Just lost my P4 this evening.

[KevMo Photog]

I guess I pushed it too far this evening with my P4. So I'm flying across the Ohio River directly across from Louisville Kentucky. I'm on Indiana side of river and it's about a mile across the river to get to the buildings. Dumb me got lined up to go between two 500ft tall buildings in town. Started driving right between them and totally lost connection almost instantly. Had 70% battery left so I thought no problem should be coming home. But return altitude was set at 120 meters. Not tall enough if it has to go over the tallest building. But it should not have hit it because of Object avoidance right? It should have just stopped and tried to go around or just hover there until battery ran out right? I was using Windsurfer's too btw. Which I don't think I would have got as far over the city as I did without them. But they did not help when it ducked behind 500ft tall building at over a mile out. My stupidity for sure
But anyway, it never came back at all. So I drove over to downtown Louisville and walked the streets and even talked to two security guards and gave them all my info. All of my info was on the bird too. So hoping I get lucky and get a call on it. I'm almost more pissed because of the nice footage I had of barges going up and down river and the awesome sunset on the skyline was cool too. I will also never set my maximum altitude to 400ft ever again either. I was trying to climb to get just above those bulidings which may have kept my RC control. But with max altitude set at 400 it would not let me climb as I was driving it forward. This def my fault and I should have known better than to try flying these buildings and being so far away from me. Lesson learned I guess. Be glad to upload the files from my Ipad if I knew how. Help on that if possible? Now what to do next? I was ready for an Inspire anyway. As much as I freaking love the P4, I'm ready for a little better sensor with better stills too!

 

[mxx408]

I guess I pushed it too far this evening with my P4. So I'm flying across the Ohio River directly across from Louisville Kentucky. I'm on Indiana side of river and it's about a mile across the river to get to the buildings. ******* me got lined up to go between two 500ft tall buildings in town. Started driving right between them and totally lost connection almost instantly. Had 70% battery left so I thought no problem should be coming home. But return altitude was set at 120 meters. Not tall enough if it has to go over the tallest building. But it should not have hit it because of Object avoidance right? It should have just stopped and tried to go around or just hover there until battery ran out right? I was using Windsurfer's too btw. Which I don't think I would have got as far over the city as I did without them. But they did not help when it ducked behind 500ft tall building at over a mile out. My stupidity for sure
But anyway, it never came back at all. So I drove over to downtown Louisville and walked the streets and even talked to two security guards and gave them all my info. All of my info was on the bird too. So hoping I get lucky and get a call on it. I'm almost more pissed because of the nice footage I had of barges going up and down river and the awesome sunset on the skyline was cool too. I will also never set my maximum altitude to 400ft ever again either. I was trying to climb to get just above those bulidings which may have kept my RC control. But with max altitude set at 400 it would not let me climb as I was driving it forward. This def my fault and I should have known better than to try flying these buildings and being so far away from me. Lesson learned I guess. Be glad to upload the files from my Ipad if I knew how. Help on that if possible? Now what to do next? I was ready for an Inspire anyway. As much as I freaking love the P4, I'm ready for a little better sensor with better stills too!

Go to healthydrones.com and follow their instructions.

 

[MAD35 P4]

bugger, thats not good. Cant you see your last known position on the map? I recently ran out of battery on a long return flight and managed to find my P4 using the map.

View media item 2190

 

[KevMo Photog]

Yes I can see it on my ipad footage. It ends just before the two tall buildings. I walked all over the place down where it was. No luck. Need help on how to upload the small cache video file from my Ipad. Never done that before.

 

[KevMo Photog]

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Here is the flight record. But it's all just scribble chinese stuff.

 

[johnny21]

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Here is the flight record. But it's all just scribble chinese stuff.

Your video is private...

 

[Sky Architect]

I bought a trackimo gps attachment for this, so you may want to look into that option in the future. Also leave notes around the last known location. Better to try and fail than not have tried at all. Future speaking be aware of metal and magnetic fields, ships with antennas, anything that has that or emits a signal close enough to the 2.4 GHZ will jam your drones antenna. Some corporate businesses are already looking into this technology. The building itself probably is to blame here but anyways, hope this helps.

 

[Meta4]

Go to healthydrones.com and follow their instructions.

Unfortunately it's the new firmware and the Phantomhelp.com viewer can't read that.

 

[psychosunshine]

Did you have any issues with the river or the bridge over the river? Or only with the buildings on the other side? I was planning on getting some footage on the Ohio River in Madison Indiana. But, I was not sure if the bridge would interfere with the signals or not.

 

[apex1]

I have a label on my P4 with my phone number on it. That was my first "accessory" before I took my first flight. I also use a Trackimo but I am without it for now because I returned the 2G model I bought and I am waiting to receive the new 3G model directly from Trackimo. Hopefully somebody will be able to track you down through your FAA number you placed on your drone. I'm not sure if that's possible--I have not heard of anyone trying it yet.

 

[KevMo Photog]

Your video is private...

Just changed it to public man. Sorry!

 

[KevMo Photog]

I have a label on my P4 with my phone number on it. That was my first "accessory" before I took my first flight. I also use a Trackimo but I am without it for now because I returned the 2G model I bought and I am waiting to receive the new 3G model directly from Trackimo. Hopefully somebody will be able to track you down through your FAA number you placed on your drone. I'm not sure if that's possible--I have not heard of anyone trying it yet.

I also def had my telephone number on it with FAA number from day one too. Hopefully I'll get lucky man.

 

[KevMo Photog]

Did you have any issues with the river or the bridge over the river? Or only with the buildings on the other side? I was planning on getting some footage on the Ohio River in Madison Indiana. But, I was not sure if the bridge would interfere with the signals or not.

Had no issues at all the whole time going over and down past both big bridges and then came back and went a couple of blocks into the city. Just over a mile out. Full bars on everything. Also flying with the Windjammers too. They def help a decent amount btw. It looked so **** cool with the clear sky and gorgeous late sun lighting up all the buildings I just kept driving it at 400ft and tried to go right between the PNC Bank and The Gault House Hotel. It disconnected almost instantly when I got the PNC Bank between me and my controller across the river where I was. Looking at the video again, It could very well be on that shorter building that is just in front on the tall PNC Bank building. But it should have tried to go home which Im thinking it would have came down to my set RTH altitude and then head right for me. But it would have stopped if a building was in its way. Then I would assume it would stay there until it ran out of battery. Which it had almost 70% left on it btw.

 

[KevMo Photog]

I bought a trackimo gps attachment for this, so you may want to look into that option in the future. Also leave notes around the last known location. Better to try and fail than not have tried at all. Future speaking be aware of metal and magnetic fields, ships with antennas, anything that has that or emits a signal close enough to the 2.4 GHZ will jam your drones antenna. Some corporate businesses are already looking into this technology. The building itself probably is to blame here but anyways, hope this helps.

I will def be purchasing a GPS tracker for sure in the very near future. Which one do you have? Thanks for the help too!

 

[FlashBuddy]

Great footage, hope you find your bird and get the full hd out of it. Have you used Litchi?. Your flight would make an awesome 'mission', and it would come home (generally speaking).

 

[r62ewa]

During my UAV training course we learned of this exact situation of flying near buildings and the signal disruption that can result leading to a disconnect with your aircraft. Unfortunately I don't remember the name of the phenomenon, I'll have to look at my notes, but the building causes an interference with the radio signal. You don't have to fly behind the building for it to occur, your aircraft can be in line-of-sight.

 

[johnny21]

Great footage, hope you find your bird and get the full hd out of it. Have you used Litchi?. Your flight would make an awesome 'mission', and it would come home (generally speaking).

I agree, with Litchi you don't have to worry about signal loss.

 

[KevMo Photog]

Great footage, hope you find your bird and get the full hd out of it. Have you used Litchi?. Your flight would make an awesome 'mission', and it would come home (generally speaking).

Thanks so much man. Yeah I'm sick about losing the footage more than the bird tbo. And yes, I have used Litchi to do a complete golf course virtual tour. Love it. Just got ahead of myself and running out of light so I did not even think about programming a mission like this over the river. I have seen Dirty Bird's video of flying all over building's ect. But he said he uses Litchi for this too. I will def learn a lesson from this for sure. I just got too excited how awesome it was looking to go right between the two tall buildings. And then BAM! DISCONNECT instantly!

 

[KevMo Photog]

I agree, with Litchi you don't have to worry about signal loss.

If I had been thinking slowly I would have set up a mission real quick in Litchi. But I was hurrying running out of light and just went ahead and flew manual. Got too excited how cool city looked. Had full bars on everything almost the entire flight. But lesson learned here for sure. Seen Dirty Bird do flights all over buildings with Lithchi. He has to be totally losing signal as far out as he is too. But Lithci continues to fly the mission even disconnected right?

 

[Sky Architect]

I will def be purchasing a GPS tracker for sure in the very near future. Which one do you have? Thanks for the help too!

Lol it clearly states trackimo. I just ordered my P4 and it was an optional thing so I was like uh... yessss.... lol.