$1500 just flew away and kept going

[wsalopek]

From a brief look at that it seems clear why you lost contact - it flew behind the hill at an altitude lower than the peak. That should have initiated an RTH, but since it was already at 789 ft above home point, then unless you had the RTH altitude set very high then it may have simply crashed into the back of the hill trying to return.

The Phantom won't descend on an RTH until it's directly overhead. But yes, if the OP went behind a hill, and the hill was higher than 789 feet, then the Phantom would fly into the back of the hill. What I don't know is how the P4's obstacle avoidance works...would it stop and just hover there on the back side of the hill til the battery dies? And then just fall there? Anyway, the back side of the hill sounds like a good place to look.

 

[wsalopek]

Very sorry for your situation.

And so this begs the question: should one adjust the altitude the drone ascends to before doing a RTH before each flight base on the environment?
I have mine set to 30m and I rarely change it which is prob. a mistake.

Or just don't fly behind something that's higher than the Phantom. There is a disadvantage to making the RTH altitude higher than anything in the area...it will take battery power for the Phantom to attain that altitude before RTH, which may not be available.

 

[wsalopek]

Thanks so much for the help guys. I'm an idiot. Anyone up for a lil hike?

Where is the location? I live in the southwest U.S.

--

Bill

 

[wsalopek]

I usually fly in the same place all the time and I'm accustomed to not worrying about my RTH altitude because I know it's good for that location. This habit could get me in trouble if I went flying somewhere else. After reading this thread, I just added another 25 meters to my already more than enough just to be extra safe.

This is a good reminder to always remember our RTH altitude setting. It should be a part of our preflight checklist. This isn't the first thread I've seen with this scenario.

It would be nice if the RTH altitude was included on the Aircraft Status checklist that comes up on the display at start up, or better yet if it was displayed somewhere on the main screen all the time so that we could include it in our scan of the important bits of information on the display during flight.

Agreed...and honestly, it shouldn't be hard at all for the Phantom to have elevation data on board (not for things like houses and telephone poles), for terrain...it should be very simple for it to see it's RTH course runs into terrain, and adjust accordingly...heck, it might even be able to just use the sonar to a limited degree to avoid obstacles.

I have to mention that the 3DR Solo has something (or will have it soon) called something like "smart return to home", where it will retrace it's flight back out for where it lost signal...which means it would take a path avoiding obstacles, instead of flying in a direct line back home.

 

[wsalopek]

You should be flying line of sight and at that altitude you are breaking Faa rules

He was...he could see the lights.

 

[wsalopek]

FYI max flight altitude is 400 ft according to the FAA. Drone must be in you line of sight during flight. Not trying to be a jerk here.

Sent from my SM-G930V using PhantomPilots mobile app

Max altitude is 400 AGL...looks like he was within 400 feet of the ground flying around that mountain...and it was in "line of sight"...he could see the lights.

 

[flpholt]

He was...he could see the lights.

still there is now way you can see lights almost 10.000 feet away

 

[outflyin]

Everybody has different vision capabilities. I would also be skeptical of anyone seeing a Phantom at that distance, but I have kept mine in sight to well over 6000 feet away. That was with a hill in the background and I kept it in front of some dark green pine trees so I could continue to see it. I've always been good at seeing things very far away when most people can't. I was seeing the white body of the aircraft in daylight. I couldn't see the lights of course in that light, but I've noticed that at night I can see the lights very well at great distances. I think the conditions at the time and the vision capability of the viewer are variables that have to be considered. I wouldn't be willing to say there's no way the OP and his friends could see it.

 

[Joe Glenn]

Sar104, that seems very likely! Dr. tones, what was your RTH altitude set at?

 

[sar104]

Sar104, that seems very likely! Dr. tones, what was your RTH altitude set at?

I think that was answered in post #30 - it was apparently set to 30 m.

 

[Winter Park]

Some of these post are pretty **** funny!

 

[Winter Park]

Maybe if you had stayed anywhere close to the FAA 400 feet ceiling, you would still be flying the drone. Try insurance on the next one. Sorry about your expense anyway.

 

[Dr.tones]

I found it!!!! MSINGER nailed it! It was right in the middle of that red box from the graphic on page two of this thread. I broke three props and the battery came out on impact. I put the battery back in and it still had 3 bars. When I got back to the truck I replaced the props and fired it up. Everything works as if nothing ever happened! Soooooo lucky! I wish I was as impressed with dji's customer service as I am with their product! To answer a couple questions: When I was flying I was less than 400' from the ground. That knob sticks straight up and I never flew above it. I was able to maintain a visual on it until I lost it on the back side. Yes... I was flying blind on the back side. No. I won't do that again. Not sure if the crash was recoreded. I'll find out as soon as I get home. The location is 4.5 hours from my house. Thanks to everyone for helping me recover my baby! Couldn't have done it without you all! I'll be putting together a video of the recovery effort. Wow... What a hike/climb. Oh and the "drone" we all thought we saw flying off to the north? Airplanes in the distance. I got some good video of those too. They're VERY convincing. Thanks again everyone!

 

[Hao Nguyen]

I found it!!!! MSINGER nailed it! It was right in the middle of that red box from the graphic on page two of this thread. I broke three props and he battery came out on impact. I put the battery back in and it still had 3 bars. When I got back to the truck I replaced the props and fired it up. Everything works as if nothing ever happened! Soooooo lucky! I wish I was as impressed with dji's customer service as I am with their product! To answer a couple questions: When I was flying I was less than 400' from the ground. That knob sticks straight up and I never flew above it. I was able to maintain a visual on it until I lost it on the back side. Yes... I was flying blind on the back side. No. I won't do that again. Not sure if the crash was recoreded. I'll find out as soon as I get home. The location is 4.5 hours from my house. Thanks to everyone for helping me recover my baby! Couldn't have done it without you all! I'll be putting together a video of the recovery effort. Wow... What a hike/climb. Oh and the "drone" we all thought we saw flying off to the north? Airplanes in the distance. I got some good video of those too. They're VERY convincing. Thanks again everyone!

Congrats, mate!

 

[WWK888]

Awesome!


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Stealthmatt]

This is awesome, I can't wait to see the recovery efforts and the video. The video will show what it did.

Don't format that card, if you cant read the video file on the drone there is quick software to repair the corrupted video files. Let us know if you have trouble getting the video.

 

[sar104]

Maybe if you had stayed anywhere close to the FAA 400 feet ceiling, you would still be flying the drone. Try insurance on the next one. Sorry about your expense anyway.

Perhaps you should try reading what happened, and learn what the FAA guideline actually means, before getting it so badly wrong.

 

[Yiannis.B]

The Phantom won't descend on an RTH until it's directly overhead. But yes, if the OP went behind a hill, and the hill was higher than 789 feet, then the Phantom would fly into the back of the hill. What I don't know is how the P4's obstacle avoidance works...would it stop and just hover there on the back side of the hill til the battery dies? And then just fall there? Anyway, the back side of the hill sounds like a good place to look.

Check this out.

 

[mxx408]

Wow everybody's contributions, especially MSINGER, helped the OP out SO much with his successful recovery. Congrats Dr. tones!!!

 

[Stealthmatt]

Check this out: