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Lost my Drone,

NeilRob

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Still a very newbie and took my drone out for a fly, probably my 5th flight. I was flying at about altitude 50 mts was 48 mts away, when I got a red message “RC not connected to mobi… long and the short of the story, couldn’t communicate with the drone and eventually it landed in the trees in an inaccessibility area. Expensive mistake, what could I have done wrong and how do I prevent it from happening again.
 
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First thing is to go back and review the for your drone. Next, make sure you understand all return to home options and set the option to what fits your flight conditions. When you fly evaluate all terrain features and don't fly over inaccessible areas or make sure you have a recovery plan in place in case of failure.
And, when you purchase your next drone purchase CareRefresh from DJI if available in South Africa.
There are a lot of YouTube videos you can watch to help you learn more about drone flying.
If you are interested in more details of the flight sign up for AirData and submit the flight data from your phone so you can evaluate the flight and learn from your mistakes.
 
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what could I have done wrong and how do I prevent it from happening again.
First thing to do is to find out what caused the incident.
To do that post your recorded flight data and see if someone can find some clues in there.

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 on the flight data.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides, or just post the txt file here.
 
RC not connected to mobi…
Ahhhh Edit
What drone was this? At 48m distance I think drones have differing RTH behaviours and that might be important.
End Edit

Unfortunately I think the above is a truncation of "RC not connected to mobile".
The message for an entire loss of control connection between the controller and the drone differs, with my Fly app and a Mavic Mini controller the latter message is "Aircraft not connected t...."
My phone also truncates these messages but at a guess the missing remainder is something to the effect "to the RC."
I assume you are using a drone that uses a separate controller and screen-device/phone.
I think it is a pity that DJI do not alter the font size for these disconnection messages so that the entire message is visible on 'small' screens.

If the above is correct it means that you most likely still had control of the drone. All that had happened is that the 'phone' had, for some reason, disconnected from the controller. Many DJI drones can be flown without a screen device providing that no 'authorisations' are required.
If the phone remained disconnected from the controller then the flight log will probably end with the disconnection of the phone from the controller, if not then the useful data will end at that point.

In the above circumstances all that was necessary for you to do was press, once and once only, the RTH button on the controller. Or and as perverse as it sounds switch the controller off. The latter assunmes that the loss-of-connection/failsafe option is set to RTH.
Assuming the cotroller and drone were still in contact with one another, repeated pressing of the RTH button on the controller could have left you in the situation that the drone hovered until the battery was exhausted and the drone entered a forced landing.
Incidentally it is likely that the controller's battery charge level LEDs would have been flashing simultaneously if the controller had lost connection with the drone, if they remaineds solidly lit then the controller was still in contact with the drone.

Sorry for the possibly bad news and the loss of your drone.
 
Last edited:
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Still a very newbie and took my drone out for a fly, probably my 5th flight. I was flying at about altitude 50 mts was 48 mts away, when I got a red message “RC not connected to mobi… long and the short of the story, couldn’t communicate with the drone and eventually it landed in the trees in an inaccessibility area. Expensive mistake, what could I have done wrong and how do I prevent it from happening again.
Wait
RC not connected to mobi means RC not connected to mobile device
So I assume no video feed for you
You would still have control of drone just no video feed

Did you have LOS with drone ?
 
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Wait
RC not connected to mobi means RC not connected to mobile device
So I assume no video feed for you
You would still have control of drone just no video feed

Did you have LOS with drone ?
I had video feed all the time, just no response from the drone, even tried RTH nothing, it just stayed where it was, no response at all.
 
First thing is to go back and review the for your drone. Next, make sure you understand all return to home options and set the option to what fits your flight conditions. When you fly evaluate all terrain features and don't fly over inaccessible areas or make sure you have a recovery plan in place in case of failure.
And, when you purchase your next drone purchase CareRefresh from DJI if available in South Africa.
There are a lot of YouTube videos you can watch to help you learn more about drone flying.
If you are interested in more details of the flight sign up for AirData and submit the flight data from your phone so you can evaluate the flight and learn from your mistakes.
Thanks, your advice appreciated.
 
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I had video feed all the time, just no response from the drone, even tried RTH nothing, it just stayed where it was, no response at all.
oh...
This will seem scary
What I would do is turn off controller
Failsafe kick in on drone
Drone come back
Drone safe and sound
 
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Did you hear the message "Your homepoint has been updated, please check the map" ????

Anytime there is a loss of signal, it will auto RTH.

I dont know why it landed on the inaccessible area.
 
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Did you hear the message "Your homepoint has been updated, please check the map" ????

Anytime there is a loss of signal, it will auto RTH.

I dont know why it landed on the inaccessible area.
That is what I thought but no, it just stayed stationary and would not move with that message, I’ll attach a screen shot.
 

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Did you hear the message "Your homepoint has been updated, please check the map" ????

Anytime there is a loss of signal, it will auto RTH.

I dont know why it landed on the inaccessible area.
Ching that depends on the setting. You and I can also tell the drone to stay where it is when it loses signal.
 
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Check your aircraft manual for RTH operation.
Here's what happens with Air 2s on RTH if 0 or insufficient satellites: Aircraft may enter ATTI mode, hover in place, and then land.
So, check the flight data records as indicated in post #1.
Was there strong satellite signal during the entire flight?
What are the special RTH actions in your manual?
 
Check your aircraft manual for RTH operation.
Here's what happens with Air 2s on RTH if 0 or insufficient satellites: Aircraft may enter ATTI mode, hover in place, and then land.
So, check the flight data records as indicated in post #1.
Was there strong satellite signal during the entire flight?
What are the special RTH actions in your manual?
There was. 12 satellites when I took off. Didn’t look when the problem arose. There was no reason that it should have changed as I was flying in open air space. Any idea how I can access the flight data?
 
There was. 12 satellites when I took off. Didn’t look when the problem arose. There was no reason that it should have changed as I was flying in open air space. Any idea how I can access the flight data?
If you were the Fly app on your phone then the flight data is on your phone, so what device were you using and what system?
 
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