Flew away! Strange circumstances this time

[atki]

I'm a bit confused. You have an invoice from 29th July for this new P3, yet you have flights records for the same craft going back to 16th June??

I see flights going back to the 24th of July still before he had it.. Did he post the wrong flight log?

 

[jake88]

I smell bullsh it ....

 

[atki]

Ok so what happened here?

OP posts flight log with records of flight BEFORE he actually bought the p3 and now he's vanished?

It's an incredible sequence of failures for this fly away to be legit:

1) P3 arms itself (Wow!)

2) After arming itself it takes off out of sight. (Possibly)

3) the remote/app are on/open (as OP posted this in another thread) yet it doesn't link/connect. (Very Rare)

All 3? I'm starting to think NOT!

A sequence of 3 failures and a flight log that is chronologically incorrect.. Really does smell like BS.

 

[Quadcopter102]

Excuse a newbie butting in....but I am waiting to collect my P3p later this week and for the past three weeks on various forum.... I have been read posts of fly aways.
If we were talking automobiles.....the factory would have recalled by now! The cracks in the arms seems well known....so why is there no call to collectively lobby DJI to get proactive and do there own tests. Not only that....is there no 12 month manufacturers warranty! These fly aways could be seen as software bugs...app writers are not always experts at the apps subject...ie they may not have seen a Phantom? So far I have not seen a post about an Inspire legging it for the hills at whim. Is it getting to the point we will need a videographer filming the oparator/pilots actions while setting up Flying, landing and shutting down to disprove negligence?

 

[dlbyers]

Excuse a newbie butting in....but I am waiting to collect my P3p later this week and for the past three weeks on various forum.... I have been read posts of fly aways.
If we were talking automobiles.....the factory would have recalled by now! The cracks in the arms seems well known....so why is there no call to collectively lobby DJI to get proactive and do there own tests. Not only that....is there no 12 month manufacturers warranty! These fly aways could be seen as software bugs...app writers are not always experts at the apps subject...ie they may not have seen a Phantom? So far I have not seen a post about an Inspire legging it for the hills at whim. Is it getting to the point we will need a videographer filming the oparator/pilots actions while setting up Flying, landing and shutting down to disprove negligence?

Keep in mind that no two fly aways are the same and we rarely, if ever, find out the root cause. Just like cars, quads can crash due to equipment failure, but (in my opinion) the vast majority are caused by operator error, intoxication, incompetence, distracted driving, etc. I am not saying that is or is not what happened in this case however.

 

[Quadcopter102]

Keep in mind that no two fly aways are the same and we rarely, if ever, find out the root cause. Just like cars, quads can crash due to equipment failure, but (in my opinion) the vast majority are caused by operator error, intoxication, incompetence, distracted driving, etc. I am not saying that is or is not what happened in this case however.

I can understand that aspect ... but cracked arms are surely a manufacturing /design fault and "victims" deserving of FOC replacement of the affected component , at least with the first 12 months
I have posted about "flyaways" where not only Phantoms were sent up above cloud... and malfunctioned - the operators not considering a cloud is basically a floating lake and below it is usually rising air..making decent difficult. But even on the way up... the bird is going up along with the water particles about to make up the cloud! One day this will happen and the stricken quad will fall on a person or property with dire results and the resulting bad publicity will not differentiate between sensible pilots and the village idiots.

 

[dlbyers]

I can understand that aspect ... but cracked arms are surely a manufacturing /design fault and "victims" deserving of FOC replacement of the affected component , at least with the first 12 months
I have posted about "flyaways" where not only Phantoms were sent up above cloud... and malfunctioned - the operators not considering a cloud is basically a floating lake and below it is usually rising air..making decent difficult. But even on the way up... the bird is going up along with the water particles about to make up the cloud! One day this will happen and the stricken quad will fall on a person or property with dire results and the resulting bad publicity will not differentiate between sensible pilots and the village idiots.

DJI will replace cracked shells (although the ram process takes WAY too long).

I'm not following the cloud bit.

 

[phantom13flyer]

Troll

 

[Quadcopter102]

Troll

Really.

DJI will replace cracked shells (although the ram process takes WAY too long).

I'm not following the cloud bit.

Thats Ok about the cloud stuff...just info.... as for cracks - as a newbie seeing ppl mention this and patching it up with ties etc,.... I - wrongly - assumed that DJI was not being co-operative!

 

[envisionabove]

www.youtube.com/user/prostreetcamaro/videos

He was really pushing his Phantom to MAX limits no one would even think of trying.
When you Play With fire expect to get burned.
I have a feeling he MITE have got burned.
Lot's of Autonomous flights that were very controversial to some.

All that said some nice videos....
I'm sure he was aware of the risks associated with his activities.

He was here yesterday so he knows whats going on in this thread, and he may have just chosen to rest his case and tackle it on his own.

 

[rrmccabe]

All that said some nice videos....
I'm sure he was aware of the risks associated with his activities..

I think this depends on where you are coming from. Those that have been around and saw the technology grow totally understand the risk. Those that jump into the P3 understand it has a flight computer, flies back home when lost and goes over 2 miles.

I am somewhere in between as I started in the P2 days and have had 4 quads since (3 DJI).

So I guess my point is, I really do not think a lot of the new buyers understand the risk. Not saying this is the case with @prostreetcamaro as I don't know his background.

I know one thing being a long distance flier myself, I am always amazed it comes home every (most) the time but am prepared for when it doesn't.

 

[Got Aerial]

www.youtube.com/user/prostreetcamaro/videos

He was really pushing his Phantom to MAX limits no one would even think of trying.
When you Play With fire expect to get burned.
I have a feeling he MITE have got burned.
Lot's of Autonomous flights that were very controversial to some.

All that said some nice videos....
I'm sure he was aware of the risks associated with his activities.

He was here yesterday so he knows whats going on in this thread, and he may have just chosen to rest his case and tackle it on his own.

if thats his youtube channel then it looks like he has been doing a bunch of autonomous flights with waypoint function. maybe there was a preprogramed flight in it and and took off on its own.

I wonder what waypoint app he is using?

 

[envisionabove]

if thats his youtube channel then it looks like he has been doing a bunch of autonomous flights with waypoint function. maybe there was a preprogramed flight in it and and took off on its own.

I wonder what waypoint app he is using?

Litchi and Ultimate flight he was a heavy tester, and that's fine, his last flight was about 3 miles out.
1500 feet or 2.84091 miles, could you do that without autonomous flight?
The SDK was confirmed not needed with what he had on the one that took off.
He had a 3rd party app on the Nexus that he last used and flew with.

Yes that is his youtube account.
Speculation abounds on this one even he knows this now.
It's all up to DJI and how he reacts to the decision.
For everyone flying normal use perimeters and not 3rd party app testing this is nothing to be concerned about.

 

[rrmccabe]

I have watched his live videos. I have seen him fly close to 3 miles without mission software. 1000' elevation from home.

I personally have flow 14,000 feet on stock firmware and no mission software. So its possible.

 

[prostreetcamaro]

Im not avoiding this thread at all. Just super busy with work, 8 month old and a wife that does dialysis 4 evenings a week here at home. The one that flew away was new and had 1 litchi flight on it. Blade strike asked in rc groups if anybody tested to see if the latest official firmware had sdk support. Since I had litchi and just updated the new P3P to 1.3.20 I tried it and it worked fine and reported that back to blade strike. That was the only autonomous flight on that bird. That last video was earlier in the day the day of the flyaway at a park. That was not autonomous. I still had good signal at over 15,000' away. Only reason I returned home was to make sure I had plenty of battery to get back. I landed with a little over 20% left.

One last tidbit of info. When I powered the battery on the P3 did not make the startup sound. Just went full power and up up and away. It was however heading in the direction that I flew earlier in the day. Coincidence I really dont know?

I just posted this on rcgroups

"While I am waiting to hear back from DJI I have picked up a Trackimo and am on a mission to drive around and park and fly around in the direction my new p3p headed in a vein attempt to spot it. I will no longer fly without a tracker. I have not flown once since the new one flew off. I have waited long enough for my flytrex pre order and trackimo seems like it should work well as a stand alone tracker. I will not loose another dang it! We have a lot of farm fields and woods around here so it will be a needle in a haystack attempt but might as well."

 

[prostreetcamaro]

I see flights going back to the 24th of July still before he had it.. Did he post the wrong flight log?

Nope it has not been recording flights correctly. I never fly those short distances and times. I don't know whats up with that. I am sitting here looking at it now on my phone and it is still showing everything messed up. Look at the 43.3' flight for 1 minute but it recorded 9:18 of video? Beats the heck out of me why the dates, distances and time are all messed up.

I have both phantoms under different emails. How do I change the login in the app so I can screen shot my other flights from my other P3P? I cant figure out where to sign out?

 

[atki]

Nope it has not been recording flights correctly. I never fly those short distances and times. I don't know whats up with that. I am sitting here looking at it now on my phone and it is still showing everything messed up. Look at the 43.3' flight for 1 minute but it recorded 9:18 of video? Beats the heck out of me why the dates, distances and time are all messed up.

I have both phantoms under different emails. How do I change the login in the app so I can screen shot my other flights from my other P3P? I cant figure out where to sign out?

I'm not familiar with third party apps, to be honest I'd never use them unless I'm completely bored of the p3 and don't care if I lose it. Perhaps the use of these has caused the flight log and the phantom itself to return these errors and eventual demise.

Sorry for my accusatory post and I hope your wife and baby are all good.

 

[dlbyers]

Anyone with SDK knowledge would be able to clear this up pdq. Where does the 'autonomous' code execute? Tablet? RC? Or Aircraft?

 

[prostreetcamaro]

DJI got back to me today. They are offering 30% off a new P3P and want my remote back. I wrote back asking if they could do any better since it was only 2 weeks old. $1250+$880 is over $2000 for a P3P.

 

[rrmccabe]

Anyone with SDK knowledge would be able to clear this up pdq. Where does the 'autonomous' code execute? Tablet? RC? Or Aircraft?

Aircraft. I don't consider myself knowledgeable with the SDK but since the Phantom continues from waypoint to way-point long after you have lost connectivity with remote pretty much guarantees this.

@prostreetcamaro I guess 30% is better than nothing. I think that is their standard reply.