I am writing to report the loss of my drone and to seek assistance in understanding what went wrong. The incident occurred while I was flying on top of a mountain at approximately 800 meters elevation. The weather conditions were ideal – clear skies, sunny, with minimal wind. After about 10-12 minutes of flight with no signal issues, I lowered the drone below the peak to capture a shot of it ascending. However, it unexpectedly lost signal with the remote. I had set the automotive Return to Home (RTH) altitude to 100 meters, which had always worked in the past when signal was lost.

Unfortunately, this time the RTH function did not activate. Despite my efforts to regain signal, I had no success. After 30 minutes of waiting and searching, I was unable to locate the drone visually or audibly. The area where I lost signal was completely inaccessible and too dangerous to explore further, forcing me to leave without the drone.

I am devastated, as I had only owned the drone for four months and had planned to take it on an upcoming trip in 2-weeks. I would greatly appreciate any help in understanding why the RTH function failed and what could have caused this issue.

please see below a link to my flight record from said flight.

https://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/202409013C9Z11TJYN2PV643JKQ34KYY5HDICZSS

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Guys, sorry for jumping into the thread, no idea where to post.
I was playing with a Pihot P40 Plus 2 drone, pressed the take-off button and then it started to move towards one direction without responding to remote control buttons!!

Eventually lost sight and no idea where it went!! But to make my frustration less, what/how can a drone eventually "fall"/"drop"?
Can it hit a building? Will it run out of battery and then? Will it try to land vertically? Will it decline diagonally until it hits an object/ground?

Thanks!

Okay Thank you. What do you think would have cause a power outage? Seems strange. I have filed a flyaway application and report, I am just awaiting to hear back from DJI themselves.

djRuiC Posted at 9-1 07:09
Guys, sorry for jumping into the thread, no idea where to post.
I was playing with a Pihot P40 Plus 2 drone, pressed the take-off button and then it started to move towards one direction without responding to remote control buttons!!

Sorry but you're out of luck here.
This is not the place to ask for help with a cheap non-DJI drone.
No-one here knows anything about Pihot drones or the details of your incident.

Hi

Sorry for your loss.

Had a look at your log and unfortunately probably user fault.

You were flying in reverse below your take off point and seemed to have hit the slope below your position this can be seen from the kmz file.

See attached.

djiuser_HMKhDrCuLOB3 Posted at 9-1 07:12
Okay Thank you. What do you think would have cause a power outage? Seems strange. I have filed a flyaway application and report, I am just awaiting to hear back from DJI themselves.

Sorry ... I've looked closer at the detail of the final flight track and my first assessment isn't correct.

You were flying backwards towards a ridge that rose up higher than the drone was flying.
Your drone has no obstacle avoidance and flying backwards, you had no visual indication of the danger you were flying towards.

You managed to maintain signal until the data ends because the ridge dropped away to the south, allowing a clear line of sight between the controller and the drone.
But as the drone flew closer to the ridge, it got to a point where that line of sight was blocked by terrain and you lost signal.

But when that happened, the drone was only 10 metres above terrain(+/- whatever drift there may have been in the barometric sensor).
And that terrain was rising steeply for a further 25 metres.

You were flying blind, at full speed towards the ridge.
It looks like you lost signal just as the drone was about to crash into the ridge that you couldn't see.
Flying at 10 metres/sec, the drone would have crashed within a second or two of losing signal.

Thank you so much for your help in the analysis of what went on. It’s a real shame to hear I’m at fault, I am new to drone flying I’m kicking myself for that. I think I was trying to turn myself round rather than fly backwards. I guess it’s just a learning experience. Do you know if DJI would offer a replacement for drone only or even at a discounted price since I’m still in warranty?
Thanks again

Thank you so much for your help in the analysis of what went on. It’s a real shame to hear I’m at fault, I am new to drone flying I’m kicking myself for that. I think I was trying to turn myself round rather than fly backwards. I guess it’s just a learning experience. Do you know if DJI would offer a replacement for drone only or even at a discounted price since I’m still in warranty?
Thanks again

djiuser_HMKhDrCuLOB3 Posted at 9-1 08:37
Thank you so much for your help in the analysis of what went on. It’s a real shame to hear I’m at fault, I am new to drone flying I’m kicking myself for that. I think I was trying to turn myself round rather than fly backwards. I guess it’s just a learning experience. Do you know if DJI would offer a replacement for drone only or even at a discounted price since I’m still in warranty?
Thanks again

I think I was trying to turn myself round rather than fly backwards.
The data shows you pulling the right stick fully back and holding it for seven seconds until the data stopped.
Do you know if DJI would offer a replacement for drone only or even at a discounted price since I’m still in warranty?
You would have to ask DJI about that.

Hi there,

We are sorry to hear about what happened with the drone. If you have not yet retrieved your aircraft, we recommend registering a flyaway request through our official website here: https://repair.dji.com/uk/repair/flyaway

Please rest assured that this will be taken care of and handled accordingly.

Once you have submitted the flyaway case, our team will reach out to you and provide you with more information.