Bye bye PV

[PhantoMax]

I was flying over the pinewood in front of the house where I live, I was almost to landing, 6 to 8-9 sats during the flight, then 0 and of course a flyaway.

I've seen it drifting at it's right and disappeared...

No way to recall with fail safe and or switching off the radio.

Bye bye...

 

[PhantoMax]

Think that's a GPS issue...

 

[GetaGrip]

Did you try the "Find my Phantom" in the App? It may have still been able to track even though you were not showing any satellites.
Good Luck.

 

[PhantoMax]

Did you try the "Find my Phantom" in the App? It may have still been able to track even though you were not showing any satellites.
Good Luck.

No,

I'm going to try tomorrow.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Klaus]

But You can't use Fail Safe or Turn of the Radio if you have no Satellites!
That would only be working with GPS which need the satellites.

You should have put it in Atti mode and get it home manual.

But sorry to hear about you loss and hope you will find it again.

 

[Seahorse]

The Find my Phantom map is next to useless with no scale or detail.

Take a sceenie of it, import it into a paint programme that supports overlays (Gimp is free) - Import (screenshot) a google sat map of the same area and overlay the Find my Phantom map making it about 50% translucent and then scale the map so roads or forest blocks (what ever landmarks you have) line up. Once they both line up and are at the same scale you can circle the right location and use that to drop a PIN on the Google maps in your browser and go search in the right place.

 

[Pull_Up]

I suspect the lack of satellite caused it to go from GPS Mode into Atti mode anyway - sounds like it was drifting with the wind. A true flyaway would have gone like a bat out of hell. As mentioned, failsafe can't work because it doesn't know where it is in order to find its way home. It should still have been able to respond to control inputs, but in the heat of the moment it would be easy to give a wrong input and exacerbate the problem. This is also a scenario when Home Lock would not have worked...

If it did automatically shift to atti mode (yellow flash on the LEDs) then it will have drifted downwind until it hit the lower battery level point, then it would have put itself into an auto-land. If it regained satellites after a while it could have returned to GPS mode and would then have hovered in one spot until hitting the low power cut-off and autolanding. Definitely start your search by following the wind direction as it was on the day. I hope in a way it drifted quite far and away from the wood to give you a fighting chance of spotting it. Did you have your phone number on it at all in case it gets picked up by someone? Good luck, hope you get her back.

 

[LandYachtMedia]

I hope you find it.

When you get it back learn to fly it in ATTI mode. That will give you more options if you loose GPS.

If you see it drifting away as a last resort reduce the power to the props if you are over land and not in a place where it could hit someone or damage property (assuming you still have control). You may have to fix some props but that is better than a total loss.

 

[Seahorse]

I hope you find it.

When you get it back learn to fly it in ATTI mode. That will give you more options if you loose GPS.

If you see it drifting away as a last resort reduce the power to the props if you are over land and not in a place where it could hit someone or damage property (assuming you still have control). You may have to fix some props but that is better than a total loss.

Atti mode is not a panacea and having your bird zip away in the wind (which is usually much stronger the higher you go) can get you into further trouble by putting obstacles between you and your Phantom. Then when you hit RTH as you still can't see your P2V it meets something tall that was not in the way if GPS had been in charge in the first place.

It introduces a whole new way of having issues if you are unwary/unlucky have not practised with it a lot. I still have trouble understanding how something in the sky loses GPS lock tbh... :shock:

 

[PhantoMax]

I hope you find it.

When you get it back learn to fly it in ATTI mode. That will give you more options if you loose GPS.

If you see it drifting away as a last resort reduce the power to the props if you are over land and not in a place where it could hit someone or damage property (assuming you still have control). You may have to fix some props but that is better than a total loss.

Made a search...no way...it's lost.

I know how to fly in ATTI mode, but I was taking pictures and I was in GPS mode...

Tried to pull up, but no way. Absolutely no response.

 

[PhantoMax]

However, I contacted DJI Customer Service. Let's wait their reply.

And in case, I'm going to sell the RC and the WiFi repeater.

 

[LandYachtMedia]

I hope you find it.

When you get it back learn to fly it in ATTI mode. That will give you more options if you loose GPS.

If you see it drifting away as a last resort reduce the power to the props if you are over land and not in a place where it could hit someone or damage property (assuming you still have control). You may have to fix some props but that is better than a total loss.

Atti mode is not a panacea and having your bird zip away in the wind (which is usually much stronger the higher you go) can get you into further trouble by putting obstacles between you and your Phantom. Then when you hit RTH as you still can't see your P2V it meets something tall that was not in the way if GPS had been in charge in the first place.

It introduces a whole new way of having issues if you are unwary/unlucky have not practised with it a lot. I still have trouble understanding how something in the sky loses GPS lock tbh... :shock:

I understand that very well from flying manual RC helicopters for a long time.

My point is when you loose GPS the Phantom goes to ATTI mode anyway. If you are fully reliant on a GPS lock to hold you steady in the wind then you are setting yourself up for a loss when it doesn't have to be that way. If you know how to fly against the wind in ATTI mode you are better prepared for what happens WHEN you loose GPS lock. Otherwise you will likely panic and hasten the loss of the craft.

The reason for loss of lock could be bad GPS geometry, internal hardware/firmware issues, or it could be signal jamming. Regardless of the reason it is good to have a backup plan if you need one. Plan B in my opinion should be good flight skills that rely less on the automation of the NAZA. Plan C should be getting it to the ground as quickly and safely as possible even if it isn't in a location you would prefer.

This does assume you have control of the craft. If not then the choice of what to do from a flight perspective is no longer yours. All you can do is search for it.

 

[jodaddy23]

its pretty easy to panic , i try to never fly to far away . people just need to limit what they do .

 

[Big Ben]

I was wondering... was RAP enabled?

And good luck with your attempts to retrieve it.

 

[PhantoMax]

its pretty easy to panic , i try to never fly to far away . people just need to limit what they do .

I didn't panic.

 

[jodaddy23]

its pretty easy to panic , i try to never fly to far away . people just need to limit what they do .

I didn't panic.

didn't mean to say you did , i just know i have . but i still have mine . :shock:

 

[rfernandez]

Correct me in I am wrong, but if you loose GPS signal in its entirety. the unit would switch to full manual mode since ATTi ( position 2) is GPS dependent to keep itself upright!
I don't think he totally lost GPS even though the Phone showed no readings. I have lost all readings on my iPhone and still had control of the bird.
Something else went wrong.

Hope you find it. I also lost one this is my second unit.

 

[FSJ Guy]

Attitude mode just keeps the craft level. It uses the internal gyro sensors for that, not the GPS.

It will remain level, but will drift with the whims of the wind in Attitude mode.

 

[gunslinger]

its pretty easy to panic , i try to never fly to far away . people just need to limit what they do .

I didn't panic.

didn't mean to say you did , i just know i have . but i still have mine . :shock:

I also panicked in a very similar situation and was incredibly lucky to get her back. When things go wrong sometimes it happens very quickly. You go from total control to no control at all in less than a heartbeat and sometimes you just don't have time to do anything about it.

-slinger