Crashed, but is it my fault?

[Jussaguy]

Not entirely true. As noted throughout the thread, the P3 will also return home with no altitude change if it is already above your preset RTH altitude.

which makes sense because unless there is some city in the sky, you don't need to go higher than the allotted necessary amount of height to clear the obstacles in the way. But you are correct.

I think this will all be soon a think of the past. I don't think here will be any crashes on an RTH on the new one.

 

[MindFever]

Not entirely true. As noted throughout the thread, the P3 will also return home with no altitude change if it is already above your preset RTH altitude.

I would like to test this to be sure because I'm sure this didn't happen to me ...or I just remember it wrong lol...it's raining here.


Edit: ofcourse I'm wrong

 

[Jussaguy]

LOL. ..either that's a bit of an inflated anecdote and you used a bit of poetic licence or you were extremely lucky. If you push any csr if they think you're wrong they are automatically in a moral high ground and can refuse your requests on a whim.Being aggressive is not the answer. knowing your **** is the answer.

I would ask them again and explain my position THEN if you can show you weren't to blame you can ask your credit card company to reimburse you.

Who said I was aggressive?

All I am saying is amongst my friends, for better or worse, I am KNOWN for getting things done with CSRs for various reasons. I start out very nice and use my knowledge and powers of persuasion and I only get nasty as a last resort because that usually means failure.

Knowledge with a pathological sureness of being correct gets the job done.

If it is true that the flight log shows a higher failsafe than the collision that the collision is not the fault of the pilot UNLESS it happened as it was rising. If thats not the case, it's not pilot error and I would bet I can get them to do it.

That is of course unless there is info I am missing. I think they are being trained to turn off the faucet of auto returns when they fall because of the DJI care. They want people to buy it and they can't keep replacing everything that falls. DJI is a smart company. They make people feel comparable buying one and then at some point they have to say, we can replace every bird. Guess what, if the Typhoon H is quality and they continue to repair and replace, I'll get them both but I'll fly my Typhoon more unless it sucks.

 

[Dirty Bird]

Only the aircraft didn't fly like crazy or perform out-of-the-ordinary. By the pilot's own admission he flew behind a water tower, failed to properly set RTH altitude above the tower height, lost control signal, & the Phantom crashed into the tower returning home. Unfortunate, but clearly pilot error all the way. This isn't a warranty issue.

Whoever said that a collision is an auto-pilot error is a moron. It might very well have been but that statement is illogical.

What if the bird just flys like crazy because of a flight board and hits something. Pilot error?

Fact is, it was probably pilot error. If you want, I'm very good at getting CSR people to get what I wan them to do. My friends call me "bulldog" because of it. I basically just annoy the **** out of people until they do it.

 

[Jussaguy]

Only the aircraft didn't fly like crazy or perform out-of-the-ordinary. By the pilot's own admission he flew behind a water tower, failed to properly set RTH altitude above the tower height, lost control signal, & the Phantom crashed into the tower returning home. Unfortunate, but clearly pilot error all the way. This isn't a warranty issue.

Didn't read that part. I was understanding that it was supposed to clear the tower and didn't.

That said, DJI, up until recently used to return everything because they didn't want people buying other things.

You would think with the H coming out in April, they would continue that. Maybe they plan on releasing the 4 sooner (Please).

Almost all crashes are pilot error by the way, and they repair for free most of them, up until recently.

 

[mrcrane2u]

In reference to rth setting ,my p3s lost signal and rth was initiated. Yhe craft was 87ft up and lost signal @ 2949 ft away from in a cow pasture o noticed that the range from did get lower instead it getting further from me long story short i was looking at last place visible the rth altitude was set at 100 feet the craft looking at the records went to 375 feet flew over me I didn't know where I was I was looking at last place I seen it long story short again lost a drone 6 weeks old. Waiting for dji to get back with me.just got my new p3p last night maybe i get a kick back from them

 

[mrcrane2u]

Exit 4,i bought my p3s from best buy think they'll go for it jusy made first payment same day as i lost the drone spent 4 hrs looking for i think it swimming

 

[Dirty Bird]

The RTH setting is in meters regardless of whether you have the app set to metric or imperial. This being the case, unless you converted, entering 100 as the RTH altitude would equate to ~328'.

In reference to rth setting ,my p3s lost signal and rth was initiated. Yhe craft was 87ft up and lost signal @ 2949 ft away from in a cow pasture o noticed that the range from did get lower instead it getting further from me long story short i was looking at last place visible the rth altitude was set at 100 feet the craft looking at the records went to 375 feet flew over me I didn't know where I was I was looking at last place I seen it long story short again lost a drone 6 weeks old. Waiting for dji to get back with me.just got my new p3p last night maybe i get a kick back from them

 

[Fplvert]

Didn't read that part. I was understanding that it was supposed to clear the tower and didn't.

That said, DJI, up until recently used to return everything because they didn't want people buying other things.

You would think with the H coming out in April, they would continue that. Maybe they plan on releasing the 4 sooner (Please).

Almost all crashes are pilot error by the way, and they repair for free most of them, up until recently.

No, DJI looks at the internal logs and makes that determination. If the bird was not found, in most cases DJI will offer a discount on another one. Same on Pilot error. Most crashes are Pilot error, there's no way any company could return every crashed bird, they do charge for repairs.

Let us know how you like the new Yuneek bird. My money is betting on DJI as everyone else is playing catch-up with this technology.

The biggest problem the OP faced is understanding how the bird would behave in a loss of signal situation.

 

[kirk2579]

Thank you everyone for your responses and for not blasting me. Sounds like it is totally my fault. Makes sense about the RTH altitude. I'll take the 15% and be happy with that. First thing I am doing when I get it back is setting that RTH to infinity and changing the lost signal response to hover.

also keep in mind that gps and radio both were blocked by the tower

gps signal are horizon to horizon so if you were close enough to water tank that would have blacked out signals from that whole area to that side. possibly enough to loose gps, probably more true on a standard that adv or pro

 

[kirk2579]

Happy to say, I didn't hit anything. I would have but as soon as the signal came back I punch the altitude stick hard and just missed the top of a hill by about 2'. It was close, but it shouldn't have happened to begin with. I've flown this P3P over 500 miles and this hasn't happened, ever.

post the flight log on healthy drones

Who said I was aggressive?

All I am saying is amongst my friends, for better or worse, I am KNOWN for getting things done with CSRs for various reasons. I start out very nice and use my knowledge and powers of persuasion and I only get nasty as a last resort because that usually means failure.

Knowledge with a pathological sureness of being correct gets the job done.

If it is true that the flight log shows a higher failsafe than the collision that the collision is not the fault of the pilot UNLESS it happened as it was rising. If thats not the case, it's not pilot error and I would bet I can get them to do it.

That is of course unless there is info I am missing. I think they are being trained to turn off the faucet of auto returns when they fall because of the DJI care. They want people to buy it and they can't keep replacing everything that falls. DJI is a smart company. They make people feel comparable buying one and then at some point they have to say, we can replace every bird. Guess what, if the Typhoon H is quality and they continue to repair and replace, I'll get them both but I'll fly my Typhoon more unless it sucks.

the problem on this one is that nothing failed!

parking it next to a large metal water tank full of water simply shut off half the sky/horizon from gps and rc signals
and then became an larger target when the quad followed procedure programmed. RTH

 

[Clearimageweb]

So here is the story. I was flying my P3P in my neighborhood. The location I picked was away from people in an open field. The sun was setting and I thought I would get a photo of the sunset with my town's water tower in the foreground. So I ascended to approximately 50 meters and positioned my drone about 50 feet from the tower itself. At this moment in time I had 12 Satellite signals. Instantly it dropped to 0 and I lost signal...

No big deal I thought. Signal will come back, right. Wrong. Signal did not come back even after attempting to reposition myself in relation to the drone, which was 150 meters away from me. Then I got a weak signal that said it was initiating a fly-home because it lost signal for more than 10 seconds. before I could stop it, it lost signal again. Then I got a signal just in time to see it spiral out of control and then the image went black.

So I tracked down the unit, which was in piece. In it's attempt to fly-home, it struck the water tower, inverted and then sped to the ground at fly-home speeds. I brought the unit home, contacted support and copied the logs. In reviewing the logs I noticed something. The fly-home was initiated at 50 meters, however my fly-home altitude was set at 30. The impact occurred at 50 meters, not 30. So the unit failed to descend prior to flying home. Given the dimensions of the tower, had the unit descended, it would not have impacted with the tower.

In talking with support, they were incredibly helpful. I mean this guy was the nicest CSR I have ever spoken to. He made me feel a lot better about my situation. Then I received the invoice which stated, "NON -WARRANTY AS A RESULT OF THE FLIGHT LOG ANALYSIS" So I called DJI and asked about the fly-home. No kidding, I was told that none of that mattered because the unit hit an obstruction. Collisions are immediately a NON-WARRANTY issue. I reiterated the 30 vs 50 meters issue. The lady talked over me, shut me down, was incredibly rude (almost like a debt collector) and demanded I accept their terms. I didn't. SO she "escalated" it to a supervisor who is offering me a 15% discount on the $500 repair.

So my question is, do I "suck it up buttercup" and pay the bill then invest in some 3rd party protection plan, or should the unit have descended before flying home and thereby give me some justification in not wanting to pay the full tab. And for the record, I am not against paying something, but I just feel that had it descended, a lot of this would have been avoided.

Im a newbee at this but seems that since you were at say 50 meters and your RTH is 30 meters since we were above the RTH height it will come home at that height. Least thats what it did with me the other day so sorry to hear man truly am....sucks either way you look at it cause your not flying

 

[eaglegoaltender]

Im a newbee at this but seems that since you were at say 50 meters and your RTH is 30 meters since we were above the RTH height it will come home at that height

Correct - however the only way I ever heard the Phantom won't descend to a pre-set RTH altitude but rather will fly back at the altitude you are at (if higher than the RTH set on the GoApp) was here on this forum - not anywhere did I find it in the operation manual.

 

[Phantom George]

Set RTH above the highest structure/hill/tree in the area. That's one of the things I do as part of the pre-flight.

Does anyone do pre-flight anymore?

Yes, always! Failsafe altitude is one of the very important pre-flight checks indeed.

 

[CaptainDrone798]

Correct - however the only way I ever heard the Phantom won't descend to a pre-set RTH altitude but rather will fly back at the altitude you are at (if higher than the RTH set on the GoApp) was here on this forum - not anywhere did I find it in the operation manual.

Go to the DJI.COM web page, select SUPPORT and then PHANTOM 3 and the select TUTORIALS. DJI made a video regarding return to home that explains this clearly what occurs when signal is lost. DJI - The World Leader in Camera Drones/Quadcopters for Aerial Photography

 

[Oso]

Go to the DJI.COM web page, select SUPPORT and then PHANTOM 3 and the select TUTORIALS. DJI made a video regarding return to home that explains this clearly what occurs when signal is lost. DJI - The World Leader in Camera Drones/Quadcopters for Aerial Photography

It has been a while since I looked at those videos. Thanks for reminding me about them. I watched the RTH one just now. It's cute.

Since we can't post video, here are a couple of small snippets from the video that relate to this thread. Just scroll through them in order to get the gist.

 

[Sfgiants24]

Thank you everyone for your responses and for not blasting me. Sounds like it is totally my fault. Makes sense about the RTH altitude. I'll take the 15% and be happy with that. First thing I am doing when I get it back is setting that RTH to infinity and changing the lost signal response to hover.

It seems to me you need to read your manual and watch all the tutorials. It would not be smart to have the bird hover on loss of signal. It would then run out of battery and you'd probably lose it.

 

[JoBe]

It has been a while since I looked at those videos. Thanks for reminding me about them. I watched the RTH one just now. It's cute.

Since we can't post video, here are a couple of small snippets from the video that relate to this thread. Just scroll through them in order to get the gist.

View attachment 45229 View attachment 45230 View attachment 45231 View attachment 45232 View attachment 45233 View attachment 45234 View attachment 45235 View attachment 45236 View attachment 45237 View attachment 45238

Hey thanks for taking the time to post those frames from the video.

 

[kirk2579]

Correct - however the only way I ever heard the Phantom won't descend to a pre-set RTH altitude but rather will fly back at the altitude you are at (if higher than the RTH set on the GoApp) was here on this forum - not anywhere did I find it in the operation manual.

I have owned over 50 cars dozens of pc's , dozens of amateur radios, so many different devices I cant remember.

not one , EVER , had a manual that contained every permutation of maybes, could bes, and etc.

sometimes you take the basics and LEARN ... its called research and it is how all things are truly known

 

[Arcticm39]

So true.