Hello colleagues, my drone fell in the jungle and I could not get it back.
He did not return home and started landing in the middle of the jungle, It did not let me cancel the landing and I lost it.

I think DJI's support and warranty is a joke.
Please take a minute to read these emails that I exchange with DJI support. I need your opinion

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Email from me to DJI


Description what you did to try and regain control:  I was flying the drone in jungle/mountain with a lot a vegetation.

The drone started to RTH but it started to land in an area that wasn´t Home (you can see it on the flight record) an area impossible to reach.

I tried to cancel the auto landing with X button on the app several times, don´t respond, tried to paused with pause button at the RC, don´t respond (you can see it on the flight record)

The drone lost conection immediately and I was blind, imposible to handle to a safe area.

I tried to find my drone with Find My drone function but the sound function doesn´t work, the smart LED  doesn´t work too.

I lost my drone in a mountain with massive vegetation



- Video Cached

https://drive.google.com/drive/f ... iJ3vqWR?usp=sharing

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Response from DJI Support



Dear Tomas,

Thanks for your patience.

For your claimed case CAS-1990008-N3K4C2, we have already finished the analysis, and the result is as follows:

1. The aircraft was piloted under GPS mode, but it could not respond to the pilot's control perfectly due to the wind;
2. T=04:19, H=163.4 m, D=191 m, Battery 55%, the warning of High Wind Velocity popped up on the APP;
3. T=07:00, H=169.4 m, D=251.6 m, Battery 29%, RTH was triggered due to the loss of the remote signal, but the aircraft could not fly back at full speed due to the wind；
4. T=07:57, H=169.5 m, D=72.2 m, Battery 16%, Landing was triggered due to the Critically Low Power;
5. T=09:26, H=-11.9 m, D=71.7 m, Battery 4%, the flight record ended and the last recorded coordinate: -22.9488468 -43.2191140

According to the analysis, the incident happened due to piloting the aircraft under improper flight environment. Please do not fly in high-wind condition.

We truly appreciate your support for DJI. If you could not recover the product and consider to purchase another one, we can offer you a 15% off coupon code for a new Spark Aircraft (without the remote controller and battery charger), which can be used during payment on DJI’s online store:
http://store.dji.com/product/spark

Please email me if you would like the coupon code with the contents such as “I accept the offer”. And may I know would you like to ship the aircraft to United States when placing the order?

Should you have more questions about the result of the data analysis, please reply to this email directly within 15 calendar days. Then we will contact you via email in 2-3 working days.

Best Regards,

Dora
DJI Tech Support
http://www.dji.com/


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My Response...i was mad


I am completely disappointed with your answer.
You are avoiding talking about what I think is more important: the drone does not cancel the landing, try it several times from the app and from the RC. You can see it in the flight log.
So It landed on the mountain with a massive jungle and lost it. If I could have canceled, I could bring it up to me.

You say do not fly with strong wind, the application does not say that, it says high wind velocity fly wiht carefeul, it's not the same!

And finally, you offer me a discount of only 15% and you want to send it to the USA when you know I'm in Brazil, is it serious?
I am completely offended by your response.
I need to talk to your superior.

I request please reconsider this decision.
I request the use of my DJI warranty.
I request to receive a new drone in Brazil.

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What you think? Im wrong?

Did you check the coordinates at 4% battery? The AC was 11 meters high. It's probably in a tree right here:


Other than that, DJI's report seems legit. You should have taken the wind into consideration. The Spark tried to RTH but couldn't because of the wind, so it started to land when it got to critical battery level. Nothing out of the ordinary, i's supposed to do that. Good luck!

"4. T=07:57, H=169.5 m, D=72.2 m, Battery 16%, Landing was triggered due to the Critically Low Power;"

That reads like a normal "critical Battery' landing from that height. It needs just about 10% battery to get down from 160meters
(aside: you can stop this landing (next time) by permanently pushing the left stick forward. But just till battery is empty ;-)


But : Give it a try, upload your flightrecord to phantom help and post the weblink here

http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/upload/

There are some very good analysts here.
They may confirm DJI's view, but there is a chance, that they don't.

Anyway, you know where the Spark is and there is really no change to get there?
Mabe with a bigger drone?

T=07:00, H=169.4 m, D=251.6 m, Battery 29%, RTH was triggered due to the loss of the remote signal, but the aircraft could not fly back at full speed due to the wind；
So I assume you had a signal up until that point. Is it safe to say that, while still having full control of it, you  were flying your Spark 170 meters up in the air and 250 away from you with only 30 % battery left? And strong winds, which you knew about? That's a little reckless in my book. I'm sorry you lost your AC and I'm sorry DJI won't help you more than 15%, but I think this was due to your negligence.

Antipaxi Posted at 2018-7-18 06:50
Did you check the coordinates at 4% battery? The AC was 11 meters high. It's probably in a tree right here:
[view_image]

Probably it landed in 11m height over starting point.
"T=09:26, H=-11.9 m, D=71.7 m, Battery 4%, the flight record ended"
The sensor saw the tree as landing ground, methinks.
And it is just 40 meters from the road.
That is really bad luck.
Assumingly he could have flown it back, if he had tried to ascend and flying it back, but not just to stop RTH with X-Button.
very unlucky, methinks!

Its just so unfortunate, but too many Drone pilots are not familiar with “low battery power” , hi wind velocity and Return To Home,,,  Many Drones have been lost this way...

Really sad situation, i would definitly go there and try to find it. If you are flying a zone which you can't access well that's on your own pal. Also, this is already a nice feature that the app is telling you there's high wind. In this situation, do not take chances next time and come back home. Fly on a less windy day. Be careful and try stuff before diving in no-access areas. Hope you'll find it back tho.

SPARKOLITO Posted at 2018-7-18 07:21
Really sad situation, i would definitly go there and try to find it. If you are flying a zone which you can't access well that's on your own pal. Also, this is already a nice feature that the app is telling you there's high wind. In this situation, do not take chances next time and come back home. Fly on a less windy day. Be careful and try stuff before diving in no-access areas. Hope you'll find it back tho.

I think all of us started a flight on no wind conditions and, after reaching a certain height, we also reached high winds. There's no way to tell, unless you have a chatty meteorologist as a friend. The thing is, if you reach high winds and the app lets you know, well, fly the damn thing lower.

Spark is capable of approx 13.8 m/s (approx 50km/h) top speed. It was returning at 3.15m/s relative to the ground. That means wind was at least 10m/s (like 5 on Beaufort scale, fresh breeze).
Spark triggers level 1 warning at estimated 6m/s of wind speed and level 2 at 9.6 m/s.
So, DJI analysis does look credible to me.
What I fail to understand is, how approx. 70m from Home point and maximum of 17% inclination is not reachable with good machete and/or chainsaw?

Antipaxi Posted at 2018-7-18 07:28
I think all of us started a flight on no wind conditions and, after reaching a certain height, we also reached high winds. There's no way to tell, unless you have a chatty meteorologist as a friend. The thing is, if you reach high winds and the app lets you know, well, fly the damn thing lower.

Not so:

www.uavforecast.com

It does not warn you if the wind is too high once you get up there but you can feed in your desired altitude and get a snapshot of the possibilities up there.

I used the app when I filmed the river flooding near my hometown due to hurricane Harvey.
Winds on the ground were moderate but at just 150feet (45m) the winds were 40mph (18m/s) due to the proximity of the storm.
So with my home made hexacopter, I risked it and got this historical footage - flood levels not seen since 1913

sad but true if you are not sure how to fly in the wind try to stay on the ground if i lost my drone i would be sad

eYeSkYeYe Posted at 2018-7-18 08:18
Spark is capable of approx 13.8 m/s (approx 50km/h) top speed. It was returning at 3.15m/s relative to the ground. That means wind was at least 10m/s (like 5 on Beaufort scale, fresh breeze).
Spark triggers level 1 warning at estimated 6m/s of wind speed and level 2 at 9.6 m/s.
So, DJI analysis does look credible to me.

"What I fail to understand is, how approx. 70m from Home point and maximum of 17% inclination is not reachable with good machete and/or chainsaw?"
It is just 40m away from the road, but I am not so sure, the trees are just 11m high! (17% inclination)

pmshop Posted at 2018-7-18 08:49
Not so:

www.uavforecast.com

Thank you for this! It will be tremendously helpful.

WOW
I am impressed with your feedback. I am very sad to lose the drone but I am really learning a lot from you. Thank you very much for your comments. I went twice to the place. I went with a professional climber the first time. The second time I went with a friend, I really took a lot of risk. I loved that drone but the place completely inaccessible and dangerous, down the slope down and the dense vegetation. I really appreciate your comments.

As I said before, I am very grateful for your comments but what happens with this: it is not supposed the option to pause  (RC) and cancel landing on the app should work no matter what?

Hi Tomas, we completely understand how you feel about the result. We are very sorry about this. We would like you to know that before coming to a conclusion we made sure that our Data Analysis are fair enough about the result of investigation. The data analysis result was made by an independent technical team based on the flight data you’ve provided. We have reviewed your case and found that the result of the investigation is already final. Unfortunately, DJI cannot apply warranty service for this case that has no product malfunction found. But in the other hand, 15% discount coupon for your next purchase is being offered to you. If you could not retrieve the drone and still want to purchase a new one, you can reply "I accept the offer". Once again, Sorry for the unfortunate experience and thank you so much for your understanding.

S-e-ven Posted at 2018-7-18 09:32
"What I fail to understand is, how approx. 70m from Home point and maximum of 17% inclination is not reachable with good machete and/or chainsaw?"
It is just 40m away from the road, but I am not so sure, the trees are just 11m high! (17% inclination)

If you look carefully... you'll notice it's minus 11 meters relative height difference from the home point.

Dronesom Posted at 2018-7-18 11:38
As I said before, I am very grateful for your comments but what happens with this: it is not supposed the option to pause  (RC) and cancel landing on the app should work no matter what?

If connection is lost between remote and the aircraft, there is absolutely nothing to tell the aircraft to stay in the air in critically low battery situation.

eYeSkYeYe Posted at 2018-7-18 21:58
If you look carefully... you'll notice it's minus 11 meters relative height difference from the home point.

Outsch, if there is a minus, I totally missed that.(and there is a minus 11.9m ;-)
Just we do not know the altitude difference between starting and landing point ,anyway.
Or did I miss that, too?

eYeSkYeYe Posted at 2018-7-18 22:11
If connection is lost between remote and the aircraft, there is absolutely nothing to tell the aircraft to stay in the air in critically low battery situation.

If I did read that correct, the RC did stay connected till the end.
Just our friend was unaware about the critical battery  landing procedure at 10% (or accordingly to the height of the ac at the time, the battery is down to "just enough battery power left for landing )
He tried just to cancle it, which is a no go.
And I think, it is not good described in the manuals, also.

I learned about the "throttle up" option,  to fly literally till it fells out of the air at after some time flying at 0%, in a video.
And in the discussion afterwards, about that video.

Dronesom Posted at 2018-7-18 11:38
As I said before, I am very grateful for your comments but what happens with this: it is not supposed the option to pause  (RC) and cancel landing on the app should work no matter what?

"it is not supposed the option to pause  (RC) and cancel landing on the app should work no matter what"

No, it shouldn't
There is imho a difference between a RTH and a critical battery landing:
The RTH is your choice, if you wanna follow the (kind of) suggestion or not.
Critical battery landing, however, is a "last stand" failsafe to prevent that the bird is falling later from the sky. Just enough battery to land.
You cant cancel this. You can, however, overwrite it actively with throttle up.
And all other orders, forward, sidewards, turning, working anyway.
It is just not good documented, me thinks.

S-e-ven Posted at 2018-7-18 23:34
If I did read that correct, the RC did stay connected till the end.
Just our friend was unaware about the critical battery  landing procedure at 10% (or accordingly to the height of the ac at the time, the battery is down to "just enough battery power left for landing )
He tried just to cancle it, which is a no go.

There are two signals between RC and AC.
1. Video stream signal that transmits video from AC to RC.
2. Control signal from RC to AC to say Spark what to do

Loss of 1. does NOT trigger RTH
Loss of 2. DOES trigger RTH (some limitations apply, see the manual)

Than check point 3. in DJI response.

So, control signal between RC and AC was lost, that triggered RTH procedure which is autonomous as there is nothing outside AC algorithm that would command Spark. And Spark actually did as specified (forced landing due to critically low battery).

eYeSkYeYe Posted at 2018-7-19 02:50
There are two signals between RC and AC.
1. Video stream signal that transmits video from AC to RC.
2. Control signal from RC to AC to say Spark what to do

"RTH was triggered due to the loss of the remote signal, but the aircraft could not fly back at full speed due to the wind"

Yep, I did read that earlier . But :
"3. T=07:00, H=169.4 m, D=251.6 m, Battery 29%, RTH was triggered due to the loss of the remote signal, but the aircraft could not fly back at full speed due to the wind；"

29%, 170m height, 250 m away, that does sound almost like a "low battery go home", to me
Think about, the "normal" RTH is trying to get the bird back before 10%. From 170m that needs alone about 10% battery Plus flying home
Also the RC was (re-?)connected for point 4 and 5.
(Because we won't see this points, if not.)


I still think the flightlog could get djiuser_v11FWCLlfYgr a lot more informations.
But either I havent seen it or it still is neither posted to phantom help, nor linked to the forum, yet
;-)
Pleease:
http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/upload/