Hello everyone, I wanted to share my very unfortunate experience with the forum. I purchased an Inspire 1 this past Monday. Flew it three times with no problems whatsoever; a truly incredible machine. Last night however, I decided to take it up for a for a short flight after dinner. I climbed to about 75ft and was no more than 50 yards away when she stopped responding to any impute on the control. I pressed the return home button in hopes that she would return but she just continued heading south. Eventually, it was completely out of sight. I waiting for about twenty minutes to see if it would return on its own as it is supposed to, but nothing. I got in my car and searched for hours to no avail. I honestly still can not believe what happened and that my bird is gone. For the record I consider myself to be a decent pilot and I am always very diligent with my preflight checks.  I am not new to the DJI family as I have owned two Phantoms before upgrading to the Inspire 1. I have also owned and flown many gas and electric helis and planes over the years. Before, taking off I calibrated the compass, my IMU was within normal parameters, I had acquired GPS, everything fully charged... etc. I'm not sure how this could have happened but it is truly devastating, not to mention expensive.

Sad news indeed . Can you calculate how far it may have gone walkabouts on it's own Without running into objects to work out roughly where it may have come down...Dose it show on the flight path where it's heading too or stopped...
This sort of story is really killing the Inspire 1. I wonder if one cane ask for a refund before this happens too me or someone else

I Wonder if these issues are tx related and not the Inspire 1 itself? Say like control's failing without knowing it.

Hello Captain Obvious, sad day indeed. The bird was high enough that it could have flown quite a distance with no interruption, South Florida is rather flat as well. It flew a steady southbound course until I lost signal. I was confident it would return to the home point as my Phantoms have as done but no luck. I have searched a 5 mile radius and will be out searching today as well. It is a very disturbing incident. I am hoping the folks at DJI will try to do something to help make this right.

I personally would be so angry and worried sick if mine dose this! It's not Right or Fair too And you can't really show what happened without the bird it self for log's. I hope its found by yourself or someone decent enough too hand it in or advertise somehow in local rag or something.

I did have issues with the app losing connection, but never the tx. I hope you do find it. Did you have the latest firmware? And did you check for home point lock? So sorry for your loss.
EDIT: on a side note though, it could be handy to put a GPS tracker on the inspire. I've always used one on my phantom and it does work as long as you have cellphone coverage. This won't help you now but could be useful in the future. I just thought the days of flown away phantoms and drones were a thing of the past with the inspire.

dearmas@aol.com Posted at 2015-2-7 00:47
Hello Captain Obvious, sad day indeed. The bird was high enough that it could have flown quite a dis ...

Thats odd for sure... Couple of questions so we can all learn from this. Are you sure that the home position was marked?

Second, did you look at the flight record as it will show its flight path.

To OP. IM TERRIBLY sorry to hear about this.

Stories like this make me lose a peace of mind.
I wish you the best and if you could update the forum on your progress. That'd be much appreciated.
I'll dig around and see if I find anything for you. Until then, keep your eyes peeled. And definitely inform DJI.

THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. Such an expensive product should not be having a multitude of issues.
Sad day. So so sorry.

I'm sorry to hear this. I hope you put a label or something with your name and number so that a "Nice Person" may return it.

M3SpeedRacer Posted at 2015-2-7 01:38
I'm sorry to hear this. I hope you put a stick or something with your name and number so that a "Nic ...

Further to the above lost Inspire, Question for DJI,

IPhones and Apples devices etc have the facility to "Find my Phone" or "Find my Mac" etc.,  based on this, given the Inspire we are told will eventually have IOS App could it be possible to have the Inspire added to the list of Find My  devices.

Surely it would be easy for the DJI Techies to provide this given the Inspire has built in GPS, even if it just gave the last recorded location before going off grid within a 50m radius would help.

Sorry for your loss. Hate to hear news like this.

Was wondering if you tried to switch to atti to try and regain control.

As noted by @xzces, your loss is an example of why we should be using trackers. Can't rely on the app. Unlikely that the bird landed in great condition, but always a possibility. I use the trackimo and it works as promised.

Sorry for your lost..

Thank you everyone for the replies. I did check that the home point was set before departure. After waiting about 20 mins for it to return home  the first place I looked was the last recorded position in the flight record. The position led me to the East corner of an intersection almost a mile away from where I took flight. I returned there again this morning and even knocked on some doors to ask if anyone had seen something. I think we have spent about 6 or 7 hours looking for the bird with no luck. Unfortunately I did not have the foresight to use a GPS tracker or even label the craft with my contact info, which I really regret now. Let's see what happens, trying to stay optimistic.

I think we can all learn from unfortunate events like this. My new resolve will now be to always go the extra mile for security and safety. I will be making a custom label with my name and contact information as well as installing a quality GPS tracker on the drone. I am very sad to hear your loss and hope you have results soon my friend.

I engraved my contact details into my phantom but would want to mess with the nice clear finish of the inspire. But after reading this, the first thing I'm gonna do is attach my tracker, after that go over that nice glossg finish with my soldering iron!

The thing that bothers me is that in the phantoms flyaway cases it's almost always user error. People just take of with an earlier homepoint location and the drone dissappears in the sky. But this whole story doesn't give me that feeling and also, with dynamic homepoints and such it would be really hard to loose your inspire this way. I do hope we get some feedback from DJI regarding this. Losing a phantom hurts a lot less than loosing an inspire

This is so sad to read and I empathize with the OP  this is unacceptable when paying this price for a Copter.
I'm grounding mine till they work out this software this could be months sadly.

Labeling mine right now but it's grounded till DJI works this all out liability is way too high to play games here. Imagine if the lost inspire comes down on a car in motion or hits a person. I sure hope DJI gets on this fast!

Colonel Angus Posted at 2015-2-7 03:53
This is so sad to read and I empathize with the OP  this is unacceptable when paying this price for  ...

It seems like a wise decision to ground the Inspire until further analysis is concluded... But I believe it could be a technical issue in regards to his particular unit (a.k.a, an unfortunate lemon from the whole batch). I believe safe flying (keeping it within decent proximity of the designated signal source) and extra-precautions with the devices settings should provide enough coverage to prevent an obscurity that happened to the OP. My personal recommendation would be to just keep the flight paths reasonable for now and not cover too much ground in-air.

I will try and look into this a bit more to see what I could find. But a GPS unit would most definitely be a long term investment to consider. Technical errors always happen, no matter the software. Its wise to always have a back-up!

Well, now that the shock has worn off...
Can you tell us a little about where you were flying?
Some sort of RF interference could have caused this...

T J Gilbert Posted at 2015-2-7 04:11
Well, now that the shock has worn off...
Can you tell us a little about where you were flying?
Some  ...

Yea I would really like to hear some of the details. Weather, Wind cloudy, sunny what your preflight checklist consists of ect ect ect..... Were there any cell towers or high buildings and or what ever else..... I'm really sorry for you lose dude!!!!!! I would run an add in the paper at a min and maybe someone will do the right thing. I've taken a picture of me and a card board sign that lives on my memory card with my address and phone number and if found call for a reward, I've also have labels on the bottom side as well..... Doesn't mean it will ever make it home but one can only hope.

Mike

I am so sad to hear about this, did you at least have your contact information on it?

Below is a forum link that has an Inspire 1 with a Marco Polo tracking unit on it.
It has tones of information and pictures on it.

You would have it now if it were equipped. Not assuming someone ran off with it once it hit the ground.

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=5084

sorry to hear about your misfortune

Hi sir , Very sorry to hear the bad news and it would be really helpful to provide the flight conditions for us to do analysis, as we have got contacted via mail, right? We will update the state when it is available.

DUDE I feel for you..So sorry that it's gone (I lost a PV2+ last week) Did you do the scanid.com service? If someone finds it perhaps it would make it's way home?

CrabHawk Posted at 2015-2-7 07:53
DUDE I feel for you..So sorry that it's gone (I lost a PV2+ last week) Did you do the scanid.com ser ...

FYI to all Check out SCANID.COM print a QR code and tape it to the bird perhaps visible on each battery even.
Free Srevice.

I have a GPS locater on my Inspire 1. I lost a Phantom 2 and bought this before I flew my next Phantom. I like it a lot and it workes. http://drone-mods.com/Drone-Mods-UAV-Locator-DM005.htm
I also have mine insured on my home owners insurance for $50 a year with no deductible. I call it a flying camera drone.

I am not flying mine until DJI straightens all of this out. What a mess. I am very disappointed, And a $4K investment. I could have bought 4 Phantom Visions which I have never had any problems with the 2 that I own.

Once again thank you all for your replies, suggestions, and compassion. Also wanted to let everyone know that DJI replied to my email this morning and asked that I upload my flight records for them to review. I hope to hear back from them soon and will definitely keep the forum informed. Like I said in my original post I try my best to be diligent and responsible with my hobby but perhaps I missed something critical that may have led to this mess. But one thing is for sure, I miss my bird and can't wait to get another as soon as I can.

jebryant10.att Posted at 2015-2-7 09:53
I have a GPS locater on my Inspire 1. I lost a Phantom 2 and bought this before I flew my next Phant ...

What kind of range does it have?

Mike

svencool Posted at 2015-2-7 10:28
What kind of range does it have?

Mike

2km.  It goes way beyond visual range.  I am curious have you followed the flight path to the last know position using the map?  Did the inspire continue to provide data?

According the original post..he press the RTH ,,,wait around 20 minutes and SHE never come back ..sayonara, Adios, Good bye.! probably the inspire 1 ,return to different position or HOME?

pilot error?
Technical Failure  (in some point) during pre-flight check list?
Flying without home point or dynamic home point  (recorded)?
How we can avoid this  situation or mistake , counteractions, cautions ?

Did the app continue to upload till signal was lost. If so was the bird flying in a straight line. If so does the flight recorder say how fast it was flying. At max speed with no head went the inspire is capable of covering close to 10 miles before it would have to land. That's a lot of ground to search

Hi Dearmas, I read your story.
Fly away ? No pilot error ? No help from ... ?
If so, i take initiative here. Willing to send you 10 bucks as my support for a new but 'Market ready' bird .

Very sorry to hear about your misfortune FLY away! Keep pushing DJI on this issue and ask for a replacement. I have grounded my Inspire for some strange flying performance. I too have the Phantom 2 *.* and have had one Flyaway back in 2013 but it did RTH after 20 min. I was lucky, than DJI sent several FW updates and this same Phantom has been fine since.

So very sorry for your loss, like i said, contact DJI DIRECTLY at HQ and the support guys,  tell them what happen and maybe they will help with a replacement.

Best regards,
Steve

Also, since i have three outstanding issues with my Inspire, Controller Loosing Video and Telemetry data, Outside Flight Performance not as stable as my Phantom's... and Some shaking..

My Inspire is NOW GROUNDED as of 2/1/2015!!!!!!

Note: My Inspire seems to fly indoors very well using the sonic and visual sensors, so that tells me the GPS portion of the control for outside flight NEEDS SOME WORK BY DJI PROGRAMERS STILL.

Let's all keep logging in our experience with Inspire 1.

If I may ask, is your control device if you are using a tablet have Cellular capability? Are you using a Cell Phone for your Pilot App?

An Idea...If you have other UFO's (Useful Flying Objects)   that you can use like a Phantom or something you can see from above that may help cover ground faster. It also may have drifted way of course or even hovered nearby if it regained signal.
This way you could section out area's like they do with Tomnod  in the search for missing aircraft and so forth. You could then record each flight and mark it off after reviewing it for any signs of a downed Eagle.
Just a thought.

rodger Posted at 2015-2-7 22:43
If I may ask, is your control device if you are using a tablet have Cellular capability? Are you usi ...

My IPAD Mini 2 tablet  is NON Cellular capability.. I purchased it with out for that reason so it would not cause  cross radio interference.

Is using a tablet with 4g risky?  Don't you need data service on your tablet to get your map on location?

Hey dearmas, where abouts in South Florida did you lose your Inspire?