On my 33rd flight today and did all checks as my log proves. Still a novice and in beginner mode going no higher than 30 foot. Got my home point established and begun to fly around safely. Then did the auto land as I have countless times before as i was very close to the home point. The drone shot up 30m and on the screen i had battery error and home point had been set in the river 2 miles away. I tried to regain control  but couldnt tell it to rth as that was now a river, so i tried to manually bring the drone back but lost video connection and line of site. The log stops when the drone is over waste land that is restricted. So i cannot search for it. Where do i stand as regards insurance coverage?

Can you sync your flight record, if you can dji may be able to tell you what went wrong. For care refresh you really need to have your aircraft, but if it was some sort of malfunction and can be proved then warranty may cover it.

You might check this thread as it seems to be related regarding the home point resetting, although there doesn't seem to be a confirmed reason or a solution.

http://forum.dji.com/thread-81598-1-1.html

At first glance you seem to have had a battery fail and GPS error at the same time on a new Phantom, either fault is fairly rare and separately probably wouldn't have lost the aircraft but simultaneously they were catastrophic.  After seeing your logs DJI should replace your Phantom because IMO the loss is entirely due to the faults even if you might have been able save your Phantom by switching to Atti mode straight away (that's no certainty and its easy to be wise in hindsight)

You may be able to pinpoint where your Phantom ended up by logging on to phantompilots.com and asking msinger to estimate its landing site on google maps. He will obviously need your logs but has found a lot of Phantoms, sometimes a fair distance from where their operators thought they had landed.      

Home points that get reset on their own have one thing in common. The user either have Beginner mode or the Distance limit set to something. I've read about this aberration long ago in the forums. That's when I turn off and have never used these mode ever since. My advice, don't used them. I turned off the Beginner mode on the second day, and stared to use the Distance limit setting till I came across this glitch some were talking about. Did you try and cancel the RTH either by the Go app or the S1 switch ? Also one more word of advice keep away form using these, "auto land" and 'RTH". Just fly it home, land it yourself. You shouldn't rely on FW and SW when it's something you can do yourself just as easy.

WilliamM Posted at 2017-1-23 19:29
Home points that get reset on their own have one thing in common. The user either have Beginner mode or the Distance limit set to something. I've read about this aberration long ago in the forums. That's when I turn off and have never used these mode ever since. My advice, don't used them. I turned off the Beginner mode on the second day, and stared to use the Distance limit setting till I came across this glitch some were talking about. Did you try and cancel the RTH either by the Go app or the S1 switch ? Also one more word of advice keep away form using these, "auto land" and 'RTH". Just fly it home, land it yourself. You shouldn't rely on FW and SW when it's something you can do yourself just as easy.

Thanks for commenting. Being new to this hobby, I wasnt aware of any of these problems and have paid the price. I did cancel the RTH but I couldnt see the drone to control it. In hindsight I should have stopped the drone and reversed it back, but my mind went blank as it flew away. If ever I get a drone again I will get rid of the beginner mode. I foolishly thought it was the safe option.

fans14d90a4a Posted at 2017-1-24 11:10
Thanks for commenting. Being new to this hobby, I wasnt aware of any of these problems and have paid the price. I did cancel the RTH but I couldnt see the drone to control it. In hindsight I should have stopped the drone and reversed it back, but my mind went blank as it flew away. If ever I get a drone again I will get rid of the beginner mode. I foolishly thought it was the safe option.

Did you put in a warranty claim, you should. They will ask up to upload the flight log from your device for analysis. They have been know to replace lost drones when it was NOT pilot error. You have this glitch (which they don't publicly acknowledge) and also if you read here on the forum people have been complaining about version 3.1.2 of the Go app having a strange mapping issue, if you have that version.
See here, http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... D394%26typeid%3D394

fans14d90a4a Posted at 2017-1-24 11:10
Thanks for commenting. Being new to this hobby, I wasnt aware of any of these problems and have paid the price. I did cancel the RTH but I couldnt see the drone to control it. In hindsight I should have stopped the drone and reversed it back, but my mind went blank as it flew away. If ever I get a drone again I will get rid of the beginner mode. I foolishly thought it was the safe option.

Again its wise to be wise in hindsight but I was wondering if you had been observing the displayed data on your device while you were learning the ropes. So long as the aircraft is within range there is plenty of info there to allow you to fly it home even if you are well out of VLOS. It may have been a little late to start working them all out after the Phantom had "flown the coop" and you were a bit stressed but maybe next time.

Off course if the Phantom had developed a mind of its own due to a fault (or a combination of them) then only an analysis of the flight log can determine whether you (or even an experienced operator) would have had any hope of bringing it home. Once again I can highly recommend msinger over on phantompilots.com if you like to see the last flight path of your phantom and its probable landing spot. There maybe someone here as well who can offer the same service of the flight path overlaid onto google maps but its way out of my abilities.

If you want to find where it went go to http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.

Come back and post a link to the report it provides and someone here might be able to analyse it and point you in the right direction.