Help Needed: Lost Vision

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I've been flying for some time now. Yesterday I was flying in the area where I often fly and there was a little breezy (10-15 mph). I wondered what type of air speed I could reach with the Phantom in Altitude mode. I started up wind and made my first past registering about 53 mph. I brought it back and decided to make another pass (bad idea). I didn't start out up wind. I was at about 54 mph when I lost video link. I continued to push it hoping the Flytrex data would show my speed at over 55 mph. I also assumed it would "Return to Home" on control loss. The altitude should have been high enough not to have clipped any trees. It never came home. :cry:

I trekked out to the "Find My Phantom location". The ground cover is dense sticker bushes and small trees. I was practically on top of the location. I was getting a strong wifi signal but the camera continued to fail to connect. (my first thought was water damage). I eventually was losing daylight so I headed home. (graphic of flight attached below)

I have another Phantom flyer coming with me today to see if we can see it from the air.

Questions for the Forum:
  • When does the Phantom record its "Find My Phantom" location? Loss of video signal or loss of control signal?
    Any thoughts on locating given the battery will be dead and wifi off by this afternoon.



Any thoughts or suggestions (other than don't fly 55 mph) will be appreciated.

Cheers!
 

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If you lost WIFI signal. There is a good chance that the last reported position may not be where the phantom is.. You may have to look further in the last direction of travel.
Now having said that, Since you were in Atti mode you may have to account for wind direction as the Phantom may have drifted of that course. it appears that you have some ground to cover. I'd suggest taking a Google map of the that area and make a grid search.
 
+1

a grid search is your best bet at this point.
You should have stayed last night while you had wifi signal doing some eliminations of where it wasn't. Getting as much info as possible while you were able to. Did you try to engage motors while you had signal ? Battery probably popped but you need to try everything possible when its fresh. I know all to well about the rush of emotions , good luck keep us posted.
 
Flying downwind with strong winds is a risky business. Using RTH as part of 'normal flight operations' is not what's it intended for imho. If wind was 10-15 mph at ground level there's a good chance higher up wind speed will have exceeded the Phantom's autonomous manoeuvring speed it uses when doing a RTH making it impossible to successfully RTH. It would have needed stick input to fly upwind. Your best bet would have been switching to GPS mode with Home Lock mode and pulling the right stick. You didn't manually activate Failsafe?

Was any geofence limit active and within the range where it could have gone to? Although this should only work if it was in GPS mode. Atti mode 'lifts' the geofence. If so check along that perimeter line. As long as Tx contact wasn't lost it will have drifted with the wind in Atti without stick input. Question is whether at any time control was lost and whether RTH was able to overcome wind speed. This makes it very difficult to narrow down the distance at which it might be.
 
First off, sorry for your loss.

You might also want to install the app WiFi Analyzer to your phone. Since you said you had WiFi but no visual from the camera, you could have used the Wifi Analyzer to home in on the Phantom's location. Now since this has been some time the battery most likely is now dead.

I agree with gbshovel and you should have stayed while you had a hot signal.

From the looks of the area it looks that it will not be disturbed for some time. Rounding up a search party ( throw in some free beer) will help find your Phantom.

I do hope you find it.
 
Doesn't matter what you should've could've would've done.

All that matters is locating your Phantom.

Your friends help with another Phantom will be great.

I would first rule out any easy accessible areas. Like beside roadways where it can be easily seen.

if it was at a lower altitude it could have hit a tree line beside a road or driveway. (powerlines are also a good place to search around)
I would rule out all areas you can get to easily.
Then I would walk the path it was flying in reverse one direction, then if not found go the other direction.

What was your last known altitude?

BTW: congrats on 54mph, thats the fastest I've heard of to date. beats the heck out of my 42 :)
 
Thanks for all the thoughts and suggestions. I have someone with another Phantom coming out today. We are going to start with an aerial search of the area to see if we can spot it given there are no leaves on the trees yet.

I don't think the battery popped out since I was still getting a strong wifi signal. I reset the wifi a couple times to ensure I wasn't getting a false reading.

Walking this area in the dark would have been challenging since there is so much sticker bushes.

I'll post tonight what today's search finds.
 
First I'm sorry for your loss and hope you have good luck finding it. But thanks for posting this. Yesterday I was out doing the same thing - lower wind though. I was pretty careful, starting each run far upwind and conservative about stopping before going too far down wind. Was thinking I shouldn't be so conservative but no, I did the right thing. Mine gets up to about 54 in no wind and while I saw a hair over 60 on the phone this time, Flytrex said only 59.74. At those speeds it can't hold altitude though - another reason it's scary.

Good luck!
 
It will be very useful to know the local wind conditions at the time to make the best estimate of where it could have drifted to and how far. I'd suggest calling the local airfield (Davison AAF?). They should be able to retrieve that information for you if they are willing to help.
 
Great idea to use another Phantom for the search. Hopefully it will show up on a video file if not via ftp. That isn't a pond just past your last location pin is it? Hope you find it!
 
Wow that definitely sucks! Agree with the idea to use another phantom for the search. Video with the camera straight down and review the HD footage. There is actually a group that uses drones like ours to help find missing bodies....
 
You mentioned you were flying in Attitude mode and you were assuming it would "come Home" on control loss.

Remember return to Home ONLY works in GPS mode. Flying in ATTI mode is risky if you are flying it far as as soon as control range is lost the phantom is pretty much gone...it will drift downwind for miles and miles until it runs out of battery.

You also mention a "strong wifi" signal. Are you referring to the wifi signal on your phone? If so, remember that refers to the signal towards the range extender in your hand controller NOT the signal to the phantom.

Good luck and hope you find it.
 
djayz said:
Remember return to Home ONLY works in GPS mode. Flying in ATTI mode is risky if you are flying it far as as soon as control range is lost the phantom is pretty much gone...it will drift downwind for miles and miles until it runs out of battery.

This is not true. In NAZA M mode if you are in Attitude mode and you lose signal it will go into fail safe and start flying home, but as soon as it gets signal, fail safe mode will end and it will go back to normal operation. If you are not doing any stick input it will just drift with the wind, until it lost signal again and then the same actions would happen. Your safest bet is when you lose visual and you are in Attitude mode is immediately switch to gps mode and if you don't see it after a minute or so (because maybe it still had signal) put it in Home Lock mode (S2 switch all the way down) and pull back on the right stick. You could even do this immediately after putting in GPS mode instead of waiting a few minutes. If all else fails make sure your S1 switch in the lowest position is fail safe and you can flip to that and hope it comes back. If you don't have that switch set that way you can turn off the remote, but i don't fully like that idea and even in the NAZA M V2 Manual for the original Phantom says they do not recommend to turn off the remote.

I hope you find it!!!
 
Big Ben said:
It will be very useful to know the local wind conditions at the time to make the best estimate of where it could have drifted to and how far. I'd suggest calling the local airfield (Davison AAF?). They should be able to retrieve that information for you if they are willing to help.

Great suggestion. I was flying with the wind on my back. I'll have to see if I can get the recorded conditions.
 
browntw79 said:
More to come after the search this evening.

No luck this evening. The brush is so thick in some places we'd only be able to see it if is on top. I suspect there is a chance it's in the beaver den I came across (see pic)

I understand it could have been a total fly-away, but I have to think that it is within 900 feet of the last position since I was still able to get a wifi signal last night. I plan on continuing the search on Friday evening. Unfortunately rain is in the forecast for tomorrow and bitter cold on Thursday. I really want to find it to recover the video and Flytrex data.

(I have to keep my profile low in the house since my wife doesn't know yet :oops: and I ordered a replacement from Amazon ;) )

Thanks again for all the well wishes in the search and recovery operation.

Cheers!
 

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browntw79 said:
browntw79 said:
More to come after the search this evening.

No luck this evening. The brush is so thick in some places we'd only be able to see it if is on top. I suspect there is a chance it's in the beaver den I came across (see pic)

I understand it could have been a total fly-away, but I have to think that it is within 900 feet of the last position since I was still able to get a wifi signal last night. I plan on continuing the search on Friday evening. Unfortunately rain is in the forecast for tomorrow and bitter cold on Thursday. I really want to find it to recover the video and Flytrex data.

(I have to keep my profile low in the house since my wife doesn't know yet :oops: and I ordered a replacement from Amazon ;) )

Thanks again for all the well wishes in the search and recovery operation.

Cheers!

So if you had wifi connection then where is the "find my phantom " showing it to be?
 
gbshovel said:
browntw79 said:
So if you had wifi connection then where is the "find my phantom " showing it to be?

Here's a shot of my search area. I suspect the craft is within 900 feet of the last GPS location. It includes a muddy lake and lost of throned bushes. I resume my search on Friday by setting up flying and other PV from dirt road near the GPS point.
 

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