Just ended a long search for my lost PV. Was flying at about 350 ft. over a 5 acre pond and lost sight of it in the sun. At about 700 feet away, I lost the video feed...then switched to radar and the arrow was frozen. We walked closer to our side of the pond, listened for it - couldn't hear it, then tried left and right rotations to see if I could get the radar arrow to respond...nothing. After about 1 min. of attempts to regain control - I shut the controller off to force a 'go home'. This has always worked for me....so I went back to the launch point and waited. It never came.
Found it a half hour later just barely on the other side of the pond - about two feet outside of a 6 ft. fence that surrounds the pond. I had it set to video on loss of signal and thought that would help me understand what happened - but the 1 gb video won't play (get a 'wrong file type' error. My wife was running the camera, so I went back through the photos in sequence, and the Phantom is clearly descending as ti crossed the pond. Last photo looks like 150 ft. or so.
My hand wasn't even on the left stick during this...I thought I was flying level - nose forward with right stick.
Battery was at 38% as we lost signal....but the photos show it descending already at this time.
Given that it landed just outside a 6 ft. fence (landed hard, but was almost standing upright) - it must have been in an auto-descent and I was just luck enough to have flown it clear of the pond before I left it to 'hover' before it dropped straight down. It must have already been on the ground when I tried to force a 'go home'.
I was just crazy lucky not to have lost it in the water. Has anyone ever had an auto-descend trigger without any kind of error and with plenty of battery over 15%.?
Found it a half hour later just barely on the other side of the pond - about two feet outside of a 6 ft. fence that surrounds the pond. I had it set to video on loss of signal and thought that would help me understand what happened - but the 1 gb video won't play (get a 'wrong file type' error. My wife was running the camera, so I went back through the photos in sequence, and the Phantom is clearly descending as ti crossed the pond. Last photo looks like 150 ft. or so.
My hand wasn't even on the left stick during this...I thought I was flying level - nose forward with right stick.
Battery was at 38% as we lost signal....but the photos show it descending already at this time.
Given that it landed just outside a 6 ft. fence (landed hard, but was almost standing upright) - it must have been in an auto-descent and I was just luck enough to have flown it clear of the pond before I left it to 'hover' before it dropped straight down. It must have already been on the ground when I tried to force a 'go home'.
I was just crazy lucky not to have lost it in the water. Has anyone ever had an auto-descend trigger without any kind of error and with plenty of battery over 15%.?
