Hello all,
I lost my Spark two days ago when it wouldn't fly straight backward to me or RTH when I hit that (albeit later than its proscribed ideal time for RTH). I was in a very hilly park and wish the drone would have at least attempted RTH but just got a beep from the hard button on the controller without any reaction. I used the log and searched the area for 4 hours over 2 days to give a thorough hunt. Plenty of places for it to hide though I feel like I did the search well and it's not there.

It was near enough to a road that someone could have seen it and snagged it. But in case it's still out there, I'm curious how accurate the log is with a dying battery. The altitude is confusing, since according to the log it went down 113' while according to GPS altitude, there was an 80' difference between home and landing altitudes.

Anyhow, this is not my first crash, but is my first loss, so I'm curious if anyone has tips or ideas for further hunting, particularly about the dying battery and potential it kept flying. Unlikely given that altitude issue, and I searched a wide perimeter, but I'm happy to try some more.

Here's the flight log. If anyone has ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks!

https://www.phantomhelp.com/logviewer/CIUW9B2I8TOM80N9TQB0/

Hello and good day McSparks. We are sorry about the mishap on your drone. I would recommend syncing your flight records using the DJI GO 4 app and please contact our support at https://www.dji.com/support for us to determine what happened to your flight. Thank you for continued support.

Hi McSparks,

Guess you have searched this position, see X at the chart.
Trying to understand why it did not do a RTH, warning "The remaining battery is only enough for RTH. Return home now." was there... at 28% batt level.
Did you cancel it while counting down ?

At 11% an autolanding was performed, at 90.6 ft height, distance from HP 1375 feet.

cheers
JJB

Yes, I did cancel initial RTH, knowing my distance and the drone, though tried it soon after I'd finished my vid shot. Then all I had was a beeping button that didn't perform RTH. And yes, I hunted that area for hours without turning it up. But I fear someone saw it go down right by the road and just picked it up.

Did you try "Find My Drone" on the app.? It should be fairly accurate in this case since the Spark landed  with some battery and full GPS. The negative GPS altitude at the end and no VPS altitude is interesting. Was your home point on a hill?  
Good luck with further searching. Don't forget to look in the tree tops - they are very good at hiding drones. I lost a drone in the trees once and only found it because on my phone screen there was video of me down below searching. Even then it was hard to see.

I used the log to find the supposed end point and searched long and hard. I'm betting the altitude is either wrong in the log or my attempt at finding real altitude failed since I didn't actually go back to the home point (which was much higher) to check properly with a compass, just entered very precise Lat/Long into an app. Yeah, the tree tops are a possibility but after hours of searching, it's hard to know what's left to do. Went back the next day with the hope that the wind or different light might help me out. Still no luck.

Info as to landing point provided by JJB is the most accurate you will get.

On a side note, were you just pressing the RTH button or press and hold?

Um, likely just pressing. Might not have know that and it was getting stressful. Argh.

McSparks Posted at 1-21 14:00
Um, likely just pressing. Might not have know that and it was getting stressful. Argh.

Hi,

made a better calculation ; assuming at was about 30 ft above ground level if flew for about 10-12 seconds (if no obstacles in the flight path).

Orange marking is my estimated guess!

If RTH is activated by the user this action its written in the file, its not there.

Hope you can find it!

cheers
JJB

Sorry to know that mate

Sorry to read that buddy

Thanks, JJB! Is that orange dot the new estimate? Of course, it's a hilly area and I climbed that area, though mainly to get perspective on the first area. It's also a solid 30' higher than the other area or the road, so I'm curious if it could have made. Also, that first spot has trees and bushes, so I'm betting it got caught there. I'm going to check with the park admin today in case a good samaritan turned it in to an official there.

Thanks again for the effort. Will keep the forum posted.

McSparks Posted at 1-22 10:15
Thanks, JJB! Is that orange dot the new estimate? Of course, it's a hilly area and I climbed that area, though mainly to get perspective on the first area. It's also a solid 30' higher than the other area or the road, so I'm curious if it could have made. Also, that first spot has trees and bushes, so I'm betting it got caught there. I'm going to check with the park admin today in case a good samaritan turned it in to an official there.

Thanks again for the effort. Will keep the forum posted.

Yes, orange marking is the spot, or on the line X to this mark.

Good luck!

cheers
JJB