P4 Crash - Human Error or Malfunction?

I'm new to the drone world so I can't give an educated guess on what happened but I do have a question. If this were to happen again, video feed is lost but RC is still working, what would you do? What is the best remedy for someone who experiences this? Thanks
 
I'm new to the drone world so I can't give an educated guess on what happened but I do have a question. If this were to happen again, video feed is lost but RC is still working, what would you do? What is the best remedy for someone who experiences this? Thanks
With the left stick up, gain some altitude to regain video feed.
 
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As someone else said, you flew that bad boy into the wheat field. I would be surprised if DJI doesn't find this to be user error. RC lost reception because the AC was very low to the ground.
Someone posted a whole back that he was flying his P3 in Atti at 200' height, and somehow the drone crashed. He was losing altitude and was never aware of it.
Good luck
 
I'm new to the drone world so I can't give an educated guess on what happened but I do have a question. If this were to happen again, video feed is lost but RC is still working, what would you do? What is the best remedy for someone who experiences this? Thanks
Regardless of type of signal loss (video or RC & video), I've always released the sticks (note that I never fly in atti mode) and waited, if the RTH sequence didn't commence I would move in the direction of the drone and manually commence the RTH sequence. Some have reported elevation drops while releasing the sticks, I've experienced it on a frequent basis when in sport mode. Note that when releasing the sticks in sport mode, the horizontal trajectory distinctly changes as the craft counteracts the forward movement - in my experience, resulting in an elevation drop between 4-6'.
 
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I don't know a good rule of thumb but remember what we are flying...aerial camera platforms and not racing quads. I'd just fall back on common sense.
Do you think it would be safe to fly 8 feet going as fast as normal mode allows (not sport)?
 
No sonar in Sport mode, is there? Plus the corn field is not likely to produce meaningful sonar returns. Without that I think you are probably expecting too much in terms of altitude stability during relatively high-speed maneuvering, even if the actual speeds are closer to 30 mph.
Interesting, I'll take a look at a couple of prior flight logs tonight to examine elevation differences while in sport mode. I couldn't speak definitively, however, recall variations in elevation to be almost negligible. Certainly not in the 10' up/down range.
 
Interesting, I'll take a look at a couple of prior flight logs tonight to examine elevation differences while in sport mode. I couldn't speak definitively, however, recall variations in elevation to be almost negligible. Certainly not in the 10' up/down range.

Most likely you won't see it in the logs because it is largely due to the lack of accuracy of the sensors. For example, in the log for the flight in question, the FC does not register any significant change in altitude towards the end of the flight, even though it is already, apparently, descending. It would be interesting to compare the full DAT file log for the last few seconds, but I suspect that it will not register descent even there.
 
Do you think it would be safe to fly 8 feet going as fast as normal mode allows (not sport)?

Like JWarren said, it's a flying camera--not a race toy. Pretty expensive one at that.
 
I suppose, but maybe better when you have a good LOS and it's running 90° to your facing so you see its height.
 
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Not sure about yours but when I use the screen record (under share) mine records exactly what I see on the screen. The go app or litchi, or whatever I am using and exactly as I would see it on the screen.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app
That's what I meant, yeah. How did you just get the video link without the overlayed control and instrumentation graphics?
 
Regardless of type of signal loss (video or RC & video), I've always released the sticks (note that I never fly in atti mode) and waited, if the RTH sequence didn't commence I would move in the direction of the drone and manually commence the RTH sequence. Some have reported elevation drops while releasing the sticks, I've experienced it on a frequent basis when in sport mode. Note that when releasing the sticks in sport mode, the horizontal trajectory distinctly changes as the craft counteracts the forward movement - in my experience, resulting in an elevation drop between 4-6'.

However, the behavior of the aircraft after downlink was lost is not consistent with either continued RC uplink and the sticks released or with RC uplink lost and auto RTH triggered. It kept going at constant, or perhaps increased, speed, suggesting that the RC had uplink and that forward pitch was still being applied as indicated at the point when downlink was lost.
 

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