Phantom 4 CRASH PLEASE HELP!!!

pete923 said:
Where did you see this 30 mile TFR? I wasn't aware of this. Can you send a link to the TFR? can't find it on the FAA's website. EDIT- any possible TFR for obama looks like they ended late yesterday. The flight took place this afternoon
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Obama departed Chicago at 1:20 am today (Wednesday) per White House news release. TFR in full effect at that time. No indication of when TFR was lifted or expired. FAA removes Presidential TFR's from the listing when they expire.


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pete923 said:
|| Departs Chicago 1:20 am It looks like he left at 1:20 AM this morning central time On the Faa's website here (7/2007 NOTAM Details) all flight restrictions seem to have been over by this (wednesday) afternoon. Correct me if I'm wrong because I very well may be. Thanks for all your help
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Like I edited above, FAA removes Presidential TFR's from the list when they expire. Since you got a "no-fly warning" on your first attempt, it may or may not have still been active --OR-- the app still had been recognizing the TFR as active.

According to the NOTAM, it was scheduled to expire 05:15 1/11/17
Hope you get it sorted out.


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This is what I think/hoped happened. DJI Go thought the TFR was still active, but It wasn't. Still leaves some unknowns as to why the app let me take off. I flew 2000 feet out, and RTH took almost the same route back. How could it let me fly through the TFR On the way out and auto land on the way back?

When you say 5:15, do you mean am or pm?
 
pete923 said:
This is what I think/hoped happened. DJI Go thought the TFR was still active, but It wasn't. Still leaves some unknowns as to why the app let me take off. I flew 2000 feet out, and RTH took almost the same route back. How could it let me fly through the TFR On the way out and auto land on the way back?

When you say 5:15, do you mean am or pm?
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AM. If the app thought you were in a no fly zone, either R1 or R2, it has specific responses to each area. R1 it will go into semi-automatic auto land. R2 has different conditions. Both listings are in the manual. Sorry I can't quote them from memory.


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captainmilehigh said:
AM. If the app thought you were in a no fly zone, either R1 or R2, it has specific responses to each area. R1 it will go into semi-automatic auto land. R2 has different conditions. Both listings are in the manual. Sorry I can't quote them from memory.
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So basicall you think the app malfunctioned. It thought there was a TFR when it had actually ended hours ago. Do you think I have a decent chance in a case with DJI? Haven't heard great things about their customer service
 
pete923 said:
So basicall you think the app malfunctioned. It thought there was a TFR when it had actually ended hours ago. Do you think I have a decent chance in a case with DJI? Haven't heard great things about their customer service
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DJI will replace your drone if it was not pilot error. You hear a lot of horror stories because many who have accidents, knowingly or unknowingly blame DJI and want a replacement. DJI looks at the data and makes their decision, sometimes not to the liking of the individual. In cases where it is a drone issue, DJI usually replaces the drone.
 
pete923 said:
The height you can fly slowly increases as you get further out from the airport. Supposedly, once you get five miles from the airport, all restrictions are lifted and you can fly the full 400 feet. If not, the A/C is only supposed to descend to the maximum altitude, not auto land completely. Let me know if I'm wrong.
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That is my general understanding also. What I am wondering is whether that fact the AC was executing a RTH has a bearing here. It might be that the software can't provide for the required decent to allow for the RTH to continue (or in the alternative plot a course around it) so performs an autoland. Unless I have missed something it might be that DJI has provided less than adequate detail on the intricacies of NFZ behaviour.
 
Won't hurt to try with DJI. Your log shows you entering (or being in) a no fly zone at 4+ minutes and it initiated autoland. If you could state that you had no directional control at that time you may get them to fix or replace the bird. It's my understanding that you have directional control (steering) on semi-auto descent, but it will land at a slower rate so you can steer around obstacles, trees, etc.

I'd start a case with them and see where it goes. They will probably ask you for your flight logs, which you already have from Phantomhelp.


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pete923 said:
I am waiting a couple of days to power it on. Do I have a chance in a case with DJI? I'm really not sure how there could have possibly been a no fly zone. Even then, it should tell me there's a no fly zone instead of letting me fly in it the auto landing into a forest. The only way it could auto land is if it had weak gps, allowing me to fly into it, then regained gps once I got in it. But I had 17 sats the whole flight. The main reason I pushed on after the first hint was because I had flown at this spot multiple times before and had no issues. When the drone restarted, I got all systems go. I keep coming back to the fact that there wasn't actually a NFZ in my area. Even if there was a small airport 8 miles away, it is well away from the 5 mile NFZ. I would like to get some answers. Thanks all for input
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Because you did have strong GPS for the whole flight the only realistic way for you to have flown into a NFZ 1/3 of the way back home is if it was switched on as you were flying. Surely that is unlikely so the indications are that you had a GPS fault and DJI should come to the party with repairs.

The other mystery is even though the aircraft clearly received 2 "landing cancelled" orders (before the prang) it took no notice of them, is that because due to the GPS fault they were ignored because the Phantom thought you in a NFZ or some other reason.

Now even if the auto land was triggered in error you should have been able to hold the Phantom at its vertical height at any stage on the way down by pushing the left stick up. Then that would have given you some time to maneuver the AC to a more open area for landing or to bring it back home because there was still plenty of battery left.
 
Quamera said:
Now even if the auto land was triggered in error you should have been able to hold the Phantom at its vertical height at any stage on the way down by pushing the left stick up.
Click to expand...

The autoland procedure was irreversible, just like the critical battery autoland. I believe I still had directional control (forward, back, left, right). But this didn't do me any good because I would have had to go almost 1000 feet either way to get to a safe landing area. Still so many unanswered questions here
 
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I think the only way you have a case with dji is if the reason for the two NFZ warnings were somehow invalid or your GSP was malfunctioning (I don't see any GSP errors). DJI can see from the GPS coords where you were when they gave the NFZ warnings and should be able to tell you the exactly reason for them (i.e. the VIP TFR). At least knowing if it was indeed the Obama TFR and understanding how DJI handle the expiry times, auto landing, etc. would be useful.

I haven't looked, were you on the very edge of the 30 mile TFR or a couple of miles inside of it?
 
DJI can also look at your stick movements after the NFZ auto landing was initiated to see if you 'tried' to steer around obstacles, and if the bird followed or ignored those commands. The encrypted data stored on the internal micro-sd card is usually the key in determining if it is pilot error, or DJI error.


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They will also see that other flight attempt and the warning. I would not be adversarial with them and basically ask what happened and if there was anything wrong etc.
 

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