$1500 just flew away and kept going

[Pete Inorio]

Well, it happened. She flew away. I was out in the middle of the desert trying to get an "epic shot" of a mountain. I didn't have "data" on my cell at the time. I went through pre flight which included compass calibration (away from the truck), GPS acquisition (19 satellites acquired), RTH point updated and confirmed, etc. etc... I launched with no complications. I even hit RTH and the aircraft returned and began to land in the proper location without incident. I canceled the operation and switched to sport mode and flew to my destination. At a distance of 9823.5 ft and an elevation of 787.2 ft I lost video feed and received an error message and chimes "aircraft disconnected". 15 satellites acquired at the time of disconnect. I hit the RTH button... nothing... I could see the drone begin to travel north (my left) at a consistent elevation, blinking yellow and red. I switched to ATTI mode.... no response... I had 9min 22 sec of battery left. We attempted to hop in the truck and chase it in hopes of reconnecting... nope. Severely disappointed in the failure of the "fail safes". Before you get all up in arms about stuff I coulda, shoulda, woulda, please just try to be helpful and tell me theres a way to find where she went down? WHY DIDN'T IT COME HOME!!!!!!!! 100's of miles from no where so I'm pretty sure that reward sticker means absolutely nothing. Last recoded location was the place it lost signal and became disconnected. Thanks. Bummed.

Well, it happened. She flew away. I was out in the middle of the desert trying to get an "epic shot" of a mountain. I didn't have "data" on my cell at the time. I went through pre flight which included compass calibration (away from the truck), GPS acquisition (19 satellites acquired), RTH point updated and confirmed, etc. etc... I launched with no complications. I even hit RTH and the aircraft returned and began to land in the proper location without incident. I canceled the operation and switched to sport mode and flew to my destination. At a distance of 9823.5 ft and an elevation of 787.2 ft I lost video feed and received an error message and chimes "aircraft disconnected". 15 satellites acquired at the time of disconnect. I hit the RTH button... nothing... I could see the drone begin to travel north (my left) at a consistent elevation, blinking yellow and red. I switched to ATTI mode.... no response... I had 9min 22 sec of battery left. We attempted to hop in the truck and chase it in hopes of reconnecting... nope. Severely disappointed in the failure of the "fail safes". Before you get all up in arms about stuff I coulda, shoulda, woulda, please just try to be helpful and tell me theres a way to find where she went down? WHY DIDN'T IT COME HOME!!!!!!!! 100's of miles from no where so I'm pretty sure that reward sticker means absolutely nothing. Last recoded location was the place it lost signal and became disconnected. Thanks. Bummed.

The controls were taken over by Hillary Clinton's Black Ops Team.

 

[Msw46]

Well, it happened. She flew away. I was out in the middle of the desert trying to get an "epic shot" of a mountain. I didn't have "data" on my cell at the time. I went through pre flight which included compass calibration (away from the truck), GPS acquisition (19 satellites acquired), RTH point updated and confirmed, etc. etc... I launched with no complications. I even hit RTH and the aircraft returned and began to land in the proper location without incident. I canceled the operation and switched to sport mode and flew to my destination. At a distance of 9823.5 ft and an elevation of 787.2 ft I lost video feed and received an error message and chimes "aircraft disconnected". 15 satellites acquired at the time of disconnect. I hit the RTH button... nothing... I could see the drone begin to travel north (my left) at a consistent elevation, blinking yellow and red. I switched to ATTI mode.... no response... I had 9min 22 sec of battery left. We attempted to hop in the truck and chase it in hopes of reconnecting... nope. Severely disappointed in the failure of the "fail safes". Before you get all up in arms about stuff I coulda, shoulda, woulda, please just try to be helpful and tell me theres a way to find where she went down? WHY DIDN'T IT COME HOME!!!!!!!! 100's of miles from no where so I'm pretty sure that reward sticker means absolutely nothing. Last recoded location was the place it lost signal and became disconnected. Thanks. Bummed.

You should be flying line of sight and at that altitude you are breaking Faa rules

 

[flpholt]

Not true, I sent mine up to 1360 ft and had no problem seeing it.

let me help you out 1360 feet is way different than almost 10.000 feet

 

[BRENTHABBESHAW]

That's rough dude... Maybe you can explain to DJI what happened

How could you even see it, or lights at 1.7 miles away? Binoculars? Curious ! Sorry about your loss !

 

[steveeds]

Well I was hoping for a happy end by page 3, are you going for a long walk now you have an idea where to look, a good set of 20x80 Konus binos will come in handy for this mission (I have 2 sets just for this, cant use them at the same time ).

We need a good result here.

 

[GeoffJ]

RTH height looks set to 110 feet.
I think sar104 is on the money if the hill was higher than 789 feet.
I think it heads home in GPS mode at a relatively comfortable speed to get the best distance per battery figure. Whether Object Avoidance worked would have depended on the shape of the hill and features.

 

[msinger]

GeoffJ, check out the previous posts. All of your suspicions have already been discussed and confirmed/denied.

 

[PhoenixP4]

Sport mode landed me in a pond. I forgot it was on and the descent was much quicker than typical with no avoidance sensors. Splash before I could react. I was lucky when I lost signal it initiated the RTH and came home dripping wet with a broken gimbal but the battery compartment and motors did not submerge. The drone is smarter than I am for sure. Next time I fly sport mode I'm gonna put a sticky note on my controller to remind me I'm in that mode so that I know to take it off when coming down or maneuvering around obstacles. I'm going to fly sport mode high and straight only.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[Pro338]

FYI max flight altitude is 400 ft according to the FAA. Drone must be in you line of sight during flight. Not trying to be a jerk here.

Sent from my SM-G930V using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[msinger]

FYI max flight altitude is 400 ft according to the FAA.

To clarify, it's 400 feet AGL and it's just a recommendation. Check out the OP's flight. He never exceeded 400 feet AGL.

 

[flpholt]

well I'm going to go fly mine up to 2650 feet this sunday wish me luck

 

[Pro338]

To clarify, it's 400 feet AGL and it's just a recommendation. Check out the OP's flight. He never exceeded 400 feet AGL.

I am sorry you are right! [emoji106]

Sent from my SM-G930V using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[JSamJr]

Thats what it looks like to me. According to topo maps of the area, the Home point was 4750 feet and the peak it went behind was 5520 so the RTH altitude would have had to be set to over 770 feet to clear the peak. Your best bet is to hike around that peak.

 

[JSamJr]

well I'm going to go fly mine up to 2650 feet this sunday wish me luck

Why 2650? What's special about that altitude?

 

[flpholt]

Why 2650? What's special about that altitude?

get above clouds due some surfing plus is max height it will go

 

[sar104]

get above clouds due some surfing plus is max height it will go

Maximum altitude is 500 m above takeoff point, which is 1640 ft. Or am I missing something?

 

[JSamJr]

To clarify, it's 400 feet AGL and it's just a recommendation. Check out the OP's flight. He never exceeded 400 feet AGL.

Record shows he reached 789 ft AGL

 

[flpholt]

Maximum altitude is 500 m above takeoff point, which is 1640 ft. Or am I missing something?

going to use my pumpkin it goes 2650 feet up

 

[sar104]

Record shows he reached 789 ft AGL

No - the records show that he reached 789 ft above the takeoff point. However, since the ground that he was flying over was not flat, that does not tell you anything about his actual altitude AGL unless you use a DEM to compare recorded altitude and ground elevation. As an obvious example - assuming that the aircraft flew into the back of the mountain in question when its altitude (above takeoff point) was 789 ft, then obviously it was not at 789 ft AGL at that point - it was 0 ft AGL.

 

[Flintstone]

Well, it happened. She flew away. I was out in the middle of the desert trying to get an "epic shot" of a mountain. I didn't have "data" on my cell at the time. I went through pre flight which included compass calibration (away from the truck), GPS acquisition (19 satellites acquired), RTH point updated and confirmed, etc. etc... I launched with no complications. I even hit RTH and the aircraft returned and began to land in the proper location without incident. I canceled the operation and switched to sport mode and flew to my destination. At a distance of 9823.5 ft and an elevation of 787.2 ft I lost video feed and received an error message and chimes "aircraft disconnected". 15 satellites acquired at the time of disconnect. I hit the RTH button... nothing... I could see the drone begin to travel north (my left) at a consistent elevation, blinking yellow and red. I switched to ATTI mode.... no response... I had 9min 22 sec of battery left. We attempted to hop in the truck and chase it in hopes of reconnecting... nope. Severely disappointed in the failure of the "fail safes". Before you get all up in arms about stuff I coulda, shoulda, woulda, please just try to be helpful and tell me theres a way to find where she went down? WHY DIDN'T IT COME HOME!!!!!!!! 100's of miles from no where so I'm pretty sure that reward sticker means absolutely nothing. Last recoded location was the place it lost signal and became disconnected. Thanks. Bummed.

I feel your pain. In hindsight I have added a Bluetooth chip to mine that sends a signal to my iPhone not a great distance but good for 200+ feet from the chip. You can also add a small battery operated LED light and turn it on before flying it may be possible to see the light at night time while searching the approximate area. One thing I have seen in YouTube videos people fly to high and get caught in winds at higher elevations that the craft is not strong enough to fight its way back or land automatically on low battery. Especially from desert thermals and mountain areas.