Ok Guys... How do I upload my logs?
I want the pros to look at them close and offer unbiased input.
I was on a flight today (11090' distance) I looped back and was preparing to come in for my landing.
Bird began the "toilet bowl" swirl and started falling. I was at 293' altitude. I immediatly switched between the different modes (P-A-F) to regain control in case it was a compass issue.
This didn't do anything. I am quite sure I had a solid GPS lock beacuse it hit a recorded decent speed of 51.2 mph.
Not near any power wires or anything metallic. This thing litterally started spining and falling from the sky. I can confirm motors (maybe not all of them) were running all the way to the ground.

A FULL preflight was performed including Compass and IMU

Remarkably.... My home security DVR caught the last few seconds of the flight right before and during impact. Quite a sight. Its about 2 minutes into the video.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i7nkxmjlks2p047/Lower_NE.avi?dl=0

Anyway.... Let me know how to get my flight logs from the bird to you guys for review.

Were all 4 props still attached when you recovered it?

Jkeller84 Posted at 2016-4-25 09:08
Were all 4 props still attached when you recovered it?

Yes all were securely attached. Some broke on impact but I recovered all pieces in the same vicinity of impact. If a prop came apart (DJI OEM Props) in flight I would expect it to be anywhere but point of impact. All hubs required removal with the wrench.

Things happen fast. Even though the bird was at 292 feet, it was a very clear day and I had the bird in sight. I can't say I'm 100% positive but from my perspective one arm appeared to lose lift.

3 of the 4 motors rotate very smooth but 1 of them is tight. This could have been from the impact rather than an in flight bearing failure.

Go App did not give ANY error messages. Red arrow just begins spinning all the way to the ground.

I can replay the flight on the Go App but I can't see how to get it off the iPad so I can upload it here.

Here is a screen shot of the last moment.

I switched from F-CL to P-GPS to Atti to F-GPS to P-GPS and then back to P-Atti at the last few seconds to try and recover in case it was a compass / GPS error.
Nothing made any difference.

Upload your logs to http://healthydrones.com/main?a=upload and post a link for us

Jkeller84 Posted at 2016-4-25 09:58
Upload your logs to http://healthydrones.com/main?a=upload and post a link for us

My logs I pulled off the bird are in ".DAT" format. Healthy wants them in TXT. how do I convert them without loosing file integrity?

Rodomontade Posted at 2016-4-24 19:02
My logs I pulled off the bird are in ".DAT" format. Healthy wants them in TXT. how do I convert th ...

iOS or Android?

Jkeller84 Posted at 2016-4-25 10:06
iOS or Android?

iOS iPad.

When I hear "toilet bowl spiral of death"....compass error / malfunction is my first thought
Allthough I have seen a phantom take a bird impact at about 350ft and it took almost 300 feet to recover from it but it finally did.

I saw your video.    Man that looked painful.    Start at about 2:00 to just see the hit and bounce.

Rodomontade Posted at 2016-4-24 19:10
iOS iPad.

If you go to HealthyDrones.com down below the upload section is a lot of information on getting the files uploaded

Manual method - DJI GO

    The flight files look like this: DJIFlightRecord_2015-08-01_[11-15-07].txt

    Android users plug your tablet via USB cable to your PC and access it like a USB drive.
    The files are in the folder "DJI/dji.pilot/FlightRecord".

    iOS users Here is a helpful video explaining how to get these.
    As explained in the video - you need the "FlightRecords" folder and not the "Logs" folder.


Manual method - LITCHI

    The easiest way to upload from Litchi is to do it automatically.

    If you need to upload manually, plug your tablet via USB cable to your PC and access it like a USB drive. The files are stored in the "LitchiApp/flightlogs" folder and look like this: 2015-09-24_10-38-30_v2.csv


Manual method - AUTOPILOT

    The easiest way to upload from AutoPilot is to do it automatically.

    If you need to upload manually, to get the flight logs from AutoPilot, you need to connect your phone or tablet to a desktop computer and download the files using iTunes.

    In iTunes:
        Click the icon to access your device
        Click 'Apps'
        Find 'AutoPilot' in the Apps list and click it
        Under 'Autopilot Documents', click the 'flights' folder
        Click 'Save to...' to save the log files to your computer
        Older versions will also have 'flightrecorder' folder with log files
        Upload the '.zip' files using this upload page

    Click here to see a screenshot explaining how to access these files in iTunes.

Cessna172 Posted at 2016-4-24 19:10
When I hear "toilet bowl spiral of death"....compass error / malfunction is my first thought
Allthou ...

Yeah,  that was my first thought as well. Sounds just like a bird strike. Did the op happen to notice any birds anywhere in flight?  The small ones can be hard to see. No blood or organic debris  on the Phantom?

No birds or anything near crash area. I did get the files up to HealthyDrones and the compass failed! Compass checked out perfectly on PF inspection. Flight was perfect up until coming in for landing.

How do I post the HealtyDrone link here for you to look at?

I think i got it. Let me know if this doesn't work.

https://healthydrones.com/main?f ... amp;page_id=GENERAL

HealthyDrones will only give a very brief summary.
If you want to see what happened, go to http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.

Come back and post a link to the report it provides

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2016-4-25 10:36
HealthyDrones will only give a very brief summary.
If you want to see what happened, go to http://ww ...

Here it is.

Remember the Flight MODE changes at the very end are me desperately trying to regain some control.

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/HPFMEIO8D09CD78YYXWQ/

That doesn't sound like what is usually referred to as toilet bowl effect.
TBE is caused by compass problems and is characterised by slow spiralling or curved flight but it doesn't make your Phantom fall from the sky.
What you've described isn't a compass issue.
It sounds like what happens when the Phantom isn't running on 4 motors.
The logs should show more info.

In any case it seems that this will be one for DJI to look into.
They will get the full data from the "black box" inside the Phantom.

Rodomontade Posted at 2016-4-25 12:42
Here it is.

Remember the Flight MODE changes at the very end are me desperately trying to regain  ...

There's nothing in that flight record to show that it was caused by anything you did and it's not compass related either.
At 7:09 the problem starts and the record shows Speed Error
This isn't one that comes up often and I'm not sure of the explanation - but it's not good
From then on there was nothing you could have done to save your Phantom.
It is falling and reaches about 6 times the powered descent speed.

This one is a case for DJI.
Good Luck with them

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2016-4-25 10:55
There's nothing in that flight record to show that it was caused by anything you did and it's not  ...

Thank you for taking time to look into this for me. If there is anything else I can provide please let me know.

Sorry for your crash. I'd suggest you to sync your flight record and contact our north american service center for the RMA and data analysis.
Email: support.us@dji.com
Phone: +1 (818) 235 0789  
Mon-Fri 9:00 am - 5:00 pm (PST)

DJI-Paladin Posted at 2016-4-25 05:16
Sorry for your crash. I'd suggest you to sync your flight record and contact our north american serv ...

Thank you for the information.
I did contact north american service and am waiting on an RMA.

I'm still waiting patiently for a DJI reply. In the mean time if anyone here has an opinion on what may have caused this, I'm open to advice. Links are posted further into this thread. Thanks to those who have already helped.

OK......

DJI and a CSR named Amber has be very instrumental in getting my case quickly settled.
DJI has 100% accepted this as a warranty issue. Amber has been excellent through the entire process and I can't say enough good about her!
I still have a broken drone, but I have all the info and forms to send it in for warranty repair / replacement.
I have already been told it's a warranty issue and I have zero financial exposure to this.

I will be sending my drone to them Monday and will update once I get my unit back.

At this point everything looks great and the process is moving swiftly.

Again.. I would like to thank those who have offered up advise.

Rodomontade Posted at 2016-4-30 19:16
OK......

DJI and a CSR named Amber has be very instrumental in getting my case quickly settled.

don;t mind me,  i was looking at the wrong thing

G        07m 06s        288.1 ft        70 ft        Mode        Mode changed to Atti
H        07m 06s        288.1 ft        71 ft        Mode        Mode changed to GPS_Atti
I        07m 07s        288.7 ft        74 ft        Mode        Mode changed to Atti
J        07m 07s        288.4 ft        76 ft        Mode        Mode changed to GPS_Atti
K        07m 09s        279.2 ft        87 ft        Mode        Mode changed to Atti
L        07m 11s        213.9 ft        105 ft        Mode        Mode changed to GPS_Atti
M        07m 11s        206.4 ft        108 ft        Mode        Mode changed to Atti


what was all of that about durring the fishbowl?   seems like you cycled very quickly thru them,   to fast to have any effect

quickpoint Posted at 2016-5-1 07:14
G        07m 06s        288.1 ft        70 ft        Mode        Mode changed to Atti
H        07m 06s        288.1 ft        71 ft        Mode        Mode changed to GPS ...

I think during a spin, the GPS antenna loses sight of the satellites & switches itself in & out of GPS mode.

Damn that video hurts. Sorry man!