Adam said:
Did I miss the thread where you lost it? What happened?
From the other thread:
Here's the story. This Phantom did the same thing it did before, suddenly veered off to the left and took off like a bat out of hell, out of my control until it was no longer in view and gone. The problem this time is that it wasn't in open field and just a long walk to get to it. This was in the park next to a school where I have been flying a lot. It's surrounded by residential areas on all sides. The previous instances when this happened was immediately upon takeoff but this time I had been flying about 30 seconds and was probably 200 feet up and 300 feet away, so as a result it created a huge search area. We spent about two hours driving around hoping to find it in a street or someone's front yard. Of course it could have come down in a back yard, a pool, a roof, or stuck in a tree. The possibilities are staggering. And even though there were two of us watching, because it was so far away and high in the air when it bolted, I can only guess which direction it headed. The search ended when it got too dark to see.
Anyway, this took place after (1) doing both an advanced calibration and basic one right before leaving the house, (2) doing a TX calibration at the park, (3) doing a compass calibration, and (4) waiting for a full IMU warmup and satellite acquisition prior to takeoff. I've been diligent about performing all these steps every time I've gone out, especially since I have been experiencing problems with this unit ever since I got it. I had been getting the dreaded Error 25, and the RedGreenYellow, but after getting through that, I thought this thing had settled down and would function like it should. I've had a continuing dialog with my dealer about those things, but not once did he ever say "pack it up and send it back, we'll exchange it for another one." Now I don't even have that as an option. My only hope is that someone will find it and call me... I had printed my phone number on each of the propellers. Good luck with that, huh? What are the odds someone will contact me? Rather slim I imagine. So it will remain missing, or someone will have a Phantom with no transmitter or charger, and a camera with no charger or directions. If they keep it, they will have to research what they are missing, go out and get everything, and then - they have a quad that will ignore their commands at a random moment and take off on its own.
I think DJI has a serious quality control issue and with growing sales of Phantoms, this kind of thing will become more and more frequent. For them to ignore problems like this and hide behind their dealers is not a healthy business model. They may end up with regrets on entering the consumer market with this product. I regret purchasing it and all the accessories at this point. Perhaps my feelings will change once I get over this huge disappointment.
