After almost a year of flying my Phantom 3 Standard I was super confident. I had never crashed it or lost it. Sunday morning I drove to a nearby lake to take some video of the fall colors. It was dead still at the lake at 6:30 AM, no wind at all. I flew the drone up over the trees and our a few hundred feet while checking out the sunrise colors. Turned the drone to return to the lake and realized it was getting farther away and climbing. It was up around 1000 feet. I assumed I was having a control issue, but I had control it just kept slipping further away.
I have a range extender reflector and was getting signal at 10,000 feet. The drone started automatic landing. I realized the lake sets in a hollow and there was some kind of crazy wind above it. Ran to my car and drove to the drone. Someone behind me was freaking out while I kept slowing down and checking my radio they started flashing their lights, but there was nowhere to pull over. I found signal, and battery life came up 9% but the signal was gone in a few seconds.
Never could find the signal again and spent 6 hours walking through fields with no luck. My flight data has coordinates at 22% battery life and 750 feet. I searched its heading and all over with no luck. I was sure as I would find it as it was flying over mostly harvested fields.
I'm really bummed out. Spent 400 dollars on it so I guess not a huge loss, but I already miss flying it. WInd was really strong in the fields, I just hadn't noticed it at the lake.
Do you think it would have safely landed or died on the way down?
I have a range extender reflector and was getting signal at 10,000 feet. The drone started automatic landing. I realized the lake sets in a hollow and there was some kind of crazy wind above it. Ran to my car and drove to the drone. Someone behind me was freaking out while I kept slowing down and checking my radio they started flashing their lights, but there was nowhere to pull over. I found signal, and battery life came up 9% but the signal was gone in a few seconds.
Never could find the signal again and spent 6 hours walking through fields with no luck. My flight data has coordinates at 22% battery life and 750 feet. I searched its heading and all over with no luck. I was sure as I would find it as it was flying over mostly harvested fields.
I'm really bummed out. Spent 400 dollars on it so I guess not a huge loss, but I already miss flying it. WInd was really strong in the fields, I just hadn't noticed it at the lake.
Do you think it would have safely landed or died on the way down?