I was flying my Phantom 3 Pro yesterday in the country.  I was flying it for about 5 minutes when after hovering at an altitude of 105ft for a couple seconds the phantom somehow lost connection and plumeted to the ground.  I was shocked since I hadn't touched anything to cause this.  I was actually talking to my brother when it happened and we were both watching it.  I went and looked at the flight recorder and it showed that I was hovering and then for some reason it zig zagged all over the place and went from 105ft to over 1,700 feet and then came straight down to the ground.  None of this actually happened.  The flight recorder said I climbed from 105 ft to over 1,700 feet in a matter of 10 seconds which is impossible.  Has anyone else have one of these fall from the sky for no reason and then have this issue?  It also was saying the gps signal was weak at the time.  Not sure what was causing this to happen.  I am kind of curious if this is a battery issue or something that has to do with voltage.  Needless to say the phatom 3 needs repair.  It still flies and the body isn't too bad but the gimbal is bent pretty bad.  Does anyone have insight on this?  

Yikes, sorry to hear that.

Sorry for your loss.
Pull the flight log from the Bird and this one on your Mobile device, publish them here and open a call at DJI.

What firmware?  What App?  What Tablet?  Can you post the flight log?

Most recent firmware.  DJI Pilot app.  Apple Ipad air.  How do I post the flight log?  

sudiste Posted at 2015-7-14 02:59
Sorry for your loss.
Pull the flight log from the Bird and this one on your Mobile device, publish t ...

How do I open a call with DJI?

Really sorry to hear about the accident.  (Bummer.)
It looks like you lost the GPS signal.  Did you know that GPS is not always reliable at all times?   There is a web site devoted to UAV "weather" conditions.  There are times of day in different locations where GPS may not be reliable or available.

See:  http://www.uavforecast.com

In your case... You probably could have saved your drone by switching to ATTI mode when you got the GPS warning.  Learn to fly in ATTI mode.  ATTI mode is your friend when GPS is not reliable.

Fulgerite Posted at 2015-7-14 03:18
Really sorry to hear about the accident.  (Bummer.)
It looks like you lost the GPS signal.  Did you  ...

Losing GPS Signal should not cause the drone to drop from the sky should it?

Here is the link to the log file https://drive.google.com/file/d/ ... 3M/view?usp=sharing .  Anyone know how to read it?

vu.q.le@outlook Posted at 2015-7-14 03:42
If the bird lose GPS connection, shouldn't the software automatically switch to ATTI mode to at leas ...

Surely losing GPS signal wouldn't cause this thing to crash.  

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=23728&extra=page%3D8&mobile=2

Similar thing happened to me this weekend. I'm sure it was the new firmware. Just rolled over and fell. Have contacted DJI so lets see what they say.

skylerlivingsto Posted at 2015-7-14 03:36
Here is the link to the log file https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5jM5IeX3iiTcWZvQ0NfTC1VQ3M/view?u ...

You can read/convert the file at www.djilogs.com

I think this will create a CSV (comma delimited) file you can read with Excel. It won't give you much in the way of summary, just a huge amount of detail taken several times a second.

Someone at DJI will most likely have to read the data and provide summary info as to what happened.

skylerlivingsto Posted at 2015-7-14 03:55
Surely losing GPS signal wouldn't cause this thing to crash.

Not so sure.  The GPS was getting wildly fluctuating readings which might have crashed the auto pilot resulting in a physical crash.

Fulgerite Posted at 2015-7-14 06:09
Not so sure.  The GPS was getting wildly fluctuating readings which might have crashed the auto pil ...

Is that the result of user?

On a related issue: I was hovering about 3 ft off the ground, manoeuvring to my landing site after a very successful flight, low battery warning on, when it just dropped and hit (thankfully) long grass.

I'm an experienced RC flyer so I'm sure it wasn't pilot error.

Only other thing I can think of was someone next to me switched on a mobile phone to take a picture, but surely that wouldn't affect it?

Damage01 Posted at 2015-7-14 06:40
On a related issue: I was hovering about 3 ft off the ground, manoeuvring to my landing site after a ...

Most likely not. And don't call me Shirley.

aburkefl@gmail. Posted at 2015-7-14 04:44
You can read/convert the file at www.djilogs.com

I think this will create a CSV (comma delimited) ...

djilogs.com hasn't correctly converted the last couple of DAT files I've tried. Not sure what is up with that.

Damage01 Posted at 2015-7-14 06:40
On a related issue: I was hovering about 3 ft off the ground, manoeuvring to my landing site after a ...

Sounds like the battery wasn't seated correctly. Has been reported by a few members. Auto lands because the data pins lose contact before the power pins, allowing the Phantom to safely land before the battery fully falls out

Oliver Posted at 2015-7-14 07:09
Sounds like the battery wasn't seated correctly. Has been reported by a few members. Auto lands be ...

Thanks for that Oliver - have to say that I remember having problems getting the battery out after this flight...

Oliver Posted at 2015-7-14 07:09
Sounds like the battery wasn't seated correctly. Has been reported by a few members. Auto lands be ...

Not really what is being described here though.

Oliver Posted at 2015-7-14 07:09
Sounds like the battery wasn't seated correctly. Has been reported by a few members. Auto lands be ...

I'm pretty crazy about making sure the battery is fully seated before I start.  Because of the cost of these things I go through a rigorous preflight making sure it's connected to satellites and has a home point and the battery is seated correctly.  If there are that many people having problems with batteries not seated correctly sounds like DJI needs to take notice of a design flaw.

jhall651 Posted at 2015-7-14 06:44
Most likely not. And don't call me Shirley.

Ha ha

I'm curious to know myself.
One day all this stuff will be straightened out.   On THAT day I'll buy my P3P

Sorry to hear about your crash Skyler.   Let us know what DJI does for you.

Sorry for what happened. Could you advise your email address? I will have the engineer to contact you for app logs and flight data for further analyse.

TerryWan Posted at 2015-7-14 12:31
Sorry for what happened. Could you advise your email address? I will have the engineer to contact yo ...

Skylerlivingston@gmail.com thank you!

Why do people that don't own a p3 in here saying anything? You don't own a p3 then you have no insight on one and no one wants to hear about how you didn't buy one and why you didn't either... 94% of p3s fly without any issues so you not buying one cuz of the 6% that have an issue makes you an
Edit for content.

Cessna172 Posted at 2015-7-14 11:09
I'm curious to know myself.
One day all this stuff will be straightened out.   On THAT day I'll buy  ...

My P3P works prefect in any way - and yes with the latest firmware even.

Mark97564 Posted at 2015-7-14 14:04
Why do people that don't own a p3 in here saying anything? You don't own a p3 then you have no insig ...

94% ?
Is that an arbitrary number you pulled out of thin air?   Post your source on that.
After that blazing personal attack I hope you can back up your big mouth with proof that I'm the moron and idiot you say I am.  Your credibility is null if you can't back up that claim.

Didn't YOU yourself just complain about your downlink scrambling just a month ago?.....Now you look like a hypocrit
http://forum.dji.com/thread-16126-1-1.html

Go read this thread and get back to me.....there's more to the entire DJI experience than just the Phantom
http://forum.dji.com/thread-11804-1-1.html

I'm hoping DJI improves even more.   I have their products and enjoy them.   I would have bought a P3P a while back but kept reading about FW problems and recently the VPS issues....and oh...the problems YOU said you are having with yours.  I still plan to buy one.
But MY OPINION is they can do better.   Apparently you believe noone else is entitled to their opinoon.

I've reported your personal attacks and hope they'll at last give you a warning.I re-read what I wrote, and it doesn't seem to warrant this kind of attack.

I just would like some wisdom from someone that knows about this issue.  I like the camaraderie in these groups.  We are all here for our love of flying machines.  I loved the phantom 3 so much that i bought 2 so when I had issues like this i wouldn't be out completely.  I am calling DJI today.  I tried yesterday but they were updating their phone system.   I will keep everyone posted!  Thank you for all the advice thus far!

I called DJI several times today but they are saying they are closed even though they say their business hours 9am-5pm pst.  Frustrating to have to deal with a company that can't take calls and never returns emails.

Sorry to hear of your crash, that sucks!  Please explain how you made the motion map above, I really want to be able to do that but have not been able to find any info on it. Thanks!

vu.q.le@outlook Posted at 2015-7-15 02:03
Wow! I've said something stupid things here but never cross this line. You just beat me to being t ...

Mmmmm?  Debatable

pixeleyz Posted at 2015-7-15 03:08
Sorry to hear of your crash, that sucks!  Please explain how you made the motion map above, I really ...

You have to go into the DJI Pilot app and open the User Center and it should the middle icon on the bottom of the screen.  Once opened it should say Flight Record.  You have to have your phantom and controller on to obtain this info.  Let me know if you have any troubles doing this.

skylerlivingsto Posted at 2015-7-15 01:31
I called DJI several times today but they are saying they are closed even though they say their busi ...

if you called the DJI America, there was a post earlier that said they were moving into a larger facility, maybe they also ran into telecom issues and their phones are not connected yet?

skylerlivingsto Posted at 2015-7-15 07:16
You have to go into the DJI Pilot app and open the User Center and it should the middle icon on th ...

Thanks Skylerlivingsto, I found it and WOW, what a powerful tool! I didn't yet figure out how to export an entire flight path as a movie as you did though, just single frames so far.

pixeleyz Posted at 2015-7-15 10:20
Thanks Skylerlivingsto, I found it and WOW, what a powerful tool! I didn't yet figure out how to e ...

If your Phantom 3 went down and got lost, this data would be lost with it, correct? So it would not help you locate it, right? There must be a way to save the last location of your drone on your mobile device, no?  there needs to be a way to use the last reported data to find a lost P3P(?).

pixeleyz Posted at 2015-7-15 10:27
If your Phantom 3 went down and got lost, this data would be lost with it, correct? So it would no ...

No, this log data is stored on your tablet and phone in *.TXT files. You don't need to have the RC Controller or Phantom on to see these logs in the User Center.  

You can also choose to sync them with the cloud so they are backed up and available to any other device you install the app on.

The Phantom will have its own *.DAT logs on its private internal SD card which can be supplied to DJI for troubleshooting.