Disaster Strikes!

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I received the P4P+ for Christmas from my very generous wife. I am into photography as a hobby and I thought this drone would allow me to get some great shots. I have been flying at every opportunity and I was getting pretty confident with it although I only had less than 3 hours of flight time. It has been a lot of fun, pretty simple and straight forward.

I brought it up to a little nearby mountain community to fly. I launched the first flight without too much issue and flew for quite a distance, taking pictures. When I was close to home I noticed I lost connectivity, it was very close, and the drone went into return to home mode and I regained control and landed without incident. I changed out batteries, and started the drone and I notice the DJI go app on the controller quit working. So I powered it down and re-started it, it connected and everything seemed fine.

I launched it without problem, and this time I was filming. I flew it out less than 700 feet and 200 feet of altitude, everything seemed to be ok when all of a sudden, 2 minutes into it, I lost connectivity again. I should mention I was flying in P mode.

I hit the return to home button, and then I watched this in horror. The drone flew straight down, faster than it would usually let me descend, I was close enough to hear the motors accelerate, and it crashed into a rock creek bottom at a very high speed.

Of course the Phantom is trashed, the legs are all but detached, the camera and gimble destroyed, the bottom of the case dented, but suprisingly the props and the top of the case fared well.

I have contacted DJI about this and I am waiting for shipping labels. I am going to return the controller and the phantom because I am not sure which component had the problem. They should be able to analyze the flight recorder and tell me what the problem was. I guess I am lucky that it happened where it did because I had been over terrain where recovery would have been extremely difficult if not impossible.

The crash must have corrupted the MOV file because I have been unable to view it.
 
Ive been debating on whether or not dji care was worth the couple hundred bucks-I this just sealed the deal for me.i WILL be shoveling snow to cover the initial payment in the Cincinnati area!lol
 
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This makes me like the Care Refresh package even more. I'd get that or the State Farm policy if you want to go for a long term
 
Did you notice if you lost satellite connectivity? If that was the case the bird will have no idea where it is and I am not sure if RTH will work.

Sent from my SM-G935F using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
Ive been debating on whether or not dji care was worth the couple hundred bucks-I this just sealed the deal for me.i WILL be shoveling snow to cover the initial payment in the Cincinnati area!lol
I did not buy this service, although I contemplated it. I do not feel that this is pilot error, I did my preflight, everything was in the green. I am expecting this will be a warranty claim. I didn't do anything stupid or reckless, or fly into anything. This will be a good test of DJI's customer service. I will keep everyone posted.
 
The way the drone fell almost sounds as if it lost power temporarily, or had a motor fail.
 
shouldn't you be on the DJI go 4 app instead of the DJI go app for the p4p+?
 
Sounds like you were flying over a CIA operation and they shot you down with a jamming device. :eek: There are ways to take down a drone, as DroneLabs has developed.

Drone Labs offers a variety of countermeasure solutions and can help you to understand your options when action needs to be taken.

If you could upload your log file from your tablet to healthy drones and let us see your flight info, that might be interesting to see what was logged before the disconnect.
 
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It had satellite connectivity, but the link between the controller and the drone disconnected

Between the Radio controller and the drone? Or, between the smart device, (smartphone, or tablet) and the radio controller?
 
shouldn't you be on the DJI go 4 app instead of the DJI go app for the p4p+?
I got the plus, so the tablet is built in and whatever app it uses.

I would love to share the flight log but I am not sure how to access it outside of the controller. I know it is downloaded in the DJI cloud through my home wifi but what is the appropriate app for my iPad or computer to view it? DJI assistant?
 
Update: I was able to recover the video but it stopped recording before the descent. Shipped it back to DJI today, they emailed me the shipping label.
 
You said you lost connection, hit RTH, and then it dropped? Are you aware of the "cut motor" combo, which is left stick down and inside and RTH button at the same time.

Is it possible you had your left stick in that position when you hit the RTH button? Surprised nobody else asked this yet.
 
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The drone flew straight down, faster than it would usually let me descend, I was close enough to hear the motors accelerate, and it crashed into a rock creek bottom at a very high speed.
Of course the Phantom is trashed, the legs are all but detached, the camera and gimble destroyed, the bottom of the case dented, but suprisingly the props and the top of the case fared well.

Bummer. Sorry to hear about this. Keep us updated on what DJI was able to figure out as to what went wrong. Hopefully you will get a replacement soon.
 
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You said you lost connection, hit RTH, and then it dropped? Are you aware of the "cut motor" combo, which is left stick down and inside and RTH button at the same time.

Is it possible you had your left stick in that position when you hit the RTH button? Surprised nobody else asked this yet.
Ya know I would have thought that too, but it just didn't drop, it was powered up and accelerating straight down, very fast, it was flat and level the whole way down. I could hear the motors spooling.
 

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