Hi, I was flying my Mavic happily in a park near my house. I just fly straight upwards and move forward a little bit. Then I tried to bring it down. Then suddenly I lost connection to the aircraft and then it is gone. It has been less than 3 minutes since I took off and the battery was at 85%. I don't know how to explain this but I am shocked. I just bought it less than 2 weeks ago. I set all the safety setting. RTH on loss of signal and RTH altitude at 120m to be safe. Is it possible that my Mavic has been hacked? Or is this due to hardware failure? It just gone in a blink of an eye. I am really upset with this. Can someone have a look at the CSV? Can I get a replacement or do I need to buy a new one? I did not purchase the extra insurance because I never expected this to happen.

I'm not able to access the attachment. If you upload the appropriate flight log using the instructions here and provide a link you'll probably get more people looking at what happened.

As far as whether or not you can get a replacement from DJI, that'll ultimately be their call and they'll want to see the same log from your mobile device anyway.

DroneFlying Posted at 2017-4-20 14:26
I'm not able to access the attachment. If you upload the appropriate flight log using the instructions here and provide a link you'll probably get more people looking at what happened.

As far as whether or not you can get a replacement from DJI, that'll ultimately be their call and they'll want to see the same log from your mobile device anyway.

Hi, thank you for the reply. This is the flight record. Phantom Log Viewer

lhabdullah Posted at 2017-4-20 14:52
Hi, thank you for the reply. This is the flight record. Phantom Log Viewer

Wow, you were pretty high.

A curious record in the log is a NFZ warning 1:25 into the flight at 1300ft.

Ex Machina Posted at 2017-4-20 14:57
Wow, you were pretty high.

A curious record in the log is a NFZ warning 1:25 into the flight at 1300ft.

I admit that I went pretty high. However, the drone is straight above me. I was on my way down. That should not explain the lost of signal. Even so, shouldn't it come back to RTH once the signal was lost?

You were at 1,300 feet in Dundee Airport airspace - what else is there to say?

lhabdullah Posted at 2017-4-20 15:12
I admit that I went pretty high. However, the drone is straight above me. I was on my way down. That should not explain the lost of signal. Even so, shouldn't it come back to RTH once the signal was lost?

No, the loss of signal is a mystery. Also a mystery is why Phantom Map Help doesn't report on signal strength -- maybe upload your logs to https://airdata.com for more insight?

Were you at the edge of a NFZ? If not, that's a real eyebrow-raiser.

Did you wait long enough to see if the drone came down on it's own after the battery depleted? Looks like the GPS signal was good so it might not have wandered off. I mean, when you say it was gone, you coudn't have been able to see it at that height.

Ex Machina Posted at 2017-4-20 15:52
No, the loss of signal is a mystery. Also a mystery is why Phantom Map Help doesn't report on signal strength -- maybe upload your logs to https://airdata.com for more insight?

Were you at the edge of a NFZ? If not, that's a real eyebrow-raiser.

Maybe the RAF shot it down

tokenbrit Posted at 2017-4-20 15:54
Maybe the RAF shot it down

Are you serious?

Ex Machina Posted at 2017-4-20 15:52
No, the loss of signal is a mystery. Also a mystery is why Phantom Map Help doesn't report on signal strength -- maybe upload your logs to https://airdata.com for more insight?

Were you at the edge of a NFZ? If not, that's a real eyebrow-raiser.

I waited for more than 45 minutes after the lost of signal. Later I went back and checked my area. I lost it on my way down. I descended the aircraft straight away when I got the NFZ alarm. The aircraft should be straight above my head with no obstruction at all. This is the Airdata link.

lhabdullah Posted at 2017-4-20 15:56
Are you serious?

I just read this and see you are right by an airport. You shouldn't be flying anything, much less driving. Get some common sense. http://bit.ly/2o9CyoO

im guessing it was on its way down and you left too early thinking it wasnt coming back but 1300ft????? You did read all the rules before you took off right?

You better hope and pray you havent hurt anyone or had a close call with any aircraft.

thehippoz Posted at 2017-4-20 16:06
I just read this and see you are right by an airport. You shouldn't be flying anything, much less driving. Get some common sense. http://bit.ly/2o9CyoO

Im aware of that. It is still on the yellow zone. What can explain the lost of signal?

Was there anything in the video feed showing when it disappeared?  Like a plane or a bird or a huge wobble in the video or something?  The logs really show it just vanished almost directly above you.  Not a smart height to be though for anywhere, let alone near an airport - most places have a max 400ft limit to keep away from aircraft traffic.

Do you have a copy of the video from your phone/tablet?

The log show no obvious reason for loss of signal, but why you would be flying at 1300ft when you should be at max 400ft, and with that, one mile from an airport?

lhabdullah Posted at 2017-4-20 16:16
Im aware of that. It is still on the yellow zone. What can explain the lost of signal?

did you switched to sport mode or the Mavic did it by itself?
How was the wind speed at that time?
it can't be too far, it had to landed when battery low, so keep looking specially down wind area.
good luck

The best part of all of this is he more concerned with what caused the loss of signal!!! He should be concerned with flying 1300ft. in a NFZ!!! LOL!! NFZ's are NFZ's for a reason. Please don't get another drone of any kind. Hobbyists with a lack of common sense are starting to ruin the hobby for everyone. Being from Canada I'm already feeling the effects of it with our recent nonsense UAV laws.

lhabdullah Posted at 2017-4-20 16:16
Im aware of that. It is still on the yellow zone. What can explain the lost of signal?

I'm guessing but probably got grabbed by a bird, or hit a plane. Or it could have been anti drone tech, hacker, no telling really. Doubt it fell or landed though because you were right under the crash zone.

thehippoz Posted at 2017-4-20 16:30
I'm guessing but probably got grabbed by a bird, or hit a plane. Or it could have been anti drone tech, hacker, no telling really. Doubt it fell or landed though because you were right under the crash zone.

Grabbed by a bird wont make it lost connection. Dundee airport is just a small airport only 2 flights a day. I don't know.

hungdang Posted at 2017-4-20 16:29
did you switched to sport mode or the Mavic did it by itself?
How was the wind speed at that time?
it can't be too far, it had to landed when battery low, so keep looking specially down wind area.

I switched it to sport mode to climb fast, take a picture then go down quickly. Wind not too bad, I did not get "wind to strong warning". People are blaming me because I go to high. That's fine.

SeaComms Posted at 2017-4-20 16:25
Was there anything in the video feed showing when it disappeared?  Like a plane or a bird or a huge wobble in the video or something?  The logs really show it just vanished almost directly above you.  Not a smart height to be though for anywhere, let alone near an airport - most places have a max 400ft limit to keep away from aircraft traffic.

Do you have a copy of the video from your phone/tablet?

nothing, I took a picture. then i got no video feed error and the controller is not connected to the mavic anymore. If there was an aircraft above me, I should have heard it I guess.

I don't know how I can handle this. Thanks guys for your helps. I think it might get hacked by someone.

I notice you were full down throttle at the time of disconnect, still in sport mode.. do you know if the battery was properly latched in place?
Your height was 400 meters, did you perhaps have your max altitude set to 400m instead of 400ft?

I just saw the airdata link (missed that before) it did show poor signal as the last contact.  That far away with the antenna point directly at the craft is definitely not ideal for signal. That is presuming you had the antenna on the RC vertical. In your scenario it probably have been better to have the antenna horizontal given the distance from the RC.  

Totally at a loss on this one, apart from the indication of poor signal which should have initiated a RTH, and the RTH point was recorded just after take off and when it was lost it still had full satellite connection.  Hopefully DJI will be able to shed some light on the situation but has me stumped why it did not simply RTH.

fallsilent Posted at 2017-4-20 16:30
The best part of all of this is he more concerned with what caused the loss of signal!!! He should be concerned with flying 1300ft. in a NFZ!!! LOL!! NFZ's are NFZ's for a reason. Please don't get another drone of any kind. Hobbyists with a lack of common sense are starting to ruin the hobby for everyone. Being from Canada I'm already feeling the effects of it with our recent nonsense UAV laws.

Not in NFZ. Just near to NFZ. NFZ zone starts 1.4 km away from the area where he was flying. I checked it on DJI NFZ map.

If it crashed then it will be there. I think the wind blow the Mavic away.
Keep looking down wind area for few kms if you keen. Good luck

GrAndAG Posted at 2017-4-20 16:43
Not in NFZ. Just near to NFZ. NFZ zone starts 1.4 km away from the area where he was flying. I checked it on DJI NFZ map.

Thats weird since he was only 1.65km from the end of the runway....

This is what I mean

NATS shows he was just inside red NFZ, DJI map shows it as yellow zone..

To be fair, does not matter where you fly (I don't want to mention about the law here), if loose signal or out of range the Mavic should return home, or hover or landed. If battery too low then the Mavic should landed.

It has got to be somewhere....do your have your phone number on it? There's a reasonable chance someone will find it and return it.

lhabdullah Posted at 2017-4-20 16:06
I waited for more than 45 minutes after the lost of signal. Later I went back and checked my area. I lost it on my way down. I descended the aircraft straight away when I got the NFZ alarm. The aircraft should be straight above my head with no obstruction at all. This is the Airdata link.

Ahh, I see it was at night.

Barring an in-air collision and/or complete loss of power, I see no reason from the logs that a few seconds after losing radio contact the AC shouldn't have returned home. If it simply lost power and fell from the sky, you should have heard the impact from 50 ft or so away, though I don't know what the ambient sound level was like at your location.

I'd open a support request, providing DJI with your synced logs and see what they have to say, but I'd also return to the location during the day and do some serious searching. Good luck.

Try to find wind data for various altitudes at the time of that flight. If the Mavic fell out of the sky, the wind may have carried it quite a distance from you. I hope it didn't hurt anybody or anything if it did crash :-(

I just remembered that Airdata can show estimated wind data if you're on one of the paid plans.

Possibly the aircraft reached max motor speed? Given going 1300ft you would expect it to be windy up there to some degree. Trying to keep it in the same position with the ground on sport mode and descending rapidly could have caused the motors to cut off. The wind could definitely have carried it a fair way given the weight of the Mavic...

what about this: you said right above so perhaps within the some meters radius of homepoint... there no precision landing is done if rth is initiated right... so goes down where it is: some m away frome homepoint... perhaps not heard landed in a tree?

or: wind in upper areas could be high... so perhaps just fall down some more m away... it have to be somewhwere

As you already learned, it is difficult to get serious support, if you fly your drone in the wrong places.

You asked why it disconnected: Was your phone in flight mode? You can saveloy cause disconnects when you have turned on WiFi or Bluetooth or a mobile connection. This also applies to WiFi hotspots around you.

To give you some better support, you should play back the flight in your DJI Go 4 app and record it using a screen recorder. Then upload the video e.g. to youtube and post it here.

I don't know if it is just me, but I have never seen any website that got more information out of a log file than a video playback in the DJI Go 4 app. Usually, they provide significantly less details.

To get support from DJI you have to sync your flight records in the app and as one of the mods here to have a look into it.

If you have not found it yet: Start the DJI Go 4 app, tap on that compass arrow on the start page to access your flight records.

There's not a lot of resolution to the altitude because it jumps to 2000's feet.  Still, you can see how quickly the wind speed changes between 400' to 2000' at that time.  maybe it was just a confluence of problems.  Wind gusts could easily have disturbed it, even flipped it over (losing signal) and then made it impossible to return because it could fight the wind.  The Mavic would have tried to maintain it's altitude in RTH mode, which in this case is the worst, since the wind probably just took it to the southeast.  The signal loss makes it impossible to know, but tell me... since it was right above you did you have your antennae pointed directly out from the remote (flat relative to the ground) because if they were basically pointing up it would be easy to lose signal at that distance.

https://www.windytv.com/56.459/-2.974?950h,56.112,-2.972,8,m:ffgaf4d

Edit: the link isn't copying correctly, but just play around with it.  1,200 feet can be really wild.

I don't really care how good a piece of technology is, I would never full throttle down on a Quadcopter. But then again I would not be flying at that height any way.

While I am sure it's pretty seeing stuff from that height, too many things can go wrong, unpredictable wind changes, it might feel like no wind at all on the ground but you're talking real strong cross winds at that height and not being able to see it, losing connection and bad wind is a recipe for disaster.

I don't want to be one to preach on about laws and rules but I love this hobby and I respect the rules but I want you to know, it's folk like you that will cause new laws that kill off the hobby for the rest of us.