P4 Lost At Sea

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Dec 19, 2016
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Bright and sunny start in Lima, Peru. I decide to fly along the Pacific Coast line using my P4 in sport mode. I get above the area I wanted to film. The drone is out at sea filming surfers just off the coast. Suddenly, I lose signal. I'm definitely less than 3 miles away. Normally, when I lose signal for a few seconds, the controller and phone tell me it's returning. This time like at times prior the P4 decides to descend instead of returning. Again, no signal and out of sight. Worse, it took a few seconds to get into my vehicle so I can remove all glare from my screen. The glare put me in a difficult situation. Those few secs were critical obviously when I realized the drone was taking longer than usual coming back. I switched the mode from Sport to Auto. I kept using my control in hopes it would elevate, but apparently it was too late. Eye witnesses said they saw it bobb up and down on the surface of the water, and then shoot up into the air. That is all I heard. It was never recovered.

Question is why? Can't it fly in Sports Mode, lose signal and return home automatically?

Why does it have the tendency to descend rather than return home?

I flew it just last night in Sport Mode, lost signal and automatically commanded it to return home?

Was there something I did with the controller? Auto descend is what put this incredible machine in jeopardy and ultimately to its death. Why, why?

Thanks,

Andrew

Sent from my SM-N900T using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
Please upload your TXT flight log here and post a link back here.
 
Depending certain settings the P4 can hover and land instead of executing RTH. Many are stored in P4 so the craft has the information even if disconnected. Without craft it would be difficult to know these parameters if poster doesn't remember but hopefully flight log might reveal something.

I wonder implementing new "Last Settings log file" in addition of flight log could help further troubleshooting.





Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
 

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