Barney Rubbel
 Second Officer
United States
Offline
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Well, I finally got what I was asking for. Trouble. I was hovering my P2V+ (V1) about 20' over the 'lake' (it's a river) waiting for 'subjects' and while trying to adjust my phone so I could see better, I apparently had my thumb against the down stick. I got the phone to where I could see and then all of the sudden the picture was filming underwater. I immediately hit the throttle and it pulled up out of the water and started to climb. My phone then showed me I had lost contact with Doogie. I glanced at the message for a couple of seconds waiting for "Coming Home" hoping I had only lost the video and not the controller, then looked to see where Doogie was, and he was gone. Vanished! I don't know if he flew away, or lost power and dumped into the lake (most likely the former, see below). Too many trees to see if he went the direction he was sort of headed when he came up out of the water.
The one really odd thing about all this is that my phone, even after about 15 minutes, still said that it was attached to the Phantoms network even though the app told me I had lost contact (and it was a different 'lost contact' message that I normally see when I fly out of range). This would leave me to believe that it probably didn't go back into the water and should be somewhere close to where it came out of the water, or at least within range of the wifi extender. I should have tried to disconnect and reconnect, but didn't think about it. I was rather bummed at the time.
Sanity Check:
I guess I'm under the impression that the heart of the network lies in the Phantom itself and the range extender is just that, an extender. Yes?
If the Phantom flies out of range of the extender/phone/'network connection', the phone (iphone 5s) would uncheck itself once the connection is broken, and not wait until you try to use the network again, right? (I really wish I would have disconnected and tried to reconnect!!!)
I probably only got about 40-50 flights with him, but learned a lot and had a great time shooting and editing video. I'm not done searching yet, but have committed myself (be nice) to have lost him. I still have my P2V+ (V3) but that one took a nasty fall onto pavement so I have little faith in it. It seems to work fine for now, but one of these days Alice.....
RIP Doogie!
Barney ....hmm those P3s look pretty cool..... 
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lvl.2
I doubt I'll find it unless it crashed into the office complex just to the South. That's the direction it was drifting towards. I'm going to call the security folks there tomorrow. Most of the area is fenced off so I can't physically search much further.
lvl.1