Lost in the woods

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I'm trying to figure out if I have any options with DJI. I have a Phantom 3 Pro that I bought in November 2015. I was flying out behind my house and out over the trees. I had a full charge on one of my batteries. I took off at full throttle out about 1/4 mile over the trees and lost my bird. It gave me a message that I had a critical battery or something like that. I don't remember exactly. I had been flying less than a minute on a full charge. It dropped from the sky. It took me a week to find it. Busted up pretty good. Do I have any options?
 
Do you mean options like DJI replacing it for free? If that's what you mean, then please upload your TXT flight log here and post a link back here so we can review it. We'll help you figure out what happened.
 
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I'll take my guess now.... I say he had a weak battery cell and with the full throttle it took the volts below the line of death. Based on what he said, I would be a little shocked if it is anything else...short of hitting a forgotten powerline or bird attack.
 
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Do you mean options like DJI replacing it for free? If that's what you mean, then please upload your TXT flight log here and post a link back here so we can review it. We'll help you figure out what happened.
msinger, I hope I never have to email you for the above reasons, but THANK YOU for helping those in need. That's awesome, dude.
 
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Ok. I uploaded the txt file as requested. I like the Heathy Drones website. It is interesting that you can look back at all of that flight data. It looks like I may have ignored some early warnings. I still would like to know what went wrong and if I have any options.

Thanks,
MBraden
 
Ok. I uploaded the txt file as requested. I like the Heathy Drones website. It is interesting that you can look back at all of that flight data. It looks like I may have ignored some early warnings. I still would like to know what went wrong and if I have any options.
You'll have to post a link here to the report that Phantomhelp.com provided so that others can see it and help with analysis.
 
I had a full charge on one of my batteries. I took off at full throttle out about 1/4 mile over the trees and lost my bird. It gave me a message that I had a critical battery or something like that. I don't remember exactly. I had been flying less than a minute on a full charge. It dropped from the sky. It took me a week to find it. Busted up pretty good. Do I have any options?
The flight record shows you taking off with 70% in the battery and a Critically Low Power warning at 66%.
Voltage rapidly dropped from 15.7V at the start to 13.2V under load.
How long since the battery was charged?
 
It was charged a couple of days before I used it. I thought it was at a full charge
 
The main problem is your battery was too low for the steep climb you were trying to perform. The Phantom backed down a few times (see the "Propulsion Output Limited" messages), but you continued the steep climb anyhow. Near the top of your climb, the voltage dipped down to the critically low battery level. At that point, your Phantom started to auto land at its current location (as designed). You still had a pretty good amount of battery when your Phantom was at 143 feet at the end of your log, so I'm assuming the remote controller connection dropped and it landed (or crashed into the trees) at that location.
 
That make sense. It probably started descending and then it was blocked by the trees preventing me from resuming control. The crash resulted from it descending into the top of a tree. My question would be why did it not return to where I took off? I lost my drone with 66% battery.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots
 
My question would be why did it not return to where I took off?
The Phantom will always auto land at its current location when the battery reaches the critically low level. There is no way to stop that auto landing procedure. The only thing you can do is steer your Phantom to a better landing location and/or hold the throttle in the full up position to prevent it from descending. If you keep it in the air too long though, the battery will eventually shut off mid-flight.
 
Don't fly with the pedal to the medal.
Pedal to the metal is fine .. (with a healthy battery).
The problem was that your battery was severely depleted when you launched and unable to deliver the power required as seen by the cell voltages in the flight data.
That's why DJI advise you to only fly with a fully charged battery.
 
i appreciate all of the help with this. I have since replaced my Phantom 3 Pro with a Phantom 3 Advanced. I found that recording in 4K is really cool but not very practical for what I am using my drone for. I ditched the battery that was in the Pro when it went down. I will watch my battery status closer now and not drive it so hard. Some lessons are learned the hard way. It would be nice to get some kind of compensation from DJI for my broken bird. Even if it was a new battery
 
BTW. I love flying the Phantom series of drones. They are well built and a lot of fun. I use it for photographing my outdoor projects before and after. This make it a tool. Thats is what I tell my wife anyway. Truth is, I really enjoy flying and this is the closest I will ever be to being in the pilots seat. That is why I bought another one. That being said I have to have a bit of a rant. Who charges their batteries right before a flight? I charge my batteries when they need charging after a flight. I fly when I find an opportunity or see a nice place to fly. Having the batteries ready when the opportunity arrises makes better since to me than keeping them discharged and then finding a way to charge them when I want to fly.
 
msinger. I have been monitoring this forum for over a year. You have provided a lot of useful information. I appreciate the time you take to make flying better for the rest of us.
Meta4. Thank you for your help too. It's nice to know that we have a support group that really cares.

mbraden
 
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Who charges their batteries right before a flight? I charge my batteries when they need charging after a flight. I fly when I find an opportunity or see a nice place to fly.
Did you check the Time to Discharge setting on all of your batteries? If you increase that number, your batteries will stay charged longer.

DJI-GO-Battery-Time-To-Discharge.jpg
 

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