Hi all, Ive been flying my P3 std for about about 9 months happily with out any problems at all untill yesterday when it decided to leave. It took a few minutes longer than usual to sync/connect to the controller but after shutting it off/on I got it connected got it started up. I set off straight up and then around 150 ft with good visiual contact I hit the RTH and nothing, it kept flying and there was nothing I could do but watch it fly away on the gps screen. I tried to press the RTH but it was already on, it would not take any controller inputs, it eventually got too far and out of sight and said it was returning home but sadly never did. Any thoughts on this, is there nothing I can do ?

thanks, Chris

Hello there. We apologize for what happened. We suggest contacting one of our support to start up a case and let our engineers help you investigate what happened. You may contact +1 (818) 235 0789 Mon-Fri 7:00AM - 5:00PM (PST).

Sorry for your troubles.  Please upload your log and then post the link here.  Somebody will try to give you an idea what happened.

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/

If you can supply flight data, someone may be able to help explain the incident and perhaps even point to a likely search area.
Go to the link shown in post #3 and follow the instructions there.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.

What State are you in? Yesterday the winds nearby the Mid Atlantic seaboard were strong and gusty. I did not fly.

Maybe it did not lock your take-off point.  RTH then sent it to the previous take-off point.

Here is the data. http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/8IT35B1O4TMS41LFPQA7/

thanks

970 feet altitude??? Looks to me like a wind problem again.  It said it was in RTH, but it was only moving at around 3 MPH.  I'll bet that was backward!  Did you think to look at the little red triangle on the Radar screen?  Was it pointing at you, or away from you?  There is so much you can learn about "fly-aways" by looking at those reading!

Looks like it tried to come back, but height and winds were just too much to overcome.

Jester125 Posted at 2018-7-8 08:39
Here is the data. http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/8IT35B1O4TMS41LFPQA7/

thanks

Oh no, not another one.

Gosh this is heartbreaking to read about... sorry for your loss.


I wish there was a way to have all lost drones returned to rightful owners...

Surely DJI could add some more intelligence to these drones for all of us...


RedHotPoker

An unusual drone flight.  Looks like you tried to fly it to the moon.  Did you fly it mid-late morning?  Weather data shows wind was probably around 20 mph up that high which would have been manageable if you flew it home yourself, but the RTH speed is slow which explains the backwards flight.  It's also possible you had connection problems due to the angle of the AC antenna (from being too high relative to horizontal distance).  It's gonna be tough to find.  Next time fly lower and fly into the wind so you can ride the wind back home.  Good luck

https://www.wunderground.com/his ... =14&reqdb.wmo=99999

Ive flown in way more wind than that, wind was around 7-8 mph at time of flight according to: https://www.wunderground.com/his ... amp;reqdb.wmo=99999

I'm pretty sure it was around 6:30-7pm.

Well,  the log shows you put it in RTH at least 3x.  You must have taken it out of RTH when you repeatedly pressed the RTH button.  The AC is clearly moving south away from home point while it's in RTH and it's moving at a speed of 2-7 mph.  The only explanation is it was flying backwards fighting a strong wind and losing the battle.  

The weather data shows wind at the surface.  It's possible the wind was in a different direction up at 1000 feet.  Winds are significantly stronger at high elevations.  The higher you go, the stronger the wind.  

Its possible about the wind but there was no way to tell that the wind was significantly more higher up and I thought i pressed the RTH way before it reached 200'. what does "RTH Altitude: 147FT" mean?
Its too bad because I really enjoyed flying it and they are a ton of fun and so many features for the money but I'm not sure if I want to start over with another one or not.

Jester125 Posted at 2018-7-8 10:02
Ive flown in way more wind than that, wind was around 7-8 mph at time of flight according to: https://www.wunderground.com/history/daily/KPYM/date/2018-7-7?req_city=Plymouth&req_state=MA&req_statename=Massachusetts&reqdb.zip=02360&reqdb.magic=1&reqdb.wmo=99999

I'm pretty sure it was around 6:30-7pm.

"I'm pretty sure it was around 6:30-7pm."


Was your done flight at 6:30-7PM or was your drone flight at 6:30-7AM ?

Air/America Posted at 2018-7-8 10:41
"I'm pretty sure it was around 6:30-7pm."

I dont get it.

Jester125 Posted at 2018-7-8 10:46
I dont get it.

AM flight or PM flight ?

It says in your/my post "I'm pretty sure it was around 6:30-7pm."
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Jester125 Posted at 2018-7-8 10:51
It says in your/my post "I'm pretty sure it was around 6:30-7pm."
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Just curious because at 7:00 am on Saturday July 7th the website VENTUSKY shows the wind at your location and altitude as 23mph from the N.N.E. in the direction of your loss. Then at 7:00 pm the wind is near calm.

Cool website but according to that at 6-7PM  I was not going against the wind to come back home, in fact it was facing my home (blowing South to North) so it should have come back no problem.  I'm not sure what to believe.

An easy way to check for winds aloft at the flying location is to take the drone up to whatever altitude you want to check.  Then put it in a hover.  Turn off the GPS  momentarily and watch the HS speed.  Within a few seconds, you'll know if you have a wind problem, and which way it is coming from. With no control input, and with no GPS, the drone will drift downwind.  

Jester125 Posted at 2018-7-8 11:22
Cool website but according to that at 6-7PM  I was not going against the wind to come back home, in fact it was facing my home (blowing South to North) so it should have come back no problem.  I'm not sure what to believe.

The wind was not blowing south to north.  You can believe what the log shows which is what happened.  Your AC flew backwards.  Why?  It had strong wind in its face.  

We see these threads all the time.  You flew too high and you flew downwind just like dozens of other new pilots.  So you lost your drone just like dozens of other new pilots.  Sorry for your loss.

Jester125 Posted at 2018-7-8 10:33
... but there was no way to tell that the wind was significantly more higher up ...

The wind is always significantly stronger higher up.  Bank on it.  

I would search for the drone in the trees and the shrubbry S.S.W. of the "Savery Pond" area.

I have my fingers crossed that you return to the area and do a proper search.

Finding it, will be your ultimate goal, but it’s up to you...


RedHotPoker

Hummingbird.UAV Posted at 2018-7-8 08:05
Maybe it did not lock your take-off point.  RTH then sent it to the previous take-off point.

Not maybe at all.
This is complete misinformation.
The Phantom cannot return to a previous home point because any recorded homepoint evaporates when the Phantom is turned off.

And if you were to launch before getting a GPS fix and recording home point, the Phantom would get GPS and record a home point soon after launching.
At worst the home point may be a short distance from the launch point.

around 150 ft with good visiual contact I hit the RTH and nothing, it kept flying and there was nothing I could do but watch it fly away on the gps screen. I tried to press the RTH but it was already on, it would not take any controller inputs, it eventually got too far and out of sight and said it was returning home but sadly never did.

Ive flown in way more wind than that, wind was around 7-8 mph at time of flight
The data tells a very different story
It's pretty clear that very little of what you have told is true.
For a start, you held the left stick full (or nearly full forward from launch until 1:50.6 when you let it go and the Phantom was 968 feet high.
Does that sound like around 150 ft ... I hit the RTH and nothing, it kept flying and there was nothing I could do but watch it fly away ??
Not even close.  You didn't hit RTH and pushing the Phantom nearly 1000 ft straight up isn't the action of someone trying to bring their Phantom back.

Ive flown in way more wind than that, wind was around 7-8 mph at time of flight
I was not going against the wind to come back home, in fact it was facing my home (blowing South to North) so it should have come back no problem.  I'm not sure what to believe.
Having looked at the data, it's clear that you are not to be believed but I trust the data.
If I look at the time from 1:34.7, you have not touched the right stick since 1:26.1 and your Phantom's horizontal movement has slowed down and it should be staying in place.
But it doesn't stay at all - it keeps moving away from home.
The slowest it gets to is 7.5 mph to the south.
Your Phantom should be able to hold position easily in a 20 mph wind but yours is drifting   
I wonder why.
But the wind is gusty and a little later at 1:44.4 it's being blown away at 17 mph while it's still trying to hold position.
The wind is always stronger up high.
The direction of the wind is clearly shown by the direction it's blowing the Phantom.
The strength is significantly over 30 mph and it's blowing toward the south.

At 1:50.6 you take your hands off the joysticks completely and leave the Phantom to hover.
It's not in RTH and this would have clearly shown on your screen.
The Phantom is 972 feet from home.
At 2:26.0  (1470 feet from home) you initiate RTH for the first time.
You hardly touch the sticks, leaving RTH to do the driving, unaware that RTH is a slow driver and will only come home at 10 metres/sec in still air.
At 4:31.0 the Phantom is pointing toward home and 970 ft up.
You decide to push the right stick hard forward but all you do is slow down the backward drift to 3.4 mph.
After that you give up driving and leave RTH to battle the strong headwind until 13:32.8 when the data record stops with the Phantom 5177 feet away and still 970 feet up and being blown further away.

it would not take any controller inputs
The data shows that your Phantom responded to all your control inputs.
The problem is that you didn't make any appropriate control inputs.

At any time you could easily have brought the Phantom down and brought it home.
The loss was totally preventable and entirely your fault.

In the old days before the Go app, you could lose your Phantom and not know why.
You could come home and tell your friends that it just flew away and be believed.
But things are different now.
The app records flight data so that incidents can be investigated and their cause identified.
And investigating lots of cases like yours, shows us that Phantoms don't just fly away.

Labroides Posted at 2018-7-8 14:56
around 150 ft with good visiual contact I hit the RTH and nothing, it kept flying and there was nothing I could do but watch it fly away on the gps screen. I tried to press the RTH but it was already on, it would not take any controller inputs, it eventually got too far and out of sight and said it was returning home but sadly never did.

Ive flown in way more wind than that, wind was around 7-8 mph at time of flight

No way did I hold the left stick up for 900+ feet, Im pretty sure I would not keep sending it higher when it was out of my sight.  I've never flown above 380 feet in the time I've owned the drone. I checked to see if possibly shut off the max dist and height but not sure, so I'll assume I shut it off while messing with it. It seems that your taking my misfortune as a personal attack on you or maybe your a lawyer for DJI and think I want some kind of compensation but I assure you that when I say it just "flew away" I'm asking people with knowledge in this forum for an explanation or thoughts into what might have happened and I dont think it literally just flew away. But thanks for your harsh feedback, there are always people like you in every forum I belong to. Thanks everyone else for your input.

Jester125 Posted at 2018-7-8 18:14
No way did I hold the left stick up for 900+ feet, Im pretty sure I would not keep sending it higher when it was out of my sight.  I've never flown above 380 feet in the time I've owned the drone. I checked to see if possibly shut off the max dist and height but not sure, so I'll assume I shut it off while messing with it. It seems that your taking my misfortune as a personal attack on you or maybe your a lawyer for DJI and think I want some kind of compensation but I assure you that when I say it just "flew away" I'm asking people with knowledge in this forum for an explanation or thoughts into what might have happened and I dont think it literally just flew away. But thanks for your harsh feedback, there are always people like you in every forum I belong to. Thanks everyone else for your input.

No way did I hold the left stick up for 900+ feet, Im pretty sure I would not keep sending it higher when it was out of my sight.
So how do you explain the data showing that you did?
I'll be very interested to here your explanation.
How could the data be recording something so different from what you say?

It seems that your taking my misfortune as a personal attack on you or maybe your a lawyer for DJI
Or it could be that I'm just a flyer that can read flight data.
I help lots of users here every week, often finding lost Phantoms and the causes of incidents.
Going by your refusal to believe the facts that show clearly in your data, I would write you off as a lost cause.
But the lessons from your misadventure can be valuable for other users.

I'm asking people with knowledge in this forum for an explanation or thoughts into what might have happened.
Well now you have a clear and detailed explanation of what did happen.
It took me over an hour to analyse and report.

It might not be what you wanted to hear but it's accurate.

Thanks for your harsh feedback, there are always people like you in every forum I belong to.

@Labroides, please don’t ever change being generous, kind and giving your advice, to those who desire to learn...

Sure there are always some that won’t appreciate your decency here, but who cares about those few?  Not me...

Thank you for being here, to share your knowledge and experiences with Us who learn and enjoy the lessons...  ;-)


RedHotPoker

I have a question bout this data stuff.   I see in the log that this phantom was launched in 2 seconds.    Does the data start after the home point is set ?
Or, does this indicate that the unit was turned on and without waiting for the usual warm up time flown?
I know that with mine.....It takes about one minute at least for all this to happen.
So I guess I'm asking if the data shown that this drone was turned on and sent on its way before IMU and home point were set and done???
I'm hopping Labroides  can answer that one for me..

Odan Posted at 2018-7-8 19:07
I have a question bout this data stuff.   I see in the log that this phantom was launched in 2 seconds.    Does the data start after the home point is set ?
Or, does this indicate that the unit was turned on and without waiting for the usual warm up time flown?
I know that with mine.....It takes about one minute at least for all this to happen.

The first line of recorded data (0.9 secs) has the home point recorded.
The drone will have been turned on before this and it will have taken some time before everything has warmed up and a GPS fix was acquired..

Log starts from motor powerup not drone turning on, think i got that right, all the warm up has already done hence the number of sats etc

How did you get the stick movements  off of this download.
I only see the whats on the log with no mention of stick movements ????
Am I missing something?????
Thanks......Odan...Aka Cpt. Longline

Air/America Posted at 2018-7-8 11:06
Just curious because at 7:00 am on Saturday July 7th the website VENTUSKY shows the wind at your location and altitude as 23mph from the N.N.E. in the direction of your loss. Then at 7:00 pm the wind is near calm.

You can always determine the time by looking at the flight record.
And you would need to understand military time ;-)
So he powered on the drone at 7:51pm. And on July 6th, not 7th:

Eric13 Posted at 2018-7-9 12:16
You can always determine the time by looking at the flight record.
And you would need to understand military time ;-)
So he powered on the drone at 7:51pm. And on July 6th, not 7th:

Well done Eric13, that makes a lot more sense.

On Friday, July 6th, 2018 at 20:00 hours VENTUSKY shows winds aloft at "jester125" location as strong and increasing over time.

Odan Posted at 2018-7-9 07:03
How did you get the stick movements  off of this download.
I only see the whats on the log with no mention of stick movements ????
Am I missing something?????

You have to download and view the csv file for that matter.

BTW:
If you want to have a better chance of getting a reply of the poster you are asking,
hit 'reply' rather than posting below his note.

Odan Posted at 2018-7-9 07:03
How did you get the stick movements  off of this download.
I only see the whats on the log with no mention of stick movements ????
Am I missing something?????

The joystick movements and a lot more are found in the CSV file that you can download from the initial Phantomhelp report.
http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogVi ... tRecord_2018-07-06_[19-51-20][1]csv.zip

Labroides Posted at 2018-7-9 13:12
The joystick movements and a lot more are found in the CSV file that you can download from the initial Phantomhelp report.
http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/8IT35B1O4TMS41LFPQA7/DJIFlightRecord_2018-07-06_[19-51-20][1]csv.zip

That link is broken...


RedHotPoker

RedHotPoker Posted at 2018-7-9 13:32
That link is broken...

Go to the initial phantomhelp link the OP posted.
You have the option to download csv below the map window.