Lost Standard North Wexford (Ireland)

Malta1 · Mar 3, 2018

Hi Folks

Looking for a little help please

We were flying this morning and we lost the P3 Standard
From memory, the App crashed and we reconnected but signal was very weak and ultimately when we tried to return home, the wind got up and we the drone lost the battle

I have looked at the flight records and have searched the area last recorded - my question to you folks is "what am I missing - can any of you guys determine if the drone continued to drift etc based on the previous recorded data"

See link below to the 2 flight logs

Cheers

Eamonn

Initial Flight Log
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Final Flight Log
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

WV. Rootman · Mar 3, 2018

I'm no expert. The winds should have brought the drone closer to you. From the elevations, It may have hit the trees west of that house in the middle of the field, between your last contact and you.

Malta1 · Mar 3, 2018

Nah......the wind was from the east and flight was from east to west (wind was behind us on outbound flight)
Agree with the trees west of the last recorded point though

WV. Rootman · Mar 3, 2018

Sorry, I must have read the wrong weather report. Or my 64 year old mind switched it around.
As low as it was and decending, it shouldn't be far off the last recorded point. Maybe the trees cought it trying to come home. There was lots of open fields. Shouldn't be hard to find. I know, it's dark.

Malta1 · Mar 3, 2018

No probs
Snow is making it difficult to spot if its on the ground
Hopefully tomorrow will bring more luck

WV. Rootman · Mar 3, 2018

That's went you ask yourself, " Why didn't I put a cheap locator on the quad?

Malta1 · Mar 3, 2018

I will put one one it......if I find it lol

Meta4 · Mar 3, 2018

Malta1 said:
From memory, the App crashed and we reconnected but signal was very weak and ultimately when we tried to return home, the wind got up and we the drone lost the battle
I have looked at the flight records and have searched the area last recorded - my question to you folks is "what am I missing - can any of you guys determine if the drone continued to drift etc based on the previous recorded data"

We see incidents like this every week and they are entirely preventable.

1. Winds up high are always stronger than the wind you feel on the ground.
2. RTH is a slow driver. It cruises at 22 mph but you can drive at 36 mph (still air speeds).
If the Phantom is trying to push against a wind stronger than 22 mph, it's going to be blown backwards until battery level triggers autolanding

In this case, the effect of the wind was obvious.
You felt the wind and understood its direction down on the ground.
Look at the log from 2 minutes until 4:18.
You climbed from 190 ft to 586 ft without touching the right stick.
The Phantom should have been holding position but it was travelling away from you at 2-6 mph in gusting winds and drifted 400 feet further away from you.
There was a red flag right there with the Phantom not being able to hold position.

You climbed higher, up to 830 ft while manually flying further away
Eventually you initiated RTH at 7:31.8 with the drone 760 feet up and being blown further away at 0-7 mph.
You manually brought it down to 558 ft at 10:55 and it was still being blown away at 0-3mph.
It asn't until the Phantom got below 400 ft that it started to make very slow headway against the wind.
The last recorded location was at 132 ft altitude and 14% battery with the Phantom hovering 2457 ft from home.
Shortly after that the critical low battery alarm would have triggered autolanding.
The Phantom may have initiated RTH briefly before autolanding.
Search from 52.57604 -6.37729and look back a little towards the launch point from there.

It's very important to be aware of wind strength and direction.
Note how much the wind slows your Phantom if you try to fly directly into it.
Never fly away downwind in a strong wind situation - you will have a tough headwind to fight to get back home.
Fly slowly into the wind and you'll have an easy flight home.
Never leave your Phantom up high fighting a headwind and wasting the battery. Bring it down where the wind is less.

Malta1 · Mar 4, 2018

Thank you for the work done
On the map when u look at the log the landing spot appears about 200m west of the lat long coords that you extracted
We need to widen our search area a litte
Cheers

Malta1 · Mar 5, 2018

Hi Folks
Just a quick update - the drone was recovered this morning - it had drifted about 20m beyond the last recorded gps point on the return to home flight path
No physical damage
Need to let it dry out fully (possible water damage due to rain) before starting it up
Many thanks for all your help