I lost contact with my Phantom 4 Pro after 10 minutes of flying, RTH button in app was greyed out so I attempted to regain signal by moving towards the location where I lost connection. Unfortuanatly, during the failsafe RTH, the drone attempted to go home but seemed to have encountered a tall building. I later found the wreckage at the bottom of the building.


I've uploded the flight record files here. Unfortuantly, while trying to retrieve the .DAT file using DJI Assistant, I had to power the drone on with a new battery, and the motors started smoking, so I quickly took the battery out. Is there a way to retrieve the dat file without running power through the damaged drone?


Also attached are pictures of the damage. Correct me if i'm totally wrong, but isn't the Phantom supposed to descend and land safetly when it encounters obstacles it can't maneover round? This one seemed to have plumeted.

You should be able to access the flight data on your phone or tablet, if not powering up the drone should let you connect to the data on the hidden SD card inside, but I should think the motors won't burn if you don't start them. Go to phantomhelp.com and folow the instructions to upload the data, then come back here and post a link. One of our friendly members will come along and provide an analysis of the data.

Sorry to hear about your crash, feel for you, just wondering if you had set up the return to home altitude?

Your uploaded flight record stops at 10m 32.5s so it is not complete.

But you are getting a warning at 0m 0.9s.  The aircraft is in a Warning Zone (Class B). Fly with caution here.

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/5ZW71S4T0BQX0IOKL8DB/

http://www.phantompilots.com/thr ... ifying-tower.71450/

That's painful to watch the picture

You need to also sync your logs to dji cloud.

I dunno, but based on the imagery of the flight path on phantomhelp, it looks like it may have attempted to or possibly did land in the exit lane of the underground parking garage and may not have hit the building at all.  I don't know how accurate the flight plan is up against the satellite image.

sorry for your phantom crash.

One thing You said bothers me a bit. you said "failsafe" RTH.

It is NOT a  "FAILSAFE" button that will always and safely return your quad.
It has specific functions and settings you must set correctly
as well as fly in manner it can work correctly.

The fact you said it RTH into building on return says you were out of LOS behind it somewhere.

It really is not a good idea to fly around and behind objects as radio waves get blocked and ......

good luck!

WOW. You were 430ft up inside class B airspace within 5 miles of major airport.

He was only above 400 ft. for 1 minute and 9 seconds, so I'll give the benefit of the doubt and say that he quickly realized he was over the ceiling and dropped it back down to legal limits.  Please fly responsibly.

He was over the legal altitude at takeoff

Ob1415 Posted at 2017-1-12 11:58
He was only above 400 ft. for 1 minute and 9 seconds, so I'll give the benefit of the doubt and say that he quickly realized he was over the ceiling and dropped it back down to legal limits.  Please fly responsibly.

Doubt the law would given him the benefit of the doubt in Class B

Darrendirl Posted at 2017-1-12 12:45
Doubt the law would given him the benefit of the doubt in Class B

You're right they wouldn't.  I was just pointing out that he was 30 feet above the allowable limit for about a minute.  We've all seen people fly well above 400 ft. for the duration of their 20 minute flight.  He was still wrong,

Ob1415 Posted at 2017-1-12 12:50
You're right they wouldn't.  I was just pointing out that he was 30 feet above the allowable limit for about a minute.  We've all seen people fly well above 400 ft. for the duration of their 20 minute flight.  He was still wrong,

He was close to a building that was higher than his Phantom.
Do you think that poses a risk to real planes?

Sad to see an another crumpled drone shell...

Hope that you can get it figured out fast, fixed or replaced and get you back to flying.

Good luck.


RedHotPoker

You said the RTH button was greyed out on the app, are you aware there is a physical RTH button on the RC?

trance728- Posted at 2017-1-12 16:15
You said the RTH button was greyed out on the app, are you aware there is a physical RTH button on the RC?

He had lost contact because the Phantom was behind a building.
No button will help in that situation.

I'm sorry to hear, I would recommend getting in contact with the North American Support Center to have the unit sent in for further diagnostics and repair. They can go over the flight records to see what happened.

Geebax Posted at 2017-1-12 01:49
You should be able to access the flight data on your phone or tablet, if not powering up the drone should let you connect to the data on the hidden SD card inside, but I should think the motors won't burn if you don't start them. Go to phantomhelp.com and folow the instructions to upload the data, then come back here and post a link. One of our friendly members will come along and provide an analysis of the data.

Thanks Geebax, not sure what is smoking, but it's smoking, and i'd rather not have a fire on my desk while trying to retrieve the .dat file. I looked at the guide on getting the file off the P4 and it requires a battery to be present inside the craft and power switched on, unless you know of another set of steps that don't require me running power through the drone?

Ob1415 Posted at 2017-1-12 06:03
I dunno, but based on the imagery of the flight path on phantomhelp, it looks like it may have attempted to or possibly did land in the exit lane of the underground parking garage and may not have hit the building at all.  I don't know how accurate the flight plan is up against the satellite image.

yes you're correct, that is the last known connection location and the main area I looked around, but in actuality, the wrecked craft was found to the west of that, on the side of the tall building, maybe 25 meters away?

Kirk2579 Posted at 2017-1-12 06:44
sorry for your phantom crash.

One thing You said bothers me a bit. you said "failsafe" RTH.

yeah it was a learning experience for sure, expensive one too. If I ever have the nerve to control one of these again, I will be trying not to make the same mistakes. Just glad I didn't cause any damage to a person or property.

Labroides Posted at 2017-1-12 13:19
He was close to a building that was higher than his Phantom.
Do you think that poses a risk to real planes?

If the building is higher than he was, then no, there would be no foreseeable risk to a real plane.  However, the rule is still 400 ft, no matter if the building is taller.

in regards to the phantom 4 pro being able to go over around or land, on its own its only in certain flight modes.

Did it possibly land and then get run over by a car or truck??