Lost Inspire 1 HELP locate please

[CarlStarke]

Hi,

I just lost connection on my Inspire 1 and it didn't return home, please help me find last location to go search.
Any help would be much appreciated.

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

I hope the link is sufficient.

Thanks in advance

 

[Skywatcher2001]

Oh . . . my god. Not an Inspire. Man! . . . sorry bro. I'm POSITIVE the geniuses will be in shortly to help. It being the weekend I'm sure sar104 and the other brilliant brains are out flying. I hope you find it . . . Dang, not an Inspire.

 

[Gryphon962]

Its odd that while returning to home, it wasnt heading home, but about 30 degrees off.

As Skywatcher said, the experts arent here right now, but from the log I see that in the last section of the flight where the signal is lost (yellow line) it flew only that short distance in 40 secs. The final few data points show it was moving at ~ 2mph. However, it was at over 800 feet and didnt seem to be descending, even though it was reporting that it was autolanding due to critically low power.

As this has just happened, I suggest you go down to Campbell Road, near Digital Motors, and ask around. If it fell out of the sky from 800 feet, or even landed, someone might have noticed!

 

[CarlStarke]

Thanks, I already drove around asking people, the area is full of security housing complexes, so impossible to go into every one. I also have a feeling its at least a few 100 metres from last record point.
Its night here now, posted on facebook hoping someone recovers it.

 

[Gryphon962]

One issue I see is that your log is for an Inspire 1, and this is the Mavic section of the forum. I couldnt get your log to load in the tools we normally use. I couldnt even get a kml file off the site you posted, to see the flight profile in 3 d in google earth.

You might want to post again in the Inspire 1 help section here : https://inspirepilots.com/forums/inspire-1-help.5/ as those guys might have the right tools to analyse your log file better.

 

[CarlStarke]

One issue I see is that your log is for an Inspire 1, and this is the Mavic section of the forum. I couldnt get your log to load in the tools we normally use. I couldnt even get a kml file off the site you posted, to see the flight profile in 3 d in google earth.

You might want to post again in the Inspire 1 help section here : https://inspirepilots.com/forums/inspire-1-help.5/ as those guys might have the right tools to analyse your log file better.

Thanks I will try the Inspire Forum, I just thought more people are active here and guessed the flight records would be similar.

KML file attached

 

[Kazzaaz]

Just by viewing the online flight log you can see your battery seems to be in rough shape.
Deviations of >.1V all over the place.
It initiated a critically-low voltage landing at 30% which is typically much too soon.

Also judging by the attitude of the aircraft there is some HARD winds blowing southeast.
So anywhere you look I would shift your path slightly that way.

 

[Kazzaaz]

Also it looks like the go home heading was correct when first initiated, but drifted SE in the strong winds as it was adjusting and never corrected.

 

[Kazzaaz]

I am by no means a flight log analysis expert but I think this situation is clear and I can sum up what happened here.

- STRONG SE winds.
If this happened earlier today, DarkSky shows a constant (not gusts!) wind speed of 20-25mph on the GROUND in Johannesburg, South Africa.
You took off heading somewhat with the wind
Seems to be the cause of inaccurate RTH and the few instances where the AC yaw fluctuated quickly without any RC input.
Look at how extreme the AC attitude is to fight that wind!

- HIGH altitude.
850 ft. is quite a ways up. That 20-25mph wind could easily become 50+mph at that altitude at which point flight is borderline uncontrollable.

- Bad BATTERY.
On top of all the voltage deviations shown in the flight log, the battery was being strained very hard the entire flight.
Emergency landing forced at 30% as two cells fall under 3.5V much earlier than expected.

- CONCLUSION
The last entry in the log was written during the forced autolanding.
Despite the critically low voltage, it should have had enough power to complete the landing safely.
Under normal circumstances there is no reason for the AC to have landed far from the last recorded location.
Because of the incredible wind it could have had a hard time holding its position on the way down, but should not have drifted far at all.

I would suggest to look within the lines here, up to the road.
If the AC is nowhere to be found I am sorry to say my next best guess would be that someone took it.

 

[CarlStarke]

I am by no means a flight log analysis expert but I think this situation is clear and I can sum up what happened here.

- STRONG SE winds.
If this happened earlier today, DarkSky shows a constant (not gusts!) wind speed of 20-25mph on the GROUND in Johannesburg, South Africa.
You took off heading somewhat with the wind
Seems to be the cause of inaccurate RTH and the few instances where the AC yaw fluctuated quickly without any RC input.
Look at how extreme the AC attitude is to fight that wind!

- HIGH altitude.
850 ft. is quite a ways up. That 20-25mph wind could easily become 50+mph at that altitude at which point flight is borderline uncontrollable.

- Bad BATTERY.
On top of all the voltage deviations shown in the flight log, the battery was being strained very hard the entire flight.
Emergency landing forced at 30% as two cells fall under 3.5V much earlier than expected.

- CONCLUSION
The last entry in the log was written during the forced autolanding.
Despite the critically low voltage, it should have had enough power to complete the landing safely.
Under normal circumstances there is no reason for the AC to have landed far from the last recorded location.
Because of the incredible wind it could have had a hard time holding its position on the way down, but should not have drifted far at all.

I would suggest to look within the lines here, up to the road.
If the AC is nowhere to be found I am sorry to say my next best guess would be that someone took it.

View attachment 82648

Thank you, I agree with you totally, I wasn’t able to go to the exact last recorded spot this evening but will go check tomorrow, luckily it looks like the last recorded spot is inside a security housing complex, so hopefully not too much chance of somebody not living there taking it.

 

[Gryphon962]

Thank you, I agree with you totally, I wasn’t able to go to the exact last recorded spot this evening but will go check tomorrow, luckily it looks like the last recorded spot is inside a security housing complex, so hopefully not too much chance of somebody not living there taking it.

If most of the complexes around there are security guarded suggest giving the gate guard on each a leaflet illustrating the Inspire 1 and offer a reward if found on the premises.

 

[Citizen Flier]

Sorry to hear you lost your bird. I crashed mine awhile back -mostly pilot error.

I'm not a fan of forum scolding. But I honestly feel that when we fly over populated areas like that -above the recommended ceiling- a bad outcome is likely. And in a populated area, the result could be more bad press against drones (or worse). For that reason, I ONLY fly in remote areas and at times when no one else is present.

I also ride a Mtn Bike -and where I live, proponents of our sport are reviled by a portion of the locals. Sometimes that enmity is exacerbated by inconsiderate riders with bad etiquette. I have learned that a very small amount of bad press can permanently add to hostile resentment towards our user group.

Even some of my friends bristle when I mention drones. Where I live, ALL the beautiful public parks & open space areas are NFZ. It's important that we do our best not to further inflame those who lobby against the technology that we enjoy so much.

Respectfully posted.

 

[CarlStarke]

Hi all,

thank you for all the comments and I accept the criticisms, I definitely should not have flown in such windy conditions. I did think that I would get a high wind warning if the drone picked up that it was flying in too strong a wind. I think I was getting too used to my Mavic 2 handling wind.
I also had a GoPro mounted which I was testing for the first time which probably didn't help

But good news, I found the drone undamaged and luckily no harm done to anyone.

I know its an Inspire and this is the Mavic forum, but the footage is very interesting and I got very lucky.

So I wanted to share, even though I am not proud of myself for getting into this predicament. Its definitely a learning incident for me and hopefully can be for anyone else watching this.

Will upload shortly

 

[CarlStarke]

Disconnection at about 4:30
You will see how the drone tries to maintain RTH path but cant fight against the wind and keeps trying to correct.

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[Gryphon962]

Lucky it found a clear area to land!

Throughout the flight there are lots of odd noises and changes of attitude - is the GoPro touching the blades from time to time? Something odd is going on...

 

[CarlStarke]

Lucky it found a clear area to land!

Throughout the flight there are lots of odd noises and changes of attitude - is the GoPro touching the blades from time to time? Something odd is going on...

Just the GoPro arm mount knocking against the body

Yes I got extremely lucky

 

[Mavic Mac]

Just curious - did you locate it in the area Kazzaaz suggested ?

 

[Bigbird48]

it loooks like it landed in the middle of a street is that were you found it or did someone move it off the road??sweet thaqt you found it.

 

[Gryphon962]

Just curious - did you locate it in the area Kazzaaz suggested ?

I compared the video to google earth, and the landing point is exactly at the tip of the red arrow in the picture Kazzaaz posted, on the driveway between the houses.

 

[Meta4]

One issue I see is that your log is for an Inspire 1, and this is the Mavic section of the forum. I couldnt get your log to load in the tools we normally use. I couldnt even get a kml file off the site you posted, to see the flight profile in 3 d in google earth.

You might want to post again in the Inspire 1 help section here : https://inspirepilots.com/forums/inspire-1-help.5/ as those guys might have the right tools to analyse your log file better.

The link he posted is a simple web page.
You don't need any tools to open it and you just click the link and it gives you a kml file.
The flight data recorded by the app is the same whatever drone is being flown, the principles are all the same.