Crashed in ocean

[apeman81]

Hello,


I flew my phantom 4 over the ocean over the weekend and it landed in the water on the way back. I have flown it plenty of times there before with no issues!


This is basically what happened:

When I took off I headed out, got about 170m out and then it was like I lost connectivity to the drone, the display was working just no buttons on the controller or the sticks. Nothing I did on the controller worked, eventually it started to come back and ended up landing in the water 100m or so from where it took off. I have uploaded the logs and can’t really tell from this what went wrong; I can see plenty of warnings for the Forward Obstacle Sensors


HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters


Does anyone spot anything strange?


Plenty of things I could have done different looking back now but it is what it is L


Thanks for the help

 

[msinger]

Please upload your TXT flight log here and post a link back here.

 

[apeman81]

Here you go

Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[tevek]

Obviously msinger will get to the root cause of the quad's demise, but looking through the HD battery log suggests that you had a cell falling over on the return leg to home, propulsion output limited to preserve battery, and also the warning regarding obstructed motor at the very end is a worry.

 

[apeman81]

Obviously msinger will get to the root cause of the quad's demise, but looking through the HD battery log suggests that you had a cell falling over on the return leg to home, propulsion output limited to preserve battery, and also the warning regarding obstructed motor at the very end is a worry.

The obstructed motor is when it hit the water

 

[Meta4]

Here you go Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

The obvious issue is that you launched with the battery reading 96% & 16.2V and within 6.5 minutes it's down to 36% & 14.3V.
That's not a healthy battery.
You should still have about 70+% in that time.
The Phantom was switched to Atti mode at 5:43.
I wonder if this is related to your issue with controls?

 

[tevek]

The obstructed motor is when it hit the water

Yep, rookie observation, sorry.

 

[msinger]

The oddest part of the log is at the end before it crashed. When you had the throttle in the full up position, your Phantom descended from 9.1 meters to 0 meters in 3.1 seconds. It was descending on its own prior to that point too when the throttle was in the center position. It seems like it was auto landing, but your flight log does not indicate that anything like that occurred.

 

[apeman81]

The oddest part of the log is at the end before it crashed. When you had the throttle in the full up position, your Phantom descended from 9.1 meters to 0 meters in 3.1 seconds. It was descending on its own prior to that point too when the throttle was in the center position. It seems like it was auto landing, but your flight log does not indicate that anything like that occurred.

At no point did I get a landing message it just started coming down on its own and it didn't matter what I did. It's all a bit strange

 

[Deleted member 62848]

Hello,


I flew my phantom 4 over the ocean over the weekend and it landed in the water on the way back. I have flown it plenty of times there before with no issues!


This is basically what happened:

When I took off I headed out, got about 170m out and then it was like I lost connectivity to the drone, the display was working just no buttons on the controller or the sticks. Nothing I did on the controller worked, eventually it started to come back and ended up landing in the water 100m or so from where it took off. I have uploaded the logs and can’t really tell from this what went wrong; I can see plenty of warnings for the Forward Obstacle Sensors


HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters


Does anyone spot anything strange?


Plenty of things I could have done different looking back now but it is what it is L


Thanks for the help

Hi u just confirmed my fear of flying over water,,,sorry to hear

 

[apeman81]

Hi u just confirmed my fear of flying over water,,,sorry to hear

Most of my flying I have done to date is over the water.....it's been faultless till now

 

[Deleted member 62848]

Most of my flying I have done to date is over the water.....it's been faultless till now

Please tell me when over water do u turn downward vps off or just leave on,

 

[tevek]

Most of my flying I have done to date is over the water.....it's been faultless till now

I fly over water most of the time and have never had an issue. Having said that, I am pretty conservative with doing a lot of checks before and after each flight. I think that your battery has been the culprit as msinger and the HD files have noted. Feel bad for you and hope you can get back into the hobby before too soon.

 

[tevek]

Please tell me when over water do u turn downward vps off or just leave on,

I never turn mine off as I never get closer than 15-20 mtrs above water and don't necessarily trust the height readings on my app display.

 

[Deleted member 62848]

I never turn mine off as I never get closer than 15-20 mtrs above water and don't necessarily trust the height readings on my app display.

Ok thanks,, i go coast alot but get bit paronoid goin to far out to sea,,,

 

[tevek]

Ok thanks,, i go coast alot but get bit paronoid goin to far out to sea,,,

Don't be concerned if you check all your settings before you take off. I'm heading to the beach to fly to an island about 3klms off shore and if I muck something up, it's lost regardless of whether I'm over land or the ocean. I've done similar trips before without any issues and it's usually a much better experience anyway.

 

[With The Birds]

HD reports a high current draw (above 30 amps) for most of your return leg. Were you flying into wind? If the whole flight was like that you would be lucky to get 10mins on a full charge.

 

[Deleted member 62848]

Don't be concerned if you check all your settings before you take off. I'm heading to the beach to fly to an island about 3klms off shore and if I muck something up, it's lost regardless of whether I'm over land or the ocean. I've done similar trips before without any issues and it's usually a much better experience anyway.

Will do thank you

 

[AlecW]

HD reports a high current draw (above 30 amps) for most of your return leg. Were you flying into wind? If the whole flight was like that you would be lucky to get 10mins on a full charge.

HD shows it at over 25A for virtually the entire flight. Maybe it was just fighting wind the whole time?

 

[apeman81]

Interesting, at ground level there was no wind very calm actually, even so the drone was at 36% when it went down so still some juice left.

I have opened a ticket with DJI to see what they say