LOST DJI PHANTOM 4 after App DISCONNECTED during Flight

[dwallersv]

I've started running a piece of tape across the drone and battery. I've had a few mishaps with my older P2 and as tight as the battery is, it still pops out on impact.

Make sure it's strong tape, like duct tape or something. It's gotta be stronger than whatever forces the battery latch can withstand.

Masking tape won't do it

 

[John Tarvin]

Don't you want to find out what happened to improve your flight safety in future?
I'm concerned that you mention calibrating the compass before flying.
That's unnecessary and can sometimes cause problems.
Losing signal as you describe could be due to flying behind a building or obstacle or simply crashing into one.

The battery dislodging is just a symptom of the crash - not the problem.

Sorry, not necessarily true. I watched a friend's P4P fall from 70' like a rock after he failed to fully engage the battery clips. So, it CAN be the cause of a crash!

 

[jeffthephantom4]

You can also initiate RTH by turning off the controller.
Practicing and experimenting with RTH is a good confidence builder.

This is the best advice of all the posts. For some reason the go app will simply crash and leave you flying blind. This has happened to me on several occasions. Keep in mind that although the app has crashed the controller is still functioning. So if you do nothing your drone is hovering somewhere. If you can see it great, but if you can't the most reliable way to get it home is to simply turn off the controller. Pressing the RTH button on the controller might work too but since the app has crashed you can't tell if it is really in RTH mode. To gain confidence in this technique go to a clear area and practice this with low altitude RTH and don't get very far away. You want to get to a point that when stuff like this happens you don't panic and immediately execute the correct procedure.

 

[historymaker06]

So I test it yesterday. Ph4 is still working and flying! Just no camera.
I have also still warranty on it. I paid $1600 for it. So fixing it would be logical instead getting a new one.
I'm afraid that they will charge me again.
It's a minor fix though. Just new legs and a camera.
Let's see how much.
DJI service are horrible and so greedy. Hate to deal with them.

I have flown on that helipad 3x now.
Never anything like this happend.
Now sure what triggered the interference that day.
I will post the footage of previous flights.
It's just sad that RTH didn't work.
But I was lucky/ unlucky at the same time.

 

[historymaker06]

The SD card is corrupt because of the impact.
I have 1.7GB of footage that I can't watch to see what happened. The others footage on the card works fine. Just the last one I can't open.
Any ideas how to fix it and see the footage?
I tried videorepair software from Frau online.de that I bought for $99.
I tried Reno video repair and wondershare software.
It says the corruption is too severe to be fix.
But they are at home self helping softwares.
Any other ideas?

 

[historymaker06]

This is the best advice of all the posts. For some reason the go app will simply crash and leave you flying blind. This has happened to me on several occasions. Keep in mind that although the app has crashed the controller is still functioning. So if you do nothing your drone is hovering somewhere. If you can see it great, but if you can't the most reliable way to get it home is to simply turn off the controller. Pressing the RTH button on the controller might work too but since the app has crashed you can't tell if it is really in RTH mode. To gain confidence in this technique go to a clear area and practice this with low altitude RTH and don't get very far away. You want to get to a point that when stuff like this happens you don't panic and immediately execute the correct procedure.

Great advice. Yes, I did practice RTH before at low attitude. Works fine.
I also shut off the controller it didn't come back.
I think the inference that day may have block all controls. It was scary, like the drone had his own mind.

 

[historymaker06]

Check to make sure both upper and lower battery latches are secure b4 flight.

Lol.

 

[Sdemaio]

So I test it yesterday. Ph4 is still working and flying! Just no camera.
I have also still warranty on it. I paid $1600 for it. So fixing it would be logical instead getting a new one.
I'm afraid that they will charge me again.
It's a minor fix though. Just new legs and a camera.
Let's see how much.
DJI service are horrible and so greedy. Hate to deal with them.

I have flown on that helipad 3x now.
Never anything like this happend.
Now sure what triggered the interference that day.
I will post the footage of previous flights.
It's just sad that RTH didn't work.
But I was lucky/ unlucky at the same time.

You still don't understand why flying from or around a helipad is a bad idea (and completely illegal). You do realize that when a maned helicopter comes in for a landing and your quad goes through it's props that it could end in a tremendous disaster, which would put you in prison for quite some time, end some people's lives, ruin some other lives and screw the rest of the community that enjoys this hobby, correct? Has that possibility ever even grazed your frontal lobes? It's not because some magic forcefield that makes you fly backwards into buildings at 30mp/h exists around helipads, which would seem your thought process when you say something like "I've flown from the helipad 3 times now and this never happened". That's not the ******* problem with flying from the helipad! - it's because helipads are for helicopters that have humans in them, not toys. Holy ****... It's unbelievable...

 

[dwallersv]

So I test it yesterday. Ph4 is still working and flying! Just no camera.
I have also still warranty on it. I paid $1600 for it. So fixing it would be logical instead getting a new one.
I'm afraid that they will charge me again.
It's a minor fix though. Just new legs and a camera.
Let's see how much.

The camera alone is $379 for parts. Add another $50 for labor to install it (something incredibly easy anyone can do it, have replaced one myself). The legs plus labor will probably add another $100. Count on another $25-50 for shipping and handling.

So you're looking at around $600-700 to fix it. AND, you won't actually get the P4 back, fixed, that you sent in anyway. You'll get someone else's refurbished P4 that was, like yours, sent in for repair.

For the same $$ you can buy a used P4 that's never crashed, from a serious owner who took great care of it.

I'd definitely go for the latter. Then, you still have your original P4 for parts -- or you could sell it for parts on eBay and recover probably $100 or so, further reducing your replacement cost.
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However, as everyone else here has said, you are a foolish, irresponsible, dangerous pilot who should be no where near a drone. Everything about this flight was wrong, much of it illegal. And a violation of rules so egregious that you are one of the few for which enforcement should be rigorously pursued. Particularly since you refuse to understand, and acknowledge what you've done wrong here.

You never know... you may have already been turned in. Further foolishness if you think you can hide now -- you've put all the evidence out there for the authorities, and it's a piece of cake to track down who you are from IPs, etc.

 

[historymaker06]

The camera alone is $379 for parts. Add another $50 for labor to install it (something incredibly easy anyone can do it, have replaced one myself). The legs plus labor will probably add another $100. Count on another $25-50 for shipping and handling.

So you're looking at around $600-700 to fix it. AND, you won't actually get the P4 back, fixed, that you sent in anyway. You'll get someone else's refurbished P4 that was, like yours, sent in for repair.

For the same $$ you can buy a used P4 that's never crashed, from a serious owner who took great care of it.

I'd definitely go for the latter. Then, you still have your original P4 for parts -- or you could sell it for parts on eBay and recover probably $100 or so, further reducing your replacement cost.

If it's an electrical issue DJI won't fix it under their warranty?
I will send it in to asset and see what it will cost me.
Dang that's a lot of $$$.

 

[dwallersv]

It's not because some magic forcefield that makes you fly backwards into buildings at 30mp/h exists around helipads, which would seem your thought process when you say something like "I've flown from the helipad 3 times now and this never happened". That's not the ******* problem with flying from the helipad! - it's because helipads are for helicopters that have humans in them, not toys. Holy ****... It's unbelievable...

It will take some strong evidence to convince me this yahoo isn't a kid 13 or younger. Everything about his posts screams naive, too intellectually undeveloped to understand bigger social concepts, and then there's the vocabulary, rhetorical style, etc.

We're dealing with a tot here.

 

[dwallersv]

If it's an electrical issue DJI won't fix it under their warranty?
I will send it in to asset and see what it will cost me.
Dang that's a lot of $$$.

They won't fix it under warranty because it was YOUR FAULT.

 

[Sdemaio]

It will take some strong evidence to convince me this yahoo isn't a kid 13 or younger. Everything about his posts screams naive, too intellectually undeveloped to understand bigger social concepts, and then there's the vocabulary, rhetorical style, etc.

We're dealing with a tot here.

You might be right. That would explain the "you're mean" response rather than the "wow, I never thought of that, you're right" response. The emotional part of his response would lead you to believe that there's at least some empathy in there, but a wild disconnect from the reality of "I could land on someone, or be the cause of an air disaster", which could very well lead us to just what you said - it's a kid.

In which case, stop flying from the **** helipad. You posted coordinates and pictures to your exact location. I'm going to let lapd and the building security or owners who own the property / helipad know that you're flying from there, which I imagine they won't be too thrilled about. Have some sense. Find a park and stay away from (and over top of) people. You already saw that it can drop out of the sky - make better decisions and worry about the people around you. The only thing you've expressed any care about is your quad. You've not stated even once that you care at all that someone could've gotten very hurt or worse - the only thing you care about is yourself and your quad. Bad form.

 

[dwallersv]

To further amplify what @Sdemaio said, get connected with an experienced, older pilot -- late teens, or an adult -- to learn. If you are a kid, as bad as this was, it can be excused as youthful ignorance since nothing bad happened to anyone but you, but ONLY if you take the advice here and learn from it.

If you're an adult, no sympathy for you at all. You deserve to be at a minimum fined heavily for this stunt.

 

[Skizered]

Did you set your return to home To go home/hover/or land when lost connection?.So figure out wind Direction for that hour u where flying. when u lose connection ur drone will do what ever u set the rth button for plus figure out u don't have any GPS at all the wind would of took it in that General direction the imu chip will still try to keep u upright.look either on a roof or in a tree in wind direction...

 

[mkennedy]

I had a similar mishap where my P4P drone became disconnected. I use an iphone 6+ for my PoV and the last thing the drone did was send to it the Geo coordinates. From my iPhone I was able to track it and recover.

 

[astonecipher]

Based on someone saying it was near the SS location, and you claim you tested RTH... Unauthorized area, someone could have easily jammed it. Feds tend not to like illegal surveillance devices and would kill it with impunity.

 

[Cometstorm]

This is the best advice of all the posts. For some reason the go app will simply crash and leave you flying blind. This has happened to me on several occasions. Keep in mind that although the app has crashed the controller is still functioning. So if you do nothing your drone is hovering somewhere. If you can see it great, but if you can't the most reliable way to get it home is to simply turn off the controller. Pressing the RTH button on the controller might work too but since the app has crashed you can't tell if it is really in RTH mode. To gain confidence in this technique go to a clear area and practice this with low altitude RTH and don't get very far away. You want to get to a point that when stuff like this happens you don't panic and immediately execute the correct procedure.

Interesting thread in many ways.

I was gonna gonna ask why not just hit RTH hard (or program) button, but your post cleared that up. Thanks!

As to the OP launching from a helipad, he says he compass calibrated before launch.

Gotta wonder how much rebar was in that area!

 

[Russ43Phantom]

There could have been many issues going on here, but the biggest issue, from what I have read, is flying beyond a VLOS. There is no excuse for not knowing where or how your drone landed.

 

[Laar]

Based on someone saying it was near the SS location, and you claim you tested RTH... Unauthorized area, someone could have easily jammed it. Feds tend not to like illegal surveillance devices and would kill it with impunity.

If this isn't a kid, I will be thoroughly amazed they are allowed in public without a caregiver giving close supervision.

LMAO, " a caregiver giving close supervision " i am stealing that and will put it in my repertoire of 1-liners. Thanks!