Looking for lost Drone owner

Rockstarbrad · Jul 31, 2017

Last week my son found a Phantom 3 Drone in the hills around my house. I have tried to locate the owner through social media with no success. I have talked to the FAA and representatives from DJI. I am still looking to find the owner. I know what the guy looks like and I know how he crashed but I can't seem to locate him. The drone was found in the hills around West Hills CA. If anyone has any ideas on how to track down the owner please let me know .
Thank you all for your help

UpLift Aerial · Jul 31, 2017

Hook the drone up to the computer and extract the logs.

Rockstarbrad · Jul 31, 2017

Will that give me any additional data?

UpLift Aerial · Jul 31, 2017

Might have a location in the logs

Deleted member 62848 · Jul 31, 2017

Rockstarbrad said:
Will that give me any additional data?

Yeh just thinking should see his homepoint takeoff

Rockstarbrad · Jul 31, 2017

I will log into it tonight and see what I can find. I can only imagine how upset this guys was when he lost it. I sure hope I can locate him.
thanks
BB

Macphreak4evr · Jul 31, 2017

thats super nice of you , most people would just keep it

tcope · Jul 31, 2017

While no longer required... no registration number on the drone? If not, possibility that the person never had it on the drone even when it was required.

Kudos for trying to find the owner but... if the person is flying a $1000 drone, you'd think he/she would put their contact info on it if they wanted it back.

Rockstarbrad · Jul 31, 2017

Believe me I want to keep it but I have to exhaust all avenues to find this guy before I call it mine. Bottom line is that drone is worth about $1000 and it's not mine. If I lost anything that expensive I would try my hardest to find it. I would be very grateful to anyone that helped return my property back to me. It's forums like these that could make all the difference. Thank you all for you help and feedback.
Happy Flying
BB

DanMan32 · Jul 31, 2017

P3, even P3P isn't worth $1000 for some time now, especially without the remote.
You can't get to the flight logs without putting the AC in flight data mode which you have to do from the app unfortunately.
If you have access to a P3A/P remote (or P3S remote if that's what the AC is), you can link the RC to the AC, put it in flight mode and extract the DAT files which can give you GPS coordinates, hopefully ones close to the owner's house.

Rockstarbrad · Jul 31, 2017

Thanks for your help Dan. I will look into all those options. Its a great idea as long as I can access the DAT files.
Thanks Again
BB

Neon Euc · Jul 31, 2017

You also said that you know what the guy looks like? Is that from the footage on the SD card? If it is then post it on here. Someone might know him

abrunelleb.sympatico.ca · Aug 13, 2017

If you can retreive the owner's picture, you may also do a reverse image search on google...it may lead you to a social media account.
As said by another member, it is very nice of you to devote those effort tracing the owner...many would have just keep it!