Lost connection, crash, lost drone.

[Meta4]

Either way... drone is gone. Battery was found. 5 hour search, no drone found. I flew the Mavic Air over top.... no sight of Phantom. Hence why I think the battery fell out and the drone just fell

As your drone failed to return and it's RTH path would have meant a collision, it's much more likely that the battery came out as a result of the collision.
If the battery fell out in flight, the drone would have also fallen nearby.

 

[gaetanofasulo]

I'm thinking eagle strike.

 

[sar104]

Agree... It would make sense if the drone was in fact, on top, and the battery slid out, and down the tower, but again, that thing would have had to hit the antenna on the right side of the tower to dislodge the battery, there's nothing else to hit on the top of the tower, but those antenna

DJI said a "lost drone isn't cause for replacement". Well... that sucks, because I made sure everything was good, it was flying just fine. Ive rarely had any connection issues in the past.

I understand now that the tower has high RF activity, which could have been the cause, but still not sure as to what happened, not far at all from me.

Pretty pissed.... I have 2 Mavics, and the P4P (just bought). I flew the Air around the tower, I didn't see any drone up there.

Since you found the battery on the ground it's obvious that the aircraft itself must be somewhere there - most likely on the ground but possibly caught up on one of the antennas or supports. Without power it's not going to have flown far, and since the wind was only around 8 mph out of the south at the top of the tower, it won't have blown far either.

 

[JoBe]

My RTH altitude is always set at minimum 50 meters. If my home point is recorded at 98 ft in the air (when GPS kicked in), I would be at 240 ft for return home.

It usually doesn't RTH until its been disconnected for longer than about 15 seconds.

so, it should have came home at 165 ft? or was it coming back at 98 ft?

dude it sux you lost your drone but with respect please man learn about how your drone works you are so off on how you think rth works. help yourself and keep others safe by learning rth and practicing it

 

[ElevationOneDrone]

dude it sux you lost your drone but with respect please man learn about how your drone works you are so off on how you think rth works. help yourself and keep others safe by learning rth and practicing it

Thank you for your concern. I am asking for clarification, as people on here are confusing me as to how it works. But thanks.

I've never had a drone RTH when signal loss is less than about 10 seconds. Of course I'm not timing it. The other ones I may be wrong about... but I dont fly recklessly, I'm away from people.

 

[Meta4]

I've never had a drone RTH when signal loss is less than about 10 seconds. Of course I'm not timing it. The other ones I may be wrong about... but I dont fly recklessly, I'm away from people.

Straight from the manual: RTH will be automatically activated if the remote controller signal is lost for more than three seconds.
It seems you were confused about several aspects of operating the Phantom.
It will always lose signal if you fly behind a large, solid object like a water tower.
You need to have an RTH height sufficient to safely clear any obstacles on the RTH path.
If higher than the set RTH height the drone will come back without descending to the set height.

The best place for clarification on most topics is the manual.

 

[ElevationOneDrone]

Straight from the manual: RTH will be automatically activated if the remote controller signal is lost for more than three seconds.
It seems you were confused about several aspects of operating the Phantom.
It will always lose signal if you fly behind a large, solid object like a water tower.
You need to have an RTH height sufficient to safely clear any obstacles on the RTH path.
If higher than the set RTH height the drone will come back without descending to the set height.

The best place for clarification on most topics is the manual.

Sounds good. But also, I've flown my Phantom around water towers multiple times with no issues. Its whatever, I'm handling the situation.

 

[xspwhite]

If the drone is somewhere atop the tower, then get a hold of the guy in charge of public works. They are always on top of those towers tinkering around with stuff. The problem would be if the drone damaged something: they may want you to pay for it.

 

[DroneTurismo]

Just curious (since there are a lot of cars parked there) could someone have picked it up? How long did it take you to arrive on the scene after the crash? Someone could hear a noise, come investigate, pick it up and walk off with it etc

 

[ElevationOneDrone]

I was 300 ft away. Crashes at 530ish am. Found the battery 5 minutes later, never left the scene, no one else was around.

 

[grego122]

I would look in that black pipe and the trees it can't go far without a battery in less it hopped a train! fly the mavic and take a lot of pictures and video! what city is this good luck! post with results with DJI if they replace it, let us know if you find it!

 

[ElevationOneDrone]

Thanks. All done already. It's got to be on the tower and I just cant see it.

 

[grego122]

Thanks. All done already. It's got to be on the tower and I just cant see it.

Take on of your other drones and look if it's up there put a hook on short twine and go fishing!
Hope you can find / get it back! if it's up there it didn't fall very far...

 

[Quest-So]

@ElevationOneDrone how soon have you found the battery behind the water works fence after the event ?

 

[ElevationOneDrone]

Less than 8 minutes.

 

[Quest-So]

Put a mark on the picture and post it back on the forum, where have you found the battery. The searching circle for the drone cannot be very large if the bird has lost its powering.

 

[sar104]

Put a mark on the picture and post it back on the forum, where have you found the battery. The searching circle for the drone cannot be very large if the bird has lost its powering.View attachment 110323

Post #11.

 

[ElevationOneDrone]

That's a very terrible picture, because it makes it look like the drone was last over the trees near the highway. When in reality, the drone was last over the power Box just to the right of the water tower next to the train tracks

 

[ElevationOneDrone]

The blue circle is the last GPS coordinate. The green.is where I found the battery. I have searched the entire water department fenced in area, the abandoned building just to the South East, all 4 yards, Up-and-down the train tracks, and the last 2 wooded areas. The only place I have not been able to really take a good look, is the top of a tower

 

[xspwhite]

It might be up in one of those trees?