DJI replaced flyaway, but now mine may have been found?

[jonequest]

I lost my drone in a FlyAway a few weeks ago in another state and could not find it. Last known location was over the water. DJI looked at my flight logs, agreed it was not my fault it lost contact, and is shipping me a replacement with battery. But now my freind who owns the condo I stay at says someone in his complex found a drone in the sand berm (not sure if its mine yet) because they left it in their unit and didn't text my freind a photo. They offered to ship it to me when they go back to their condo next month if it looks like mine.
My question is: If it is mine and I pay them to ship it back what should I do if it is easily repairable? Is this old one on some "DJI black list" now? Should I only use it for parts, even if it not in rough shape? Obviously this one wasn't in the sea water but it may have been rained on, depending on when they found it.

 

[Interficiam Stercore]

In order to use Flyaway Coverage, users must have bound their DJI account and remote controller with their aircraft using the DJI Fly app. If this binding operation has not been completed prior to experiencing a flyaway incident, Flyaway Coverage cannot be used.

Did you have to do this Binding procedure? Even if you didn't, they probably have bricked the old drone. The best you could do is sell any working parts or cosmetic pieces. I doubt it works anyway, but if there is a chance, I would try linking it to a remote and see if iit functions. Again, I doubt it will.

All this is conjecture on my part. Await the advices that are sure to follow.

 

[Meta4]

Is this old one on some "DJI black list" now?

It's hard to imagine how that would work.
Your drone doesn't contact DJI to fly.

 

[Interficiam Stercore]

It's hard to imagine how that would work.
Your drone doesn't contact DJI to fly.

For DJI to replace a drone they need to have the serial numbers or ident numbers of the lost drone before they replace it. This way, If they replaced the lost drone, but someone finds it and tries using it, it will be bricked as soon as that person logs in to get the thing to fly. The internet connection will send the lost drones ID numbers to DJI. DJI will know they replaced that particular drone and won't let it fly.

 

[Meta4]

For DJI to replace a drone they need to have the serial numbers or ident numbers of the lost drone before they replace it. This way, If they replaced the lost drone, but someone finds it and tries using it, it will be bricked as soon as that person logs in to get the thing to fly. The internet connection will send the lost drones ID numbers to DJI. DJI will know they replaced that particular drone and won't let it fly.

That's not how it works.
You are imagining things that don't happen.
You don't need any internet connection to fly.
There is no connection from the drone or your controller to DJI.

 

[Interficiam Stercore]

That's not how it works.
You are imagining things that don't happen.
You don't need any internet connection to fly.
There is no connection from the drone or your controller to DJI.

So if your in a class G airspace, the drone just flies as it should?

 

[Meta4]

So if your in a class G airspace, the drone just flies as it should?

DJI don't blacklist drones because it wouldn't work.
DJI don't know when any particular drone is flying as they have no contact with your drone.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I lost my drone in a FlyAway a few weeks ago in another state and could not find it. Last known location was over the water. DJI looked at my flight logs, agreed it was not my fault it lost contact, and is shipping me a replacement with battery. But now my freind who owns the condo I stay at says someone in his complex found a drone in the sand berm (not sure if its mine yet) because they left it in their unit and didn't text my freind a photo. They offered to ship it to me when they go back to their condo next month if it looks like mine.
My question is: If it is mine and I pay them to ship it back what should I do if it is easily repairable? Is this old one on some "DJI black list" now? Should I only use it for parts, even if it not in rough shape? Obviously this one wasn't in the sea water but it may have been rained on, depending on when they found it.

Have them ship it to you. Nothing to lose and everything to gain. You already qualified for the replacement. Nothing requires you to report finding it, or stops you from repairing it and flying it, if you can, assuming it is yours they found.

 

[jonequest]

Have them ship it to you. Nothing to lose and everything to gain. You already qualified for the replacement. Nothing requires you to report finding it, or stops you from repairing it and flying it, if you can, assuming it is yours they found.

I actually will have the replacement MA2 and battery from DJI in a day or two. It has already shipped. But now that my freind says his condo neighbors may have my old drone I went from hopeful to confused. I never expected it to be found since I lost contact while it was over water trying to film and it never came to back to where it took off. Now I may have two (or 1 and a fixable one) but don't want to get on DJI's $hit list. I actually appreciate how they stood behind their product, BUT it would be nice insurance to have a backup since they obviously do fly away sometimes. If it is not mine (unless I can identify who owns it) it may be good for future crash parts. I always put my license # on mine. I am going to find a place for my phone number too. I used to have all my info on my last craft, a P4P that crashed but never fixed due to missing camera.

 

[Meta4]

it would be nice insurance to have a backup since they obviously do fly away sometimes.

I've been looking at flight data from drone incidents for 6 years now and still haven't seen any evidence to support that.
Drones get lost for may reasons but they don't just "fly away".

It would be interesting to see what the data from your flight shows and might help you prevent it happening again.
Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.
Or .. just post the txt file here.

 

[jonequest]

I see your point. I don't know what happened. The first 20+ minute flight was perfect. I was less than one minute into my second flight on my second battery. The craft went from full signal to signal lost with a black screen instantly. I looked up after about 5 or so seconds of waiting for it to reconnect and never found it. I didn't see it in the sky and after 2 hours never found it. I have owned several DJI products starting with P3 series and never had any issues like this in the past. I have had occasional lost signal that always reconnects. But even that has only ever happened to me when I was pretty far out. In any case it should RTH as long as home point is established and you waited for good satellite connections, which I ALWAYS do. I never fly without GPS. I was in Destin. There is a base near there so I wonder if they were testing some jamming tech or something.

 

[Meta4]

I see your point. I don't know what happened.

And that's the reason to have your flight data analysed.

. There is a base near there so I wonder if they were testing some jamming tech or something.

There are 100 other more likely explanations.

 

[jonequest]

And that's the reason to have your flight data analysed.

There are 100 other more likely explanations.

DJI did analyze my flight data and determined that I was operating the craft with full battery, many satellites, etc. and did nothing wrong when it lost communication with the remote. I just wonder why it lost communication. It almost seemed like sudden power failure or something like that.

 

[Meta4]

DJI did analyze my flight data and determined that I was operating the craft with full battery, many satellites, etc. and did nothing wrong when it lost communication with the remote. I just wonder why it lost communication. It almost seemed like sudden power failure or something like that.

DJI aren't great at giving detailed explanations, which is another reason to post your data here (if you want to know more).
A sudden power loss over water would leave the drone in the water.
If it was seawater it would be beyond revival and the SD card would be the only part useable.
Did it land where it was found or was it washed up later?

 

[jonequest]

I don't know. My freinds neighbors said they found a drone and thought it might be mine. They had seen me flying it before and heard I lost one. It may be a different one.

 

[Made2Phly]

I lost my drone in a FlyAway a few weeks ago in another state and could not find it. Last known location was over the water. DJI looked at my flight logs, agreed it was not my fault it lost contact, and is shipping me a replacement with battery. But now my freind who owns the condo I stay at says someone in his complex found a drone in the sand berm (not sure if its mine yet) because they left it in their unit and didn't text my freind a photo. They offered to ship it to me when they go back to their condo next month if it looks like mine.
My question is: If it is mine and I pay them to ship it back what should I do if it is easily repairable? Is this old one on some "DJI black list" now? Should I only use it for parts, even if it not in rough shape? Obviously this one wasn't in the sea water but it may have been rained on, depending on when they found it.

Please do post the logs so Meta4 can analyze them. It is very helpful for the rest of us, or me at least, to learn the causes of others' flyaways, so as to avoid the same situation.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

With regards to the "if it is mine" question, isn't the drone's serial number on the drone and on the box the drone came in? If so give them the serial number and they can check it.

 

[GFields]

I wouldn't worry about it. It is likely that your old drone was affected by the elements and/or sand. If it works, you will have a back up.

 

[rawman001]

It's hard to imagine how that would work.
Your drone doesn't contact DJI to fly.

Hm I'm pretty new around here so am probably wrong. I thought a new drone had to be linked to DJI before it could fly. I saw a video where a guy had purchased an Air2S before the official release date (I think the store sold it by mistake) and it wouldn't fly because DJI hadn't enabled it to fly yet. I could easily be very mistaken.

 

[Oldhollowman]

Contact dji, if they accepted your original claim was valid then they may take the view that its not worth returning the drone as its likely to happen again.