Drone lost! Flight log attached.

[Paulus198310]

Hi,

Can any experts on here decipher what actually happened to my drone during the attached flight log please?
Multiple RTH notifications but no sign of the drone actually returning. I have drove to the final GPS location logged and searched everywhere, unable to find the bird but unsure how accurate this would be.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Keen to understand whether this was something I have failed to do, or an error on the drone/software. Please see the link below for the flight log -

Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

Thanks in advance.

Paul.

 

[sajindra]

Hi,

Can any experts on here decipher what actually happened to my drone during the attached flight log please?
Multiple RTH notifications but no sign of the drone actually returning. I have drove to the final GPS location logged and searched everywhere, unable to find the bird but unsure how accurate this would be.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Keen to understand whether this was something I have failed to do, or an error on the drone/software. Please see the link below for the flight log -

Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

Thanks in advance.

Paul.

Really sorry to hear this. According to your flight record, you travelled about 2.3km from the home point right? I don't know its possible to come back with 37% battery level.

 

[MapMaker53]

Looks like it may be on top of a high but gently sloped roof. Clearly traveled too far out without enough battery reserve to return. Also would have had to fight some wind on the return.

 

[Mark The Droner]

Please upload and post the link. Somebody will help you.

DJI Flight Log Viewer

 

[LarBear360]

Looks like it may be on top of a high but gently sloped roof. Clearly traveled too far out without enough battery reserve to return. Also would have had to fight some wind on the return.

I have to wonder if it's even anywhere near there. Did I see that the last known altitude was 1472.8 feet? Returning home at that altitude with only 38% it would have blown further away from that point before crashing

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

If you upload the csv file to the link Mark the Droner gave you, It will provide greater detail of the end of flight data. And that part is what is needed to see what was happening while the drone was unable to make the return flight with it's battery at 37%.

 

[Meta4]

Can any experts on here decipher what actually happened to my drone during the attached flight log please?
Multiple RTH notifications but no sign of the drone actually returning. I have drove to the final GPS location logged and searched everywhere, unable to find the bird but unsure how accurate this would be.

Airdata is next-to-useless for incident investigations and only gives a very brief summary.
What's required is actual flight data to see what was going on and what the drone was doing throughout the flight.
The way to show flight data is to go to DJI Flight Log Viewer
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides.

From the little I can see with Airdata, the most likely explanation for the incident was that you put your Phantom up 1500 feet and the wind at that level was too strong for the Phantom to make headway in RTH,.
This left the Phantom to be blown away.
The end of the Airdata record shows the Phantom up 1500 feet and being blown even further away at 14 mph so there's no point looking around that location.

If you can provide the flight data, we should be able to give more details and confirm if that was true or find what else may have happened.

 

[Paulus198310]

Thanks for the feedback so far.

Please see below link to the flight log using the link provided.

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

Very strange data... It said returning to home... but going the opposite direction, AND at 1,472ft up!

 

[Meta4]

Please see below link to the flight log using the link provided.

It's a straightforward case of being blown away by high altitude winds.
Look at where you were climbing from 6:01.3 until 7:36.3.
There is no input on the right stick, just climbing hard for 1.5 minutes.
At the start the drone is 66 metres from home but when it reaches 489 metres high, it is drifting at 6 m/sec and has moved 281 metres further away.
That tells you that the wind is faster than the Phantom can hold position against so you know it's pretty strong.
Look again at 8:07.4 to 8:51.1. No right stick but the Phantom continues drifting further away at 6-7 m/sec.
After 8:53.9 the Phantom is in RTH which will fly at 10 metres/sec in still air.
The Phantom is trying to fly home but being blown backwards because the wind is stronger than 10 m/sec.
The speed of the Phantom varies because the wind is gusty rather than constant.

The higher you go, the stronger the wind.
Your indicated speed shows you whether your Phantom is battling wind or making headway.
The wind aloft is always stronger than down at ground level.
You can fly at 15 m/s (in still air) in P-GPS mode but RTH is a slow driver and cruises at only 10 m/s.
Fighting a strong headwind to come home can ruin your day.
To avoid situations like this:
1. Don't fly away downwind
If you are flying on a windy day, fly upwind going away. It might be a slower flight but the return to home will be easy.
2. If caught in a strong headwind at height, being the Phantom down so it has less wind to fight. Leaving it up at 1500 feet is a fatal mistake but down at 200 feet it would have been easy to save.
3. In a RTH against a strong headwind situation don't leave RTH to handle the speed. Either push the right stick forward to make it drive faster or once RTH is pointing toward home, cancel RTH and drive yourself.

Your Phantom continued to lose ground until it reached critical low battery level.
It would then have auto-landed to prevent crashing.
It's not possible to say where it would have come down but it will be some distance further east of the last recorded location.

ps ... apart from the wind, flying up 500 metres is not a good idea.
Read this to learn about the rules in your part of the world: http://dronesafe.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Dronecode.pdf

 

[stuka75]

If you download the.csv file of that flight from Aairdata, it will show the last recorded gps location. that said once flown out of telemetry range, no data. It will give you an azimuth and a starign point of travel.

 

[Meta4]

If you download the.csv file of that flight from Aairdata, it will show the last recorded gps location. that said once flown out of telemetry range, no data. It will give you an azimuth and a starign point of travel.

We already have the last recorded location.
But as mentioned in post #10, this is no help.

 

[stuka75]

We already have the last recorded location.
But as mentioned in post #10, this is no help.

I missed that. I often wonder when posters show the airdata and DJI flight log reader if their aware of full contents and gps coordinates in the csv file.