OK, I think I have figured out the problem...  Alcohol related.

Sorry for your loss mate, must be a very stressful and frustrating time and one that we all fear wont happen to us! You gave a good concise account of events and it sounded like you shared your flight logs with dji..? If so and these showed that you did nothing wrong then why would, or could DJI argue the facts? So are DJI saying that if we dont physically have the drone to investigate then the warranty is worthless?? In that case I better start flying mine attached to a fishing rod!

There does seem to be a reoccurring theme here though, would it be beyond the realm of impossibility to embed a beacon or tracker within the platform to make locating possible? I think i'm going to celotape my Mrs Iphone to mine when I fly so I can track that if it ever goes flyabout.   

dj.trillium Posted at 2016-9-23 00:22
Sorry for your loss mate, must be a very stressful and frustrating time and one that we all fear won ...

I don't think you read his explanation properly he said:
"Without recovering the original P4 unit, it would be impossible to root cause the failure, since no log (telemetry data) was received from it during its "fly away"."

So the only (last) log data he could send to DJI would be a normal landing.....I think what DJI is saying without any indication from the log data on the App or data from the P4.......how do they determine this is really a fly away.
I think everything that was described is legit......but I also understand DJI's position that if they assume every "Fly Away" is legit, then when my 8 year old cousin knocks my P4 of the table and breaks it.......I can say it was a fly away and I don't have to have any data to back it up. Can I get my replacement P4 please.

I sympathize with agentmib.....could be nothing worse then losing your P4....kills me to even hear the circumstances behind the story, but if there is no P4, no sim card and no data from the Go App verifying the story what as a company are they supposed to do?

Does the last data show a cut-off of power not related to a stick command?  
That might indicate a malfunction.

I am sorry for your loss, what is your case# or email, I can look at the flight log to see what happened.
What they may be talking about is after you cut the throttle after landing the flight data stopped so without the aircraft they cannot see if the motors indeed didn't shut off, it flew away, someone picked it up and ran away with it.
All I can offer is to read your flight record. What shows up when you play the flight record back with the RC stick overlay? Does it show it landed and shut down?
And like the rep, I have never heard of a P4 landing and having the throttle closed and it taking off again.

Is it time for a DGI hat cam?  I'm seriously thinking about it.  A $20 insurance policy for when the logs can't be recovered.   The more of these I read the less confident I am.  I'd rather crash it myself than $1300 just flying off.  Sorry man, that really sucks.

The Roach Posted at 2016-9-23 10:29
Is it time for a DGI hat cam?  I'm seriously thinking about it.  A $20 insurance policy for when the ...

What would a hat cam show? The flight logs are the only thing DJI are interested in, and the only method they use to work out what happened.

In this case, the whole landing sequence sounds strange. From what is said, it appeared that the aircraft had landed and still had its engines running, then the operator pulled the left stick down to shut off the engines, rather than it being done in one movement. That in itself is odd.

And to agentmib, you do not seem to understand what constitutes a warranty. It covers the purchaser from damage or loss due to a manufacturing defect in the product. You can assert that there was a defect of some sort, but you are not actually saying what it is, you refer to a nebulous 'firmware update' as being the cause of the problem. DJI are not interested in that, they will want to see the actual flight logs to work out what happened. And without flight logs to examine, they quite correctly are not entertaining a warranty claim.

If your company does in fact make drones, perhaps you could mention who the company is, as it would be very beneficial to the many people on here who have no clue as to why their aricraft flew away. We could refer them to your very generous company who presumably is going to replace their aircraft every time it flies away, specifically without any concrete evidence of the 'flyaway' or any proof that it happened.

I believe the only thing Mr.Agentmib can do at this point is to find the missing aircraft, maybe figure out how much battery life was left and compare that to the direction it headed and get a scientific wag of where to look for it !

Correct me if I'm wrong.

You landed and turned off the motors.

Your P4 restarted on it's own and flew off without any input by you.

Your flight logs show nothing after you landed and shut down the motors.

You tried to control it with the RC while it was flying away.

Assuming those are the facts, I have to question what you assume the factory defect to be. Are you trying to say that the recent firmware update caused this? If so please give us your rational for the firmware error. Did the RC take control of the P4 without ANY input from you? Where you using a 3rd party app? Did you use the alt method of engine shutdown instead of left stick down for 3 seconds after landing? I cannot fathom a way for the P4 to fly away on it's own without any data being sent to the RC. It almost sounds like you were using the old CSC command to shut if off and didn't complete the landing when doing so. That wouldn't cause the loss of data but it could cause the flyaway. You would have also had control of the aircraft from the RC.

perhaps it flew back to the home point !

Wow, that is a shame. I hope you can get this resolved. As a last resort I have my contact information on a label on the drone, not sure if you did. Perhaps it will surface...

I would maybe try to find it yet again since that sounds like the only way DJI is going to accept your story.

agentmib Posted at 2016-9-24 16:46
It had landed and was 'in the process' of motor shut down using the same 'throttle down' (left joy ...

Sorry we cannot PM you via the forum.Could you please provide me with your case number?I'll help to look into it.

agentmib Posted at 2016-9-24 02:46
It had landed and was 'in the process' of motor shut down using the same 'throttle down' (left joy ...

For me, knowing I was having connection issues would mean that I would attempt to solve that issue BEFORE I attempted to fly it again.

There are some very accomplished pilots on this board. If I was unable to resolve the issue myself, I would have reached out to this board and DJI BEFORE I flew.

Did you attempt an emergency shutdown?  It was part of the new update

Warnberg Posted at 2016-9-24 19:59
Did you attempt an emergency shutdown?  It was part of the new update

The emergency shutdown has always been there, left stick down/centre AND RTH button together will kill motors on P4.

agentmib Posted at 2016-9-24 16:46
It had landed and was 'in the process' of motor shut down using the same 'throttle down' (left joy ...

As Mindy inquired, please supply your ticket or case number at your earliest convenience to better follow up with this.

agentmib Posted at 2016-9-24 18:46
It had landed and was 'in the process' of motor shut down using the same 'throttle down' (left joy ...

'It had landed and was 'in the process' of motor shut down using the same 'throttle down' (left joystick down) procedure that I have successfully done in all previous flights. '

This must be done in one movement. I don't know how you did it, but you cannot use the left stick down to land the aircraft, release the sticks and then use left stick down again to shut it down. If you do not do it in one continuous movement, the aircraft can do all sorts of strange things.

What level of charge was your battery at when you landed?   Seems if you had ended a flight it would not have enough charge to go far.

Also, I never fly without a GPS tracker.  Ever.   It was only $20 and is incredibly accurate and reliable.  TK102B.   I would not suggest a Trackimo.

Cessna172 Posted at 2016-9-25 06:56
What level of charge was your battery at when you landed?   Seems if you had ended a flight it would ...

Battery life is what makes the Trackimo GPS Tracker so great. Lasts for a whole 144 hours (6 Days) on standby and it offers very decent GPS tracking on either the web or it's own mobile app. That TK102B GPS tracker lasts just under a day on battery at best.
I plan on purchasing a Trackimo tracker for when I receive my new P4 drone. 1 year of free service and then £5 a month afterwards is nothing when it's protecting myself from losing a £1000 piece of hardware.

agentmib Posted at 2016-10-1 09:16
No, but I don't believe it would've helped in my situation.  The P4 was unresponsive to RTH, ATTI  ...

" Without recovery of P4 unit for additional data analysis (logs), one can only speculate, not conclude the root cause of the failure."

I think your statement there sums up DJIs position. There is no evidence, so the 'root cause' cannot be established.

I'm not saying this is what happened but a possible cause of such a scenario COULD be:

Fly in place A.

Later fly in place B for just a short while, before it has GPS lock or recorded a home point

Land the craft, hold the LH stick down to cut the motors and turn off the remote control...
However suppose the motors had not quite shut down...?

At that point the craft would realize it had lost contact with the remote and initiate a return to the last recorded homepoint (which is the first place I'd be looking for it, regardless of how you may disagree with how the flyaway occurred - and if too far, then figure out the direction and how far towards that point it would be, if it ran out of battery and landed.

And yes, it would climb to the pre-set RTH altitude.

I just recently had a similar scenario, switching from the Litchi app to the Go app, and apparently the Go app did NOT record a new homepoint, so when I tried a RTH it went in the wrong direction. Happily I was able to cancel the RTH and bring it back, but it was damn close... My point is without actually following the instructions to "please check it on the map" you cannot be sure you really do have a home point recorded.

I know I'm not helping much here, but because the above scenario is possible, I cannot blame DJI for not just giving you a new craft. For all they know it landed as normal and all was good, you still have it at home and you just want another one. 99.9% of people would never do such a thing, but 99.9% of P4 owners don't report their craft taking off and flying themselves away either.

My P3S did actually come back, but for 25 seconds I knew exactly how you felt, but I also have to extend sympathy to DJI too, as they have nothing to go on.

Sucks for both of you

Geebax Posted at 2016-9-23 08:45
What would a hat cam show? The flight logs are the only thing DJI are interested in, and the only m ...

A hat cam would have introduced video of the erratic behavior of the craft.  If it's not recording flight data that's a manufacturing defect and the only recourse is to find the machine or have it on video.  

The Roach Posted at 2016-10-2 04:26
A hat cam would have introduced video of the erratic behavior of the craft.  If it's not recording ...

You did not read my reply. The hat cam can just as easily show erratic behaviourt on the part of the pilot. DJI could not care less about video of what happened, they are only intertested in the proprietary format flight logs, which tell them everything they need to know about what happened during the flight.

bigglyguy Posted at 2016-10-1 22:57
I'm not saying this is what happened but a possible cause of such a scenario COULD be:

Fly in place ...

'I just recently had a similar scenario, switching from the Litchi app to the Go app, and apparently the Go app did NOT record a new homepoint, so when I tried a RTH it went in the wrong direction. Happily I was able to cancel the RTH and bring it back, but it was damn close... My point is without actually following the instructions to "please check it on the map" you cannot be sure you really do have a home point recorded.'

It has been said many times on this forum that you should never have both the Litchi and DJI Go Apps running on your device at the same time, if you do, there is an excellent chance of a 'flyaway'.

Geebax Posted at 2016-10-2 05:45
'I just recently had a similar scenario, switching from the Litchi app to the Go app, and apparent ...

I know, and force-closed the DJI app before opening Litchi. I then force-closed Litchi before opening Go, but it seems I forgot to reset the home point and it was still using an old one.

What concerns me is it definitely did, I distinctly remember it, say "Home point recorded, please check it on the map" - but upon RTH it sped off towards yesterday's location?

Actually I've just thought of something... the reason I swapped apps is because I decided not to run a waypoint mission, having noticed a new transmission tower in the area it was meant to fly. Wonder if that thing was transmitting and screwed things up? Anyway, not my thread, carry on?

bigglyguy Posted at 2016-10-3 04:35
I know, and force-closed the DJI app before opening Litchi. I then force-closed Litchi before open ...

Transmission towers do not broadcast on the same frequencies as used in the aircraft, the only possibility of them affecting your aircraft would be if you hovered right in front of a dish or antenna a few feet away.

If, in switching between the two apps, you landed the aircraft and then took off again, it would record a new home point, as you say it told you that. If you shut the aircraft down to change a battery, same thing, it does not 'remember' old home points. The moment you shut it down, that home point is lost.

Geebax Posted at 2016-10-3 06:41
Transmission towers do not broadcast on the same frequencies as used in the aircraft, the only pos ...

Interesting - then I'm even more confused why it headed off towards the mountains during a RTH?

However last night I watched a video on YT where someone had the same scenario, the RTH took his P to some tennis courts he has taken off from previously?

Geebax Posted at 2016-10-1 17:45
'I just recently had a similar scenario, switching from the Litchi app to the Go app, and apparent ...

Seriously? Having Litchi and Go both installed is a problem? Shouldn't they just check to ensure the other app is not open before opening?

st pauli Posted at 2016-10-4 00:59
Seriously? Having Litchi and Go both installed is a problem? Shouldn't they just check to ensure t ...

No, I actually said having them running at the same time seems to be a problem, you must force stop one before loading the other.

agentmib Posted at 2016-10-4 04:35
Well. if I don't get satifactory response from DJ supprt soon, I will be filing Small Claim Court  ...

Good luck with you claim. If you speak in court with the same lack of clarity you compose replies with then I reckon you wont get anywhere. Honestly, your post is near incomprehensible.

If I was DJI, my lawyers would ask in court for you to provide proof that your aircraft flew away and was lost. How do we know you did not just sell it on eBay and then claim a new one? The aircraft produces log files, show us the log files? Can't do that? Sorry, you have no case.

bigglyguy Posted at 2016-10-4 02:55
OK, I think I have figured out the problem...  Alcohol related.

Dealing with DJI support / service will do that to a person.