To 

Remove The LiPo Battery and if you’re still having a hard time removing the battery, someone suggested putting a bit 

of grease to ease up battery removal, have a look: How to solve stiff/sticking battery. Remember: you have to protect 

your Gimbal (meaning: treat it with respect), otherwise you'll have issues with it. 

You may breathe now 

Page 20 
Side Notes

- It is recommended to redo the pre-flight inspection again after your last flight of the day just to make sure you'll be 

ok for your next one. You wouldn't want to drive all the way up to your favorite flying location (1-2 hours away) just to 

find out something broke during your last flight and...spare parts are back home or you just need to tight up a few 

screws but...didn't bring a screwdriver. 

- Take proper care of your battery. Let your battery cool down before charging. For storage of more than a few days, 

leave them at 40-50% charge; to get that %, you’ll need to recharge until the third led just start to flash (meaning 

both Led 1 and 2 will turn On if you press the power button once). For more detail about LiPo (Lithium Polymer) 

 battery care, search the Net or have a look at DJI "Smart" Lipo battery - Intro, Pros & Cons, Safety and Storage tips

and RC LiPo Battery Storage and this Lipo Storage Tips PDF document. Additionally, except when preparing for flight 

and (obviously) when flying, do not keep the battery in the Phantom. The spring loaded data contacts will retain their 

resilience longer if not always compressed. Need to Know: Always store or charge your battery in a suitable 

container: a metal case or a case/bag made especially for Lipo Batteries. Be sure to read the “Lipo Battery – Safety 

Advisory Notice” section. With this kind of battery there is a risk of fire or explosion if safety practices are ignored! 

- Information from a DJI Rep regarding the new battery update: 

1. Old batteries can be upgraded to v2.6. There is certain possibility of failure during upgrade for these batteries with 

 loader of 1.3 or firmware of 1.6. The possibility is low but we don’t support these two versions of batteries to 

 eliminate the potential problem. If these users have already successfully upgraded to the v2.6, it’s totally fine. 

 They will have the same feature and functions as others who can upgrade to v2.6. 

 2. It is true that the “auto-discharge” function will activate automatically after 10 days of storage, given the condition 

 that the battery does NOT operate during this period. This means even if you press the power button of the battery 

 once, the battery will re-clock the time for 10 days. The battery will auto-discharge to 3.88V, corresponding to ~60% 

 SOC. If cells in the battery are already below 3.88V, the auto-discharge will NOT activate. It turns off into deep sleep 

 mode afterwards. If the battery is fully charged, the auto-discharge process will take around 2 days. The user will 

 not notice the whole process cause the battery LEDs will not light up. 

 3. If the batteries fail with imbalanced cells or electrodes of certain cell detached from the pack, a warning notion will 

 pop out on the camera screen. In the log of the battery, the user can also browse the warning history during the 

 previous use. 

- Avoid Over Flying your battery. Over flying battery times can damage battery cell and life expectancy. It is 

 recommended to bring your aircraft on the ground when battery level is around 30%. 

- Flickering when recording video may be caused by the props creating shadows or stripes. If the sun is not at an angle 

to come down through the props, then this won’t happen. Flying with the sun high in the sky is the worst. Early 

morning or late evening is the best. A little electrical tape to shield the lens often helps or search the Net for Vision 

lens hood. 

- If you forget to stop recording video before turning off the phantom, and subsequently find that the video won't play 

on your pc, put the SD card back into the slot and power on the craft again. Leave it for about 60 seconds to finalize, 

then power down. You should be able to watch the video, but may lose a few seconds off the end. Need to Know: 

This will NOT work every time. I've lost some very good footage because of this. Lesson learned! Note: Apparently 

someone wrote an application (Mac/PC) for Repairing Corrupt Phantom 2 Vision+ Video Files. (I haven’t tried it yet). 

- Water Crash (you didn’t read the “Flight Environment Requirements” section, right?): 

- If you dunk your Phantom in sea water, try these steps (as suggested by singapore_phantom). 

 Otherwise throw it away; little apart from the plastic is worth saving. 

 1. Remove Battery, Shell, and Camera ASAP. 

 2. Submerge it fully in fresh water (preferably distilled) for a minute. 

 Sway it back and forth while in the water and turn it over a few times. 

 3. Submerge in a container filled with rubbing alcohol for a short while. 

 Again, sway it back and forth while in the alcohol and turn it over a few times. 

 4. Blow out with compressed air. 

 5. Put everything in a sealed container and cover with uncooked rice. Leave it there for a few days. 

 Shaking the container gently every so often is good. 

 Once done, use an air pump to eliminate the rice grains and rice fragments from the craft. 

 6. Reassemble, install new battery and try to turn it back on. 

 - If you dunk your Phantom in fresh water, get it out as quickly as possible and take it apart. Use a hair drier liberally 

 and then put everything in a sealed container and cover it in uncooked rice. Leave it there for a few days before 

 attempting to turn it back on. Good Luck! 

Page 21 
If you really, really want to fly over/near water, maybe you should consider buying a “ better safe than sorry” device 

like the “GetterBack”. Have a look here How To Recover Dji Phantom After Crash Landing In Water? and here 

Dji Phantom Water Recovery GetterBack, 

- Beware: The Gimbal System on the Vision+ is ridiculously fragile!! The camera does a fantastic job of stills and video. 

However, the first hard landing you have or collision with an object, consider the gimbal system and camera toast. It 

won't stabilize after that and the gimbal doesn't know how to stabilize itself after that, looking like it is having a 

constant spasm. At that point, the camera becomes unusable. Before giving up and go buy another ($$$) whole 

assembly, watch this DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ Gimbal repair or this Phantom 2 Vision Plus camera repair and solution. 

- So, if you want to add some extra protection to your Gimbal/Camera, you might be interested in something like: 

- Camera Guard (reviewed here: DJI Phantom Camera Guard Demonstration ) 

- Plexiglass Drone Safety Guard 

- Original PHANTOM FIX (reviewed here: Gimbal ribbon cable protector for DJI Vision+) 

- Inertia Guard

 - Camera Cable Top & Bottom Guard For DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus

- If you’re looking for a nice tracking device, have a look at the Marco Polo Tracking System / RC Model Tracking. 

- If you want to remove the Fish-Eye effect on your videos, look no further than Prodrenalin. It’s excellent! 

- It might be a good idea to keep some kind of a log book to keep track of flight performance and conditions, flight 

 times, issues, battery use and photographs/videos, etc. 

- Remember, this is NOT a toy. 

So unless you are an expert or have a lot of flying experience, if you don’t get nervous flying this thing: DO NOT 

FLY. You will make a mistake, hit something/someone or crash it. Even though I have many hours of flight time, my 

hands are always swelling when I fly near obstacles...but that’s me. You forget something, one little thing, and 

BANG...you crash into a tree, a house, someone. This is a very expensive piece of machinery so know what you 

are doing and when/how to do it. AND always be prepared for the worst. 

This is my own personal advice to you. Take it or Crash it. 

Page 22 
Led Status (Phantom, RC & Extender)

Phantom Front/Rear Led

Page 23 
Remote Control Power Indicator

Range Extender

Page 24 
Phantom/Naza-M (NAZA mode LED light signals - what's the difference?)

If the Warm Up waiting is longer that 2 minutes (Green/Yellow Flashing), power off for 10 minutes, cold start, and then 

connect the assistant software, Enter the “Tools” -> IMU calibration, carry out the Advanced calibration. 

Page 25 
Battery Status (RC & Extender & Smart)

Remote Control (old/new)

Range Extender

Smart Battery

Page 26 
 

Page 27