Flew away :(

[arazmas]

It's pretty sad but I just lost my Phantom 2 with zenmuse hd-3d and GoPro today.

I was flying near home today and took off with full signal to GPS and calibrated compass like I always do. I initially flew it for a couple minutes and brought it back 'cause I forgot to start recording on my GoPro. Everything went fine and I took off with confidence this time. Once I gained enough altitude about 90m I put on my fatshark and started cruising. It was perfectly fine the first 4 minutes or so and I remember battery level was still at more than 65%. I got a few shots looking down and started to bring it back towards my direction tilting the camera upwards. That's the very last thing I saw through the goggles and suddenly I lost all pictures. I quickly pulled off my fatshark and immediately flipped to failsafe mode. I waited for a good 10 minutes and heard/saw nothing. I then began to panic a little bit and tried switching off my remote and waited for a bit longer. Still nothing... and since I know exactly where I lost signal I quickly hopped onto my car and drove towards it basically tracing the direct route it would have taken to get back to the takeoff location. And over the next hour I frantically tried to search all over and still I never got lucky.

Now the feelings have sunken in. I still couldn't quite figure out what happened because that very moment I lost pictures through the goggles. I thought something went south to the video board or something but how could that affect flight? I mean I've tried using failsafe quite a few times and it seemed quite reliable and I've done the proper pre-flight procedure already. The last moments when I still had visuals everything was smooth and I went back to check and I'm 99% sure I had enough altitude to clear everything nearby at about 100m.

I'm just posting here hoping to get some feedback on what I could have done differently, or to learn what I could have done better to have avoided this. I don't suppose it would be possible to retrieve it at this point since I didn't write a number on it (even if I did I doubt anyone would call). Do you guys have any ideas what really happened?

Thanks..

 

[landmannnn]

What happened?
It looks like you lost all power, maybe the battery was not located securely or possibly you hit something.

What should you have done differently?
You know you should have put your phone number on the phantom.
A GPS tracker is not expensive and could have located the fallen phantom, an important accessory if you are going out of visual range.
It is worth setting the limits of travel to maximum on the assistant in case the home point was incorrectly set and it decided to RTH to the wrong location.

Why not post your location? If someone nearby has a phantom they might be willing to help you look for it from the sky.

 

[Meta4]

I was flying near home today and took off with full signal to GPS and calibrated compass like I always do. I initially flew it for a couple minutes and brought it back 'cause I forgot to start recording on my GoPro. Everything went fine and I took off with confidence this time. .... That's the very last thing I saw

I have to ask because it's not clear from the above.
Did you confirm that your home point was recorded before flying the second time?
What was your GPS coverage like for the second flight?

 

[Buckaye]

I was flying near home today and took off with full signal to GPS and calibrated compass like I always do. I initially flew it for a couple minutes and brought it back 'cause I forgot to start recording on my GoPro. Everything went fine and I took off with confidence this time. .... That's the very last thing I saw

I have to ask because it's not clear from the above.
Did you confirm that your home point was recorded before flying the second time?
What was your GPS coverage like for the second flight?

This. Plus - when using goggles you should have a spotter... not trying to rub salt in the wound - just pointing out things that might help others.

 

[arazmas]

I was flying near home today and took off with full signal to GPS and calibrated compass like I always do. I initially flew it for a couple minutes and brought it back 'cause I forgot to start recording on my GoPro. Everything went fine and I took off with confidence this time. .... That's the very last thing I saw

I have to ask because it's not clear from the above.
Did you confirm that your home point was recorded before flying the second time?
What was your GPS coverage like for the second flight?

I only took off after seeing green light... so GPS location is confirmed I suppose?

 

[arazmas]

I was flying near home today and took off with full signal to GPS and calibrated compass like I always do. I initially flew it for a couple minutes and brought it back 'cause I forgot to start recording on my GoPro. Everything went fine and I took off with confidence this time. .... That's the very last thing I saw

I have to ask because it's not clear from the above.
Did you confirm that your home point was recorded before flying the second time?
What was your GPS coverage like for the second flight?

This. Plus - when using goggles you should have a spotter... not trying to rub salt in the wound - just pointing out things that might help others.

I hear you. It's actually the very first time I flew solo without anyone next to me. I guess I gained a bit too much confidence thinking I got it and I trusted the technology to not fail me just a bit too soon. I've always been skeptical but after testing it over and over I just thought I could trust it.

Thinking back I probably should have drove right to the spot when I lost connection. I don't even know what really happened and I'm thinking if it did indeed completely lost power whatever reason it was, it would have made a scene somewhere... and I don't think it did. I'm certain the battery snapped in 'cause I actually physically slap the pack in since I second guess that battery connection. I'm also quite certain it didn't crash into anything 'cause I should have at least seen a crash or something close during its final moments. I lost video signal entirely and never saw a glimpse of any strange behavior.

This is really sad

 

[yorlik]

It is worth setting the limits of travel to maximum on the assistant in case the home point was incorrectly set and it decided to RTH to the wrong location.

I have heard this advice before but cannot wrap my head around how it helps. Please explain? thanks.

arazmas, any chance you were using ultimate flight app or another that quietly records flight data in the background? If so, you would have up to the last minute data file on your phone?

 

[SteveMann]

It is worth setting the limits of travel to maximum on the assistant in case the home point was incorrectly set and it decided to RTH to the wrong location.

I have heard this advice before but cannot wrap my head around how it helps. Please explain? thanks.

arazmas, any chance you were using ultimate flight app or another that quietly records flight data in the background? If so, you would have up to the last minute data file on your phone?

"It is worth setting the limits of travel to maximum on the assistant in case the home point was incorrectly set and it decided to RTH to the wrong location."

The limits only work if the home point and the current location are good. If the data for either of those waypoints gets corrupted, then the Phantom will assume it's out of the fence and head to where it thinks "home" is. Staying inside the fence has a higher priority than your stick inputs, so it appears to be a flyaway.

I just had a thought. I wonder which direction most Phantoms take on a fly-away? Northwest? If the Phantom thinks it's at Latitude=0 and Longitude=0, then home anywhere in North America would be to its' northwest.

 

[Meta4]

It is worth setting the limits of travel to maximum on the assistant in case the home point was incorrectly set and it decided to RTH to the wrong location.

As already mentioned, this would not necessarily guard against home point being incorrectly set.
Much better is to confirm that home point is set rather than assuming and hoping.
Easy enough to reset home point in the air after takeoff - that way you can positively see the green flashing.

 

[landmannnn]

was flying near home today and took off with full signal to GPS and calibrated compass like I always do. I initially flew it for a couple minutes and brought it back 'cause I forgot to start recording on my GoPro. Everything went fine and I took off with confidence this time. .... That's the very last thing I saw
I have to ask because it's not clear from the above.
Did you confirm that your home point was recorded before flying the second time?
What was your GPS coverage like for the second flight?

This. Plus - when using goggles you should have a spotter... not trying to rub salt in the wound - just pointing out things that might help others.

I hear you. It's actually the very first time I flew solo without anyone next to me. I guess I gained a bit too much confidence thinking I got it and I trusted the technology to not fail me just a bit too soon. I've always been skeptical but after testing it over and over I just thought I could trust it.

Thinking back I probably should have drove right to the spot when I lost connection. I don't even know what really happened and I'm thinking if it did indeed completely lost power whatever reason it was, it would have made a scene somewhere... and I don't think it did. I'm certain the battery snapped in 'cause I actually physically slap the pack in since I second guess that battery connection. I'm also quite certain it didn't crash into anything 'cause I should have at least seen a crash or something close during its final moments. I lost video signal entirely and never saw a glimpse of any strange behavior.

This is really sad

Just a thought, are you sure S1 was set to RTH at the down position? If you lost fpv for some reason (interference, antenna falling off, goggle fault) and switched it to manual the phantom would have gone downwards.

 

[arazmas]

Yea for sure first thing I did I pulled off my goggles and I set to RTH. 10 minutes later nothing and I tried switching off the controller and also did nothing. I can understand if somrhing happened to the goggles but it seems weird the RTH also failed together. This is like a breakup without a closure and the gf just won't give you a reason and is just gone. IM ok not having her back already but I don't understand what went wrong...

Has anyone ever had any luck with DJI feeling compassionate and helping out users with lost drones? Just a thought before I drop another grand

 

[arazmas]

Just a thought, are you sure S1 was set to RTH at the down position? If you lost fpv for some reason (interference, antenna falling off, goggle fault) and switched it to manual the phantom would have gone downwards.

yes for sure. That's the first thing I did when I lost visuals. My first reaction was okay maybe the antenna fell off or something with the video portion of the set up... and that's why I didn't immediately went over to try to look for it. Unfortunately it seems like something else went south as well. I highly doubt it's interference 'cause the whole time the controls and visuals were clear as day with no flicker at all, and I feel like if the battery really just died there I would have made a little crater somewhere and caused some commotion. It probably did land itself somewhere while I was waiting and someone already picked it up.

I did make sure I got the 5 green light blinks before it took off thou, is there something else I need to do to ensure it recorded the home point? Thanks guys

 

[kirk2579]

2 sets of fast flashing green are needed for gps home lock

30 second after boot up first set of green indicate course setting locked ==compass direction

the next set will happen when satellite gps lock is acquired. time varies by local, time, and day

 

[N017RW]

2 sets of fast flashing green are needed for gps home lock

30 second after boot up first set of green indicate course setting locked ==compass direction

the next set will happen when satellite gps lock is acquired. time varies by local, time, and day

*When in Naza mode with IOS enabled

 

[arazmas]

2 sets of fast flashing green are needed for gps home lock

30 second after boot up first set of green indicate course setting locked ==compass direction

the next set will happen when satellite gps lock is acquired. time varies by local, time, and day

*When in Naza mode with IOS enabled

mine was a phantom 2 not the vision thou i don't think it talks to iOS?

 

[bbfpv]

he meant IOC, not IOS

 

[N017RW]

Thank you!!!

Yes, I meant IOC.

Thanks again.

 

[Zinnware]

I have hundreds of flights and I witnessed one fly-away by my brother that was caused by taking off prior to properly recording home location and not waiting for both series of rapid flashing green lights. In a case similar to yours, the phantom was brought back for a quick battery change and restarted. After takeoff I detected quickly that It was flying quickly away from my brother and asked him if he was full throttle forward. He said he was not and I took over the controller and flipped the controller into ATTI mode that does not use GPS. I then brought his bird back safely.

 

[chapsrlz]

why do pilots keep calling "fly away" to events that clearly are not a fly away event?

as far as i understand a fly away would bee to see your quad flying away to china without any chance to controll it (bringing it back). for what i read this event could be everything but a flyaway...

 

[TeamYankee]

The OP stated he flew for about 4 minutes and had 65% remaining... seems very low for 4 mins of flight. It's entirely possible that the battery gave up and the FPV and Phantom went dead...?