Very unhappy camper here!!! Just had a fly away. Don't understand why?????? Close to home only went out 1500mtrs with full signal!!! Go app went blank saying lost signal didn't understand why but thought ok keep cool she'll be back in 5. But I didn't here that faithful hum like I normally have in this situation.

Just got back from walking through thick scrub at roughly the last point I can see on map. No joy :-(

If anyone could look at log below and shed some light on the cause or even a location I should search I would be most grateful.

Very sad day. Is a warranty claim possible in this circumstance?

Thanks

https://healthydrones.com/main?f ... 2e2ce294b0380918b19

Since you were flying so far away, I assume you have a GPS backup mounted on your P3P?

And sarcasm is going to help him how? If you don't have anything constructive why bother.

That's some pretty rugged country up there above FTG, were you high enough for the trees in that area? The flight data is not going to narrow it down any further than ewhat is shown on HealthyDrones unfortunately. Looks like you might need to get up a search party. And I don't think you have a warranty claim on that, no information to say anything failed.

The battery appears to have major voltage deviations on cell #4. From what others have experienced, this will likely cause the drone to abruptly loose power.

Also noticed that the wind speed recorded was averaging 50 to 60+ kph. If that's accurate, that's way beyond the capabilities of the drone (which is about 36 km/h).

Geebax Posted at 2016-6-13 13:08
That's some pretty rugged country up there above FTG, were you high enough for the trees in that are ...

Yes well above the trees. That's why I was at max alt. Flown over there many times before.

OrlyP Posted at 2016-6-13 13:09
The battery appears to have major voltage deviations on cell #4. From what others have experienced,  ...

Yes I noticed the battery cell problem too but wasn't sure if it could fail totally. Could this explain the failure?
Do I have a warranty claim?

And no way was the wind at 50-60kms. I went out early this morning 7:50am because strong winds were predicted later today. It was fairly calm at takeoff. Wind definitely was not a factor.

sorka95032 Posted at 2016-6-12 22:21
Since you were flying so far away, I assume you have a GPS backup mounted on your P3P?

They are useless.

thegaz99 Posted at 2016-6-13 11:17
Yes I noticed the battery cell problem too but wasn't sure if it could fail totally. Could this ex ...

Sorry for your loss.

Like he said, the voltage deviations on a single cell won't cause a sudden loss of signal.

So unless you can prove it DJI's fault, you won't get free repair or replacement through warranty.  But if it's lost with unknown reasons like this, a meteorite might have crashed it, we don't know,  you still have a discount like 25% off if you buy a new one I think.
Also, it says your max flying height is 1600 feet, it could be quite windy there.

Maybe a bird hit it. Just about every time i fly over the mountains and or woods here, I see a black bird circling. They just get closer and closer  and will follow me until I get away from whatever it is they do not want me near. I see them attacking little birds all the time.

Major voltage deviations may cause the battery to shutdown (to protect itself, which is ironic under the circumstances). That could explain a sudden loss of video, signal, and any log entry of it falling or flying off elsewhere.

It was certainly not windy where the OP was flying this morning, in fact it was a cool (5 degrees C) morning with almost no wind. Birds are not usually a problem in that region either.
I don't believe the battery was showing enough deviation to explain the loss.

To the OP, I am not too far away, in Garfield, so if you need some help searching, let me know.

Where are you. (Think I missed that). More than willing to help if your near me. Sorry for your loss

vze369t9 Posted at 2016-6-13 14:29
Where are you. (Think I missed that). More than willing to help if your near me. Sorry for your loss

He is near Melbourne, in the state of Victoria, Australia.

Crap! sorry to hear that!

Did you actually lose signal? Is that where the log ends?
If u did not lose signal all the way, the poor thing could have hovered there, till it autolanded... Although, smart RTH should have pushed it back to you, at least attempt!
Did you attempt to initiate RTHY from the radio itself?! When uncertain, do that, and also climb - well, that's too late for you unfortunately... GPS looks fine all the way to the end, signal was a bit low there. As far as the wind, according to the app it was a significant wind, so the drone would have hard time not being blown to the South.. Still if RTHing, I'd expect it to attempt going west, but being blown away south it would probably go south west, not north west, as needed.
        04m 30s        1637.8 ft           5,000 ft        33 <- last reported "snapshot" of data...  5000ft should not be too bad, but how about altitude? 1638ft? Would you have cleared everything there? Last part of FPV footage on your phone/tablet, could tell you at least partially, if you were well above land/trees. I would definitely say search at the last known position and around there, but man.. in such a covered area that could be hard, but you got a starting point at least! If not there, look South, South West from there first...

You WERE recording video, right?

Anyhow, i wish you luck! You gonna need it, but then again, you may already have 1 or 2 locals willing to help you!
Your GPS and compass look happy all the way while recorded....  
E        03m 57s        1638.1 ft        4,512 ft        Warning        Warning:Max Flight Altitude Reached. Adjust in Main Controller Settings if necessary
I guess you could not climb anymore from here... so make sure u check a TOPO of the place, confirm what's the altitude of the land, and guess on the trees....  One advantage of having an actual crash - you could be ExACTLY where the logs say you are... in the tree or on land below....

These are NOT large deviations on the battery, but certainly check overall stats on your battery.. Depending on what you find (esp. if you find the craft and it's flight logs) that could be possibly6 something to help you with getting free or discounted help from DJI....

Well, keep us posted! I do not know the extend of how you feel, but when I did experience signal loss and the sucker did not return home  in a minute.. well, i had some, quite negative feelings... so I do feel your pain to a point!

I am not sure why everyone is focussing on the wind aspect, the OP is not using a paid HealthyDrones plan, so it does not estimate the wind at all. And as both he and I have said, it was a very still morning, no wind to speak of.

Sorry for your loss, thegaz99.I'd suggest you to sync your flight record via DJI Go app and get in touch with our tech support via support@dji.com. What's more, have you tried to search your drone around the area of the last point in the flight record?

Geebax Posted at 2016-6-13 14:06
I am not sure why everyone is focussing on the wind aspect, the OP is not using a paid HealthyDrones ...

Some strong winds you encountered

Stephen Marley Posted at 2016-6-13 17:50
Some strong winds you encountered

Did you not read what I wrote, and the OP? There were NO strong winds, barely a breath, calm, zilch. HealthyDrones has some strange method of estimating the wind, and in this case it is dead wrong.

DJI-Paladin Posted at 2016-6-13 17:27
Sorry for your loss, thegaz99.I'd suggest you to sync your flight record via DJI Go app and get in t ...

Hi yes search for two hours in thick scrub around last point of contact on map. Wind was not an issue.

Phantomski Posted at 2016-6-13 15:58
Crap! sorry to hear that!

Did you actually lose signal? Is that where the log ends?

Yes lost signal and control where log. Got the signal lost message. Came up on screen return home or cancel. I hit return home. After around three or four minutes I started to worry and then hit RTH on RC still without signal or pic.
Definitely high enough to clear everything. This is my backyard and have flown over this area without issue many times.

Thanks to everybody trying to help

Special thanks to Geebax & vze369t9 for the offer of helping me search!! I really had a look good this morning to no avail of course. I could have walked right pass it because some areas are pretty dense with ferns. Gets dark here at 5:30 pm and I don't get home till 5:45pm so anymore searching till the weekend is out. I think it would be a miracle to find it anyway. Also walking tracks around where log ends so even a chance someone heard it coming down and walked it and grabbed it? I didn't have my number on it mainly because its only about four months old and still in new condition. Think me flying days are done:-(

I hate to be discouraging but it looks like it flew right into the trees. It may be in a tree top/ Do you know anyone with a Drone to help look for it from the air?

rodger Posted at 2016-6-13 21:22
I hate to be discouraging but it looks like it flew right into the trees. It may be in a tree top/ D ...

They would have to be high trees.
The Phantom was at 500 metres and the highest terrain on the RTH route was 260 metres above home.

wow. I feel your pain brother.

Hi thegaz99,
Commiserations and lets all hope for a miracle find or Dji offer a replacement as it may have been a fault of the aircraft. Aussie Aussie Aussie

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2016-6-13 07:42
They would have to be high trees.
The Phantom was at 500 metres and the highest terrain on the RTH ...

So you are saying that it is just hovering! Should be easy to find the Einstein!

rodger Posted at 2016-6-13 22:51
So you are saying that it is just hovering! Should be easy to find the Einstein!

Yesterday it was sarcasm and today it's hovering.
Where do you think I mentioned anything about hovering??

I commented on heights of the Phantom and terrain.
It's not that hard to check that in Google Earth.
I find that works a lot better than making random guesses.

thegaz99 Posted at 2016-6-13 19:06
Yes lost signal and control where log. Got the signal lost message. Came up on screen return home  ...

I'm unclear as to why the signal became poor on the last leg of the record.  Were you flying behind the treetops on the ridge perhaps?  Did you have direct line of sight to the aircraft at the point the signal went poor or missing entirely?  All I can hypothesize is that it was being obscured by terrain.  That doesn't marry up with the altitude of 500m and terrain at only 260m.

My guess it that it would have continued on its present course for a few more seconds before it realised it had lost signal and automatically set RTH.  At that point it would turn straight towards home and directly fly there as it was already at its max altitude.  Assuming the terrain did not present an obstacle, it should have come back on that path.

I hope your search took in about 10 seconds of flight continued from the last point of contact, towards 1000 Steps car park in the Dandenong Ranges National Park.  Then another straight back to home point.  They would be the most likely locations.

At 500m I wouldn't think you would be able to see it at all as it was coming back, so theoretically it could be right over home and descending before you saw it.  Of course if it cleared the ridge and was returning, the controller should have reestablished connection.  This leads me to conclude that it must be over the wooded terrain, perhaps lower than line of sight.  It may have unfortunately been the victim of a bird strike, hit a tree if the altitude data given above is wrong, or there has been an unexpected mechanical failure (not predicted by the telemetry).

Shame you can't take advantage of the Police or SES (State Emergency Services) to use it as a training exercise to do a line-search through the area, looking for a staged downed light aircraft.  I'm sure there are many areas that would find that sort of exercise valuable (Search and Rescue, Disaster Victim Identification, Air Wing etc), but of course it comes down to manpower costs and staffing levels etc.

Let us know if you intend to organise a further search for it.  I'm near Essendon but might be able to come across.



View from the home point hypothesising flight was obscured by peaks at 260m despite flying at altitude of 500m.

thegaz99 Posted at 2016-6-13 19:06
Yes lost signal and control where log. Got the signal lost message. Came up on screen return home  ...

As hard as I tried, I couldn't get your flight path to go behind the ridge line, as seen from your backyard in Google Earth.  So what was obstructing the controller signal?

Google Earth does a pretty good job of 3D representations of terrain.  It doesn't always do a great job of buildings and structures.  Usually areas close to cities have 3D representations of buildings automatically generated, as well as 3D representations specifically modelled from the building.  Unfortunately your area isn't included, but I digress...

In your backyard there appears to be a steel roofed shed or building on the right of your home point.  There also appears to be a steel roofed garage on the property to the rear of yours.

I'm assuming you stood at the home point for the whole flight and weren't wandering around.  Also, the controller would typically be held at around 1m from the ground, whereas your eyes are closer to 2m.

Looking at the flight path again, I notice the weak signal corresponds to when the flight goes behind your neighbours garage.  It is possible that the building was just tall enough to break up your controller signal, recording a poor signal strength.   As the flight gets to the end of this weak line, it cuts out completely.  This corresponds with the closer building/shed in your own yard.  This would explain a total loss of signal, however on both occasions you would be looking over the top of the buildings at your flight.  This controller interruption would be easier to illustrate if we had 3D models of these buildings.

I don't know what height those buildings are, but this scenario as I described could explain your weak signal and complete loss of signal.  Hopefully that helps you understand the WHY of this incident.





Hopefully this really poor diagram explains my theory a bit better.

04red6 Posted at 2016-6-13 11:24
They are useless.

Some of the comments here should be removed since they do more harm than good

Geebax Posted at 2016-6-13 16:48
Did you not read what I wrote, and the OP? There were NO strong winds, barely a breath, calm, zilc ...

I hate to tell you....but the winds at 1000ft could be quite different than the winds at the surface.
His max altitude was 1600ft.   Could definitely be different.
That why pilots get a "winds ALOFT" forecast in their weather briefings.   Not just surface winds.

Weather 101

Hallo all. Sorry for your losethegaz99  . May I ask you what is the RTH altitude in this time ?

Strange how there isn't any information after that high elevation.

Wind.
Note how the drone changes its path and starts drifting South right after it crosses the ridge after point H in the map below.
Looks like the wind really picked up there because of the terrain and aerology conditions.
Once the signal is lost it would try RTH but most likely due to high winds it would continue to drift South/South-West at 500m. After a few minutes of fighting once it realizes that it can't come home it would give up and land straight down somewhere in the blue area:



Bad news: the search area is pretty vast.
Good news: the drone is most likely in one piece and/or stuck somewhere on a tree

I would recommend to find someone with a drone in your area and do a couple of flights around and see if you can spot something from the air. You can also drop some flyers into mailboxes of people living to the South of the hill. Good luck.

A few things to consider for DJI developers:
1) Give a big red "HIGH WINDS" warning in the app as soon as the drone starts to drift. Most people won't even realize something's going on until the bird is too far and can't come back
2) Modify RTH algorithm to drop to a certain altitude before coming back. Fighting against winds is always easier at 200m AGL than at 500m AGL.

Looks like you have pretty unstable conditions in your area right now: forecast
I can't find what you had on Monday but on Tuesday at 7AM it looks to be fairly calm close to the ground at 13km/h and really strong at 120m at 38km/h. It will be even stronger at 500m.

Check your winds aloft if you plan to fly high.

Geebax Posted at 2016-6-13 06:12
It was certainly not windy where the OP was flying this morning, in fact it was a cool (5 degrees C) ...

OK, but was the wind also light at his maximum height ?
I have windmills here with the axis of the propellers at 100 m above the ground. Often I wonder where the heck these things get their wind from as it is almost completely windless on the ground but the mills are turning full speed at 100 meters...

Geebax Posted at 2016-6-13 08:06
I am not sure why everyone is focussing on the wind aspect, the OP is not using a paid HealthyDrones ...

Maybe not the OP but I have a paid subscriotion and I have the windmap in front of me and it tells an other story...

scarper Posted at 2016-6-13 10:23
And sarcasm is going to help him how? If you don't have anything constructive why bother.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Well, looks like a big puzzle, atop of conversations about wind... Either way, looks like with all the variables and unknowns, it's gonna be hard...
One thing I did not hear for certain.. did the LED on the RC actually turn red? I had this happen once and still RTH did not engage...  but sounds liek you did try RTH on the RC manually...
As for RTH level - it should not matter, it seems u were at the top of allowed altitude, so RTH would just start flying back, not go to any other altitude - not down, because RTH doe snot work that way, and not up, because it could not go higher.
As for all that complain about some of the post not being helpful, please realize this is not just for the benefit of the OP, but also for anyone who will come across this post in the future.. anything people can learn from this, may be useful at some point to them - hopefully BEFORE losing their drone...
Anyhow, I am looking forward to more reports on recovery attempt as well as interaction with DJI! Sincerely hope for some closure to this..  possible crash already sucks, losing the drone is even worse!
Keep at it!