Brand new P4 Pro GONE

[AceMark]

Well fellow drone nuts I had a bad day this past Thursday. I took my new P4 Pro out for a flight around a dam/lake to collect some video. I fired it up and everything looked good.. no errors, no warnings etc.. I flew for about 10 minutes and all seemed well.

My controller begins to beep and I saw red writing which is never good. The P4 had lost connection with the transmitter. The drone was not in direct sight at the time but guessing 100 feet away. I ran over to where I knew the drone to be when GPS dropped. I looked, looked and looked some more in a panic to try to establish a connection or locate the craft.

I never saw the drone again... a couple of employees of the dam were standing under the hill somewhat close to where the drone last shown on the DJI GO App. After looking everywhere that I could see I drove down to where the employees were standing. The first thing one of them said was "was that your drone??". I said yes it is my drone but it's gone from view, radar etc etc... He proceeded to tell me that it was about 30 feet above the water hovering then just dropped straight down. BOOM just like that my drone was gone for good.

That was the drones 7th logged flight owning the drone for a total of 4 days. The question is what can I do? Why would the drone have just dropped from the sky that close to the base/controller?

Needless to say this was very disheartening. I am left scratching my head. I am a new pilot no doubt but there was nothing fancy going on or risks involved etc.. just a normal in range flight to capture feed.

Is there anything I can do? I know the Drone is long gone but is this the end of the story?

I am struggling to get the logs via iTunes. I went step by step on how to retrieve them but my itunes once downloaded to my pc does not contain the files I need. There is not even the option to view any drone info. I have back tracked watching the instructional video finding that I did exactly what I am suppose to do.

I did not have iTunes on my pc so I downloaded the program just for this reason yet no drone docs of any kind showing up to work with. I am still trying to obtain the info for sure because I may have a claim of malfunction or something. Any suggestions of what I am doing wrong on this?

I appreciate you guys reaching out to help and I am for sure in pursuit of the needed log.

 

[AceMark]

Check and see if the credit card you purchased the drone with has buyer protection.

What would I say in this situation though? I take total fault for the loss. I'm not being a smart butt either. You may be on to something that I have never used before. However with me at the controls and it goes down would that be covered under buyers protection? I paid with a bank debit card through PayPal for the craft.

 

[AceMark]

"The P4 had lost connection with the transmitter. The drone was not in direct sight at the time but guessing 100 feet away. I ran over to where I knew the drone to be when GPS dropped."

This may be at least part of the key to the mystery. Without the logs (which, for reasons unknown, the OP hasn't provided), we'll never know for sure. First, a lost connection doesn't attest to GPS dropping. If it was 100 feet away and NOT in VLOS, it's indicative of an obstruction blocking the VLOS between the AC and RC. The Phantom would then initiate whatever action it was programmed to do upon signal loss. My guess would be that it was set to land (based on what the witnesses said). Knowing that eyewitness descriptions can be notoriously inaccurate, what they're describing as the Phantom "dropping into the water" could have actually been a landing into the water. My guess, in a nutshell, is the OP flew behind something, lost connection (NOT GPS) and the Phantom's lost signal behavior being set to land instead of RTH, did exactly as would be expected. It landed (in the water). Again, just a guess without the log. I don't see any way that compass calibration (or lack thereof) or lack of State Farm insurance had any bearing on the event.

I think you are correct. I am trying hard to get that log so we can see what did happen. I won't be surprised if what you stated is indeed what happened. I can't tell you if it was set to RTH or land.. even though I could swear it was RTH. I'm just not 100%. On a brighter side I do see transmitters, case, props, charging cables etc.. fetching about $500 on eBay. Sellers who had this same thing happen. I'm just finding a positive to this incident.

 

[N017RW]

(Assuming) you started r/c aviation with a Phantom, this is unfortunately a hard lesson.
I have been flying r/c since the 70s. I only have 3 planes on my shelf as they were retired for sentimental reasons.
All the others are gone due to typical failures being human, equipment, or otherwise.
Any/every flight could be your last. All the more reason to be very aware of what other damage could be caused if it crashed into something or someone.

 

[PhantomWetSuits]

Well fellow drone nuts I had a bad day this past Thursday. I took my new P4 Pro out for a flight around a dam/lake to collect some video. I fired it up and everything looked good.. no errors, no warnings etc.. I flew for about 10 minutes and all seemed well.

My controller begins to beep and I saw red writing which is never good. The P4 had lost connection with the transmitter. The drone was not in direct sight at the time but guessing 100 feet away. I ran over to where I knew the drone to be when GPS dropped. I looked, looked and looked some more in a panic to try to establish a connection or locate the craft.

I never saw the drone again... a couple of employees of the dam were standing under the hill somewhat close to where the drone last shown on the DJI GO App. After looking everywhere that I could see I drove down to where the employees were standing. The first thing one of them said was "was that your drone??". I said yes it is my drone but it's gone from view, radar etc etc... He proceeded to tell me that it was about 30 feet above the water hovering then just dropped straight down. BOOM just like that my drone was gone for good.

That was the drones 7th logged flight owning the drone for a total of 4 days. The question is what can I do? Why would the drone have just dropped from the sky that close to the base/controller?

Needless to say this was very disheartening. I am left scratching my head. I am a new pilot no doubt but there was nothing fancy going on or risks involved etc.. just a normal in range flight to capture feed.

Is there anything I can do? I know the Drone is long gone but is this the end of the story?

I have to agree post the log to phantomhelp and when they decode it look for a yaw error, that is a critical error that is recognized my DJI and you could get a replacement as i i did. Its a lot of work to get the replacement but it starts with showing you had the yaw error . After that your looking at 15 to 20 emails with them that will span over a course of 20 days and if your lucky they will issue you a 100% free cupon for another. Good luck

 

[Bakersfield Quad]

Isn't the log file found on the tablet, enough to do this ANALYSIS? What does ITunes have to do with it, me being a non IOS person, doesn't the log go to the phone or tab like with Android?

 

[sar104]

Isn't the log file found on the tablet, enough to do this ANALYSIS? What does ITunes have to do with it, me being a non IOS person, doesn't the log go to the phone or tab like with Android?

On iOS the log is stored in the internal file structure that is only accessible via iTunes. That log does contain good information, but far less than is available from the DAT file on the aircraft.

 

[jdharrin]

Are there any programs or apps that can read the DAT files? I'm amazed at all the info from the txt files. I load those into AirData and the PhantomHelp site...

 

[sar104]

Are there any programs or apps that can read the DAT files? I'm amazed at all the info from the txt files. I load those into AirData and the PhantomHelp site...

DatCon Introduction

 

[CharlieU]

First things first. Did you set in the DJI GO 4 app if RC signal lost "Return to home" The reason I ask is on the first few flights my P4 lost signal and it hovered in place until it ran out of gas and landed about 1\2 mile away up a mountain. I was flying with Litchi and recovered it with "find my aircraft". Checked later and setting was not set to return home.