Hello droners,

I create this topic because I would write you my story with my DJI Phantom 4 Advanced on 4th february 2018 at nearly 16:00.

On this day there was no significant wind (to my mind around 2km/h windspeed), good visibility, a few clouds with sun. Also good weather conditions.
I was going to record my friend who was on a motor bike. Also, I took off my phantom with 94% battery, started recording him and tool some atitude in fact 105m. And then, after 2 minutes and 49 seconds the radio signal stopped and on my screen there was (Device deconnected) with a black background and I heared the motors turning very very loudly, juste as never before, it was a crazy sound and I heared that at ~650m horizontal distance from me! Then the signal was back and I saw on the screen that the drone was on the ground becauseI   saw some grass. Then again "Device disconnected" with a black background and on the left side some red. The problem is that the drone is lost without any reason! We are now 7 days later, and every day I'm looking for the drone but I can't find it... I'm the most disapointed guy on earth.... The flight data stopped recording just before the device was for the first time disconnected. The same for the video, it stopped recording just before the drone was disconnected for the first time. Also I can't find the real last drone GPS position. If you want to know, there was no collision with a plane, or with an UFO, no birdstrike, no tree collision or power lines. Here the cache video link to google drive.
I flew in ATTI mode

Have somebody encounter the same issue as me during a flight?
cache video

Best regards,
Ruben

It would be on you, to go find the wayward drone.

You know abouts where it should be. Do you think you searched diligently enough or gave up too soon?

I would be out there everyday, that it took to recover such an awesome machine.
I wish I lived near to you....

Was your ID on the drone, you know name, phone number, address...?

I am sorry for your loss, and wish you only good luck in the future.
30% off is a pittance. 50% is more realistic.


RedHotPoker

Why on ATTI

Yes, why the switch to ATTI on the remote?? That loses the GPS signal I believe and then you have no idea what happens to the drone next.

Sorry you lost your drone. That stinks.

I never had a problem on ATTI mode before. And I think the drone is lost due to a battery problem...

If you'd lost battery power I don't think you would have heard the motors screaming.  You need to find the drone to be sure what happened and based on the terrain there is a lot of farmland so you should be able to find it.  If it went into the forest then that is more challenging.   My guess is that once it lost signal, it landed immediately.  Was RTH set and a home point accurately recorded?

Thinking about this more - if it was in ATTI mode could it have drifted/lost altitude after LOS into the trees?

Hey terminator, unfortunately the drone isn’t fallen into farmlands or in the trees(because signal was lost then the signal was back and I saw on the screen some grass also the drone was on the ground then the screen was black and device disconnected after 5 seconds, maybe the drone flipped into the water that’s why I never had my signal back). I’ve looked everywhere in the surrounding. Spending hours and hours with a friend, my brother and sisters and my parents but nothing. Its probably fallen into one of the 3 water bassins. Yes of course RTH point has been updated during take off and if the signal is lost RTH is engaged. Don’t worry I was in ATTI mode but high above the ground! I was 105m high... trees in the surrounding are maximum at 20m?

I had the same issue in December, I flew 300m high when everything stopped during the flight. I found my drone on the ground just with one propeller cracked, indeed it was in the mountains and the drone was fallen into fresh powder that’s why it survived (ps: the same battery was in use during this flight, that why I suppose a battery problem because I don’t have any other problem on my 2 other batteries.

Rubenrtvd Posted at 2018-2-14 12:30
Hey terminator, unfortunately the drone isn’t fallen into farmlands or in the trees(because signal was lost then the signal was back and I saw on the screen some grass also the drone was on the ground then the screen was black and device disconnected after 5 seconds, maybe the drone flipped into the water that’s why I never had my signal back). I’ve looked everywhere in the surrounding. Spending hours and hours with a friend, my brother and sisters and my parents but nothing. Its probably fallen into one of the 3 water bassins. Yes of course RTH point has been updated during take off and if the signal is lost RTH is engaged. Don’t worry I was in ATTI mode but high above the ground! I was 105m high... trees in the surrounding are maximum at 20m?

I had the same issue in December, I flew 300m high when everything stopped during the flight. I found my drone on the ground just with one propeller cracked, indeed it was in the mountains and the drone was fallen into fresh powder that’s why it survived  (ps: the same battery was in use during this flight, that why I suppose a battery problem because I don’t have any other problem on my 2 other batteries.

Ah.  That little nugget of the previous flight and battery issue makes more sense.  Is the drone still under warranty? Do you have access to another drone you can use to do some aerial reconnaissance to try and locate it? Is the water in those ponds deep?  

Hi, if it is a missing case you may ask for assistance to our support team to create a case for you and investigate the reason why it loses connection. Let us know if you need help regarding it.

The water is around 1m80 deep, and unfortunately it is shi**** water out from my village, also used water you know....... I have friends who have drones, they come help me this weekend. I no gut my drone in June 2017, also it is under warranty

Good luck and I hope you find it.  I saw a video last week of a guy who lost his Mavic Pro in a lake and was able to hook up a go pro to the end of a stick, canoe around the lake and eventually found it on the bottom.  He pulled it out, put it in rice for three days and fired it up and flew it!  At the very least, I hope  you can find the drone to at least get telemetry from it to send to  DJI.

Hi,

my Phantom 4 Advanced fell from the sky 3 weeks ago at 105m high and 700m from me. I report it to DJI, after flight analysis they dont want to help me because everything was going fine before it stopped recording during flight and go to the crash. The drone was lost 17 days into the water, 2 days ago I found it in a water pant and that super cool, but... my phantom looks bad... I cleaned it under clean water and now it's still dropped into rice. But I saw on the drone that the gimbal connectors are melted, arround one motor it is black so its seems carbonised, inside th drone its black also looks carbonised too. I flew a total of more than 500km with this p4A and never had any issue. I think it is a battery issue, but not sure. Like overtension?

Can a DJI admin help me? Because per email I have an answer every 7 days......

Rubenrtvd Posted at 2018-2-23 05:48
Hi,

my Phantom 4 Advanced fell from the sky 3 weeks ago at 105m high and 700m from me. I report it to DJI, after flight analysis they dont want to help me because everything was going fine before it stopped recording during flight and go to the crash. The drone was lost 17 days into the water, 2 days ago I found it in a water pant and that super cool, but... my phantom looks bad... I cleaned it under clean water and now it's still dropped into rice. But I saw on the drone that the gimbal connectors are melted, arround one motor it is black so its seems carbonised, inside th drone its black also looks carbonised too. I flew a total of more than 500km with this p4A and never had any issue. I think it is a battery issue, but not sure. Like overtension?

Don't expect much help from DJI on the forum.
Try going to their Support page and open a chat with their Online Support people.

Rubenrtvd Posted at 2018-2-23 05:48
Hi,

my Phantom 4 Advanced fell from the sky 3 weeks ago at 105m high and 700m from me. I report it to DJI, after flight analysis they dont want to help me because everything was going fine before it stopped recording during flight and go to the crash. The drone was lost 17 days into the water, 2 days ago I found it in a water pant and that super cool, but... my phantom looks bad... I cleaned it under clean water and now it's still dropped into rice. But I saw on the drone that the gimbal connectors are melted, arround one motor it is black so its seems carbonised, inside th drone its black also looks carbonised too. I flew a total of more than 500km with this p4A and never had any issue. I think it is a battery issue, but not sure. Like overtension?

It might help to post some photos of the "black carbonised"...  

If you can get the flight logs from the aircraft then they can be sent to DJI for analysis, and they will contain data on the fault instead of stopping when communication was lost.  If they find it had a fault and it is still under warranty then they should replace it.

Rubenrtvd Posted at 2018-2-23 05:48
Hi,

my Phantom 4 Advanced fell from the sky 3 weeks ago at 105m high and 700m from me. I report it to DJI, after flight analysis they dont want to help me because everything was going fine before it stopped recording during flight and go to the crash. The drone was lost 17 days into the water, 2 days ago I found it in a water pant and that super cool, but... my phantom looks bad... I cleaned it under clean water and now it's still dropped into rice. But I saw on the drone that the gimbal connectors are melted, arround one motor it is black so its seems carbonised, inside th drone its black also looks carbonised too. I flew a total of more than 500km with this p4A and never had any issue. I think it is a battery issue, but not sure. Like overtension?

Good to hear that you found it! Hopefully,  DJI will replace it under warranty!