lesson learned, stay away from heavy tree area. I will go back tomorrow and really look the area. I will check it again. Im just mad at myself, getting to brave with the drone.
Phantom 3 drone down
- Thread starter rickatom
- Start date
The trees were not the problem - your mistake (I assume it was a mistake) in the mission profile was the problem. Presumably you did not mean to set that waypoint at 2 m.
no sir, that was an error. But I really started to get worried when I lost signal and camera went streaky. I waited , not able to track the time and it started getting dark. When it didnt show up I presumed it went down at the place of loss of signal. That is as far as knew it had traveled for sure.
well SAR, thank you for your time. Im still learning. I will look again at waypoint 16 area. Better than the woods across town. I might get lucky.
Right, but as I mentioned earlier, loss of downlink at that range and altitude is not unexpected, and there is no reason to believe that it would not complete the flight, barring collision with something. Collision is likely at WP16.
Meta4
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Another area worth looking at would be between 11 & 12.
That's the highest terrain on the route and is 60-70 feet higher than near 16.
It doesn't have as much tree cover but it only takes one or a powerline to be in the path of the Phantom.
RodPad
Premium Pilot
Wow, I was really thinking this was a Hoax. 
What I learned the link I made in post #30 now works.
Phantom 3 drone down
So the OP just needed to check the mission shared on the hub, Litchi did not create a new link.
Now the OP needs to find his Phantom.
Rod
What I learned the link I made in post #30 now works.
Phantom 3 drone down
So the OP just needed to check the mission shared on the hub, Litchi did not create a new link.
Now the OP needs to find his Phantom.
Rod
Another area worth looking at would be between 11 & 12.
That's the highest terrain on the route and is 60-70 feet higher than near 16.
It doesn't have as much tree cover but it only takes one or a powerline to be in the path of the Phantom.
It is higher there and may be worth a look - the aircraft only had around 21 m of ground clearance in that area so it's possible that it hit a tree. I don't see any large power line structures.
It definitely would not have cleared WP16 though - it was only going to be around 5 m AGL at that point.
In Litchi missions I often use Batch-Edit to set the heights of all waypoints at once to a certain amount Above Ground Level (AGL):
Litchi Batch-Edit.mp4
Litchi Batch-Edit.mp4
Here is what I get from your KML file once exported on Google Earth
Can you access a portable GPS and take a walk right there?
N 35.462448° W 78.606931
Good luck!!!
N 35.462448° W 78.606931
Good luck!!!
Last edited:
My son and I went today and walked the area WP16. Did not get lucky today.
I am still leaning towards the point of lost reception at wp2. I asked land owner today for permission to walk the land.
This experience has been a true kick in the gut.
I can take a ride down to WP11 and 12. Like someone mentioned, I see no power lines.
I have no idea why you think it will be over there. Just because you lost downlink doesn't imply at all that the aircraft will have stopped flying the mission.
Well, we looked over the area at WP16. The trees are bare on top, but a lot of greenery below. We souted the aea, and still came back empty handed.
I will start back tracking the best I can making my way back to the 11,12 wp as suggested. I just don't know. This 20 min flight after losing connection, seemed a lot longer.
It's apparent from GE that the vicinity of WP16 is heavily wooded. Do you think that you got a good view up into the trees on the approach line?
Aircraft, even trees bare of leaves, can be very difficult to find. Look for broken props on the ground, and then scan the closest trees. We looked for over ten minutes in a tree underneath which we found broken props. Finally saw it about thirty yards up. Had looked right at it many times. Take some binoculars when you scout areas, especially wp16. Cloudy skies and the white ac make it very hard to spot even when your looking straight at it.
Hang in there.
Meta4
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The Phantom would have started descending from Wpt 15 and flown down to Wpt 16.
At Wpt 15 it would have been approx 165 ft above the ground.
If it reached Wpt 16 it would have been approx 34 ft above the ground.
So it would be expected to collide with a tree somewhere between 15 & 16 rather than exactly at 16.
How tall are the trees there?
