Another P4 takes a bath

[lmmavrick]

Well on my 200th flight the Phantom decided she had enough . While out flying this evening getting some great sunset pictures, on my second battery and just hovering above, a fellow camper came over to show her kid . I let him look at the screen and then starting flying out in a big circle over the lake . Just wanted the kid to see it fly , I was at about 140' alt maybe 700'away over the lake when i got aircraft disconnected . All RTH settings should have sent the drone home , Didn't happen . the lady and her kid said they leave me so i could deal with the emergency .lol . Nothing i did brought the p4 back . just plain old disconnected and that's that's . there was wi-fi interference and a warning not to fly to far , but i get that all the time at this rv park in West Yellowstone over half my flights are from here , i had that during the other battery i just flew and had no issues nor did i on this flight until the aircraft disconnected .The drone was flying great . Looking at air data shows no issues signal strength was 100% ,it shows landing battery at 38% which makes no sense . I can see the flight map and it just dead ends over the lake about 600' away . It was Getting dark and i had lost sight of the drone dealing with the kid . tried powering off the controller and back on no help , tired changing channels no help , shut down dji and restarted no help , RTH no Help , preset return to home functions did not work for loss of single , just plain gone !!! Last known location 140' above the lake , assume now it's on the bottom of said lake
ON a brite note i do have a state farm policy for the drone , Guess tomorrow i make a call and put in a claim and then decide if i get another drone or not .

 

[Meta4]

I was at about 140' alt maybe 700'away over the lake when i got aircraft disconnected . All RTH settings should have sent the drone home , Didn't happen .
... Looking at air data shows no issues signal strength was 100% ,it shows landing battery at 38% which makes no sense . I can see the flight map and it just dead ends over the lake about 600' away . It was Getting dark and i had lost sight of the drone dealing with the kid . tried powering off the controller and back on no help , tired changing channels no help , shut down dji and restarted no help , RTH no Help , preset return to home functions did not work for loss of single , just plain gone !!! Last known location 140' above the lake

Are you saying that the Phantom just hung there and wouldn't come home or was it out of sight?
RTH is very reliable and about the only thing that would prevent it working if the controller is switched off is changing the default loss of signal action from RTH to hover.

Airdata isn't much help when investigating incidents.
Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer - Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.

 

[John1960]

Something sounds fishy here............lol

 

[Fly Dawg]

The drone was flying great . Looking at air data shows no issues signal strength was 100% ,it shows landing battery at 38% which makes no sense .

Agreed with Meta4. If you truly wish to determine what the issue was we need more data than what Airdata provides. You really should take a closer look at the full data sets. If this were pilot error, that could well be determined and prevent a similar error in the future. On the flip side, if this were an issue with the AC or RC, that as well may show the possible cause of the incident. Airdata is basically an "overview". You need to take a much closer look at the data.

 

[lmmavrick]

Are you saying that the Phantom just hung there and wouldn't come home or was it out of sight?
RTH is very reliable and about the only thing that would prevent it working if the controller is switched off is changing the default loss of signal action from RTH to hover.

Airdata isn't much help when investigating incidents.
Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer - Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.

yes it just hung there . RTH was set to return to home if signal lost . got message aircraft disconnected . blank screen . tried everything it ran out of power and sank . not sure if i screwed up or not . i was killing battery after photos and was flying in sport mode till around 40% then was hover over head getting ready to land when the gal and kid came over . thought i'd do another circle when i got the disconnected on the screen and screen went blank . this was flight # 200 . i always check my return to home settings thought while thinking about it all night and today right when it happened i got a return to home box on the screen and may have inadvertently canceled it. either way drone is on b ottom of lake . had about 10 mins left in battery and could not get it to reconnect . no matter what i did . partly human error partly drone problem as it should have reconnected as close as i was and with the amount of time i had . no go had nightmares all night . now getting ready to call statefarm

 

[lmmavrick]

i need to get online with my device and get the flight log , but i think i screwwed up but still would like to know why the craft would not reconnect

 

[lmmavrick]

I think this is it . not very computer savey . im not even sure i can open it so any help thanks . i did call state farm and put in a claim . and in the back of my mind i think i hit the wrong button as i got the aircraft disconnected a box poped up in the middle of the screen RTH did not have my reading glasses on and like i mentioned my have inadvertently dismissed RTH . dam my luck . just a couple weeks ago had my grand kids out on a boat fishing . casted out my flyrod and set it down to help the kids and while my back was turned a fish grabbed the fly and pulled my rod over board and now my drone is gone

 

[Kirby Johnson]

Agreed with Meta4. If you truly wish to determine what the issue was we need more data than what Airdata provides. You really should take a closer look at the full data sets. If this were pilot error, that could well be determined and prevent a similar error in the future. On the flip side, if this were an issue with the AC or RC, that as well may show the possible cause of the incident. Airdata is basically an "overview". You need to take a much closer look at the data.

Another disheartening case of someone who sounds to know what they are doing helplessly losing a bird. Is there a remote chance of RTH somehow ( firmware glitch) setting itself to hover? Can that not be changed once initiated? Surely what it sounds like. I hope I Maverick gets the flight Log up to be analyzed. If I fly over water I think I will fly mine like a kite with a loooong string..

 

[lmmavrick]

this is mountainous flying so will show some out of ordinary alts but i think i F- UPED . got distracted and when the crap hit the fan so to speak i wasn't wearing my glasses and so long good bye birdy

 

[lmmavrick]

one more question how do you open the flight log ?

 

[Fly Dawg]

one more question how do you open the flight log ?

Upload the .txt file to the site that Meta4 posted above and you can see it yourself. Just a quick look at this log, I didnt see anything that jumped out at me, other than no signal losses that I could see. This may not be the correct file.

 

[lmmavrick]

lets try again . went to the last flight log but think it may have been the one before as the time stamp was the lastest

 

[lmmavrick]

ok viewed both flights . it's the one that i was flying mostly in sport mode because it was getting dark and i wanted to use up the battery some and was just buzzing around . showed some gps position something some thing and at the end it shows nothing .38% battery and drone gone . i can't figure it out

 

[Meta4]

yes it just hung there . RTH was set to return to home if signal lost . got message aircraft disconnected . blank screen . tried everything it ran out of power and sank . not sure if i screwed up or not .

Here's your flight record: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
It shows you hovering the Phantom and going up and down from 9:18 until the end of the flight.
The Phantom was responding properly to all joystick inputs.
The big problem was that from 10:47 with the Phantom at 400 ft, you held the left stick down until 11:21.
In that time the Phantom's altitude went from 400 ft to zero.
**Splash**

 

[lmmavrick]

Here's your flight record: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
It shows you hovering the Phantom and going up and down from 9:18 until the end of the flight.
The Phantom was responding properly to all joystick inputs.
The big problem was that from 10:47 with the Phantom at 400 ft, you held the left stick down until 11:21.
In that time the Phantom's altitude went from 400 ft to zero.
**Splash**

It's wrong . aircraft disconnected . i was moving when the aircraft disconnected and not at 400' . I had started to descend when the mom and kid stopped by i showed him the view on the screen and then started to make a circle moving southwest i could see the screen and the phantom start going over the lake as well as see the phantom visually . i was at a constant alt when doing this when the aircraft disconnected came up and screen went blank . watch the pointer and home point i tried turning the drone but the pointer did not move and at this point lost orientation of the drone . then i went through re-start up of the operating systems but the drone never reconnected . it may show it coming down but it did so by it's self. also i wasn't anywhere near 400 ' when the kid showed up and i started the circle more like 140 to 200

 

[lmmavrick]

Also the last entry of the log shows me going 36 mph from 10:56 it shows me starting to move building speed and moving . the alt is slowing declining but it was not from input from me ! maybe it was . I've never done anything like this in the last 199 flights . the right stick was slightly turning to the left but it was not held down . I could also see the visual of the video feed flying over the lake not down into it . if it continued down it did so it's self since i was disconnected and as soon as the aircraft disconnect i let go of all controls to access the situation . never regained control . i could hear the drone but in my panic i could not located it .
Either way thanks for the input and you thoughts . what's done is done and hopefully state farm will pay me off and then i can either get another drone or sale all the things i have for this one

 

[sar104]

It's wrong . aircraft disconnected . i was moving when the aircraft disconnected and not at 400' . I had started to descend when the mom and kid stopped by i showed him the view on the screen and then started to make a circle moving southwest i could see the screen and the phantom start going over the lake as well as see the phantom visually . i was at a constant alt when doing this when the aircraft disconnected came up and screen went blank . watch the pointer and home point i tried turning the drone but the pointer did not move and at this point lost orientation of the drone . then i went through re-start up of the operating systems but the drone never reconnected . it may show it coming down but it did so by it's self. also i wasn't anywhere near 400 ' when the kid showed up and i started the circle more like 140 to 200

Your recollection is not quite correct. Firstly, the aircraft never disconnected from the RC (uplink and downlink were fine throughout) and never entered RTH. And your log is complete all the way to splashdown, so the mobile device was also connected.

And the aircraft responded appropriately to all your stick commands throughout the flight. The following plot shows elevator input, the resulting pitch, and forward velocity:

Looking at distance, altitude and battery:

At around 600 seconds it was almost directly over the homepoint at an altitude of 210 m, after which it headed out again while descending. It kept moving away and was still doing so when it hit the water at 681 s.

Both the horizontal movement and the vertical movement were directly driven by your stick inputs:

I have to concur with the previous opinions that this was entirely pilot error.

 

[lmmavrick]

well it looks like my controller must be messed up . i sure didn't hold the stick down unless i was out of my mind . thanks again will see how good the insurance is. not disputing the logs , so the aircraft disconnect was after a splash .

 

[sar104]

well it looks like my controller must be messed up . i sure didn't hold the stick down unless i was out of my mind . thanks again will see how good the insurance is. not disputing the logs , so the aircraft disconnect was after a splash .

The rudder was commanding a slow left turn at the end, but the throttle was clearly down. I guess it's always possible that it malfunctioned, but it doesn't look like that to me - those look like real signals in terms of the signal pattern (only full or zero stick is ever perfectly smooth).

 

[Meta4]

It's wrong . aircraft disconnected . i was moving when the aircraft disconnected and not at 400' .

The only disconnect was when your Phantom splashed down.
Nothing from then on would make it come back.

then started to make a circle moving southwest i could see the screen and the phantom start going over the lake as well as see the phantom visually . i was at a constant alt when doing this when the aircraft disconnected came up and screen went blank .

Perhaps you were watching a bird because the flight data shows a steady descent in Sport Mode (faster than GPS).
I have only seen a faulty controller crash and in that one, the throttle input was stuck at full up even though the stick was centered.
Yours appears to be working, as the throttle value is changing and the Phantom has perfectly matched the up and down to the throttle inputs.
There was full signal all the way down

watch the pointer and home point i tried turning the drone but the pointer did not move and at this point lost orientation of the drone . then i went through re-start up of the operating systems but the drone never reconnected . it may show it coming down but it did so by it's self. also i wasn't anywhere near 400 ' when the kid showed up and i started the circle more like 140 to 200

There's a steady descent from 400 to 170 ft where you started circling, but also continued descending.
Here's what part of the data shows for the start and end of the descent: