I lost it.. :((

[lickitysplit11111]

The fatal flaw was that you didn't stay out in the open on the river, but flew in to where signal was blocked by a tall building that was between the Phantom and home.
Signal was lost at 6:16 and the Phantom initiated RTH 3 seconds later to come back home on the straight line path:

But the straight line path is right through the building which was blocking signal and RTH was not high enough to clear it.
Your screenshot shows where the Phantom was lost when signal was lost before RTH
Impact was at 7:34 and you can even see the track of the Phantom falling here:

There are lots of things that can go wrong on a Phantom flight.
The Phantom is a very capable aircraft and it's important not to get too adventurous before you understand what they are and have strategies to ensure they don't happen to you.

Thanks I'm headed down there now

 

[smiller]

Good hunting!!!!

 

[msinger]

May I ask why you think its around that building, because its a tall structure in the general area ?

That's what your flight path shows. You definitely crashed into some type of obstacle since your Phantom was dropping like a rock right before you lost the signal at the end of the flight log. That building is the only tall obstacle in the area where your Phantom was flying at the time. I do realize the flight path was off a bit as noted by the "GPS Position NoMatch" errors in your log, but there is no way to tell how far if it was off. I think you'll find your Phantom somewhere around that building.

 

[Jason Porembski]

I wonder if this has anything to do with the GPS error I am having.


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[hotashes]

The fatal flaw was that you didn't stay out in the open on the river, but flew in to where signal was blocked by a tall building that was between the Phantom and home.
Signal was lost at 6:16 and the Phantom initiated RTH 3 seconds later to come back home on the straight line path:

But the straight line path is right through the building which was blocking signal and RTH was not high enough to clear it.
Your screenshot shows where the Phantom was lost when signal was lost before RTH
Impact was at 7:34 and you can even see the track of the Phantom falling here:

There are lots of things that can go wrong on a Phantom flight.
The Phantom is a very capable aircraft and it's important not to get too adventurous before you understand what they are and have strategies to ensure they don't happen to you.

Amazing guys, great to have knowledgable people around.


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[msinger]

FYI, your flight also shows you had the RTH altitude set to 30 meters (the default setting). Your Phantom would have made it back home if you had set the proper RTH altitude prior to taking off.

 

[Jason Porembski]

The fatal flaw was that you didn't stay out in the open on the river, but flew in to where signal was blocked by a tall building that was between the Phantom and home.
Signal was lost at 6:16 and the Phantom initiated RTH 3 seconds later to come back home on the straight line path:

But the straight line path is right through the building which was blocking signal and RTH was not high enough to clear it.
Your screenshot shows where the Phantom was lost when signal was lost before RTH
Impact was at 7:34 and you can even see the track of the Phantom falling here:

There are lots of things that can go wrong on a Phantom flight.
The Phantom is a very capable aircraft and it's important not to get too adventurous before you understand what they are and have strategies to ensure they don't happen to you.

What software did you use to create this?!


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[smiller]

It seems like RTH OA is intended for this exact type of instance, i.e. where your RTH altitude is OK except for that one thing.

 

[Meta4]

What software did you use to create this?!

That's straight out of Google Earth using the Phantom's track as shown by the excellent Phantomhelp log viewer.
Thanks again @msinger

 

[Meta4]

It seems like RTH OA is intended for this exact type of instance, i.e. where your RTH altitude is OK except for that one thing.

OA may have been disabled but relying on OA cannot be 100% relied upon when this far out.
There are several things that can be used to prevent this with the P4pro.
The simplest is not flying behind obstacles, next simplest is setting RTH to clear obstacles and now the pro also has the ability to backtrack (if configured to use that)

 

[TheLightSpeedz]

I wish the Mavic had backtrack! That's a killer feature!


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[hotashes]

FYI, your flight also shows you had the RTH altitude set to 30 meters (the default setting). Your Phantom would have made it back home if you had set the proper RTH altitude prior to taking off.

I was under the impression of the buggy rth would have made it climb as it was already above the per determined 30m height. Doesn't it keep climbing if current height is above set rth?


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[smiller]

There are several things that can be used to prevent this with the P4pro.
The simplest is not flying behind obstacles, next simplest is setting RTH to clear obstacles and now the pro also has the ability to backtrack (if configured to use that)

Yes, my point was that RTH OA is useful for unintended errors (as all of them are), such as you did set the RTH altitude carefully but neglected to identify that one unusually tall object, or didn't intend to get into a signal blocking situation but did anyway, etc. RTH should always be used for emergencies only, and OA in RTH mode greatly compliments that function. Assuming it works, that is.

 

[F3honda4me]

OA may have been disabled but relying on OA cannot be 100% relied upon when this far out.
There are several things that can be used to prevent this with the P4pro.
The simplest is not flying behind obstacles, next simplest is setting RTH to clear obstacles and now the pro also has the ability to backtrack (if configured to use that)

I noticed that the advanced features like going around or above obstacles was not turned on by default. I had to turn them on. The way I look at it, these are great technologies to have and there are YouTube videos showing them working. But it's best to not have to rely on them. I always change my RTH height to be decently higher than anything I'm flying near.

 

[spy drone]

With Smart return turn on it supposed to clam over the building not running into it

 

[smiller]

I was under the impression of the buggy rth would have made it climb as it was already above the per determined 30m height. Doesn't it keep climbing if current height is above set rth?

That is an interesting question, but do we know the unit was above 30 meters when RTH was initiated?

 

[hotashes]

That is an interesting question, but do we know the unit was above 30 meters when RTH was initiated?

I was going by the log?


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[F3honda4me]

I was under the impression of the buggy rth would have made it climb as it was already above the per determined 30m height. Doesn't it keep climbing if current height is above set rth?


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For all we know it did. It stopped transmitting a few seconds after RTH was initiated and didn't regain until after it was already falling to the earth.

 

[hotashes]

I was going by the log?


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The log doesn't actually show it climbing as the buggy rth has been indicated by other in this situation!!! Strange really as I fact it was stable at 232ft and the dropped by time gps was established. I would like to know if the pilot panicked when rth was initiated and held down left stick resulting in drone powering off once signal regained!!!


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[hotashes]

For all we know it did. It stopped transmitting a few seconds after RTH was initiated and didn't regain until after it was already falling to the earth.

How unlucky that even the bug couldn't gain enough altitude to save it before it hit. Now that's unlucky...


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