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My Mavic Did Not Return To Home After Losing RC Signal
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13774 120 2017-4-3
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LostMyMavic
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Hello Everyone,

I am writing this while fighting back tears. The date is 4/3/2017. I purchased my drone directly from the DJI site a week ago, got the drone 2 days ago. The mavic is an amazing piece of technology, was very satisfied. I flew it probably 5 or 6 times. The flight that matters, is obviously the last. I live in Tahoe, specifically Kings Beach. I was at the lake tahoe beach and was flying my drone. i decided to go over the little city of kings beach. i was only 663.7 meters away, had only a flight time of 3 minutes and 30 seconds and had full signal on my RC controller and was connected to 16 satelites when all the sudden i started losing RC signal. This is kinda normal being i live in tahoe and there are alot of trees around but i wasnt very far and had already flown it alot farther the day before. as soon as i lost visual it prompted me as usual to RTH, which i complied. I zig zagged to that location where i lost signal so it should have only took about 1- 2 minutes to return but no such luck. Waited probably around 5 with my heart racing, then around 7 minutes i freaked out and got in my car, with the remote out the window i flew to the destination that i had last seen on my video feed. never regained RC signal. spent hours searching for my drone until it was too dark and i was using my cellphone flashlight. then woke up early the next morning, asked all the neighbors around the last known location if they say a flying machine fall from the sky but no luck. one of the residents even loaned me a 50mm set of binoculars. from 7 am to 11:30 am me and my girlfriend searched for it. looked at the last known location for hours, then spent 2 hours walking from the last known location to the home point to see if maybe it crashed into a tree which is doubtful because i have the RTH setting at 120 meters. and trees around here dont reach past 100-120 feet. well below my height. no luck. Not looking for sympathy. just thought id get my story out there for anyone else so they can beware. and maybe get some advice on how to find it. I have the DJI Care Package but you know if you dont have the drone, you arent getting a new one.

Thanks for reading Everyone,
Sincerely,
The Sad Owner of a mavic Controller
2017-4-3
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DroneFlying
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I'm sorry to hear that, though there's still a possibility that your drone may yet be located. For anyone to figure out where it might be you'll need to upload the logs from your mobile device using the instructions either here or here and then provide us with a link to them.
2017-4-3
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rnrnrn
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Hi,

It's a shame. I feel your pain. In order to look into this - could you please try to upload the data to airdata.com and share a link here so that we can look into your record? Would be helpful.

Wishing you best of luck in finding your Mavic.

Cheers!
2017-4-3
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LostMyMavic
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rnrnrn Posted at 2017-4-3 11:03
Hi,

It's a shame. I feel your pain. In order to look into this - could you please try to upload the data to airdata.com and share a link here so that we can look into your record? Would be helpful.

https://app.airdata.com/main?fli ... id=GENERALLarge_Map

This should work ? sorry its my first time.
2017-4-3
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LostMyMavic
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DroneFlying Posted at 2017-4-3 10:59
I'm sorry to hear that, though there's still a possibility that your drone may yet be located. For anyone to figure out where it might be you'll need to upload the logs from your mobile device using the instructions either here or here and then provide us with a link to them.

https://app.airdata.com/main?fli ... id=GENERALLarge_Map

This should work ? sorry its my first time
2017-4-3
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LostMyMavic
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also should admit that this is my first drone. Would really really love to find it so i can access the damage and get a new one as i have a trip to indonesia planned for may 1st
2017-4-3
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DroneFlying
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Yes, you performed the upload correctly. So it looks like 8328 Steelhead Avenue was the last reported location; is that where you looked? And I'm guessing that you did also return to the takeoff location and checked around there, including in the nearby trees, correct?

Typically what happens in these cases is that the aircraft crashes into something during the return to home, but given the RTH altitude you mentioned and the lack of any tall obstacles between the last reported location and your takeoff point it's difficult to guess what happened.
2017-4-3
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LostMyMavic
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DroneFlying Posted at 2017-4-3 11:51
Yes, you performed the upload correctly. So it looks like 8328 Steelhead Avenue was the last reported location; is that where you looked? And I'm guessing that you did also return to the takeoff location and checked around there, including in the nearby trees, correct?

My girlfriend and myself literally walked from steelhead ave to the home point this morning. we combed the whole area on the way. its a short walk that we turned into a couple of hours
2017-4-3
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LostMyMavic
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DroneFlying Posted at 2017-4-3 11:51
Yes, you performed the upload correctly. So it looks like 8328 Steelhead Avenue was the last reported location; is that where you looked? And I'm guessing that you did also return to the takeoff location and checked around there, including in the nearby trees, correct?
Typically what happens in these cases is that the aircraft crashes into something during the return to home, but given the RTH altitude you mentioned and the lack of any tall obstacles between the last reported location and your takeoff point it's difficult to guess what happened.

and we had binoculars looking in the trees. im wondering if there is any possibility that it didnt return to home and just hovered until the battery forced it to autoland in the last known location
2017-4-3
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DroneFlying
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LostMyMavic Posted at 2017-4-3 11:53
and we had binoculars looking in the trees. im wondering if there is any possibility that it didnt return to home and just hovered until the battery forced it to autoland in the last known location

Not as long as you have it set to return to home on loss of signal; at least I've never heard of it failing to try to return. My best guess -- and it's just a guess -- at this point would be that the winds at your RTH altitude were strong enough to prevent it from returning home. The wind at 120m can be significantly stronger than what you experience at ground level.

Do you know anyone else who owns a drone? If so, I'd see if they could fly a direct route between your takeoff point and the last known location; it may be sitting on somebody's roof or in a tree between the two points.
2017-4-3
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LostMyMavic
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DroneFlying Posted at 2017-4-3 12:01
Not as long as you have it set to return to home on loss of signal; at least I've never heard of it failing to try to return. My best guess -- and it's just a guess -- at this point would be that the winds at your RTH altitude were strong enough to prevent it from returning home. The wind at 120m can be significantly stronger than what you experience at ground level.

Do you know anyone else who owns a drone? If so, I'd see if they could fly a direct route between your takeoff point and the last known location; it may be sitting on somebody's roof or in a tree between the two points.

yeah my roommate has a phatom 4 but he is out of town. Will be trying that but fear it will be to late. thanks for the advice though.
2017-4-3
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DroneFlying
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LostMyMavic Posted at 2017-4-3 12:04
yeah my roommate has a phatom 4 but he is out of town. Will be trying that but fear it will be to late. thanks for the advice though.

You're welcome. Good luck and please let us know how it turns out.
2017-4-3
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V_kingo
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I'm sorry for your lost, there is any chance that a bird kidnapped your mavic? maybe focus on look for propeller pieces or the battery.
2017-4-3
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DroneFlying
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LostMyMavic Posted at 2017-4-3 12:04
yeah my roommate has a phatom 4 but he is out of town. Will be trying that but fear it will be to late. thanks for the advice though.

One last suggestion: you might also try posting here and asking for help. There are some really sharp folks there who have a good track record of helping in recovery situations like this. And if nothing else, you might find someone in your area who does own a drone of their own and is willing to help look for yours from the air.
2017-4-3
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LostMyMavic
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DroneFlying Posted at 2017-4-3 12:08
One last suggestion: you might also try posting here and asking for help. There are some really sharp folks there who have a good track record of helping in recovery situations like this. And if nothing else, you might find someone in your area who does own a drone of their own and is willing to help look for yours from the air.

will do. thanks alot again
2017-4-3
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hallmark007
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LostMyMavic Posted at 2017-4-3 11:29
https://app.airdata.com/main?flight=a4ce3ce6c2623fc5f5891a178d3f811e&page_id=GENERALLarge_Map

This should work ? sorry its my first time

Those logs tell very little, you lost Radio signal, not gps, it depends what your failsafe RTH was set at if you have it set to land then is what will happen, if you had set it to hover those logs would have shown it landing if battery ran out, you could also have reset the home position.

You should sync your flight log to dji cloud and contact them or get a mod here to take a quick look for you.

You can also upload your logs to here http://www.phantomhelp.com/Phantom-4/#DataLog and then post the logs here and you might get some help.

Good luck..
2017-4-3
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thehippoz
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Probably a airdrop. Any script kiddie can bring down a drone, especially if he makes his own antennas. When I see people roid rage about drones, kind of funny, if they only knew a couple of things instead of being zombies.

He probably saw your drone fly over the day before, was like ok! Next day, he has drone in hand without the drama of shooting it down. I would guess it's the house right where it disconnected. Ham operators use wifi too and that could also drop your drone (intentionally or unintentionally)
2017-4-3
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Samoth
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Happened tobme too: lost RC signal, Mavic didn't trigger RTH as it should and crashed instead.

RTH in case of RC signal loss doesn't seem reliable
2017-4-3
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daivatam
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in the mean time open a case the dji staff will ask you to upload some files...maybe they could shed light on what was happened and if they discover a malfunction they will replace the drone under warranty as they has do on other cases.  From what I see the control signal was still strong even when video signal get poor and dropped.....you was at the 100 meters height at that time ...nothing to hit at that altitude....win was very strong? not seeing any warning about wind...best case scenario eagle attack ) do you see some claws on your screen? )
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LostMyMavic
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thehippoz Posted at 2017-4-3 12:29
Probably a airdrop. Any script kiddie can bring down a drone, especially if he makes his own antennas. When I see people roid rage about drones, kind of funny, if they only knew a couple of things instead of being zombies.

He probably saw your drone fly over the day before, was like ok! Next day, he has drone in hand without the drama of shooting it down. I would guess it's the house right where it disconnected. Ham operators use wifi too and that could also drop your drone (intentionally or unintentionally)

there was this huge antenna attached to a tree right below where i lost signal. I kinda dismissed it because i followed the line that it was attached to and it was cut so it wasnt being used anymore. could it still have affected me ?
2017-4-3
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LostMyMavic
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hallmark007 Posted at 2017-4-3 12:31
Those logs tell very little, you lost Radio signal, not gps, it depends what your failsafe RTH was set at if you have it set to land then is what will happen, if you had set it to hover those logs would have shown it landing if battery ran out, you could also have reset the home position.

You should sync your flight log to dji cloud and contact them or get a mod here to take a quick look for you.

I have my RTH set to return. it did after a while prompt me to land. it never said anything about resetting my home point. i have contacted DJI and made a case. if it was a malfunction would i be covered ?
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LostMyMavic
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daivatam Posted at 2017-4-3 12:36
in the mean time open a case the dji staff will ask you to upload some files...maybe they could shed light on what was happened and if they discover a malfunction they will replace the drone under warranty as they has do on other cases.  From what I see the control signal was still strong even when video signal get poor and dropped.....you was at the 100 meters height at that time ...nothing to hit at that altitude....win was very strong? not seeing any warning about wind...best case scenario eagle attack ) do you see some claws on your screen? )

Have you heard of many cases where they actually found a malfunction and covered it?
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thehippoz
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LostMyMavic Posted at 2017-4-3 12:47
there was this huge antenna attached to a tree right below where i lost signal. I kinda dismissed it because i followed the line that it was attached to and it was cut so it wasnt being used anymore. could it still have affected me ?

Yep, I would check it out. A big yagi, it's definitely ham. Those guys are legally licensed so there's not much you can do that route but it couldn't hurt to ask. The big antenna is a much lower frequency but they also use the wifi bands.
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LostMyMavic
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thehippoz Posted at 2017-4-3 12:52
Yep, I would check it out. A big yagi, it's definitely ham. Those guys are legally licensed so there's not much you can do that route but it couldn't hurt to ask. The big antenna is a much lower frequency but they also use the wifi bands.

Just to be clear, your saying even tho that huge antenna isnt being used anymore and isnt connected to anything, it could still affect my drone?
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LostMyMavic
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hallmark007 Posted at 2017-4-3 12:31
Those logs tell very little, you lost Radio signal, not gps, it depends what your failsafe RTH was set at if you have it set to land then is what will happen, if you had set it to hover those logs would have shown it landing if battery ran out, you could also have reset the home position.

You should sync your flight log to dji cloud and contact them or get a mod here to take a quick look for you.

and how do i get a mod here to take a quick look ?
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LostMyMavic
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also how many instances has anyone heard of a drone ACTUALLY getting stuck in a tree ? ive seen pinecones fall from the very top of trees like nothing and not get stuck.
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LostMyMavic Posted at 2017-4-3 12:56
Just to be clear, your saying even tho that huge antenna isnt being used anymore and isnt connected to anything, it could still affect my drone?

No the antenna is just showing you there is a ham operator in the home. It's on a different freq, but they are legally allowed to use much more power on the 2.4 band the mavic uses. He might have been using those bands when you flew over.
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LostMyMavic
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thehippoz Posted at 2017-4-3 12:58
No the antenna is just showing you there is a ham operator in the home. It's on a different freq, but they are legally allowed to use much more power on the 2.4 band the mavic uses. He might have been using those bands when you flew over.

ohhhhh ok. thank you
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LostMyMavic Posted at 2017-4-3 12:57
also how many instances has anyone heard of a drone ACTUALLY getting stuck in a tree ? ive seen pinecones fall from the very top of trees like nothing and not get stuck.

how many instances has anyone heard of a drone ACTUALLY getting stuck in a tree?

Here are a couple of recent examples from this forum:

Retrieving Drone in Tree
Crashed my Mavic into a tree

I wouldn't say that it's very common, but it happens.
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hallmark007
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LostMyMavic Posted at 2017-4-3 12:52
I have my RTH set to return. it did after a while prompt me to land. it never said anything about resetting my home point. i have contacted DJI and made a case. if it was a malfunction would i be covered ?

Malfunction yes it will be covered, you set off on 66% battery and when you got warning you were at 43%, what was critical battery set at,
There doesn't seem to be notification of resetting home point, and when you got warning you were good height, your log doesn't show anything, it doesn't even show RTH notification,
Those airdata logs are pretty poor, hopefully dji will find something.
Nothing shows pilot error, loss of radio control should return the AC home if that's what you had it set at, if it was set to hover it would have done that until battery got to critical and then landed.
All of this will show up on your logs you sent to dji.
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hallmark007
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LostMyMavic Posted at 2017-4-3 12:58
and how do i get a mod here to take a quick look ?

You could just PM one of them , just track one on the forum and and ask if they could have a quick look at the log you synced, also if there was any way the could give you coordinates where your Mavic went down..
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LostMyMavic
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hallmark007 Posted at 2017-4-3 13:06
Malfunction yes it will be covered, you set off on 66% battery and when you got warning you were at 43%, what was critical battery set at,
There doesn't seem to be notification of resetting home point, and when you got warning you were good height, your log doesn't show anything, it doesn't even show RTH notification,
Those airdata logs are pretty poor, hopefully dji will find something.

Critical battery was set at the standard 30%, im pretty sure. Lets put it this way i never changed the critical battery setting but im pretty sure it was at 30%
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LostMyMavic Posted at 2017-4-3 13:20
Critical battery was set at the standard 30%, im pretty sure. Lets put it this way i never changed the critical battery setting but im pretty sure it was at 30%

Well then thats probably low battery 30% and critical battery 10%, so you should be ok there.
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LostMyMavic Posted at 2017-4-3 13:20
Critical battery was set at the standard 30%, im pretty sure. Lets put it this way i never changed the critical battery setting but im pretty sure it was at 30%

I will give you my experience I had flown my mavic at 1km away lost signal and since I have all the sensor activated and the rth also activated as for the height also 120 meter I was lucky to get my mavic back when it lost signals completely it return home I was patiently waiting and it return with no problem and gain signal back manage to land it
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LostMyMavic
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http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/2EY5Z76RXQRVYXQIJMFA/
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LostMyMavic
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LostMyMavic Posted at 2017-4-3 14:22
http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/2EY5Z76RXQRVYXQIJMFA/

i have posted a more in depth flight record on my last post if anyone would like to take a look at it for me
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LostMyMavic
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could the issue be with my controller malfunctioning ? the log didnt even recieve a RTH prompt
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DroneFlying
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LostMyMavic Posted at 2017-4-3 14:54
could the issue be with my controller malfunctioning ? the log didnt even recieve a RTH prompt

Even if you turned the controller off completely the aircraft should have returned home. And I'm now doubtful on the earlier theory I threw out about the wind because RTH should have put it on a southeast heading which, according to yesterday's weather for that location, would have been more or less downwind.
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LostMyMavic
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DroneFlying Posted at 2017-4-3 15:04
Even if you turned the controller off completely the aircraft should have returned home. And I'm now doubtful on the earlier theory I threw out about the wind because RTH should have put it on a southeast heading which, according to yesterday's weather for that location, would have been more or less downwind.

no offense but everyone keeps throwing the wind factor in there but i really dont think thats an issue beacuse i feel like i would have noticed it on the video footage. thankfully i was recording and i have a visual all the way up to when i lost signal. it was smooth sailing the whole way
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LostMyMavic Posted at 2017-4-3 15:08
no offense but everyone keeps throwing the wind factor in there but i really dont think thats an issue beacuse i feel like i would have noticed it on the video footage. thankfully i was recording and i have a visual all the way up to when i lost signal. it was smooth sailing the whole way

Read my previous post again: it essentially says that I now don't think the wind was a factor. RTH would have put you flying with the wind, which means it wouldn't be a problem.

In any case, I'll stop commenting and leave this to the folks on the other forum, many of whom are better qualified than I am to figure out what happened. Good luck.
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