Depressing first post.

[Meta4]

you took off without letting RTH and GPS lock, (i didnt review the flight log but i read the comments)

It's a lot easier to comment when you see the actual flight data rather than guessing.
He launched early but that was no big deal as he got GPS soon after.
As he had only climbed straight up from the launch the recorded home point would be very close to the actual launch point.

then you went up hundreds of feet, now that your up in the highest wind you switch to atti mode

He actually switched to atti mode for less than a minute early in the flight and well below the highest part of the flight.

instead of switching to sport and pointing the pointer at home and going straight home

At 0:56.8 he switched to Sport Mode and attempted to fly home for over a minute.

and then proceeds to head home at RTH speed in a stiff wind while still in ATTI mode i assume.

So to find it get your last known location and calculate where it would could have traveled given the wind direction affecting it in ATTI while its trying to come home at RTH speed.

He switched to RTH at 2:20.3. RTH, it is not atti mode.
RTH uses full GPS position holding (like all flight modes except atti)

 

[Harleydude]

I bought a phantom 4 pro a few months back and it really rekindled my love for photography. I love flying it and taking pictures from an all new perspective.

A couple days ago I saw some dark clouds off to the north and I wanted to quickly fly up and snap a couple pics of what was coming and shortly after getting up in the air it’s like the Zeus decided to unleash his fury. Winds picked up fast and started pushing my drone away from me. I started to panic and tried to get it back over towards me in attempt to land it but the wind gusts were too much and kept pushing it further away and that’s when the a downpour started and I was still trying to push the drone back towards me.

I had hit return to home while signal was in and out. And shortly thereafter it disconnected. In hindsight I should have never even attempted to send it up. When it started to fly away I should have cut the motors off while it was over an area where it would have fell in a non populated area.

Needless to say I looked in the area of last known location. It was last connected over a neighborhood. I looked in the area where the signal was last connected but I couldn’t see anything and I didn’t want to rummage around peoples yards and get in trouble for trespassing.

I guess what I am looking for is any ideas. What should I do? With return the home hit would the drone possibly come back towards me at all? Could it have been pushed further away from last known location? Would the rain fried it and killed it sending it plummeting to the ground in that general area? I have sort of come to the conclusion that it’s never coming back or will be found.

I have this pit in my stomach because I saved forever to buy this thing and now it’s like I just threw the $1500 out the window. A real crap lesson to learn. So much that could have been done in hindsight. Thanks for any help or ideas and sorry for the long winded post.

The P4P will push against 40-45 mph winds in ATTI mode. RTH relies on GPS, and can maybe push against 30-35 mph winds. That 10 mph advantage can be paramount in the situation you described. This is why I always recommend people get good at ATTI mode, and always launch into the wind so mother natures brings the bird back your way.

I hope you find her. Good luck.

 

[Russ43Phantom]

If you return to flying ... I would recommend reviewing several weather related apps when planning your flight. Its no different that flying a manned aircraft. Planning is critical.
- weather. Weather
- wind. PredictWind
- clouds. Clear Outside

 

[Matchlock]

My pleasure, and glad I was able to help a little.

Bud

Thanks for clarifying. I do remember something about the pecan groves and agriculture being a trespass but what you posted about being allowed to fly over posted areas is contrary to something I'd previously read. Good to know since. Its funny but more people than most would realize hire drone operators for spy missions. Eg. A lady broke up with boyfriend after loaning cash and was trying to see if toys were on property. Another had sold property and still had mineral rights so he wanted to see what was taking place on the land. PAL

 

[sar104]

I'm a bit late on this problem, and the results are not likely to help much. The issue was the wind aloft, as noted by others. The first part of the flight does allow an estimate of wind speed and direction at the final elevation:

The aircraft was in ATTI mode from 17 to 56 seconds, but that wasn't relevant to the outcome. The most useful period was between 129 and 140 seconds when the link was lost. The aircraft entered RTH and the rate of drift gives a reasonable estimate how fast the aircraft drifted at 140 m AGL in RTH. That yields 5.3 m/s on a heading of 49°.

Looking at the rate of battery depletion relative to the smart battery autoland level shows the following:

That suggests that after the final disconnect, the aircraft will have drifted until flight time 722 seconds, at which time it will commence autoland at a distance of around 3600 m, or 2860 m from its last known location. From 140 m altitude it will have taken another 45 seconds to descend, and could have travelled another 230 m.

Plotting those on Google Earth gives:

There is considerable uncertainty in that estimate, of course, and it is hard to quantify errors with such an extrapolation, but may give some idea where it might have ended up.

 

[MotorCycle-Man]

Sar104.......amazing flight details and its sure much much farther out then the owner was thinking....lets hope hes able to get it back if some one in that area got it......or its stuck UP in a tree !... Sar104 what do you use to get flight records like this one ? Thank You.

 

[sar104]

Sar104.......amazing flight details and its sure much much farther out then the owner was thinking....lets hope hes able to get it back if some one in that area got it......or its stuck UP in a tree !... Sar104 what do you use to get flight records like this one ? Thank You.

The flight data are from the original txt log file that the OP uploaded to PhantomHelp. The data were analyzed in Igor Pro.

 

[J4Berg]

Thanks everyone for the help. Still no luck. I posted a ad in the classifieds in the local paper and on Craigslist offering a reward if found. Hopefully if it is found the person will perhaps check the memory card too there is a few pictures of myself and family on it. I think one of the house and address so hopefully they will try and find me.

I spoke to homeowners insurance and they cover the drone and I have to pay the deductible which is $250. So I’ll gldly spend that over full retail price again. Speaking to the underwriter since I haven’t made a claim in over 10 years (hail damage to home) he assured me my rates won’t go up either. So a little silver lining.

I’ll still keep an eye out and look in the area of the plotted course thanks to the sar104 who analyzed the data so thoroughly. I’ll be sure to add a couple safeguards like name address label inside or all over the drone. Considering a cellular or signal tracker. And to keep up with most weather conditions a friend got me a high end anemometer for cheap.

I hope to be back up in the air soon so I can get the amazing sunsets lately and the fall color change.

 

[Jerry H]

Capitol. Sorry about your lost drone.
With that said, I hate to ask again so I apologize in advance. But could someone please post instructions to get readable flight log data.
Maybe something like " flight log data for dummies " lol.
Thanks

 

[J4Berg]

Capitol. Sorry about your lost drone.
With that said, I hate to ask again so I apologize in advance. But could someone please post instructions to get readable flight log data.
Maybe something like " flight log data for dummies " lol.
Thanks

Here is the tutorial I used to get my flight logs off my iPhone.

DJI Flight Log Viewer - Phantom Help

Scroll down to see how to retrieve your logs.

 

[Jerry H]

Here is the tutorial I used to get my flight logs off my iPhone.

DJI Flight Log Viewer - Phantom Help

Scroll down to see how to retrieve your logs.

Thanks a bunch. Appreciate it.

 

[Andy9]

Thanks everyone for the help. Still no luck. I posted a ad in the classifieds in the local paper and on Craigslist offering a reward if found. Hopefully if it is found the person will perhaps check the memory card too there is a few pictures of myself and family on it. I think one of the house and address so hopefully they will try and find me.

I spoke to homeowners insurance and they cover the drone and I have to pay the deductible which is $250. So I’ll gldly spend that over full retail price again. Speaking to the underwriter since I haven’t made a claim in over 10 years (hail damage to home) he assured me my rates won’t go up either. So a little silver lining.

I’ll still keep an eye out and look in the area of the plotted course thanks to the sar104 who analyzed the data so thoroughly. I’ll be sure to add a couple safeguards like name address label inside or all over the drone. Considering a cellular or signal tracker. And to keep up with most weather conditions a friend got me a high end anemometer for cheap.

I hope to be back up in the air soon so I can get the amazing sunsets lately and the fall color change.

The quick estimation of the wind is very simple. Put the drone up at arround 10 or 20 m and switch to ATTI. You'll see than in wich direction and with what speed the drone is flaying. If you can easy correct that drift by the right stick then it's OK. If you have trouble with that - pack and go home.
And always fly into the wind direction not with the wind!
The wind increses usually with the altitude.

 

[MotorCycle-Man]

The quick estimation of the wind is very simple. Put the drone up at around 10 or 20 m and switch to ATTI. You'll see than in which direction and with what speed the drone is flaying. If you can easy correct that drift by the right stick then it's OK. If you have trouble with that - pack and go home.
And always fly into the wind direction not with the wind!
The wind increases usually with the altitude.

A very Good post Andy......I will be doing your method when i have a few doubts about the surface and winds at altitude ....Thank You.