I was flying spark from the beach, launch point us more than 20m from the water.

I hit the Update home location point befor launch amd successful update happend. There were more than 12 Satellites at the moment .

Launched and climbed upto 500M for early morning skyview image of the beach. There were steong winds but the battery was enough to climb and return.

I didn't drive it anyway, just climbing up from the home point,

Then it started automatic Return home mode while battery level at 40% or closer.

Was decending at steady state and finally came 1M to the ground?
But the spark was invisible and nowhere near the launch point.it shows the diatance was 60M but it wasn't visibile at all.

Meanwhile,Most probably a seawave taller than 1M hit the spark, and lost the signal forever and it's gone.

The return home point was nowhere near and i am pretty sure it wasn't closer 60M either.

So what could have been the reason for this ?

Anyway complain the Dji as well and waiting their response.

And I Am from sri lanka down the indian ocean. Dji support is minimum here and Sri lankan agent seems to be so unfriendly to customers.

What did you see on yout video, you must have seen where it was and what it saw??

Actually i was looking down, and it showed seawater only, was thinking that it will come to somewhere near the original location.
O
But, it was hovering 1m above seawater and suddenly landed and lost signal.
Most probably a risini sea wawe must have been hit the device.

https://youtu.be/wkk__10mdPI

https://youtu.be/wkk__10mdPI

sorry to read that

Just a  question if it was coming down over sea water.   Couldn't you cancel the RTH or landing?

So sorry to hear about ur loss!

Greg F Posted at 2018-8-12 05:14
Just a  question if it was coming down over sea water.   Couldn't you cancel the RTH or landing?

that was already a critical battery landing, methinks
500m needs some minutes to land in auto mode.
And if it was a critical battery landing, it is not coming any closer to the HP
But he really should have had enough time to fly it back over his position.
During the landing, descending


Edit: I would like to see the cached video of the last 2 minutes or so!

"Was decending at steady state and finally came 1M to the ground?"

It was already on -2 meter, when it was 1m over ground.
Where it usually waits, till you confirm the landing or the batt is really low.
You had lots of time, to do sightseeing on the way down, you did a lot 360's, didn't you?
You never had the idea, to let the cam look downwards to your position?
or fly it back the 60 meters just by checking the distance on your display?

I am sorry for your loss, but I don't see DJI here in any way at fault.
You had 4 minutes on the way down, to locate your drone.
It was even "parked" for 30 seconds over the surge, still on 12% battery

But give it a try:
http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/upload/
upload your flight log and link it here

A lesson for all new drone pilots, Don't fly over water or go out of line of sight. At 500 meters up the wind is nothing like it is on the ground, your AC was most likely burning battery trying to keep position in high wind. Malfunctions / odd situations happen and you need to be experienced enough to respond. You are not experienced until you gain some experience. 964 Meters TOTAL flight distance  is not experience. I hate that you lost your spark, But you lost your spark....Was this your first flight?

Hi, sorry for the loss drone, I would like to clarify if you manage to contact our team? If not, please see the link below. Thank you.
www.dji.com/service

Carmenvail Posted at 2018-8-12 08:28
A lesson for all new drone pilots, Don't fly over water or go out of line of sight. At 500 meters up the wind is nothing like it is on the ground, your AC was most likely burning battery trying to keep position in high wind. Malfunctions / odd situations happen and you need to be experienced enough to respond. You are not experienced until you gain some experience. 964 Meters TOTAL flight distance  is not experience. I hate that you lost your spark, But you lost your spark....Was this your first flight?

I wonder if the high winds kept it from returning to the launch point.  Photographer misjudged the Spark is handling high winds at altitude performance.  It is odd that the owner had no idea where the Spark was during the flight.  Beyond eyesight and video feed sight?

DJI Tony Posted at 2018-8-12 08:55
Hi, sorry for the loss drone, I would like to clarify if you manage to contact our team? If not, please see the link below. Thank you.
www.dji.com/service

Managed to contact and waiting for a response.

S-e-ven Posted at 2018-8-12 08:08
"Was decending at steady state and finally came 1M to the ground?"

It was already on -2 meter, when it was 1m over ground.

With the adequate battery, open sky and properly fixed HomePoint just befor the launch, and with return home with the loud beep.
There was nothing to go wrong, even the battery was adequate enough.

Was looking up at the sky straight over, but i couldn't spot the decending may be due to bright sunlight, most probably because it was decending on some other place than i looked for.

When i look on the phone, it was just 1M above the ground, 60m away but invisible.
Prbably due to rising waves, most probably a rising tide may have hit the drone and lost the connection.

I am pretty newbie with total flying time is only around few hours.

Have experienced the RTH even harsher conditions and worked like a charm.

Don't have an explanation which causes it to land on to the see.Even with the adequate battery.







I

Carmenvail Posted at 2018-8-12 08:28
A lesson for all new drone pilots, Don't fly over water or go out of line of sight. At 500 meters up the wind is nothing like it is on the ground, your AC was most likely burning battery trying to keep position in high wind. Malfunctions / odd situations happen and you need to be experienced enough to respond. You are not experienced until you gain some experience. 964 Meters TOTAL flight distance  is not experience. I hate that you lost your spark, But you lost your spark....Was this your first flight?

Even though this is my First Dji, Had decent experience on RC drones.
While i do totally agree with you, The problem i identified is, "Trusting on RTH Mode" and didn't pay necessary attention for the things which can go wrong.

I also highly doubts that Dji will replace it thouh. But,the single issue i noticed is, there was no justifiable reason to Malfunction of RTH home,

(adequate Battery,Clear Space,No RC interference,Properly set HP, and adequate Satellite signals with Negligable wind at lower heights.)

S-e-ven Posted at 2018-8-12 08:08
"Was decending at steady state and finally came 1M to the ground?"

It was already on -2 meter, when it was 1m over ground.

I am on my mobile, give me some hours to upload the Log.

djiuser_JXKCgpZTVISf Posted at 2018-8-12 10:50
With the adequate battery, open sky and properly fixed HomePoint just befor the launch, and with return home with the loud beep.
There was nothing to go wrong, even the battery was adequate enough.

You did not see it, ok, can happen.
In special if you don't know where it is.
Which you can check on the map or on the radarview.
Which would have shown you, this close to HP, just the direction the Spark is looking at
But: You can look from the height down to yourself!
In case I lose my Spark and have no idea, where it might be, I either look on map and radar.
Or I let the spark look to/for me ;-)
And with -2m to your beach location, there is not much of a direction to look for.

Next time use the descend to verify the position right above you.
Which should have been in the 0-10m distance radius, anyway.
Even flying it forth and back or sideways, during the last 100m, could have shown you the direction.
RTH is a last stand. And that high in the air, it can collide with critical battery landing, methinks

Carmenvail Posted at 2018-8-12 08:28
A lesson for all new drone pilots, Don't fly over water or go out of line of sight. At 500 meters up the wind is nothing like it is on the ground, your AC was most likely burning battery trying to keep position in high wind. Malfunctions / odd situations happen and you need to be experienced enough to respond. You are not experienced until you gain some experience. 964 Meters TOTAL flight distance  is not experience. I hate that you lost your spark, But you lost your spark....Was this your first flight?

I get nervous over water...  

WOW 500m is pretty high, the winds are much stronger at height..  Maybe Spark couldn't cope with the wind gusts and was blown away.

djiuser_JXKCgpZTVISf Posted at 2018-8-12 11:00
I am on my mobile, give me some hours to upload the Log.

If the unit is under warranty period, we'll arrange data analysis and offer you a proper solution according to the result. If you encounter any difficulties during the progress, please kindly contact us with your case number, we'd like to help.

DJI Susan Posted at 2018-8-12 20:16
If the unit is under warranty period, we'll arrange data analysis and offer you a proper solution according to the result. If you encounter any difficulties during the progress, please kindly contact us with your case number, we'd like to help.

yes it's under the warranty period.
And DJi Service team is already contacted me.
will let you know the update.

Chan5 Posted at 2018-8-12 20:53
yes it's under the warranty period.
And DJi Service team is already contacted me.
will let you know the update.

That's right. Hope we can figure this out smoothly.

S-e-ven Posted at 2018-8-12 08:08
"Was decending at steady state and finally came 1M to the ground?"

It was already on -2 meter, when it was 1m over ground.

While i agree to most of the stuff,
Don't really get the fact that just landing to 60M sea on an open area with adequate battery. That's on RTH mode.

As it was hovering above the water, the connection was Bad and i did nothing but kept the controller aside and looked for a location, most probably that's hit by waves.

My point is,
In a Clear Open sky, with adequate battery, what's the point of RTH if it lands to the sea, which is 60M away from properly set Home Point. ?

I admit my fault of being Lazy not to take over the control, but depended on well reputed Dji programs to work for me by RTH.


I'm on travel and unable to upload flying record at the moment.

My guess: It went from RTH to autolanding b/c of the battery.
Help yourself: http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/upload/

S-e-ven Posted at 2018-8-13 06:18
My guess: It went from RTH to autolanding b/c of the battery.
Help yourself: http://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/upload/

That's probably can be the reason to land directly to the sea, but still that's too bad i lost spark, which is a charm device.

Chan5 Posted at 2018-8-13 06:31
That's probably can be the reason to land directly to the sea, but still that's too bad i lost spark, which is a charm device.

In case it did switch from RTH to critical battery, DJI susan may be able to make you a good offer.
As sooner you get DJI what they need, the flight record, as quicker you know what they can do for you.
And you can even look a bit in it, yourself

Hi. Thank you for the additional information. We will be giving you a notification of the result once the Flight Data Analysis has been reviewed and finalized. Thank you.

Missing the brilliant mechine so badly.

Chan5 Posted at 2018-8-14 21:59
[view_image][view_image]

Missing the brilliant mechine so badly.

I managed to get your case number via the forum info, the data analysis is under proceeding. It takes some time to get the result and we will keep follow up.