P4P lost in Lofoten Norway. Flight log uploaded

[mrirad]

I brought my P4P to Svalbard and Lofoten. In Svalbard, operating on a sailing vessel around 79th parallel, flying GPS was a mess. Don't know how much of it was proximity to the North Pole and how much was boat metal and electronics. Anyway, came back with good pics and lots of errors ("switch off GPS mode").

Headed more south, in Lofoten Norway and flew just once before lost it in a lake. For background, P4P backpack did fall out of taxi onto ground. No visible damage.

Several days later, took it out to fly. Some wind, no precipitation and excellent visibility. Using DJI Go app, did a hand launch and flew forward at 400'. As recorded, got some high wind warnings and one proximity warning. From there, flew forward in "line of sight" path and got a "disconnected" message. Don't recall getting a "lost communication" message. Drone never seen or heard from again. Looks like it dropped into the lake.

I have uploaded the flight information and went through it with the free Airdata UAV website. I would like to learn from this expensive event. Other than keeping drone closer to home in unfamiliar areas, not sure what I would have done differently. I fully understand that most lost drones are from pilot error or judgement.

Any constructive insights would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Meta4]

Using DJI Go app, did a hand launch and flew forward at 400'. As recorded, got some high wind warnings and one proximity warning. From there, flew forward in "line of sight" path and got a "disconnected" message. Don't recall getting a "lost communication" message. Drone never seen or heard from again. Looks like it dropped into the lake.

The best way to look at flight data is with the Phantomhelp.com log viewer: DJI Flight Log Viewer
That gives this report for your flight data: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
This is a frustrating flight log as it doesn't indicate any probable cause for the loss of your Phantom.
It helps to eliminate the usual scenarios including strong winds, compass issues, low battery and flying behind obstacles.
The flight record just ends with the Phantom out in the open and 400 ft up.

The GPS nomatch messages are always a false alarm and don't appear to mean anything in this flight.

The most usual cause for the flight record just ending like it did is flying behind an obstacle like a mountain or tower.
In that situation, the Phantom would initiate RTH after 3 seconds unless you have changed the sefault Loss of SIgnal options in the app settings.
There is high land to the SW of where the flight record stops and a 420 ft hill 500 metres west of the launch point.
But I can't see the Phantom being anywhere near close to a course where these could have blocked signal.

 

[mrirad]

Thank you Meta4. That was helpful. I didn't want to contact DJI with the lost drone if there was an obvious pilot error. Thanks for redirecting me to the additional flight data viewer.

 

[Jayfdee]

Good luck with DJI. This is a very strange loss,please keep us informed of the outcome.
We all dread the sudden loss, especially with no explanation.

 

[Neon Euc]

I havent seen the log yet but did you download the KML file (using airdata) ? As this will give you your fly route... If you lost connection however there will be info missing.

All I can suggest is this....

1) did you have VPS on as it can get confused with the sea, even if it's flying towards the sun it will get blinded and confused

2) did you get compass error? This will be a fly away and caused by any metal objects on the boat such as the boon, metal bars around the boat, even the boats own GPS system

3) what was the wind like? Obviously the higher you go, the windier it gets

Bear in mind I havent even seen your flight log yet... So this is just a few ideas I am throwing out there. But sorry for your loss

 

[Neon Euc]

Also check your battery cells... A drop in voltage can cause it to go dead. How high was you from the sea? Even a knock from a rogue high wave can flip it

 

[mrirad]

Update: After analyzing my drone's last flight and finding no glaring pilot or mechanical error, I contacted DJI support. They opened a ticket and I sent off the narative with the flight data.
This is what I quickly got back:

"For your claimed case CAS-xxxxxxxx, we have already finished the analysis, and the result is as follows:

1.The aircraft was controlled by the pilot in GPS mode.
2.The Pilot pushed 100% pitch stick forward.At T=06:20,H=119m,D=856m,flight record ended.
With the record ended without any sign of abnormality, we could not verify what happened afterwards. We truly appreciate your support for DJI, and especially applied for a 30% off coupon for Phantom 4 Pro without charger and remote."

While I was hoping for an answer (that could help me and others on this forum), I thought this was a very responsible action from DJI. I will replace it. What will I do differently next time? For first flights in a remote and new location, I would fly
more cautiously (not as high or as far away) for the first few flights. All sensors were on and I was not in sport mode. I don't think the wind was an issue, even with some gusts. Flying over water can be an issue, but I was high and there were no error messages.

Thanks all who offered advice.

 

[With The Birds]

Update: After analyzing my drone's last flight and finding no glaring pilot or mechanical error, I contacted DJI support. They opened a ticket and I sent off the narative with the flight data.
This is what I quickly got back:

"For your claimed case CAS-xxxxxxxx, we have already finished the analysis, and the result is as follows:

1.The aircraft was controlled by the pilot in GPS mode.
2.The Pilot pushed 100% pitch stick forward.At T=06:20,H=119m,D=856m,flight record ended.
With the record ended without any sign of abnormality, we could not verify what happened afterwards. We truly appreciate your support for DJI, and especially applied for a 30% off coupon for Phantom 4 Pro without charger and remote."

While I was hoping for an answer (that could help me and others on this forum), I thought this was a very responsible action from DJI. I will replace it. What will I do differently next time? For first flights in a remote and new location, I would fly
more cautiously (not as high or as far away) for the first few flights. All sensors were on and I was not in sport mode. I don't think the wind was an issue, even with some gusts. Flying over water can be an issue, but I was high and there were no error messages.

Thanks all who offered advice.

From what I’m reading DJI have only offered to replace 30% of it. Actually it’s less than 30% when you consider the cost of the complete kit.

 

[cinclodes]

For what it's worth, I did P4P flights in the same locations: several flights in Lofoten and one flight at about 78.5 N to the west of Svalbard. I was anticipating possible problems due to the cold, wind, and latitude, but all of those flights went well for me. The flight far to the north was launched from a ship.