OMG!! Its a MIRACLE!!

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Ok so I posted this morning that I had lost my P3 ( which I did) - I went and looked to where the app showed to last be seen (thanks jlo) The terrain was on private property behind a house that had 150 foot trees and a 45 degree slope. I knocked on the door of the house and the lady gave me permission to go look for it (she had no problem that it was a drone) I went down the crazy slope full of bushes surrounded by the 150 trees- looked up into the trees to see if maybe it had nested in one- could not see it thou- after looking around for 20 minutes wha la the miracle there she was :)

So here is what I think happened: flew up to 250 ft was messing with camera setting and it drifted or flew behind me and out of sight- I live on a hill side and thought that it was still in front of me somewhere- lost signal (probably because it went behind the hill and I was facing forward- antennas where not facing P3 anymore tried RTH but did not work- rebooted app but still no signal - It just ran into the trees on the hill side- it had to have fallen at least 100ft It- looks like there is no damage hard to believe have not started it up yet- ? how can I tell if the gimbal is damaged- I am nervous to start it up- battery is now charging

Thanks to the kind lady that allowed me to go look for my "drone" I explained what it was and what I was doing with it- she was very sorry and even happy when I found it- she said she wished her husband was awake as he would have been interested to see it- Not all people have problems with these awesome flying machines!

Thanks to this board you all are life savers- so no question is a stupid ? and all answers should be considered
Thanks again and safe flying (lesson learned)
 
Awesome! Sounds like you got a break!
Cross you fingers and fire it up! Might be pleasantly surprised.
 
Ya that would be as smart as me flying it in to hill side:0 oh wait I already did that :)
 
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Calibrate the IMU and Compass and Gimbal. Also no need to fly with warped props either.
 
Go back with flowers for mrs and an apple pie for mr...


You were lucky, so better pay attention now...

RedHotPoker
 
I have to say I am concerned that it did not self initiate RTH after being out of contact with the transmitter for over 3 seconds.
 
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Yeah, had you set a Home Point before taking off?

Inquiring minds must ask... ;-)


RedHotPoker
 
The OP stated he pressed the RTH button on the TX. I am just guessing he thought he had a home point set since he was out of visual contact and probably wouldn't want to just drop it somewhere when he had no idea of where it was.
 
I think what happened is that at 5 min 34 sec it had already hit the trees before rth was even pushed it was taking photos right up until 5 sec before it went down- must have lost signal at same time it hit the trees-- my guess
 
I think what happened is that at 5 min 34 sec it had already hit the trees before rth was even pushed it was taking photos right up until 5 sec before it went down- must have lost signal at same time it hit the trees-- my guess

ok. Now I think I understand. The front of your house has trees and open spaces. All the trees in the neighborhood are at least 150 ft tall but the ones behind your house run up a hill and so are at least 150' plus whatever the elevation is on the hillside. So at some point the treetops were over the 250' foot ceiling you were flying. My guess is when you lost visual track of the aircraft you flew it into the trees rather than just losing contact with the TX. I agree that it was down when you pressed the RTH. Bummer. At least you got it back. Repair is cheaper than replacement.
 
Boys, you need to get $60 toy quads and fly the **** out of them. Wind, no wind, practice orientation etc. and learn the basics. Then fly your $1000 toy without killing it.
 
When you lose the App FPV connection, the RC controller usually still has flight control signals, and you should push the left stick up to gain altitude and hopefully get LOS back so the App can reconnect. My iPad Air might have10 or 20 other apps running in the background sometimes.

So I strongly recommend, before launching the DJI Pilot App you go through your running Apps and shut all of them down. This gives the full CPU and memory horsepower to the DJI Pilot App. It might help to re-cache the satellite maps too. My tablets tries to use week WiFi to avoid running up data on the cellular connection, and that can produce very slow map loading. If I turn off WiFi, the loading from LTE is much faster.

Don't let the DJI Pilot App get hung-up, while background Apps use up your CPU cycles or try to use the cellular link to report something you don't need to be reported while your $1,300 Phantom is hovering at 250 feet. Read your table manual, there may be a way to do a "hard" restart and make sure no background apps are using up your tablet's processing power while you need it to focus on the Phantom Pilot App.
 
So I believe it was totally my fault--after looking at the event and after my first reactions- the P3 was working fine- I think I lost the signal and the RTH did not work because the P3 had crashed at that time- not sure if when they crash and fall to the ground in a forest like area that it will cause the signal lose or not I know the RTH would not work on a P3 lying half way upside down in a bush
 
also my RTH was set at 250 feet but the hill behind my is like 500feet
 
Agree the flight logger will show if return to home was pressed or not.
 

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