Help Required - Lost Drone

[sar104]

OMG Sar104, thank you so much.
I just went back out to where I was flying yesterday (120kms away) and using your location marker you projected, I found my MA just 10m from that spot. So happy!!
Thanks everyone
I’ll try to plan better and not be so dumb .
Sar104, I owe you a beer or 2!!

10 m is a good outcome but, as I mentioned, this was a relatively easy calculation. It was not complicated by high winds and there did not appear to be a lot of tall trees to get in the way. Hopefully the aircraft was undamaged?

 

[sar104]

Just to confirm - you remained at the takeoff location, and had functional uplink and downlink out to 7 km?

 

[ScottyBorresen]

Just to confirm - you remained at the takeoff location, and had functional uplink and downlink out to 7 km?

Yes, I was on a flat open area.
There was nearly no tree coverage. Mostly plowed farmland. Closest town was about 40kms away, and that was only a small town. I had full video up until I reduced altitude right at the end, trying to land. It went glitchy then, and disconnected.
There was cell phone coverage, but only 1 bar on the iPhone.
I remained at the home location.

 

[RayOZ]

Impressed that MA's transmission still worked up to 7km.
As for sar104 managing to pinpoint the MA quite accurately, it's happen way to often, it's expected.
OP, next time, if you planning on sending your drone on a 1 way mission, make sure you plan for a safe spot to land first.

 

[InvisibleName]

Not the end to this story I expected, but well pleased for you!

 

[sar104]

Yes, I was on a flat open area.
There was nearly no tree coverage. Mostly plowed farmland. Closest town was about 40kms away, and that was only a small town. I had full video up until I reduced altitude right at the end, trying to land. It went glitchy then, and disconnected.
There was cell phone coverage, but only 1 bar on the iPhone.
I remained at the home location.

The aircraft was recording video until the end of the flight - did you get a chance to review that? I'd be curious to see the last couple of minutes after the disconnect.

 

[400ftceiling]

My first post here.

OP - glad you got it back.

@sar104 you absolute legend, top
Banana!

 

[cyclonite]

Kamikaze mission with a happy ending.
Id like to see the video of the landing as well.

 

[SpinItUp]

ditto

 

[ScottyBorresen]

I'll try get it up on YouTube tomorrow morning.

 

[ScottyBorresen]

Hey, so here's the video of distance run that I did. I thought I just uploaded the last few minutes, but now realise that it's the full video... Things start to get choppy around 7m18s and RTH initiated around 7m40s

 

[SpinItUp]

Haven't even watched it yet and I'm liking the opening thumbnail shot

Sent from my W65_67SC using MavicPilots mobile app

 

[SpinItUp]

Awesome how it fades out on landing. Totally reckless and I condone what you've done. You sure had 1 lucky outcome here (but I gather you realise this NOW!!)
I hadn't got round to figuring out the red plot line and how sar104 (what a Hero) put this together. Good work sar104.

Sent from my W65_67SC using MavicPilots mobile app

 

[John MacAulay]

Wow, epic analysis and guidance, sar104. That was surely a lost MA without your help. Great find.

 

[sar104]

Hey, so here's the video of distance run that I did. I thought I just uploaded the last few minutes, but now realise that it's the full video... Things start to get choppy around 7m18s and RTH initiated around 7m40s

Thanks. That shows why the location estimate was close. In the video the aircraft commences autoland at 10' 26". Plotting video time on the previous graph and looking at the extrapolated video time for autoland estimates 628 s, or 10' 28". So the autoland prediction was accurate to within 2 s.

 

[cyclonite]

Good stuff Scotty!
Just a couple of tips re youtube videos 1) the 7 minute video could have been sped it up in editing and most importantly
2) ADD SOME CRAPPY MUSIC! SHEESH.

 

[ScottyBorresen]

Hahaha..., I realise that. I actually thought I had only uploaded the last 4 mins or so. and because people wanted to see it, I just put it up quick as I could without any editing... ie music.

 

[NAVMAV]

Migawd, that is truly a Story For The Ages!

Sar104: we have NO idea how you did that, but if nobody suggested it already, you should be UNANIMOUSLY acclaimed The Forum's "Super Star Legend"!~

Rgds, NavMav

 

[sar104]

Migawd, that is truly a Story For The Ages!

Sar104: we have NO idea how you did that, but if nobody suggested it already, you should be UNANIMOUSLY acclaimed The Forum's "Super Star Legend"!~

Rgds, NavMav

Thanks for the compliment but I really should point out that although these analyses may look complicated, they are not that difficult. The real legends here are the guys who wrote the software that enabled the decoding of the log files – @ferraript and @BudWalker.

 

[macoman]

Thanks for the compliment but I really should point out that although these analyses may look complicated, they are not that difficult. The real legends here are the guys who wrote the software that enabled the decoding of the log files – @ferraript and @BudWalker.

That is true but you still someone that help a lot in the effort to find what happened with the aircraft in accidents and loses. Your contribution to assist is invaluable.