Hello,

I purchased a P3P off Ebay in early Dec of this year ... received it and all was great !
Took several test cautionary flights to gain confidence in my new bird and all was fantastic
until ... I was flying christmas day - I took a 4 minute flight to warm up - everything was great - then proceeded to
take a longer line of sight flight (even put in a fresh battery) but after approximately 1min 50 sec. my bird just fell out of the sky
I watched it go down at 300ft in the air and unfortunately I was over a large pond - by the time I got to
the spot it had submerged under water and was gone !  I attched the flight logs from AirData  ... This is the second time I have lost a drone
to the exact same issue (power lose) ... My first drone being a P3S. Is this a common occurance ?  I checked everything before my flight - the battery was installed
correctly (clicked in)  I would doubt my drone is covered under any DJI warrenty because I am the second owner ...
Looking at the flight log (attached) - I cannot see any thing unusual and flying at 300ft I know I didn't hit anything !
I am so bummed because I love flying - but this is the second bird Ive lost!  Does anyone have any advise ?

Thank you.

Hello and good day MiByrd. I am sorry to know what happened to your previous flight with your DJI Phantom 3 Pro. Since this issue happened. The best thing you need to do is to contact DJI Support at https://www.dji.com/support for further help and analysis on what happened. Thank you.

DJI Stephen Posted at 12-26 11:16
Hello and good day MiByrd. I am sorry to know what happened to your previous flight with your DJI Phantom 3 Pro. Since this issue happened. The best thing you need to do is to contact DJI Support at https://www.dji.com/support for further help and analysis on what happened. Thank you.

Thank you .. I just submitted to DJI

MiByrd Posted at 12-26 11:25
Thank you .. I just submitted to DJI

You are very much welcome MiByrd and thank you for the update. Please keep us posted on the situation and the result as well. Happy Holidays.

Hi - Please upload your flight log to this site and then post the link back here

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/

Thank you

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/E1ADAVIZ9D339K2QUARH/

That really does not look like the best location to be flying.

https://goo.gl/maps/mV5eRvNvsSr

MiByrd Posted at 12-26 13:09
Thank you

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/E1ADAVIZ9D339K2QUARH/

Sorry for your loss.

The log says you were flying a waypoint mission from the start.  Is that correct?  

The log data as shown on the site doesn't make much sense to me.  It seems to show the AC rotating as it moved to the southwest... but your sticks seem to indicate they were centered.  The log seems to show your battery dropped from 96% to 91% the last 20 secs.  This seems to show something was wrong with your battery.  It appears the ambient temp was around 40 degrees F or 4 C.  You said you had used a fresh battery just prior to this flight.  Did you pre-warm the battery prior to flight?

What AC FW version did you have?  Early versions had a known problem of battery shut-off during flight when flown cold.  Those were versions prior to AC FW v 1.6.  

Looks like the data may be corrupt.

Looks like the data may be corrupt.

If your telemetry is correct, you were flying sideways! To me it looks like you were fighting severe winds also.

Kevin Halle Posted at 12-26 15:25
If your telemetry is correct, you were flying sideways! To me it looks like you were fighting severe winds also.

This is the wind map.

Kevin Halle Posted at 12-26 15:25
If your telemetry is correct, you were flying sideways! To me it looks like you were fighting severe winds also.

sever winds - sideways ? not at all !!!

Mark The Droner Posted at 12-26 14:24
Sorry for your loss.

The log says you were flying a waypoint mission from the start.  Is that correct?  

Hi Mark ...

If he's flying a WP mission - then the sticks are ineffective aren't they ? The bird flies the mission as programmed ? Even to the point that if signal / fault occurs - the bird lands at that position - there is no RTH ?

I know a number of people who fly such missions and if the activity / item of interest is along a line to the side - they fly sideways with camera pointed to the item of interest .. WP missions allow that to be set in the plan ..

Just conmenting ...

On the subject of loss of the bird ... I find it interesting that this is SECOND bird lost as OP says in similar circumstances ?
I am probably wrong - but loss of one bird - OK can be pilot or equipment ... loss of two birds in similar starts to make you wonder ...

Nigel

solentlife Posted at 12-27 03:18
Hi Mark ...

If he's flying a WP mission - then the sticks are ineffective aren't they ? The bird flies the mission as programmed ? Even to the point that if signal / fault occurs - the bird lands at that position - there is no RTH ?

Haha I haven't flown waypoints since 2015 but I thought you could control the rotation during waypoints...?  

And yeah, I've never had an autoland that wasn't right over my head.  400+ flights... I did have a battery shut off once at 400' but it was an aftermarket - you might recall that discussion

I have yet to fly a waypoint mission - basically not much point where I am ... I tend to fly and then decide where to go. Like today - I flew because some idiots were fishing on the ice that has been reducing over last two days in unusual warm (+4C) weather ... by time I got out there though they were gone !!

I'm pretty sure in Litchi - that once set - the path and orientation is fixed by the programmed flight. With GO - I'm not sure. I could be wrong.

Nigel

Air/America Posted at 12-26 14:14
That really does not look like the best location to be flying.

https://goo.gl/maps/mV5eRvNvsSr

The OP's flying field is 4 miles S.S.W. of "Teterboro Airport", New Jersey and 6 miles N.N.E. of "Newark Liberty International Airport", New Jersey.

Maybe OP's bird was "geo fenced" by the DJI-GO APP and put down? I think there is something mentioned in the DJI drone operations manual?

Air/America Posted at 12-27 06:52
The OP's flying field is 4 miles S.S.W. of "Teterboro Airport", New Jersey and 6 miles N.N.E. of "Newark Liberty International Airport", New Jersey.

Maybe OP's bird was "geo fenced" by the DJI-GO APP and put down? I think there is something mentioned in the DJI drone operations manual?

Possibly ... but what should happen is the max altitude the bird will fly to reduces as in a gradient as you get closer to the NFZ.

I'm approx 2km from my local airport and my max altitude I can reach at home is about 340m ... reducing to 80m at the airport perimeter which it then stops as though it hit a brick wall. (I have comms with airport as I used to fly fixed wing models there ...). Here's a test video I made to check it out.



Nigel

OP's bird could have very well hit the "GEO FENCE WALL".

OP"s Flying Field looks like it is in a very sensitive area, N.N.E. of Newark Liberty International Airport.

SkyVector

Maybe ... it would not be illogical to have the Geofence radii based on airport / NFZ use ...

Nigel

solentlife Posted at 12-27 08:18
Maybe ... it would not be illogical to have the Geofence radii based on airport / NFZ use ...

Nigel

Hello,

I have flown over 120 litchi missions ... mostly in and around the same area - I do not believe there is a Geo Fence ... nor do I believe that is why my bird 'lost power'  -  I found out today DJI will not look into this matter as I am outside of the warranty  - I understand, but I will not buy another DJI drone.  I do not think it was either a geo fence issue nor do I think it was user error ...  I typically would fly a mission - review the video and tweak my POI and video settings ... So I have flown this exact mission before successfully - this time tweaking the camera angles only - the fact that I saw it fall from the sky - I can emphatically state was not Geo Fencing - this was in my estimation, a fault within the software.

MiByrd Posted at 12-27 16:13
Hello,

I have flown over 120 litchi missions ... mostly in and around the same area - I do not believe there is a Geo Fence ... nor do I believe that is why my bird 'lost power'  -  I found out today DJI will not look into this matter as I am outside of the warranty  - I understand, but I will not buy another DJI drone.  I do not think it was either a geo fence issue nor do I think it was user error ...  I typically would fly a mission - review the video and tweak my POI and video settings ... So I have flown this exact mission before successfully - this time tweaking the camera angles only - the fact that I saw it fall from the sky - I can emphatically state was not Geo Fencing - this was in my estimation, a fault within the software.

Don't let others make you think you did something wrong, MiByrd.  This same thing has happened to others and the reason was never found.

Geo fencing does not (as far as i know) make an a/c fall from the sky, lands it perhaps but not make it drop/fall/crash