New pilot orientation features and flight logging features released today by DJI Phantom Flight:

tl:dr

I've had 2 flyaways.   The first was directly after starting a descent, the second afterfinishing a climb.  Just like other vehicles problems are more common at a change point.  When descending the phantom will oscillate and push its attitude control limits.  Bad props(graphite) problems can happen here.  I believe my first flyaway happened because of a bad prop failure directly after starting a max speed descent.   Because descents are so slow I had trained myself to power down and stop looking which is exactly the time when you should be watching.

My second flyaway happened directly after takeoff.  I believe I did not tighten the props enough.  The sudden decrease in power may have loosened one.  This happened at an altitude of only 20ft while I was watching, I had no horizontal control but was able to power down and crash without much damage.

I tried to locate my lost phantom using the DJI app, its terrible at finding lost phantoms.  My flyaway ended up in a tree, I have the video feed, I just don't know which tree.  As it fell through the tree it lost satellite coverage and accuracy, sending out almost random locations.  The phantom stopped within line of sight but I can't find it.  The DJI app did not save the last broadcast location after an app restart and provided little help.

This is why I built DJI Phantom Flight.  The new features released today would have allowed me to find my phantom and save over $1400.  DJI Phantom flight provides a better way to orient you to the phantom (flight lines) and quickly view your flight history(flight logs).

But you are still lost if phantom leave FPV range, nothing but a tracker works.

BWJ Posted at 2015-3-30 03:39
But you are still lost if phantom leave FPV range, nothing but a tracker works.

Yes its only good at logging when in range buts its still a big improvement over nothing.  I've also been experimenting with cheap/small android phones with pay as you go plans and simple location pinger apps.  You can get a pretty reliable tracker for < $100.  I'll post my setup shortly.

Also released a GSM tracking mode today.  If anyone has an old/cheap/small android phone and wants to test GSM tracking you can.  You would need to attach an android phone to your phantom.  Contact me if you are interested.