1080p GoPro 3+ Black video of Phantom 2 flight at Farnsworth Park in Altadena, CA on April 6, 2014 morning.
Started off perfectly with a high altitude ascent with great footage..…. at 3:40 Phantom gets caught in uncontrollable vortex. Vortex rings can occur when descending too fast - rotor downwash wraps around the craft in a torus shape and causes severe loss of lift and control.
As a last ditch effort at about 40ft from the ground and a second away from impact I turned off my controller, this forced the Phantom into safety return mode. It ascended to 60 feet from the point of liftoff and descended slowly (~1ft/s)
Lesson learned: on calm windless days descend with horizontal movement (either forward, backward or circular), this will avoid getting caught in the crafts downwash.
Fortunately I have been able to avoid this problem from reoccurring.
