P3 Pro Lost Signal - Drone Gone

[FS150HZ]

I had my DJI Phantom 3 Pro for over three months, and had a successful 77 flights without much issues. I did have one flyaway due to a bad calibration earlier on, but I recovered from it. I also had a critically low voltage warning recently, and the drone landed right above where it was. Luckily, it was only about 30 feet away. However, yesterday, I was flying around an old factory, and got disoriented upon returning, thinking I was going the right way. The signal became weak, and the low battery warning came on as I had reached 30%. Since I was going the wrong way, I lost signal, however, the drone never returned.

The wind was blowing north at around 11km/h at the time. I do remember a successful calibration, and most of the time, it said 'safe-to-fly gps.' I did takeoff quite quickly as I was receiving a few gusts of wind, and I wonder if that was a mistake on my part. From other posts I read, that might be the case. Nonetheless, I just want to get the drone back and have no clue where it is. The wind periodically shifted between going north and east, but overall was relatively calm. There is a lot of water in the area though, and I'm just hoping it didn't go in.

Pretty dumb mistake considering I had about 7 hours of flight time experience. This was the first time I ever lost track of where my drone was though. There were large power lines in the area, so I'm wondering if they took the signal from there. I have been cautious around power lines to make sure my signal does not get too weak. As mentioned though, I was convinced I was coming home from looking at the screen. If only I had looked at how far away I was at the bottom of the screen... It never even dawned on me I was flying the wrong way. I even started running in the direction of the factory to see I could recover the signal (wrong way again). I'm quite embarrassed and ashamed considering my navigation skills are pretty good.

Here is the log though, so hopefully that helps.

HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters

Thank you.

 

[msinger]

Please upload your TXT flight log here and post a link back here.

 

[FS150HZ]

Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Thanks.

 

[kookboy]

I would advise to keep an eye on those warnings as they come up (30 secs into your flight, then 3 mins later and then again...)

If you're flying in high wind and big gusts at those altitudes 250' up, the battery can overheat trying to fight the wind.

Just because it may seem calm winds at SFC doesn't mean 100' + it's not howling.

Looks like your P3 was headed straight for water where it last recorded it's flight status.

Did you have a spotter or LOS ?

 

[Roamer105]

You had battery issues right from the start. You also took off at 50% capacity - clearly not recommend.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[FS150HZ]

I see. I was alone in my flight navigation. So would it be worth searching for it, or is it most likely in the water?

 

[kookboy]

Searching for it is your decision. Forum can't help with that unfortunately. Your flight log shows the battery errors dotted through your flight, so that's a learning point for when you get in the air again.

Good luck if you decide to search for it.

 

[FS150HZ]

Thanks for the help. Yeah, I should have taken the battery situation more seriously when I received a critically low voltage warning a couple of weeks ago. The only thing I am still wondering is when the drone lost signal, would it have just hovered, or kept throttling south?

 

[bbfpv]

Thanks for the help. Yeah, I should have taken the battery situation more seriously when I received a critically low voltage warning a couple of weeks ago. The only thing I am still wondering is when the drone lost signal, would it have just hovered, or kept throttling south?

Depends on whether you had it set to hover or to return to home. The default is to return to home, or land if the battery can't make it there.

 

[FS150HZ]

I remember setting it as return-to-home at 150 meters, as I sometimes fly around the city. I thought I may have heard a buzz, and then a beeping noise while running about. However, I'm still pretty sure I was just losing my mind. I kept the controller on for a good five minutes, so I would've expected the signal to reconnect if it started coming home. Who knows I guess... Thanks again for the help.

 

[shockwave199]

I'm curious how you lost orientation. Between radar and the tether line from the bird to home point, it would seem like that's enough to aid your flight back to home. Was there a problem in that respect?

 

[Trackman1]

It looks like you just flew too low. 58ft is low.

 

[Rypper1]

Did you look around at the last point shown on you flight logs? You were showing a pretty steady altitude of about 58 feet until that point. And from looking at the map there appear to be trees and a power line there. It may have crashed into one of them and be there.

 

[FS150HZ]

Thanks guys. On the way back, I had lost the sun behind the clouds, and clearly didn't adjust the shutter on the camera enough. The whole time, I focused dead on the live feed, as I was convinced I was descending into the ballpark, as I noticed a large diamond shape in the distance. Probably my ADD kicking in as well. It was dumb, and I realize that as I'm still embarrassed. I was descending because I thought I was approaching the ballpark. I refused to believe the power lines were around 60 feet at first, but it looks more convincing now, especially because it disappeared right after passing it.

 

[dirtybum]

I make sure to put my name and number on every aircraft. I've lost three that I never recovered early on and one of them someone found six months later and returned to me, remarkably it was still salvageable. Now days I use trackers, but a simple name and number got me an aircraft back

 

[dirtybum]

Just look at your healthy drones and where you lost signal was a short distance from where you was that, at least compared to my flying style, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to walk a straight line from point a to B and find it somewhere in there! If it had a battery issue it would've landed from point a to point B if it was set up hover when you lost connection it would've landed where you lost connection. Seems very findable

 

[Tijuana]

I make sure to put my name and number on every aircraft. I've lost three that I never recovered early on and one of them someone found six months later and returned to me, remarkably it was still salvageable. Now days I use trackers, but a simple name and number got me an aircraft back

You've lost 3 drones??

 

[FS150HZ]

Following a direct line of point A to B would be nearly impossible considering some of the weeds in there are about three times the height as me, and there's a pretty nasty swamp as well. I will certainly look around the powerlines whenever I get the opportunity, and will follow the road in the quarry. It is on well restricted private property unfortunately. I will certainly consider my name and number, and especially a tracker for my next time. Even if it is there, I can't imagine it will be salvageable. Worth a shot for sure though. Three drones, that's quite unfortunate. Good to see you're still in the hobby. It's a pretty empty feeling when you know you're drone hasn't come back. Thanks guys.

 

[dirtybum]

You've lost 3 drones??

Lost 3 and crashed too many to count on two hands! Some of them pretty **** hardhttps://www.dropbox.com/s/122b573vayc2nhc/10video-5270.mov?dl=0

 

[dirtybum]

They are hard to find in tall shrubs and woods. The one the gentleman returned to me, I looked in that would lot where he found it three different times for a total of three hours. And he found it just to the right of where I looked most of the times.