Hi,
Two days ago I lost my DJI SPARK in the mountains here in Italy. I was fliying in sport mode and the drone lost the connection with the controller, but instead of coming back home it started landing and I wasn't able to find it.

Here is the log of the flight: (I can't post the link, how can I show the log?)

I hope that someone will help me understand what happened!

Thank you!

Upload your flight log here and post the link back here.

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/86RA50ZV3IKZ4PJMPF8E/

Do you have the cached video of your flight?  From a quick look at the flight log, I am not seeing an obvious reason for failure...  Is it possible you hit the landing button instead of RTH?  How windy was it, and the terrain you were over at the time of landing, was it steeply inclined, did you have it in line of sight?

Did you have the RTH at Current Altitude option disabled in DJI GO? If so, that would have caused the Spark to auto land since it was only 50 feet away from the home point.

I don't have the video.
I didn't press the land option.
How can I check the settings if I don't have the drone?

Sorry to hear that. Kindly contact our support team to start up a case: (https://www.dji.com/support?site=brandsite&from=nav) . We have the professional data analysis team who would do their best to find out the reason of the incident and then the corresponding resolution would be provided, thank you.

12vava12 Posted at 2018-8-30 06:27
I don't have the video.
I didn't press the land option.
How can I check the settings if I don't have the drone?

I don't think that setting is recorded in your flight log. It appears it was disabled though since the following message appeared in DJI GO:

Aircraft close to Home Point. "go home" shifts to "landing".

12vava12 Posted at 2018-8-30 06:27
I don't have the video.
I didn't press the land option.
How can I check the settings if I don't have the drone?

You're not caching your flight videos to your mobile device?

Northwood Posted at 2018-8-30 07:17
You're not caching your flight videos to your mobile device?

No, because the storage of the iPad was full

12vava12 Posted at 2018-8-30 07:23
No, because the storage of the iPad was full

Thats a real shame.  Sorry for your loss.

Sorry for your loss.
I know how you feel.
I also lost my first spark.
Now on second spark I have installed an independent gsm gps tracker, for situations like these.

Fly safe everyone.
Alex.

Go back to spot you lost it, turn on cellular network and use find my drone. Btw, in these situations you can press the the button with two red lines to pause wherever you are, many people do not know about this feature.

Hi,

Sorry for your loss! But your Spark was so close to home, just 15 meters north of your HP at 128 meter high.

If you press or slide RTH, beacuse it was so close it does change your command into an autolanding.
Wich it started but the connection got lost for the second time.
As it was overhead mayby the RC antennas were not pointing the correct direction.

So if the autolanding was completed, it should be not far from your takeoff position. If no obstacles in that position ofcourse.

cheers
JJB

H. Arif - 6IX Posted at 2018-8-30 11:11
Go back to spot you lost it, turn on cellular network and use find my drone. Btw, in these situations you can press the the button with two red lines to pause wherever you are, many people do not know about this feature.

There wasn't cellular network where I was...

JJBspark Posted at 2018-8-30 12:16
Hi,

Sorry for your loss! But your Spark was so close to home, just 15 meters north of your HP at 128 meter high.

Thank you, I understand now what happened.
Is there a way, for the future, to make it come home even if it's close to me?

12vava12 Posted at 2018-8-31 00:10
Thank you, I understand now what happened.
Is there a way, for the future, to make it come home even if it's close to me?

Hi,

Yes there is. Use the little compass in the app to manually get the craft back to you reducing height at the same time. Reducing height if possible due to obstacles.So basicly to hold your drone visually when its close and getting closer to land.

I use only the RTH function when i do not know it anymore, wich is seldom :-)

Or use RTH (will hover, turn RTH direction, climb to RTH height if flying lower) to get the craft back home in the gohome direction, cancel RTH and fly manually towards the HP.

RTH when craft is within 3-20 meters, it will land there. So cancel RTH and land manually if you do not want to land it there.

cheers
JJB

12vava12 Posted at 2018-8-31 00:08
There wasn't cellular network where I was...

Dont you have data or something. IF not, go home, turn on find my drone via Wifi network, use the hybrid mapping and notice landmarks near the location of your drone. Also get the latitude and longitude. I use all these to find my drone when I lost it twice.

Your flight log shows max. flight altitude reach of over 700 feet! Maximum ceiling in Italy is 230 feet! (70 meters). You either are completely ignorant of Italian flight rules or blatantly careless. Either way, I hope the loss of your Spark will teach you in the future to pay attention to flight rules/safety.  Irresponsible behaviour like yours is giving law abiding pilots a bad rap.

Uff 215 meters when by law you can only go up to 70 meters is a very big infraction!
You are lucky that you did not get cought, you would end up paying huuuge fines and the loss of the drone would be the last of your problems!!!
Read and obey the law, it’s in your own interest.

FLY SAFE AND RESPONSIBLY EVERYONE.
Alex.

sorry to read that

JJBspark Posted at 2018-8-30 12:16
Hi,

Sorry for your loss! But your Spark was so close to home, just 15 meters north of your HP at 128 meter high.

Hi,

What software have you used there for analysis? It looks interesting....

Cheers,
Wolferl

Wolferl Posted at 2018-9-1 03:24
Hi,

What software have you used there for analysis? It looks interesting....

Hi,

thanks. see > https://forum.dji.com/thread-138215-1-1.html

cheers
JJB

JJBspark Posted at 2018-9-1 06:00
thanks. see > https://forum.dji.com/thread-138215-1-1.html

Looks nice and useful! Thanks a lot!

Wolferl

Wolferl Posted at 2018-9-2 00:31
Looks nice and useful! Thanks a lot!

Wolferl

yeah, i know  

almost an update, more info on the polar chart!

cheers
JJB

JJBspark Posted at 2018-9-2 01:43
yeah, i know  

almost an update, more info on the polar chart!

Hi JJBspark,

Do you have an "official" link of some sort where one can get the newest version?

Cheers,
Wolferl

Wolferl Posted at 2018-9-3 00:25
Hi JJBspark,

Do you have an "official" link of some sort where one can get the newest version?

Next week i hope to post the newest version of FRAP.
If a FRAP user 'register' (howto in FRAP) their email they will be notified.

cheers
JJB

JJBspark Posted at 2018-9-3 01:01
If a FRAP user 'register' (howto in FRAP) their email they will be notified.

[x] Done

Thanks a lot,
Wolferl