Help... lost my P3... what now?

[Rlturner524]

I'm new here so I hope I'm not violating any rules. I'm also hoping someone can point me in the right direction.... since I've spent all day in a raft and walking around a marsh. Story: brand new phantom 3 (7/2017) have been extremely cautious with it. Have range extender and I live in the city where there's lots of interference, so when I come down to the shore my range doubles and triples it seems. Last night took off with 12 satellites and 100% battery and 3 minutes in it was gone. RTH was set up and should have kicked in? I actually set the RTH height as I took off.
I jumped in my jeep and drove towards the direction and I got one more feed of information that showed it over marsh land at an altitude of around 600' and then nothing. I am assuming that it continued to slowly drift with the wind and then dropped? I don't see any sign RTH kicked in, but I was very conservative with the limits. ( always landed when battery hit 50% for example) I uploaded to Air Data and everything looks okay, that I just wasn't in range? But technically I was. Why wouldn't the RTH bring it back? Should I call DJI, can they offer any further info? I appreciate any info, I really enjoyed this drone and the camera and feel like I just lost my wallet!

Below is the link for the flight CSV.

2017-10-08_0-30-12_Standard.csv

 

[Rlturner524]

 

[msinger]

Please upload your TXT flight log here and post a link back here. You'll find instructions for locating your TXT flight log at that link.

 

[Rlturner524]

Please upload your TXT flight log here and post a link back here. You'll find instructions for locating your TXT flight log at that link.

Thanks so much for responding!! I tried finding the TXT file, but I am away without a computer to get the file through iTunes which seems to be the way. So after some searching I uploaded through HD Sync to AirData, my csv, but the txt comes through as a PDF, attached. So the site you referenced doesn't accept it. Any pointers?

 

[msinger]

Any pointers?

You'll need to use iTunes to retrieve the TXT file.

 

[Rlturner524]

You'll need to use iTunes to retrieve the TXT file.

Yeah, that's what I have been reading. I'm just so hesitant to leave this area to get back to my computer at home, without my drone.

 

[msinger]

Airdata will allow you to download the TXT flight log if you have the HD 360 GOLD plan (or higher). If you're not already on that plan, you could upgrade and download the TXT flight log there.

 

[Meta4]

Yeah, that's what I have been reading. I'm just so hesitant to leave this area to get back to my computer at home, without my drone.

Airdata isn't much use for investigating.
Uploading to Phantomhelp.com as msinger has suggested, is.
I've looked through the csv file to see what I could make out and I see that you were up 600 feet and I'm wondering what you can say about wind conditions (speed and direction) when you were flying??

 

[Meta4]

Yeah, that's what I have been reading. I'm just so hesitant to leave this area to get back to my computer at home, without my drone.

Until 4:49.3 you had the right stick pushed forward, after that you had it pulled hard back (flying backwards)
From 3:09.2 you were flying approx 310°-320° and lost signal from 3:15.9 until 6:03.3
When you regained signal, the Phantom is pointing to 221° and you have the right stick back hard taking the Phantom further away right up to the end of the flight record when you finally lost signal 3800 feet out and 640 ft up.
These control inputs match the direction the Phantom was moving.
There are no control inputs to turn the Phantom around ind bring it towards home and no record of RTH being activated.
It looks like you were disoriented and flew your Phantom away.
At that height, it could be that headwinds were too strong for RTH to bring the Phantom back.
Can you give any information on the wind?

 

[WV. Rootman]

May sound dumb, but a red neck with a gun is my greatest fear. Also great horned owls have taken off with a few of my ducks. Good luck.

 

[sar104]

It appears to have blown away due to very strong winds above 200 ft. If you look at the positive pitch values between 30 and 60 seconds, and then again between 100 and 130 seconds that were required to slow down the aircraft it appears that there was a very strong wind out of the southwest - probably over 30 mph.

 

[Rlturner524]

Wind speed was calm at ground level. I'd say about 5 mph maybe. But looking back at the data now I'm seeing two gusts recorded at 01:37 and 02:07 over 30 mph from the SSW as you guessed...

When I first started getting interference signals I pushed it over the large marina parking lot thinking the interference was the bridge and tried getting to a lower Altitude. That's when I lost contact and looks like the wind pushed it almost 1,000' ENE before I regained contact for the last time. My questions are:
1. With Smart RTH on and loss of signal shouldn't RTH kicked in with 68% battery and dropped it down to the RTH altitude of 90'?
2. If it couldn't make it back does it just come straight down and land? Or does it attempt to get to the home point and only land when it gets critical?
3. With no inputs and 12 satellites, will it allow the wind to just continue pushing it? Or will it return to the last input position?
4. Can DJI do anything? Access more data?

Appreciate everyone's help!!

 

[Meta4]

1. With Smart RTH on and loss of signal shouldn't RTH kicked in with 68% battery and dropped it down to the RTH altitude of 90'?
2. If it couldn't make it back does it just come straight down and land? Or does it attempt to get to the home point and only land when it gets critical?
3. With no inputs and 12 satellites, will it allow the wind to just continue pushing it? Or will it return to the last input position?

If you upload your flight data as in post #3 and post a link, people will be better able to comment properly.
1. RTH will initiate 3 seconds after loss of control signal
RTH will never descend until right above the home point. If your Phantom is higher, it will come home at the higher altitude.
Wind speed is always significantly higher at altitude than ground level. There are ways to get a feel for this to avoid losing your drone.
2. RTH is a slow driver. It cruises at 22 mph but you can drive at 36 mph (still air speeds).
If the Phantom is trying to push against a wind stronger than 22 mph, it's going to be blown backwards until battery level triggers autolanding

It's very important to be aware of wind strength and direction.
Note how much the wind slows your Phantom if you try to fly directly into it.
Never fly away downwind in a strong wind situation - you will have a tough headwind to fight to get back home.
Never leave your Phantom up high fighting a headwind. Bring it down where the wind is less.

 

[Sputnikxws]

That's scary. I've just installed the Argtek and tested it last weekend. I can definitely see the boost in signal coverage as far as distance is concerned. Have thoughts of crossing the Hudson river into New York next time but this changes everything.

 

[Rlturner524]

Thanks, all good points that I'm learning the hard way. I guess I didn't realize wind speed was that much higher since it was a calm clear night on the ground. I got the TXT file off of iTunes and below is the link. I don't see any new information really and I'm just curious if I can get any further info from these files. I would think RTH would have turned on when I lost the downlink all three times for more than 3 seconds? Instead just like you're saying, it looks like the wind just kept pushing it further away.

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[sar104]

Thanks, all good points that I'm learning the hard way. I guess I didn't realize wind speed was that much higher since it was a calm clear night on the ground. I got the TXT file off of iTunes and below is the link. I don't see any new information really and I'm just curious if I can get any further info from these files. I would think RTH would have turned on when I lost the downlink all three times for more than 3 seconds? Instead just like you're saying, it looks like the wind just kept pushing it further away.

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

OK - that is useful as it allows us to see AirData's estimate of wind speed. Pretty self-explanatory:

It would have had little chance against that wind, even in sport mode.

 

[Rlturner524]

OK - that is useful as it allows us to see AirData's estimate of wind speed. Pretty self-explanatory:

View attachment 89354

It would have had little chance against that wind, even in sport mode.

Wow.... had no idea the gusts were that high! But that's definitely not sustained wind speed so my whole issue / question is shouldn't the RTH have kicked in and there be some data showing that? It disconnected 3 times for over 3 seconds... all three times it doesn't look like it's trying to fight it's way back home.

 

[sar104]

Wow.... had no idea the gusts were that high! But that's definitely not sustained wind speed so my whole issue / question is shouldn't the RTH have kicked in and there be some data showing that? It disconnected 3 times for over 3 seconds... all three times it doesn't look like it's trying to fight it's way back home.

Downlink was lost, but it may still have had uplink control, which might have kept it out of RTH. Did you attempt to initiate RTH manually?

In any case, with gusts of 45 mph the sustained winds will have been over 30 mph. RTH speed is limited to just over 20 mph so it wasn't coming back either way. In the periods of downlink data it appears to me that it was trying to hold station, but was being blown NE at around 5 m/s. Ground wind conditions at the time were reporting as 12 mph out of the SSW. Exposed coastal locations like that often have strong wind altitude gradients.

I would not be optimistic about finding it, given the terrain to the north and east, and I'm afraid that DJI will take one look at the the wind conditions and call it pilot error. It's probably worth sending them the logs and asking though.

 

[Meta4]

I don't see any new information really and I'm just curious if I can get any further info from these files. I would think RTH would have turned on when I lost the downlink all three times for more than 3 seconds? Instead just like you're saying, it looks like the wind just kept pushing it further away.

Now we can easily see second by second what was happening during the flight.
An example is the period from 1:14 to 1:40 we see that you had your hands off the sticks the whole time but the Phantom moved 416 feet further away.
The pitch and roll data show that it was tilting/leaning hard indicating it was fighting hard to maintain position (and losing) and the wind was stronger than the Phantom was able to fly against.

I would think RTH would have turned on when I lost the downlink all three times for more than 3 seconds? Instead just like you're saying, it looks like the wind just kept pushing it further away.

There are two signals involved flying the Phantom - the control signal and the video downlink.
It's normal for the video downlink to be lost before the control signal and this can serve as a warning that you are getting close to getting out of range.
But if you have only lost the downlink, you still have control signal and the ability to fly with control.
RTH will not initiate until you lose the control signal.
But because RTH does not use full speed, waiting until loss of signal initiates RTH is only a good idea in situations where the winds at a level where the Phantom is able to make headway.

High altitude & high wind with the Phantom a long way downwind is a recipe that often ends badly.

 

[Rlturner524]

Downlink was lost, but it may still have had uplink control, which might have kept it out of RTH. Did you attempt to initiate RTH manually?

In any case, with gusts of 45 mph the sustained winds will have been over 30 mph. RTH speed is limited to just over 20 mph so it wasn't coming back either way. In the periods of downlink data it appears to me that it was trying to hold station, but was being blown NE at around 5 m/s. Ground wind conditions at the time were reporting as 12 mph out of the SSW. Exposed coastal locations like that often have strong wind altitude gradients.

I would not be optimistic about finding it, given the terrain to the north and east, and I'm afraid that DJI will take one look at the the wind conditions and call it pilot error. It's probably worth sending them the logs and asking though.

Now we can easily see second by second what was happening during the flight.
An example is the period from 1:14 to 1:40 we see that you had your hands off the sticks the whole time but the Phantom moved 416 feet further away.
The pitch and roll data show that it was tilting/leaning hard indicating it was fighting hard to maintain position (and losing) and the wind was stronger than the Phantom was able to fly against.

There are two signals involved flying the Phantom - the control signal and the video downlink.
It's normal for the video downlink to be lost before the control signal and this can serve as a warning that you are getting close to getting out of range.
But if you have only lost the downlink, you still have control signal and the ability to fly with control.
RTH will not initiate until you lose the control signal.
But because RTH does not use full speed, waiting until loss of signal initiates RTH is only a good idea in situations where the winds at a level where the Phantom is able to make headway.

High altitude & high wind with the Phantom a long way downwind is a recipe that often ends badly.

Thanks, I am see that as well. I know I was trying to bring it back, but it kept disconnecting. If the uplink was also lost would it also show as no movement in the sticks correct?