$1500 just flew away and kept going

[Dr.tones]

UPDATE WITH RECOVERY VIDEO! Well, it happened. She flew away. I was out in the middle of the desert trying to get an "epic shot" of a mountain. I didn't have "data" on my cell at the time. I went through pre flight which included compass calibration (away from the truck), GPS acquisition (19 satellites acquired), RTH point updated and confirmed, etc. etc... I launched with no complications. I even hit RTH and the aircraft returned and began to land in the proper location without incident. I canceled the operation and switched to sport mode and flew to my destination. At a distance of 9823.5 ft and an elevation of 787.2 ft I lost video feed and received an error message and chimes "aircraft disconnected". 15 satellites acquired at the time of disconnect. I hit the RTH button... nothing... I could see the drone begin to travel north (my left) at a consistent elevation, blinking yellow and red. I switched to ATTI mode.... no response... I had 9min 22 sec of battery left. We attempted to hop in the truck and chase it in hopes of reconnecting... nope. Severely disappointed in the failure of the "fail safes". Before you get all up in arms about stuff I coulda, shoulda, woulda, please just try to be helpful and tell me theres a way to find where she went down? WHY DIDN'T IT COME HOME!!!!!!!! 100's of miles from no where so I'm pretty sure that reward sticker means absolutely nothing. Last recoded location was the place it lost signal and became disconnected. Thanks. Bummed.
Oh... The things I do to retrieve my crashed drone.

 

[Dephusable]

That's rough dude... Maybe you can explain to DJI what happened

 

[RJ_Make]

I'm new to all this, but it seems to me that unless you had a GPS tacker on your bird, it's pretty much gone. I'm basing that on your last known recorded location and the fact that you saw it continue to travel north.

Were you able to reach it's last know location and travel north to look for it?

Sorry about your loss.

 

[RJ_Make]

Your birds elevation was 787.2 feet???

 

[flpholt]

how could you see it flying away at 787 feet high and 9823 distance away a mile and half out and you can see it doesn't compute

 

[185EZ]

At a distance of 9823.5 ft and an elevation of 787.2 ft
I could see the drone begin to travel north (my left) at a consistent elevation, blinking yellow and red.

Dang! I can't see my phantom at 200'!
sux getting old

 

[flpholt]

was this a night flight

 

[strgazr27]

I couldn't see my Phantom at 1000' away and 200' elevation. You should change your user name to "Hawkeye". I don't know but unless you had binoculars I gotta doubt you "saw" it visually.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[flpholt]

there is no way you can see it during the day that far out unless your superhuman vision

 

[flpholt]

this op thread smells

 

[185EZ]

...

 

[Dr.tones]

It was right at sunset and the flashing red and yellow lights were visible. I had three others with me that could see it plain as day. I synced the flight info. How do I share it with you all?

 

[Stealthmatt]

Sorry to hear about yourloss, did you manage to recover the drone?

Can you upload the flight logs to https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/

This will show us if it got any more data or what might have happened.

 

[msinger]

Please upload your TXT flight log here and post a link back here.

 

[Dr.tones]

Ok, I'll have to do it when I get home in a bit

 

[Dr.tones]

No, I never found the drone btw

 

[Dr.tones]

Ok guys, here's the flight log Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[dronejunkyev]

Sorry to hear.. That's crazy that you went that high with it.. I wouldn't go that high with fear of that same thing happening..


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Dr.tones]

So here's the question I have, when the aircraft gets disconnected, does it "fly" to wherever it thinks home is? If so, at what speed? Or does it just go into like an atti mode and the wind takes it?

 

[sar104]

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.