help just lost my pv2+ vers 3.

[vinnyvetere]

Went out looking again even though the app said it was in ocean. It was beautiful day and I have to admit it would have been like a treasure hunt if the app said it was over land.
Still can't figure what happened. There was a slight breeze blowing towards the East, the direction I was flying. All of a sudden there was a big gust which took bird out of site, all the while I was trying to turn around. It finally said "lost connection"
and I didn't see it again. I went into fail safe and the distance was still growing. The height was 119 feet. At this point I shut down the controller for a while and hoped for the best. When I lost it it still had about 80% of battery. This was my third flight as I have 4 batteries. We waited at the "home set" for about 20 minutes looking and listening.
In retrospect I should have flown against the wind so that gusts would have brought her closer to home than further away. Still not sure how it "landed" in water. This was no where near my flight path. In jest I'm thinking that it was flying back home to Florida were I last flew it. It that even possible. BTW I did do the compass calibration and the GPS seemed to be working. The green lights were blinking in series of three.

Sorry for the long post I just wanted to remind everyone that these birds work on mechanical motors and software and you never know when one will screw up.

Next question, how do I to about buying just a bird. I already have about $500 worth of extras. Luckily no mods were on the bird. That would have been too much to bear.

 

[lake_flyer]

were you flying in Atti mode? In GPS mode it wouldn't have drifted away with the wind. If it was in Atti mode and the wind took it to sea, then the red dot must have been where you lost contact. It will have been drifting until it the end of the transmitter range which can't be much more then 1,5 miles. After that it will have gone into safe mode and returned in the home direction if the home lock was set correctly.

I would search in a line from the red dot to the take off point. I can hardly imagine it would have landed in the sea, unless the GPS became totally offset which is rare.
You might find it is closer then you think, I only hope nobody else found it first since you don't have your contact details on the phantom.

Good luck!

 

[vinnyvetere]

Thank you everyone for your help and condolences. Trying to decide whether to buy another and jump back in.

I was in GPS mode. I did search the line from the red dot to HomeLock. I saw it just go off on its own. I tried to turn it around but watched on the radar go further away from the center dot. RTH and shutting off the controller did nothing. I have tried RTH in the past and it worked fine. GPS must just went wacky.Can't figure why it it says it went in the ocean. The direction that I last saw go was NOT in the direction of water.

 

[Meta4]

It's always good to understand what happened, if only to learn from the experience to prevent the same happening again.
When everything is working as designed and with GPS, a Phantom that has lost control signal will return to its home point.
If GPS drops below 6 sats, the Phantom will be unable to come home and drift on the wind.
If home point is not recorded properly, the Phantom won't be able to come back.

It's not clear from your account what really happened.
These are some questions that may help to pinpoint to cause of the problem:
Where was the Phantom when last seen?
Which way was the wind blowing? Would it blow toward the sea or away from it?
Was home point definitely recorded?
How many sats just before the problem?

 

[dirkclod]

Thank you everyone for your help and condolences. Trying to decide whether to buy another and jump back in.

I was in GPS mode. I did search the line from the red dot to HomeLock. I saw it just go off on its own. I tried to turn it around but watched on the radar go further away from the center dot. RTH and shutting off the controller did nothing. I have tried RTH in the past and it worked fine. GPS must just went wacky.Can't figure why it it says it went in the ocean. The direction that I last saw go was NOT in the direction of water.

Strange vinnyvetere and we could speculate all day as to why ! It is good you do have your contact info on there as it still might turn up !!
Jump back in ? If flying yours got to you as much as it did me you would already have one on the way !
I lost my first one and in about 3 days had what I got now on the way!
Good luck to you !

 

[ccase39]

Only thing I can think of is that it was accidentally switched to atti. You said you saw it and had control for a little while but it went the opposite direction? Did you still have video feed? Im thinking you either dropped satelites or accidentally switched it to atti mode which is why your home lock and FS didnt work.

Another reason why I prefer to use Ground Station and am glad I was talked into a GPS tracker.

 

[dirkclod]

Only thing I can think of is that it was accidentally switched to atti. You said you saw it and had control for a little while but it went the opposite direction? Did you still have video feed? Im thinking you either dropped satelites or accidentally switched it to atti mode which is why your home lock and FS didnt work.

Another reason why I prefer to use Ground Station and am glad I was talked into a GPS tracker.

+1 on the tracker as 2 ways to locate is always better but not to helpful if it does hit water !
And not to swift if the battery comes out nether.

 

[kookjo]

I have had two fly aways, both times I posted on Craig's List and offered $100 reward. Got lucky, someone found and happened to check on CL and we met and exchanged PV2+ for $100. The other one was even luckier. A woman and her kids found it 2 miles away on a hiking trail. They pulled out the SD card and took to Wagreens where the recognized the area where I do most of my flying on the golf course we live on. I also happened to catch the address on my home returning home.....but that doesn't help you. So try Craig's list and post a few signs in the last direction it was going and hope to get lucky. WHY DJI does not have a self contained locator not dependent on the main battery that can give off a homing beacon for at least a week is beyond my understanding. Likely due my guess of 25-30% of sales are return buyers who have lost or crashed beyond repair as it is an addictive hobby and they know this. Best of luck finding it, you may just be surprised as if it is found assuming not by some knucklehead, they will have some intellectual curiosity and share with others and SOMEONE will mention Craig's List.

Good luck brother, I've been in your shoes and it sucks.

Regards,
Brad