MY DRONE DID A FLYAWAY HIT A ROCK AND FELL IN A LAKE!!

jcR8 · Mar 5, 2016

I CANT BELIEVE MY DRONE TOOK OFF, I COULD NOT CONTROL IT. I HELPLESSLY WATCHED IT FLY ITSELF DIRECTLY TOWARDS A CLIFFS EDGE HIT THE ROCKS AND FELL INTO A LAKE BELOW. WORST FEELING WAS WATCHING THE DRONE SINK. WHAT A WASTE OF $$. I GUESS THIS IS CALLED A FLYAWAY. ONLY OWNED IT 2 MONTHS, BUT I HAD FLOWN OVER 30 FLIGHTS OR MORE. RECOVERED IT ABOUT 2 MINUTES LATER AFTER FREE DIVING ABOUT 30 FT DOWN TO GET IT. ANY HELP WHAT I CAN DO?

Shep · Mar 5, 2016

Don't turn it on whatever you do. Search the forums, there is a post with lots of good information.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

alokbhargava · Mar 5, 2016

You need to dry it thoroughly before using it. Lake waters usually don't have salts or corrosive minerals. Try your luck. Lens drying may need skills.

tcope · Mar 5, 2016

Please don't YELL your entire posts.

With The Birds · Mar 5, 2016

WELCOME TO THE FORUM!!!

It seems you are dealing with fresh water so chances of a recovery are good...

Start here or any other of the numerous threads you will find searching the forums.
Repairs to Phantom

There are plenty of youtube tutorials on dissasembly also.

While you are waiting for things to dry out consider uploading your flight log from the GO app to Healthydrones.com and we will see if we can help you discover what went wrong.

It may be a DJI warranty job.

With The Birds · Mar 5, 2016

jcR8 said:
My phantom 3 professional just did a flyaway and landed in a freshwater spring. prob was under water for about 2 minutes before it was recovered. I dried it out with rice for about 5 days. Put new battery in and the drone turns on perfect all lights functioning, camera will not connect to app says no signal. Any ideas???

Would have been helpful to know the additional detail.......

Meta4 · Mar 5, 2016

jcR8 said:
I CANT BELIEVE MY DRONE TOOK OFF, I COULD NOT CONTROL IT. I HELPLESSLY WATCHED IT FLY ITSELF DIRECTLY TOWARDS A CLIFFS EDGE HIT THE ROCKS AND FELL INTO A LAKE

Phantoms don't usually just fly away.
It would be helpful to work out what happened and learn from the exercise to prevent it happening again.
You haven't given much information to help solve the mystery.
Are you able to explain exactly what happened?
Go to HealthyDrones.com and follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
Then come back and post a link to the HD analysis and perhaps someone will be able to shed some light on this puzzle and give you an idea of whether you might have a case for a warranty replacement from DJI..

SimonH78 · Mar 5, 2016

If you did'nt have any control how did you take off - did you not try flicking into ATTI mode? - Did you wait for confirmation to take off...??

Mark The Droner · Mar 5, 2016

From his description, he may have never launched it. Maybe he just started the motors? Or maybe he did launch it and was hovering. I've seen a ton of videos and I've heard of this kind of thing happening but it's rare, and I thought it really only applied to older crafts. The aircraft goes through its startup and then waits for satellites, gets the satellites, marks its home point. But the home point is incorrect. The home point is marked 14 miles away in error. Then it reassesses it's location and finds itself out of the safe area and so it begins flying back home because it thinks home is 14 miles away. The pilot can't control it because it is programmed to ignore the control signal until if flies back into the safe area.

It's like a one in a thousand chance or less than that.

The fix is making extra double sure you don't start the motors until you know the home point is accurate. Or make your safe area a 100 mile radius instead of a 500 meter radius.

Tony Cowan · Mar 5, 2016

jcR8 said:
I CANT BELIEVE MY DRONE TOOK OFF, I COULD NOT CONTROL IT. I HELPLESSLY WATCHED IT FLY ITSELF DIRECTLY TOWARDS A CLIFFS EDGE HIT THE ROCKS AND FELL INTO A LAKE BELOW. WORST FEELING WAS WATCHING THE DRONE SINK. WHAT A WASTE OF $$. I GUESS THIS IS CALLED A FLYAWAY. ONLY OWNED IT 2 MONTHS, BUT I HAD FLOWN OVER 30 FLIGHTS OR MORE. RECOVERED IT ABOUT 2 MINUTES LATER AFTER FREE DIVING ABOUT 30 FT DOWN TO GET IT. ANY HELP WHAT I CAN DO?

Sorry for your lost. ****!!! You took a swim to go get it? 30ft down too. HARDCORE!!!!!!!

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

cdronefly · Mar 5, 2016

Cliffs = possible GPS problems especially if unit is the standard. As others have said, always carefully check home point before takeoff.
If you are not really a skilled and conservative pilot, buy 3rd party insurance from Neary Aerials.

dirtybum · Mar 5, 2016

I'm looking on the bright side, a controller just came up for grabs, cheap, cause i need one!

Grae · Mar 5, 2016

Sorry to hear that. Crazy. Surely there's no way you can get a drone flying again after its being submerged?!

UK

alokbhargava · Mar 5, 2016

jcR8 said:
I CANT BELIEVE MY DRONE TOOK OFF, I COULD NOT CONTROL IT. I HELPLESSLY WATCHED IT FLY ITSELF DIRECTLY TOWARDS A CLIFFS EDGE HIT THE ROCKS AND FELL INTO A LAKE BELOW. WORST FEELING WAS WATCHING THE DRONE SINK. WHAT A WASTE OF $$. I GUESS THIS IS CALLED A FLYAWAY. ONLY OWNED IT 2 MONTHS, BUT I HAD FLOWN OVER 30 FLIGHTS OR MORE. RECOVERED IT ABOUT 2 MINUTES LATER AFTER FREE DIVING ABOUT 30 FT DOWN TO GET IT. ANY HELP WHAT I CAN DO?

Other possible error: Are you using a 3rd party app that has a bug in auto take off?

Everyone has talked about home point. Did you really didn't wait for the home point was set?

m0j0 · Mar 5, 2016

cdronefly said:
Cliffs = possible GPS problems especially if unit is the standard. As others have said, always carefully check home point before takeoff.
If you are not really a skilled and conservative pilot, buy 3rd party insurance from Neary Aerials.

I know they are a sponsor but at this point why would you buy insurance for an aircraft that is half the cost of a new one? The insurance would be good for the brand new P4 maybe but not a P3

Phantom 3 Pro / iPad Air 2

cdronefly · Mar 7, 2016

m0j0 said:
I know they are a sponsor but at this point why would you buy insurance for an aircraft that is half the cost of a new one? The insurance would be good for the brand new P4 maybe but not a P3

Phantom 3 Pro / iPad Air 2

I don't buy any insurance myself - my conservative piloting skills and other stuff are my insurance.

BUT, if I was worried about losing the money ($500-$1000) and I wanted more peace of mind, $15 or so a month is not steep.

Imabiggles · Mar 7, 2016

jcR8 said:
I CANT BELIEVE MY DRONE TOOK OFF, I COULD NOT CONTROL IT. I HELPLESSLY WATCHED IT FLY ITSELF DIRECTLY TOWARDS A CLIFFS EDGE HIT THE ROCKS AND FELL INTO A LAKE BELOW. WORST FEELING WAS WATCHING THE DRONE SINK. WHAT A WASTE OF $$. I GUESS THIS IS CALLED A FLYAWAY. ONLY OWNED IT 2 MONTHS, BUT I HAD FLOWN OVER 30 FLIGHTS OR MORE. RECOVERED IT ABOUT 2 MINUTES LATER AFTER FREE DIVING ABOUT 30 FT DOWN TO GET IT. ANY HELP WHAT I CAN DO?

It was trying to get away from your all caps posts.