Phantom 4 disappeared today

Terry Evans · Jan 28, 2017

Thanks for the Positive, guys. I just put together what I consider the perfect kit for my P4. I have a lot of money in it. I am certainly going to hope for the best.
Terry

Ranch5 · Jan 28, 2017

I found it exactly where the flight record made its last entry. Now the work of where and how to repair.

Neon Euc · Jan 28, 2017

Ranch5 said:
I found it exactly where the flight record made its last entry. Now the work of where and how to repair.

View attachment 74703

Great news mate. Well happy you got it back [emoji4][emoji4][emoji4]

Neon Euc

Dramface460 · Jan 28, 2017

man I know the feeling

Ranch5 said:
I found it exactly where the flight record made its last entry. Now the work of where and how to repair.

View attachment 74703

man I know the feeling ranch! my drone was on its top when I found it too on January 12th when I had a failed RTh. I hope the best for you. make sure to document all that happened on your form you will be sending the drone in with. that's what I did and DJI should help

Alan Russel · Jan 28, 2017

The train two way radio system may have caused interference...possible?

AWD · Jan 28, 2017

Working around trains shouldn't be a problem. Here's a slow moving freight running through town.

AD (video still capture)

AWD · Jan 28, 2017

Ranch5 said:
So I was a bit over six minutes into my second flight of the afternoon. I had my P4 hovering over a spot where I could get a shot of a passing train. Suddenly my screen goes blank and "Aircraft Disconnected" message appears on my iPad! What the heck????? I immediately hit the RTH button but to no avail..

I am puzzled by the amount of messages that basically state "I lost the connection with the drone and hit RTH."

If you lose the connection to the drone, RTH becomes automatic after three seconds.

However, if the RTH has started and you start pressing the RTH button, doesn't that cancel RTH?

Just trying to clean up the logic of hitting RTH when losing the connection.

AD

Jim abbatoy · Jan 28, 2017

You had a landing battery of 69%. My guess is the bird landed when the signal was lost. Check your settings. Do you have the signal loss action set to RTH or land?

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hooligans · Jan 28, 2017

I tried using follow me mode and return to home mode on a non cellular iPad and the functions would not work. So I used my wife's iPad that has cellular capability and they worked

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Jim abbatoy · Jan 28, 2017

So you found it? Where was it?

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Aotearoa Kiwi · Jan 28, 2017

Jim abbatoy said:
You had a landing battery of 69%. My guess is the bird landed when the signal was lost. Check your settings. Do you have the signal loss action set to RTH or land?

It may have hovered till its' battery was exhausted then landed as you say, but the ground doesn't look too rough enough for it to be sat on its' lid with the battery out and the camera snapped off - my guess is that it fell a decent distance to the ground after either a failure or a bird hit as someone else mentioned (may be that there is blood, feathers or other traces of bird if that is the case). The other option is that it was hit with a man-made object - angry farmer? - or it was a bug.

Neon Euc · Jan 28, 2017

Aotearoa Kiwi said:
I may have hovered till its' battery was exhausted then landed as you say, but the ground doesnt look too rough enough for it to be sat on its' lid with the battery out and the camera snapped off - my guess is that it fell a decent distance to the ground afert either a failure or a bird hit it (may be that there is blood, feathers or other traces of bird if that is the case). The other option is that it was hit with a man-made object - angry farmer?

My guess is that it landed slowly but clipped a tree branch causing it to tilt then fall

Neon Euc

Aotearoa Kiwi · Jan 28, 2017

Neon Euc said:
My guess is that it landed slowly but clipped a tree branch causing it to tilt then fall

Neon Euc

Possible but it looked from the log to be in the middle of a field, (the OP confirming it was found where he lost the signal).

F3honda4me · Jan 28, 2017

Can you get the DAT file and upload it to Dropbox then post the link here? We can use that to find out what happened according to the drone.

How to retrieve a .DAT

Neon Euc · Jan 28, 2017

It may have clipped the tree after all by the look of things

Neon Euc

Aotearoa Kiwi · Jan 28, 2017

Neon Euc said:
It may have clipped the tree after all by the look of things View attachment 74724

Neon Euc

I may be wrong but I assume that is the home point - look at the other end of the flight?

Ranch5 · Jan 28, 2017

Mylesob31 said:
My first thought is the metal train may have caused disturbance of one ever passed through? I know when I try launching at a baseball field it won't launch since the metal fences are all over. Had to move. Hope you find it.

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

The train was still a couple miles off. That's why I was hovering. I've done this before with excellent results.

Ranch5 · Jan 28, 2017

Jim abbatoy said:
You had a landing battery of 69%. My guess is the bird landed when the signal was lost. Check your settings. Do you have the signal loss action set to RTH or land?

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

I have it set to Return Home

Winterk80 · Jan 28, 2017

From the screen shot with the H on it, it appears it may be he following. When you hit return to Home it gives you two options. New home or original home. Looks like you may have accidentally assigned a new home.