My phantom 3 advanced just fell out the sky over water,last data i was about 116ft up i lost signal started RTH it made not the usually sounds,nothing waited and waited must have just fell into the sea

You need to check what your settings were in the app.
It could of been set to land if it lost signal.
Sorry for your loss.

If you want some understanding of what went wrong you need to investigate the flight data.
Go to http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
It will provide a full report of all flight data.

Sorry to hear about that. It must feel horrible. If there was something wrong with the drone, perhaps you can get a replacement.

RedHotPoker

RedHotPoker Posted at 2016-7-17 04:14
Sorry to hear about that. It must feel horrible. If there was something wrong with the drone, perhap ...

Where from in Canada Red? Montreal here.

Edmonton Alberta. Living the life... Ah ha..
There are a few of us on here.

RedHotPoker

RedHotPoker Posted at 2016-7-17 06:32
Edmonton Alberta. Living the life... Ah ha..
There are a few of us on here.

Vancouver Island.

DMB2015 Posted at 2016-7-17 09:29
Vancouver Island.

Where on the island? Sister is in Parksville. Edmonton area for me

Sorry to here your bird is gone What is your best guess as to what happened?
How many flights did you have before this incident?
Do you plan on getting another one?

Red Deer here   

Calgary here Had a dream lastn night that I crashed my p34k but woke up and it's still here.
Hopefully it's warrant thing.
Take care.

Sorry for your loss, Andy. I'd suggest you to sync your flight log via DJI Go app and contact support@dji.com. Our tech support will look into your case.

RedHotPoker Posted at 2016-7-17 09:32
Edmonton Alberta. Living the life... Ah ha..
There are a few of us on here.

my son and family will be driving through your area next week or so...

He is due in Fairbanks AK aug 1 for new duty assignment.
Driving from North Carolina with 2 vehicles , 3 kids, 2 dogs
they have 1k done out of the total 4.5 k trip so far.

any travel tips .....lol

he is planning on shooting up that way from Montana

Strangely my travel tips aren't plentiful. Bring many memory cards for your cameras? Hahaha
Drink plenty of water, we have lots of it here, but buy some essentials, prices are crazy way up N.
This is the perfect time to be traveling through here. Roads are great and people are friendly. Eh? Ha

RedHotPoker

Photo Drone Posted at 2016-7-17 18:32
Calgary here Had a dream lastn night that I crashed my p34k but woke up and it's still here.
Hopeful ...

Normally that kind of REM, would be considered a scary nightmare. ;-)
Thankfully you woke up, when you did. No telling what sort of mayhem would have ensued later...

Did you give it a hug, in the morning? Haha

RedHotPoker

Rigworker Posted at 2016-7-17 09:44
Where on the island? Sister is in Parksville. Edmonton area for me

Hey D, what's new? ;-)

I tried to PM you but it's still buggered here... Ha

RedHotPoker

Did you grab your flight log yet? Or any information on what happened?

This terrifies me because I do a lot of flying over water since the wide open area around me is the lake in front of my house.    Before I took it over water I made darn sure that I had it set so that it RTH when signal is lost, that it rises to like 300 ft before RTH, etc.  I also never fly unless the battery charge is 100% full.   I frequently double check these things.    It scares me if I read about people's drones just falling out of the sky.

Hawks100 Posted at 2016-7-17 09:00
You need to check what your settings were in the app.
It could of been set to land if it lost signal ...

How can I check to see whether I have those settings?

msduncanrolltid Posted at 2016-7-18 22:30
This terrifies me because I do a lot of flying over water since the wide open area around me is the  ...

They don't just fall out of the sky. There was something that caused it and almost always it was preventable.

MattG Posted at 2016-7-18 22:42
How can I check to see whether I have those settings?

Before you even fly your aircraft you really need to go through all the settings and adjust them to your flight environment for that day.
Main Controller Settings let's you adjust the RTH altitude, and Advanced Settings lets you adjust what to do when signal is lost.

have you contacted support, what is your email and I can view your flight.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-7-18 09:50
They don't just fall out of the sky. There was something that caused it and almost always it was p ...

I agree.   Most likely a setting, manual intervention (unintentional), interference, or a bird strike based on what I've read.

I'm getting the idea that 'fall out of the sky' is almost never malfunction and most commonly the device doing exactly what it's told to do.

msduncanrolltid Posted at 2016-7-18 23:09
I agree.   Most likely a setting, manual intervention (unintentional), interference, or a bird str ...

That is correct.I sold my P3P and never had a single issue with it in over a year. The person called ne the next day and said it just fell out of the sky and they did nothing wrong.
I said there's no way, you must have done a CSC. They swore that they didn't and knew exactly what a CSC was.
I said ok no problem, whats the email and I can review the flight log. I told them no problem, I can get it repaired since you're saying it was a malfunction. I never got the email and a few days later they admitted they accidently did a CSC.

Yeah the CSC is something I'm acutely aware of and try to avoid by not moving both sticks simultaneously.

msduncanrolltid Posted at 2016-7-19 00:08
Yeah the CSC is something I'm acutely aware of and try to avoid by not moving both sticks simultaneo ...

Your totally fine moving bother sticks simultaneously. I don't think with normal flight you would ever get close to a CSC. That's why that stick position is a CSC, there's really no reason to even get close to that stick position.

In 3D flight  maneuvers with a collective pitch heli, CSC stick position might be possible.

But thankfully it would not cause the heli motors to stop mid flight.

Because there are already 1001 ways to crash... Why add one more? Hahaha

RedHotPoker

Can anyone esplain WHY (in terms of the real world) the benefit of CSC ?

Cessna172 Posted at 2016-7-19 01:36
Can anyone esplain WHY (in terms of the real world) the benefit of CSC ?

It's in case of emergency and if the aircraft went out of control and was heading towards a crowd. You kill the motors and make it drop where it is (no crowd below).

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-7-19 04:04
It's in case of emergency and if the aircraft went out of control and was heading towards a crowd. ...

If you could CSC in that often-repeated hypothetical situation, you could climb or turn.
If you had no control, CSC is probably not going to work either.
CSC is mostly  for stopping the rotating blades on the ground following landing or a crash.
Any machinery with fast rotating blades needs to have an emergency stop.

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2016-7-19 05:54
If you could CSC in that often-repeated hypothetical situation, you could climb or turn.
If you ha ...

CSC is built in for emergency power cut off to prevent harm of the aircraft heading towards a crowd. It can also be used to quickly stop the motors to prevent more damage to the aircraft or whatever you crashed into.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-7-19 05:58
CSC is built in for emergency power cut off to prevent harm of the aircraft heading towards a crow ...

I wonder when I read these posts whether these folks just watch the bird descnd or if they immediately push the left stick upward and use the right stick to bring the bird home?

I have had three situations where my P3P started to descend. The first was when I got to close to an airport and got a message it was descending. When I saw the altitude drop I pushed the left stick up and used right stick to move out of the area.

The second time I was out too far, coming home, battery draining and a message that the drone was reducing power. I never let go of the right stick so the momentum was always toward home even as it was dropping. After a few seconds I pushed the left stick up and it would gain altitude for a while until the message came back. I would let go of the left stick but still kept the right stick at full throttle. This was repeated two more times until I got my bird home with plenty of altitude though it was descending at that point, I still flew it toward me, still adjusted altitude and did a hand catch.

Lastly, there are times I drain the battery by flying around and then keeping it near me as the battery reaches the automatic descend point. I can still keep it up in the air until it drains to 5 or 7 per cent.

So I scratch my head every time I read one these stories and the person does not say he pushed up on the left stick and used the right stick to bring it home. Even if you cannot stop it from descending, you can trade altitude for forward flight and get it back as close as possible.

skipilot1 Posted at 2016-7-19 09:20
I wonder when I read these posts whether these folks just watch the bird descnd or if they immedia ...

You are of course right, the problem is that many Phantom owners barely know how to fly the aircraft, much less what to do if it all goes tits up. If you want to keep your aircraft, you have to practice flying in situations like you describe.

It is the same with full size aircraft, a student pilot spends about one fifth of their time learning to fly the aircraft, and four-fifths learning to to stop it crashing into the ground if something goes wrong.

Geebax Posted at 2016-7-19 07:48
You are of course right, the problem is that many Phantom owners barely know how to fly the aircra ...

I was a private pilot and the answer to every emergency is to climb if possible. It gives you a chance to assess problems before you start making bad decisions. A plane is more complicated because you must first get level before you climb. If the engine is out or you are in a glider you are trading off altitude for horizontal movement. With the drone, even when you are hopelessly descending, you still have a camera and horizontal control. If you can find an open space you can land safely and with a GPS tracker possibly find it.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-7-18 12:25
Your totally fine moving bother sticks simultaneously. I don't think with normal flight you would  ...

But it happens and people do it. As shown by the person who bought yours. I wonder how it is even possible. Or why it is even possible.

skipilot1 Posted at 2016-7-18 19:20
I wonder when I read these posts whether these folks just watch the bird descnd or if they immedia ...

Just some suggestions, if the battery reaches 5% or so, it probably is better to land where it is so you have plenty of time to avoid things like trees or ponds while descending. Also you can try to remember its surrounding and location on map. Then you go to that location to pick it up.  That is, of course, you're not flying over an ocean or lake.

Yesterday I saw someone on the forum that is trying to flying his drone back from 1 km+ distance upwind, he kept pushing to the last juice of the battery, and pushed the left stick to keep the drone from automatic landing. Then finally when the drone reaches about 100 meters in front him, it fell down from the sky.

DJI-H.C Posted at 2016-7-19 10:41
Just some suggestions, if the battery reaches 5% or so, it probably is better to land where it is  ...

If it is at 10 per cent you have to land it. My only exception is when it is right in front of me.

skipilot1 Posted at 2016-7-19 11:05
If it is at 10 per cent you have to land it. My only exception is when it is right in front of me. ...

I never take my batteries under 10% unless doing the calibration.
And when calibrating the battery you can fly all the way to 0%.

My drone lands & shuts down before 8% , so how do you "fly" yours to 0%?
Doesn't seem wise, or even possible. Unless you have special batteries...

Or @DJI special powers?! ;-)

RedHotPoker

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-7-18 22:50
They don't just fall out of the sky. There was something that caused it and almost always it was p ...

What do you call it when they start doing flips and you can not get any control of it till you go pick it up off the ground? Having this happen to me now twice in the month and a half that I have had it is getting super annoying, I would say it looked like it fell out of the sky.  I calibrate mine every time before I fly and it still does it sometimes than I ask your support team for advice and they just tell me to calibrate it or take screenshots, which is defiantly the last thing I will be doing while my thousand dollar piece of equipment is falling to the ground, and make it seem like its always our fault.  It is never something to on DJI's side like software, right away you tell us we are doing something wrong when we do what you tell us.  Also, why cant you guys make completing updates a little more user friendly?  Don't mean to rant but it just seems like DJI has a lot of problems with their product out there.

RedHotPoker Posted at 2016-7-19 23:28
My drone lands & shuts down before 8% , so how do you "fly" yours to 0%?
Doesn't seem wise, or even ...

I would never fly my own batteries under 10%.
When I do certain battery tests for DJI (their batteries) I fly them to zero.