Long story short I was out flying yesterday afternoon  in front of my house taking some video of an old grain elevator that is still functional which I've flow near many of times with no troubles. Just beside it is a water tower....  So I'm  enjoying the flight then... It takes a hard roll into and on TOP of of the water tower..... I'm like did that really just happen??   I'm waiting for it to fall and nothing...  Talk about a total loss. It's been raining all day, temps are going below freezing tonight and no one here in my small town is authorized to climb the tower to retrieve it.

Phantom 2
H3-3D
GoPro

Total loss. Bummed

I feel for you man!!

I know the feeling I had a fly away, soul destroying. Mine came back home thank god. Can you give more details on flight mode and sat locks! Did you do Compass cal, and firmware version have you done maintenance, location/environment conditions hopefully help others prevent this, thanks.

You don't know any Phantom owner I neighbourhood ?? , could hook it up and lift it off the tower.

Were you close to the grain elevator when you calibrated the compass?  The only time my Phantom acted crazy, was the time I had calibrated compass within 20' of an enormous sand and gravel sifter (dumb). Related to crash?---still don't know.

I do know another owner. Phantom 2 +. He drove 30 minutes just come out here and verify the exact location of mine. Just as I thought directly on top of the tower twenty feet from center upside down.

Can a phantom lift another?  We entertained lifting mine off but I don't want to loose two of them. We can easily hook onto mine but I'm worried about loosing them both.

No birdfolk. I was in the same location I always set off from. Everything was in check. Normal take off, hovered for a few to make sure all was well then off to my normal routine. I just don't get it….

wingnut.e@gmail Posted at 2015-1-4 03:40
I do know another owner. Phantom 2 +. He drove 30 minutes just come out here and verify the exact lo ...

I doubt very seriously that a phantom could carry the weight of a second phantom.   You may have to find someone with a larger drone.     

I'd love to see the image the other phantom captured....

Trust me.  If I had a pic to share i  would certainly do that. He didn't have his SD card in.

Hi Wingnut,
that is really unlucky, I hope you can retrieve it.. There are several reports here of crashes near large metal objects and less obvious crashes in low temperatures. If only we had a black box on board, DJI could get to the bottom of these mysteries!! ah well, best of luck- let us know how you get on.
Rod

There is a video out there on YouTube of a phantom picking up and flying with three phantoms.

why you don't ask the firefighter to help you?

Many water towers also hold antenna arrays - or at least antennas, since it's a high place town often lease them to cell phone companies or use them for their emergency (fire/police) arrays.  Could be something like that....if not the massive amount of metal...or just bad luck from a combo of things.

you can easily pick up 3 to 4 of them in the same time, you will have 5 min only at full speed

According to this website (http://www.helipal.com/dji-phant ... -gps-drone-rtf.html), each motor can lift 800g. The phantom 2 Vision+ weighs about 1300. Based on that, you shouldn't have any problems lifting both copters. I also saw the video that jarek33 mentioned above (a Phantom lifting 3).

Since your battery was probably bone dry by the time the rain started, a tub of rice might be all you need to get it up and running again.

Let us know how it goes...

Thanks guys for all of you concerns.  I just can't bring myself to ask my friend to put his in harms way. I spoke with the town manager yesterday and he put me it touch with the elections that service the tower. Depending on the weather here in Indy I made an appointment for them to come out Monday morning.   90$ an hr and a 45$ trip charge.  

The fire department was a thought but I'm nearly certain the we don't have a ladder truck that reaches that high, plus the town manager would have suggested it.

I certainly hope the battery (s) were dead. The GoPro is a concern as well not to mention the gimbal which I just got.

My other concert is the fact that yesterday it was 48 and rain all day, and now the temperature is going to be below freezing today and tonight. So all of that water in the drone/GoPro and gimbal is going to freeze and expand and most likely cause more damage

I'm only a couple of hours away from you and it is very windy  today.   I'm afraid your phantom may find its way down on its own, the hard way.

This it true TSP.  I'm thinking it going to take a big continue gust of wind to move it that far.
From what I could see from the vid yesterday and the direction of the wind here if it does move it's going to be pushed up against some kind of apparatus on top. But u never know.... I'll keep checking. Thanks

I would caution anyone pointing to the video of the v3.0 picking up three other Phantoms.  Those three were stripped, not full weight.  Yes, it could probably pick up one, though.

Ah, time to break out the ACE Matrix.  I'm not sure I would take mine to the same place that freaked yours out either.  Having the utility company come out and climb the tower for $90 is probably the best bet but if the weather is that bad I doubt they want to climb it for the Phantom.    Sorry for your incident and I hope you get it back!

Richard

michael.haws@ya Posted at 2015-1-4 04:43
I doubt very seriously that a phantom could carry the weight of a second phantom.   You may have t ...

Maybe you can use any kind of drone to get one or several fishing lines over the tower and try to drag to the side and hope it moves and it falls down. If you have some sort of net you and some friends could use to catch it with minimal damage.

realy feel for you man!!

We did some testing. His phantom could pick up the 2.6 lbs but it couldn't sustain vertical lift,  but we thought it had just enough to elevate it a little in hopes to move it so it would fall. Long story short we went up for a dry run and it wasn't their it moved where I don't know where. We checked the top and around the cat walk we couldn't get very close. My only thought is it fell to the cat walk and it's righ side up and we can't see it against the white background of the tower of it fell to the ground and someone saw it. But the tower is in the heart of town, kids were in school yesterday and it has an 8' barb wire fence.

I'm betting it's still up there.  I hope you get it back.  Keep us posted.

I'm thinking it is to. It would take one heck of a breeze to blow it from one side of the tower based on the wind direction and the location where we saw it.

I still have someone coming out to climb the tower it's a matter of Mother Nature at this point.

Ouch!  It's bad enough to lose your drone, but to lose it in a place where you can see it but cannot access it is truly painful.

I sincerely hope you do recover it.  

-Joe

I've got the prop-guards off; been spray-painting them like I saw pictured in another thread. Orange in front, navy-blue in back. If I ever lose Phantom on something white, like snow, ice, or a water tower, maybe this will give me a better chance finding it.

The way things are looking around here I might not see it till spring. 4 inches of show and -20 degrees.

high wind might blow it off

Cant you get in contact with the watersupply company, they must have access to the tower ????

I check daily to see if it blew off. BWJ. I have someone to climb the tower but weather conditions are keeping them from going up.

Hello All,
I got a phantom 2 With gimbal and GoPro and I'm scared to fly it due to all the flyaway reports.  I found this video:
http://youtu.be/_ge3GuhEDRM
What do you all think? Also< i'm very new to forums so please excuse me if this link was not done correctly.

Just don't fly within 300' of a  water tower like I did.... This is the first time I ever had even a glitch out of mine.  I wouldn't worry about flying yours.... You can keep it as a conversation piece of use it for what it's intended for. Personally I think I had a motor failure which might steer me away from another Phantom product.

Just got my Phamtom back. Two weeks later.  So the work begins.  It's
Been through hell and back.

Nooo.. Been there done that I still have one (Phantom) in a tree across the street from me our fire dept can retrieve it with an engine ladder But my pride and fear of public condemnation won't allow me I'm willing of course to pay the going rate for fire calls.

wingnut, you have to give us more details than that, after all that waiting, we neeeeeed to knoooooow....

With the fly aways there surely must be a firmware issue. If a consumer completes all correct calibration pre flight, all relevant checks for both hardware and software. Then there should not be flyaway...

I am very upset as i have been using the drones with the assum[tion that this part of the drone works successfully. I have now tragically lost 2x Phantom 2 Vision + with 32gb SD cards.

No one from DJI or afficialiated has responded to my calls for advice? chat etc???

Please help DJI

Well all know the story of how i lost mine. Two weeks to the day the weather finally was nice enough for them to climb the tower.
So as the guy is putting on his gear I went in the gate to see if by chance i could find it laying on the ground around some out buildings and save some Money.  I walk straight over to a large pro pain tank and their it was, nearly under the tank covered in show. The only thing broke on the phantom are the blades, the gimbal is in one piece and the go pro has a ding on the lens. Will anything work? That remains the question..

michael.haws@ya Posted at 2015-1-4 04:43
I doubt very seriously that a phantom could carry the weight of a second phantom.   You may have t ...

doubt very seriously that a phantom could carry the weight of a second phantom.

It may not carry another Phantom, but if hooked, it may SLOW the fall to the ground.....

keep us posted wingnut glad you got it back!