So, I had a scare yesterday. I wanted to fly my quadcopter that has an fpv camera and vtx installed on it. Attached to my transmitter is a monitor/receiver/dvr - wanted to record the flight on the dvr, but shortly after takeoff the video got choppy and the monitor blue-screened. While I was fiddling with the monitor the aircraft started drifting away as there was a breeze coming from the east. I put the aircraft in Loiter mode, but it didn't seem to work as it continued moving to the west. I hit RTL (Return To Launch) and it suddenly rose and headed off to the west even more. I switched back to Stabilize mode to regain manual control but by this time it was really high and heading west at a pretty good clip - perhaps the winds were stronger there...
I lost orientation and had to experiment with the aileron and rudder controls to ascertain which way it was pointing. As I was doing this, I saw that I was receiving video from the aircraft and determined that I had it pointed away from me. Using the rudder stick, I managed to turn the aircraft back around and head back towards me. I had to lose altitude, but had to be careful not to descend too quickly for fear of losing control flying through the prop wash. But with the breeze blowing from the east, I was flying into a headwind so I was able to gradually bring it back down and landed safely right in front of me.
I don't know what happened, but today I redid the compass calibration. It has been too windy to try to fly again - maybe tomorrow I can try once more. I don't know why the video turned so crappy after takeoff - I don't think I was on an adjacent frequency. I put on a different antenna and will see if it makes any difference. Will fly in the morning if it calm, test Loiter and RTL functions right off and if there's any problem, I will land immediately.
... Back when I used to fly primarily LOS I'd just put some different colored reflective tape on the front and back arms.
