Phantom 4 Pro Fly Away on the way ro a Litchi Orbit Mission

[Skyler King III]

Don't we all like a HAPPY ENDING?

I had a flyaway on my Phantom 4 Pro using Litchi, practicing "corkscrew", orbits with increasing radius and altitude. But I didn't get that far. BTW, latest firmware, very recent compass calibration at same point etc. Excellent Weather and KP was 2.

It started mission and just keep going until "disconnected" about 800 feet away.

I waited for it to RTH, never did. I went to the Last Known Location, provided by Litchi, and nothing.

YES, I checked RTH when flights started and AOK.

Post disappearance: Litchi reported excellent compass, Signal and GPS in the AIRDATA.com web site.

I called DJI. 55 minutes on hold. I have DJI care. They said "so sorry" because you were flying with Litchi we don't cover it under warranty or DJI Care.

Fortunately I have State Farm Personal Articles Policy, on all my drones and camera. It covers all losses without a deductible.

I expected to have to flight for my reimbursement. Not so. I provided all of the receipts, replacement costs and flight date info from Airdata. They hold me that they would EFT payment in a day.

If you don't have such a Policy, I would contact you local State Farm agent and get one. If your agent says they don't cover drones, call my agent, Christina at + 1 (203) 775-3500

They do not cover commercial use. Only Hobby.

I am told that I can get the logs from Litchi's app. I could see how to do that. Can someone help? See images below. I put last known location into Google Earth Pro, went to the spot and couldn't see it.

 

[AeroMirage]

Glad to hear you are covered under your insurance!!
Ounce of Prevention is worth pound of cure.
This is one reason I personally do not use any third party software or apps.

 

[Skyler King III]

That is exactly what came to mind. Thanks for the input. But it might have been a a/c malfunction....

On another note, State Farm paid the claim EFT on the NEXT DAY! In full. No hassle. I just provided all of the info and images that I posted here.

 

[TyInTheSky]

How much do you pay for your insurance?

 

[Skyler King III]

It's about $60 per year. If you use it as a Hobbyist and are in the USA excluding CA, I HIGHLY recommend this policy from State Farm. Let me know if your local agent says that State Farm doesn't offer it. they DO, starting last year. And as you can see, they saved me lots of grief and money and the claims process was excellent. They paid me via EFT in 1 day !

 

[tevek]

I'm pleased that you had a positive experience with your drone loss, struggling to find a company that will insure hobbyists over my way, we are still considered a pest and best to be avoided. WRT to your disconnect message in Litchi, I have experienced that a number of times during either pano or mission flights (lose video and telemetry), you still have control and can manually select RTH if need be, but it won't auto return until you lose your RC signal (green light goes out). Not sure if that was the case in your experience.

 

[Skyler King III]

NO, I did RTH and it did not do the same BEEP BEEP BEEP, just a SLOW Beep. Of course I tried control which did not work and did not RTH. Look at the Litchi "map" i posted. One way mission.

 

[tevek]

Sorry I did look at the screen shots and noticed that there were no tips or warnings as is usual when RTH is initiated and guessed,wrongly, that that was not activated.