Hello - I was flying the Tello over my neighborhood retention pond and I reached the maximum distance the Tello and my phone would communicate.  Is anyone able to provide incite on what exactly should have happened when the drone lost signal?  Here is my experience.

Drone was flying in fast mode over water, full speed forward, when signal was lost, I was out of range.
The Tello continued to move in the same direction for 2 seconds until [it] realized connection with my phone was lost, it then abrubtly stopped mid-air.  
It slowly hovered lower and lower, closer and closer to the water.  I had hoped it would stop when it got close to the water, but it contiued to plummet and is now at the bottom of my retention pond.

Anyone willing to share their experience with connection loss over water?  A quick search on Google showed a user intentianally turning his phone off over water and the Tello tried to land, realized it was over water, and continued to skate across the top of the water until it sensed it was over land.   I can PM the youtube of the user with the craft NOT currently at the bottom of their pond if interested.

-Jive

Hi the vision canera do not work well on water surface. You can find it mentioned in the manuals.

Sorry to read that mate, well flying across water is very risky as the downward sensor and vision camera can't detect it very well as the water surface have refection  

BTW welcome to the forum JiveWayne

Hey Jive Wayne. I had a similar experience with my Tello drone. I was flying about five feet above the water and watching the camera view, when the view suddenly went black and said "aircraft disconnect" and I heard a gurgling sound. I looked up and my drone was literally sitting on top of the water with the props churning it up. I was like no no no no! Then it lifted up into the air and I said Yes! Come on! Then it plopped back down and promptly sank. My drone is still at the bottom of the pond. So I can sympathize. I'm sorry about your drone.

Sorry to read that JiveWayne. Please allow me to answer what might happen when the drone lost signal.  

First, let us assume that the drone is not flying over water and its version position system (VPS ) is on the work. After losing the signal, it would hover for about 50s on the place and then land to the ground. If the signal recovered, control of the drone can be regained.

However, if the drone is flying over water while losing signal, as we all know that the Vision System cannot detect water surfaces. When flying above water, the Tello will drift horizontally and vertically, and may even drop into the water.

tello is not applicable on island aerial shot.. i means tello is not a good drone

first thing to happen over water is you get a lot of side drift since vps does not work over water. If your signal is cut, it would hold altitude for a min I think then it will attempt to lower to 30cm to a solid surface below and hover there for some time then land... (maybe it lands from high up directly I donno). But it won't see water so it dives anyway. So bye bye if you can't regain control fast enough. Bottom line: Do not lose signal over water.

I've had that happen to me once, my phone luckily paired with it before it touched the water. Just plain luck. Today one of my front motors died so I'm now trying to get that fixed.

Sorry to hear about that.

Tello is not meant to fly over water