Lost Bird

[Nicolai]

I was flying my P3P using litchi, didn't realize I was getting behind an obstacle. It was completely my fault. Height above home point was set at 500ft but I was flying over increasing terrain. I've gone on 3 separate hikes in the last week to the last known location.

The bird had 80+% battery life when signal was lost. It was perfect GPS signal and then nothing. RC and Litchi never said it was returning to home. Can't recall what color the RC light was when I was engaging the RTH button. We took my Dads P3P and flew a couple batteries skimming the area but it seems pretty clear that it didn't land when it lost signal.

It was a fairly open area that we think we would have spotted it if it just descended. I just now learned how to open a kml file from healthy drones which gives a new perspective on the height of the craft when I lost it.

I've also attached a screenshot of googles location history of my hikes, .kml and .csv files for anyone willing to take a look. Compressing a folder containing them all into a .zip file was the easiest way for me to attach.

I'm pretty much out of ideas and hope, any help or ideas would be appreciated

Thanks,

Nicolai

 

[Mark The Droner]

Welcome to the site!

It had to have RTH'd on losing signal. If it was at or above RTH height, it would have flown horizontally right into whatever it was that was blocking signal.

Next time, consider a GPS tracker. Sorry for your loss.

 

[Meta4]

I was getting behind an obstacle. It was completely my fault. Height above home point was set at 500ft

It looks like your RTH height was a little too low for this terrain.
The high point on the RTH path is just over 5600ft and Home is at 5100ft.
If your Phantom entered RTH after losing signal, this shows the path it would have taken.
The high point on the RTH path which should be the first place to look is at 32.32524N 106.60785W

 

[Nicolai]

The high point on the RTH path which should be the first place to look is at 32.32524N 106.60785W

When I punch in that GPS coordinate on my google earth It shows a much lower point that does not appear reachable by the craft from it's lost signal point what methods are you using to calculate the expected point of contact

 

[Mark The Droner]

Yeah I have to agree... the fix point shown on daftlogic is pinpointed exactly on the road (that's Dripping Springs Rd.) but to the west off the left edge of the image...

Distance Calculator

 

[Meta4]

When I punch in that GPS coordinate on my google earth It shows a much lower point that does not appear reachable by the craft from it's lost signal point what methods are you using to calculate the expected point of contact

As shown above, I drew a line between home and the last known point which will give the RTH path that a Phantom would take.
Then I gave coordinates for the highest point on the profile (as shown by Google Earth elevations).

 

[Nicolai]

Pretty sure we've spotted it from footage we took yesterday. Back to the "trail" shortly

 

[Nicolai]

We found it! The screenshot I posted earlier was in fact my phantom!

Now I have more questions... I find it upside down on some plant life, busted propellers but otherwise seemingly intact. Gimbal appears normal as does the body. There might be done sand/small rocks within the body, and it did rain in our area last night but here in New Mexico it's always spotty.

I see no signs of dried rain on it anywhere but I would love some advice from you guys more in the know of precautions I should take prior to trying to fly again.

That's the link to my last flight if anyone cares to see my crash. Obviously I was out of LOS stupidly and with the lighting I wasn't aware how deeply around the rock I was. Many lessons learned.

Thank you to those who took the time to respond to me or even read this thread. I'm new here but I'm sure glad I found this forum!

 

[royster]

So glad you got your bird back. Looked like another 10 feet you may have cleared that hill!
Maybe you can answer this question. I have my rth height set at 30 meters, I know, once you hit the rth button, the bird goes to the set height, how long will it stay at the set altitude on the way home?
Flown my 3 advanced twice, so still very nervous about letting her get to far from me.
Royster - Ont.Canada

 

[Mark The Droner]

If the bird is below the RTH height, it will rise to RTH height and fly straight home, then come down vertically.

If the bird is at or above RTH height, it will fly straight home at it's given height, then come down vertically.

30 meters is the default RTH height so be sure it is high enough for your area (e.g. mine is more than twice that).

Hope this helps.

 

[bernek]

It was the lightest crash could have happened trow on some new props do an IMU calibration and compass after then fly !

 

[royster]

If the bird is below the RTH height, it will rise to RTH height and fly straight home, then come down vertically.

If the bird is at or above RTH height, it will fly straight home at it's given height, then come down vertically.

30 meters is the default RTH height so be sure it is high enough for your area (e.g. mine is more than twice that).

Hope this helps.

Yep, thanks for the clarification!
R

 

[MasterBlaster]

So glad you got your bird back. Looked like another 10 feet you may have cleared that hill!
Maybe you can answer this question. I have my rth height set at 30 meters, I know, once you hit the rth button, the bird goes to the set height, how long will it stay at the set altitude on the way home?
Flown my 3 advanced twice, so still very nervous about letting her get to far from me.
Royster - Ont.Canada

Just don't touch the sticks while its climbing to the RTH set altitude.
If you do it will stop ascending and start heading for home. Even if it's less than your return to home altitude. I have a rule when RTH kicks in, don't touch the sticks for 20 seconds. Then if I want it to come hme faster, I push the throttle forward....
I wish DJI would fix this as I have no idea why they would have it act this way.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[bbfpv]

I have no idea why they would have it act this way.

Probably so you can stop your bird from RTH ascending into a tree or bridge.

 

[natvtrader]

looks like it flew into a hill. If I am not mistaken the RTH height is set from your starting point. It does not take into consideration hills or obstacles. I have seen a few phantoms crash because of this. My suggestion is to set your RTH height at 200' then it should climb before it starts back home.

 

[MasterBlaster]

looks like it flew into a hill. If I am not mistaken the RTH height is set from your starting point. It does not take into consideration hills or obstacles. I have seen a few phantoms crash because of this. My suggestion is to set your RTH height at 200' then it should climb before it starts back home.

Yep.
I keep mine just under 400ft.
I fly in an area that 1/2 mile from my house the ground level is 150ft higher than my home point. So if I kept return to home at 200ft, and if I lost signal in that area, it would be returning at 50ft in that area and would surely end up in a tree.
I use an app called Geo Elevation to scout out every area I fly in. This helps me determine return to home height as well as how high I need to climb as I am flying in different areas. I also use it to plan Litchi mission waypoints. It Costs a few dollars but well worth it for flight planning in my opinion.

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app