However, you made a VERY IMPORTANT point regards to the Vision Positioning System (VPS) if GPS is not working due to the desolate location, perhaps the drone itself was trying to use its own visual positioning system (VPS) as a means of reporting position and it failed.
VPS had no part in your incident.
Since you were 240 ft above the water, VPS may as well been switched off, it has a max range of 30 ft.
There is nothing inherently risky flying over water and loss of GPS is about the most unlikely scenario.
In design and theory and in MOST, BUT NOT all disconnects / loss of signal does the drone return automatically.
RTH is extremely reliable.
There are very few situations in which the drone will not return home on loss of signal:
LOS action has been changed from the default (RTH) - almost no-one ever changes this
Wind is too strong
Obstacles on RTH path
We'll see what your LOS action was set to in your flight data, the others are probably not valid in this case.
Using a Samsung Galaxy Tab A and a Kindle Fire 8 loaded with Android 7 and 8, I had constant false messages of firmware mismatches. Some would pop up during flight. THEN the drone signal gets lost or the GO 4 app would crash. The RC ITSELF would maintain communication, but being blind, I would have to RTH and start a new flight after re-powering and changing to a new drone battery. WORSE yet, on other occasions, the whole craft would lose connection, likely due to GO 4 app sending false data or simple hiccups (data bit crashes - must know PC and I.T. to understand) that false signals can be generated via the software if the software perceives a firmware mismatch. AFTER ALL, THIS IS BEYOND EVEN FLY BY WIRE TECHNOLOGY, it is fly by software using on and off bits to control flight over radio signal technology... VERY delicate stuff.
All of that suggests that you are flying with a dodgy tablet that isn't really up to the task.
NO, not every time does the drone RTH on its own during signal loss. IT DEPENDS on what caused the signal loss. If it is due to the GO 4 application, you need luck, a good prayer, and a few cans of beer for your nerves and hope the darn thing makes its way home. I have had MULTIPLE flyaways and now this.... I KNOW !!!
Sorry but nothing in this statement is accurate.
If the drone loses signal, it will initiate RTH (as long as you haven't changed the LOS action).
Having multiple incidents that you believe to be "flyaways" is an indication that your understanding of how the drone works isn't the best.
how does it NOT cause a fly away ??? of course the app having a crash can cause a fly away...
Having the app crash does not cause a "flyaway" at all.
Your thinking here is very confused.
Losing the app doesn't affect your control signal at all and you still have full control with the R/C.
Have you NOT heard of a "flyaway". It is very understandable that this is one cause for such an event, others report the same as what is described here, by the tens if not hundreds.
I have heard of "flyaways", I have investigated more "flyaway" reports than you could imagine.
To save typing it all over again, here's what I think about "flyaways"
I am new here. I own the Mavic Air and never cared about flyaways. I have taken off from some dense places with 5 satellite signal and fly up to get more signal and then fly further. After reading about flyaways, things have turned out scary for me. 1. Is there are stats on how often flyaways...
mavicpilots.com
On the flyaways, I disconnected the tablet, then I took a risk by restarting my RC, and then hit RTH manually, then the craft returned. Hmm, very clearly is it that the drone was told to fly away. But I did not say to do it. Again, I re-powered the RC and then hit RTH. Clearly, the drone was receiving bogus messages until I reset and re-instructed as necessary.
Very interesting interpretation but none of it adds up.
I very much doubt that any of your drones flew away.