Wonder what happened?

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My friend was flying normally without any issues and all of the sudden phantom advanced just falls out of the air lodging at the top of a tree hanging out over the river making recovery very unlikely. Was puzzling because it was high enough to clear all of the trees and when going back and uploading the flight file to healthy drones and also looking at the kml file, it dropped very fast and landed in the top of the tree. Props were tight, checked before flight and battery still had 34% when it crashed. Received a "lost signal" warning half way through the flight but unplugging and re plugged cable to phone and signal came back and it flew normally until crash. This was the first flight after upgrading to new firmware. After upgrading IMU calibration, Gimbal calibration and compass was calibrated. Can anyone review these logs and see if you can assist me with finding out some answers?

Thanks

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no there wasnt CSC was able to determine where it was in the trees by the feed on camera.. it was still powered up.
 
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Eeek! Sounds like a secondary drone with a leader rope and a hook is in order. Tough to get em from spots like that. You in the Ca Bay Area by chance? I could fashion a recovery hook to my bird and help you try to recover if needed?

Poll the forum for users nearby who may be able to perform an impromptu drone rescue mission. Post lots of photos or video from the effort so we can cheer if recovered!
 
we are in NW Georgia, we thought about that using my phantom, the problem it that it is so tangled into the top of the tree, afraid that the hook will get tangled and then both drones are stuck.. its wedged in pretty good and hanging out over the river. Basically just trying to determine what may have caused it to drop like a rock and if its a DJI issue or just bad luck..

BDOG thank you very much for the offer!
 
maybe you hit a bird I was flying last night when drone came back noticed blood on props don't have any thoughts on what I hit
 
Weighted hook with long line and spotters.

@Luap is the man with deciphering logs from what I gather. I tagged him on this post so that he can be notified and potentially help out.
 
It seems either RTH was not set or was set to return at low heights and it got stuck while lowering down when the signal was lost for 8 seconds.
 
i dont see anything in either of the posted logs showing signal loss before the crash, but RTH was not initiated. had video signal because that was how we knew it was in a tree.
 
at 2016/04/10 21:22:32.885 UTC you were at 35 m height
from this moment you were pushing throttle down at 50 % - 75 %
Phantom was descending at about 2 m/s
at 2016/04/10 21:22:42.483 UTC you stopped pushing throttle for about 1 second (at that moment Phantom was at 20.7 m)
but then you started pushing that throttle again and Phantom was descending again at 2 m/s
you stopped pushing the stick at 2016/04/10 21:22:46.383 UTC, but it was too late
Phantom didn't manage to stop descending and 1.5 second later (at 15 m height) you have "motor obstructed" error because you hit the tree
 
There is no sign of CSC (CRC is oil in an aerosol can) or RTH in the flight record.
The Phantom was flown around in a random pattern at around 200 feet.
Vertical descent starts at 15:25 @ 195 ft till 15:45 @ 115 ft and 37% battery
Flies @115 ft till 15:49
Then vertical descent til it hits tree top at 16:03 @ 49ft

This indicates a vertical descent of 66 feet at 4.7 feet per second.
Max descent under power is 9.8 feet per second so the flight data doesn't support the description of the Phantom falling out of the air.
 
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There is no sign of CSC (CRC is oil in an aerosol can) or RTH in the flight record.
The Phantom was flown around in a random pattern at around 200 feet.
Vertical descent starts at 15:25 @ 195 ft till 15:45 @ 115 ft and 37% battery
Flies @115 ft till 15:49
Then vertical descent til it hits tree top at 16:03 @ 49ft

This indicates a vertical descent of 66 feet at 4.7 feet per second.
Max descent under power is 9.8 feet per second so the flight data doesn't support the description of the Phantom falling out of the air.


Thanks.
 
at 2016/04/10 21:22:32.885 UTC you were at 35 m height
from this moment you were pushing throttle down at 50 % - 75 %
Phantom was descending at about 2 m/s
at 2016/04/10 21:22:42.483 UTC you stopped pushing throttle for about 1 second (at that moment Phantom was at 20.7 m)
but then you started pushing that throttle again and Phantom was descending again at 2 m/s
you stopped pushing the stick at 2016/04/10 21:22:46.383 UTC, but it was too late
Phantom didn't manage to stop descending and 1.5 second later (at 15 m height) you have "motor obstructed" error because you hit the tree

Thanks for your help.
 
So this bird was flown into a tree. In aviation we call that a CFIT accident. Controlled flight into terrain. That's good to know. I don't like unknown causes of accidents. Makes me nervous.
 
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One recovery option when it's too difficult is to call in a professional climber.
Check tree surgeons and arborists in your area .
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