$1800 loss in 5 seconds!Losing GPS and drifting 50mph crash

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Hi ,
I was flying P4P in P mode today when it lost 16 satellite signals, switching to ATTI mode by itself and drifted 50MPH to one direction. Ended up crashing to a tree. My hands were off when it started to drift like hell and ended in crash. The winds were 7-10 MPH. I wonder if it was a defective unit or I am the moron beginner!
 
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Wow, I lost my P4P today and it sounds eerily similar. I was getting some footage of the lakeshore where my family's cabin is, had 18 satellites and all was well until it went down to 6 satellites, spun in circles, and crashed 200 feet down into the lake. Could not recover anything. So upset and don't know what to do.
 
Sorry for your loss.Same here. Mine just decided to drift with maximum speed like somebody put it in sport mode and fly with maximum speed!
I heard their customer support sucks i will update.
 
Please upload your TXT flight log here and post a link back here. You'll find instructions for locating your TXT flight log at that link.
 
Looking at the log posted It seems you flew almost straight up to 98ft and hovered for a bit before a compass error was reported. GPS location information was still available for the whole flight however, unfortunately, when the compass data is determined invalid by the flight control software in the AC it is not used to maintain position. If you didn't attempt to fly the AC manually it would have drifted on its own untill it hit something or the battery ran out, this is typical behaviour.

Your only option in these circumstances is to manually fly the AC back and land. RTH is not advised, to the extent it might engage it will often fly the AC to some random heading based in the invalid compass information.

Did you calibrate the compass before flight? It might be that you got a bad calibration due to some ferrous material where you calibrated (was allowed for in the calibration). This will trigger an error when you fly away from the distorted field into clear space above it. First mistake I ever made. Calibrated above a reinforced concrete cricket pitch (perfect calibration) and got compass error and loss of GPS straight after launch. Luckily I have flown RC heli's for years and didn't have to think about how to get her home. Practice in ATTI mode will serve you well.
 
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I was flying last night and also got GPS unit errors occasionally but then they would fix themselves. each time i took the bird up to 300 feet just to avoid obsticles
 
I was flying last night and also got GPS unit errors occasionally but then they would fix themselves. each time i took the bird up to 300 feet just to avoid obsticles
What were the obstacles? 20 story buildings? Getting above surrounding obstacles is a good idea but excess height may put you into higher prevailing winds and make your return flight to safety more problematic.
 
What were the obstacles? 20 story buildings? Getting above surrounding obstacles is a good idea but excess height may put you into higher prevailing winds and make your return flight to safety more problematic.

Just 15 story buildings. But I wanted to be safe.

Years of playing Xbox have honed my thumb skills to a pretty good level of readiness. :D
 
Looking at the log posted It seems you flew almost straight up to 98ft and hovered for a bit before a compass error was reported. GPS location information was still available for the whole flight however, unfortunately, when the compass data is determined invalid by the flight control software in the AC it is not used to maintain position. If you didn't attempt to fly the AC manually it would have drifted on its own untill it hit something or the battery ran out, this is typical behaviour.

Your only option in these circumstances is to manually fly the AC back and land. RTH is not advised, to the extent it might engage it will often fly the AC to some random heading based in the invalid compass information.

Did you calibrate the compass before flight? It might be that you got a bad calibration due to some ferrous material where you calibrated (was allowed for in the calibration). This will trigger an error when you fly away from the distorted field into clear space above it. First mistake I ever made. Calibrated above a reinforced concrete cricket pitch (perfect calibration) and got compass error and loss of GPS straight after launch. Luckily I have flown RC heli's for years and didn't have to think about how to get her home. Practice in ATTI mode will serve you well.
Thanks for the info.
For me as a beginner it is so annoying to see this happen . I spent almost $1800 and I studied a lot about this drone before buying it mainly because of all safety features. All the sensors were active and I was flying it in P mode. I did not expecting this "suicidal" or "kamikaze" mode to happen .
Looking at log you can see I went to an open field with no magnetic interference and was even so cautious just flew it straight up to get a 360 view of area. The whole thing started last 8 seconds when I was getting ready to bring it down . First I though that I am pushing some wrong controls so I left everything expecting it to hold the position but it continued to suicidal mode with 50MPH recorded at the crash time. Last two seconds it was already surrounded by tall trees(maybe 120-130feet)and I tried to pull up to avoid impact Igained around 10 feet but it was too late since it was going ridiculously fast.
Anyways this is my story. I don't know what the DJI support will do or if they cover for the suicidal mode!
 
Sorry to hear this, i hope they will replace the drone.
i bought a $100 drone to learn on, got too high and wind got it, lasted about 10-15 seconds and out of sight. I bought another cheap one and after many crashes i learned to land it at my feet every flght before i flew the phantom. like somebody said here, it helps to not have to think about what to do if something goes wrong.
Happy 4th
 
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Sorry to hear this, i hope they will replace the drone.
i bought a $100 drone to learn on, got too high and wind got it, lasted about 10-15 seconds and out of sight. I bought another cheap one and after many crashes i learned to land it at my feet every flght before i flew the phantom. like somebody said here, it helps to not have to think about what to do if something goes wrong.
Happy 4th
Lost two of the small drones to wind and stupid ideas before moving to a Phantom
 
I looked at this flight some. Would it be possible to get the .DAT for this flight as well as the previous non-incident flight? Your AC isn't a Mavic but the instructions here should give you enough info retrieve those .DATs. They will be large so you'll need to Dropbox or GoogleDrive them and post a link.

Fly-aways due to a calibration issue are extremely rare but this incident may be different. None of the conditions that are usually associated with a launch-from-a geomagnetically-distorted-site incident are present. And, the onset of the compass error occurred while the AC was rotating.
upload_2017-7-6_13-0-46.png


The previous non-incident flight will help determine if there has been a change or failure that cuased this.
 

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I'm gonna speculate that this incident was due to a leftBack propulsion issue; either a broken prop or a motor failure. Too bad the .DAT can't be retrieved. The onset started with a pitch up and roll left which would be consistent with loss of leftBack propulsion. The AC started CCW rotations which is consistent with either a leftBack or rightFront propulsion loss.
upload_2017-7-6_13-13-23.png


The loss of satellites, gpsHealth was probably caused by the tumbling.
 
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Hi ,
I was flying P4P in P mode today when it lost 16 satellite signals, switching to ATTI mode by itself and drifted 50MPH to one direction. Ended up crashing to a tree. My hands were off when it started to drift like hell and ended in crash. The winds were 7-10 MPH. I wonder if it was a defective unit or I am the moron beginner!

Im sorry for your lost!
 
Thanks for the info.
For me as a beginner it is so annoying to see this happen . I spent almost $1800 and I studied a lot about this drone before buying it mainly because of all safety features. All the sensors were active and I was flying it in P mode. I did not expecting this "suicidal" or "kamikaze" mode to happen .
Looking at log you can see I went to an open field with no magnetic interference and was even so cautious just flew it straight up to get a 360 view of area. The whole thing started last 8 seconds when I was getting ready to bring it down . First I though that I am pushing some wrong controls so I left everything expecting it to hold the position but it continued to suicidal mode with 50MPH recorded at the crash time. Last two seconds it was already surrounded by tall trees(maybe 120-130feet)and I tried to pull up to avoid impact Igained around 10 feet but it was too late since it was going ridiculously fast.
Anyways this is my story. I don't know what the DJI support will do or if they cover for the suicidal mode!
It won't help you much now, but I always hope it will help someone else: too many people rely on GPS and compass, and never learn to actually fly. Controlling a drone with a smartphone while under GPS stabilization is not flying.

I always recommend every new user to buy a toy drone like a Hubsan X4 ($15-40) and learn to fly the small toy first. That way you learn to fly and control a drone manually, with drift and all the associated problems. Those toys are also very light, so unlikely to break in a crash and damage anything. And if you crash really hard, you lose <$50, not $1800

GPS and compass will fail, it's a given. There are too many reasons why there can be problems, even if you do everything right. Learning to switch your remote into ATTI and fly back home is your only hope to avoid disaster in the future.

I hope it turns out it's a P4 issue and DJI replaces it. But, in any case, get a toy drone and learn to fly it. You'll be glad you did, especially if it saves you from crashing your drone into people and actually hurting someone (as bad as losing money is, hurting someone would be worse). We all have a responsibility as owner to know how to fly our drone in emergency
 

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