Lost drone in Puerto Galara Philippines

[jwilson]

So on April 16th I made a trip to Puerto Galara, Philippines, with my Mavic 3 Pro. It's a great place to fly a drone because there are no airports around so you can go up to 1,000 meters. It's a peninsula that has a lot of hills and coastline. I had flown my Mavic Pro Platinum there in 2018. But I was excited about the Mavic 3 Pro's better capabilities. So first I flew up to 1,000 meters. Then I flew two out of signal range waypoint missions. So it was getting dark, around 6, and I made the mistake of making another flight. This was around Sabang Beach, the major tourist destination there. What follows is what I emailed to DJI.


Last night I was flying at dusk. It came up with a message saying because of the dim light, obstacle avoidance wouldn't work. So somehow I got too close to a palm tree and hit it. I looked for it for thirty minutes, but couldn't find it, the terrain was extremely steep, and I kept falling down. I used find my drone and heard beeps, but didn't see any lights. When I was leaving I fell down and rolled 30 of 40 feet, my shoulder hit something and was extremely painful. Now I had to get back to the road with only one arm.
So today I got a bunch of guys to help me look for it. They found my bag, my remote control, but they couldn't find the drone. I think it stuck in a tree. So we will need another drone to look for it.
I got my shoulder X-rayed, and their are no broken bones, but it hurts like hell when I move it.

So DJI got me the coordinates.


Yes. I am Chloe. We used the information of the DJI RC N1 to find out that the final coordinates of your drone are 13°31'05.4"N 120°58'36.2"E.
Here's the picture they send me of where it should be.





We apologize for the inconvenience. Because, according to your drone serial number query, you are bound to the DJI RC. We used the information from the DJI RC query.

Can you help me find it? I know the general area. So DJI sent my the last known coordinates. But it still had a 30 meter area where it could of been.



So the fact that I could hear the beeps means I couldn't of been too far away. How do I upload the flight logs. Can I find out what it's last GPS coordinates were, since it was connected. Thanks in advance.



I got this email from DJI today.


Dear Customer,


Thanks for your patience.


This is Leo from the data analysis team, and I will be assisting you on this case from now on for related inquiries about data analysis.



1. The aircraft worked under GPS mode;


2. Flight Time T=10:31, Relative Height H=0.0 m, Distance to Home Point D=289.2 m, the pilot pushed the pitch stick up, but the aircraft flipped over;


3. Home point: 13.5206892, 120.9767030, and the incident point: 13.5180889, 120.9767543.


Conclusion: Unable to figure out the cause of the accident based only on the flight record.


If the aircraft cannot be recovered, we would like to offer you a replacement, a DJI Mavic 3 Pro aircraft (without the remote controller and battery charger). There is one Battery included.


Please kindly send us the following information:


Shipping address(PHILIPPINES):


Contact name:


Phone number:


----------If the model is incorrect, please let us know.



Please also follow the instructions in this link in order to complete the flyaway report: https://dji.ink/t3iPjA. After you complete the flyaway report, please let us know.


Should you have more questions about the result of the data analysis, please reply to this email directly. Then we will contact you via email in 1-2 working days.


Thanks for your support. Have a nice day!


Best Regards,


Leo


DJI Technical Support


So anyway, they've offered to replace my drone and battery for free, even though the loss was my fault.


They said I pushed left stick up, which I don't remember doing. Because I thought I could go forward a lot more without hitting anything. So maybe that caused the crash. My wife paid guys to climb up 7 coconut trees to look for it but they couldn't find it.

 

[KB9Radio]

If they're going to send you a new one, you lucked out. As the saying goes, "take the money and run".

 

[jwilson]

If they're going to send you a new one, you lucked out. As the saying goes, "take the money and run".

Yea, I did luck out because it was definitely my fault. The sad part is it happened on the first day I was there, so I have no video for the whole trip. I've lost drones toward the end of a trip and that's not so bad.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Seems like they think it was their defect:

"the pilot pushed the pitch stick up, but the aircraft flipped over"

 

[Aerophile]

Is it legal for you to fly this drone at 1000 meters altitude in this location?

 

[GadgetGuy]

Is it legal for you to fly this drone at 1000 meters altitude in this location?

Do you not believe the OP?
"It's a great place to fly a drone because there are no airports around so you can go up to 1,000 meters."

 

[Aerophile]

Do you not believe the OP?

Is that a serious question? I didn't see a "sarcastic" tag...

I have no idea if the OP is a liar or not, is just stunningly clueless (doesn't realize that there are laws and regulations that govern drone flights), if he routinely ignores all laws and regulations because freedom, or maybe he's just a lot smarter than me or you. Could be all sorts of things. We do know he somehow managed to crash his drone, and seems to be very lucky (DJI is sending him a new one).

That said...he says he was flying his drone at 3000 feet MSL, at (or after) dusk, flying as he described it "beyond signal range" (which I'm pretty sure would be way, way further than VLOS). This in a popular tourist destination, not exactly in the middle of nowhere.

I have not done an in-depth study of drone regulations in the Philippines. But I'm currently planning a trip there next year (and I hope to fly my drone while there), so I've at least taken a minute to look around for a few of the basics. Ten seconds and a brain-dead google search turns up this: Drone Laws in the Philippines, which summarizes the following requirements:

• Maximum legal altitude 400 feet
• Only fly during the day
• Do not fly beyond visual line of sight

Personally, I wouldn't count 100% on anything the above website claims, since (despite good intentions) all websites like (claiming to detail all drone laws worldwide...good luck with that) tend to be not kept up-to-date and unreliable. But the three bulleted items above are pretty much standards almost everywhere (except where restrictions are much more strict) and nobody with two brain cells to rub together should be surprised that those requirements (or others more problematic) are probably in effect most places. There's also a link to a memo from the Civil Aviation Agency of the Philippines (CAAP) which would back up those claims and includes more details.

My guess is the OP is either clinically and willfully ignorant, or just doesn't care about regulations and does whatever he wants - he's "that guy" (in the oft-repeated quote, "Don't be that guy").

But hey, I could be wrong. There may be nothing wrong with flying your new drone up to 3000 feet MSL and beyond, sending it out many, many miles away, and flying it around in the dark - I mean, what could go wrong with that?

Just askin' the question that seemed obvious. But what do I know?

 

[GadgetGuy]

Is that a serious question? I didn't see a "sarcastic" tag...

I have no idea if the OP is a liar or not, is just stunningly clueless (doesn't realize that there are laws and regulations that govern drone flights), if he routinely ignores all laws and regulations because freedom, or maybe he's just a lot smarter than me or you. Could be all sorts of things. We do know he somehow managed to crash his drone, and seems to be very lucky (DJI is sending him a new one).

That said...he says he was flying his drone at 3000 feet MSL, at (or after) dusk, flying as he described it "beyond signal range" (which I'm pretty sure would be way, way further than VLOS). This in a popular tourist destination, not exactly in the middle of nowhere.

I have not done an in-depth study of drone regulations in the Philippines. But I'm currently planning a trip there next year (and I hope to fly my drone while there), so I've at least taken a minute to look around for a few of the basics. Ten seconds and a brain-dead google search turns up this: Drone Laws in the Philippines, which summarizes the following requirements:

• Maximum legal altitude 400 feet
• Only fly during the day
• Do not fly beyond visual line of sight

Personally, I wouldn't count 100% on anything the above website claims, since (despite good intentions) all websites like (claiming to detail all drone laws worldwide...good luck with that) tend to be not kept up-to-date and unreliable. But the three bulleted items above are pretty much standards almost everywhere (except where restrictions are much more strict) and nobody with two brain cells to rub together should be surprised that those requirements (or others more problematic) are probably in effect most places. There's also a link to a memo from the Civil Aviation Agency of the Philippines (CAAP) which would back up those claims and includes more details.

My guess is the OP is either clinically and willfully ignorant, or just doesn't care about regulations and does whatever he wants - he's "that guy" (in the oft-repeated quote, "Don't be that guy").

But hey, I could be wrong. There may be nothing wrong with flying your new drone up to 3000 feet MSL and beyond, sending it out many, many miles away, and flying it around in the dark - I mean, what could go wrong with that?

Just askin' the question that seemed obvious. But what do I know?

The OP stated, "It's a great place to fly a drone because there are no airports around so you can go up to 1,000 meters."

You then posted, "Is it legal for you to fly this drone at 1000 meters altitude in this location?"

He had already answered your question in his very first post, opening the thread, which is about his drone being replaced by DJI, and not the legality of his flight.

So, the only reason for your post was to argue his assertion because you don't believe him. Hence my post:
"Do you not believe the OP?"
No sarcasm whatsoever.

Unless you are the Philippine Drone Police and can definitely prove differently (which it appears you cannot) we accept the representations of the OP's in foreign counties, who likely know more about the legalities of their flights than arm chair drone police such as yourself in the USA, who take it upon themselves to police drone flights worldwide.

If you want to start your own thread about the laws of flying drones in the Philippines, feel free to do so, but you are deliberately derailing this thread which is a violation of forum guidelines.

 

[Aerophile]

Hah! That's rich. Thanks for the chuckle.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Hah! That's rich. Thanks for the chuckle.

For a 26 year old, you have a very wild imagination. LOL!

"I've been flying real, human-carrying airplanes since the late 1960s (and yes, I was v-e-r-y young when I learned to fly, they had me sitting on a stack of pillows so I could see out the front window). Had trouble reaching the rudder pedals for the first couple years. I think I'm pretty good at it now."

 

[jwilson]

I got my new replacement drone 4 days ago. I flew it for the first time today. Absolutely no problems.
I do what DJI let's me do, not what the government let's me do. So a while ago DJI changed the maximum altitude allowed to 3,000 meters if you're further than 50km away from the nearest airport. I feel it's safe because under those conditions is so unlikely you will collide with a plane. But not impossible. I like getting above the clouds.