Mavic P2 - Lost Connection & Lost Drone

mjvthomas · Sep 17, 2018

I've had my Mavic 2 pro for just over a week. All the flights have been great and photos/ videos are much better than I expected. Once or twice I have lost connection but it quickly reconnects.

My friend who lives down the river from my house asked if I could get some pictures of his house since he's been gone all summer. After taking a few pics of his house I received a battery alert recomending I fly home. Right after the alert I suddenly lost connection and could not regain connection. I was hoping that the drone would just return home, but after 10-15 min I realized that wasnt going to happen. I drove over to my friends house and tried to use Find My Drone. I searched for hours and climbed a few roofs (with permission) but I still cant find the drone anywhere. Maybe its in the river or maybe it tried to return home and didnt make it. I have DJI Care refresh and opened a case same day, I havent heard back from them since I opened the case which was last Thursday. I understand they dont cover lost drones, but was hoping for some kind of discount towards a new drone.

I've attached my flight records. I know its a long shot but if anybody can point me in the right direction to go search it would be GREATLY Appreciated.

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Sockeye · Sep 17, 2018

Can you see your flight in the Go app? It should have the last point of contact on the map.
From that point in a direct line to your Homepoint, are there any structures higher than your RTH height setting? (would be the first place I would search)

mjvthomas · Sep 17, 2018

Also some addtional info, I was using my iPad connected with a Apple USB cable. The iPad does have cellular available but I do not pay for the service, it was connected to my home wifi.

mjvthomas · Sep 17, 2018

Sockeye said:
Can you see your flight in the Go app? It should have the last point of contact on the map.
From that point in a direct line to your Homepoint, are there any structures higher than your RTH height setting? (would be the first place I would search)

I'll go out later today and start searching a straight line from last contact to my homepoint. Regarding the RTH setting when I login to the App and goto camera view, RTH Altitude shows "0" is this because its not connected to the drone?

SpinItUp · Sep 17, 2018

mjvthomas said:
Also some addtional info,
~~using my iPad connected with USB cable. The iPad does have cellular available but I do not pay for the service, it was connected to my home wifi.~~
I was flying without a care in the world for 3km

Fixed that for you

SpinItUp · Sep 17, 2018

mjvthomas said:
I'll go out later today and start searching a straight line from last contact to my homepoint. Regarding the RTH setting when I login to the App and goto camera view, RTH Altitude shows "0" is this because its not connected to the drone?

Just browsed through and it states 30m height for your RTH

mjvthomas · Sep 17, 2018

SpinItUp said:
Just browsed through and it states 30m height for your RTH

Yes, thats what it was set at. Not sure why altitude shows "0" on the controller now.

SpinItUp · Sep 17, 2018

mjvthomas said:
Not sure why altitude shows "0" on the controller now.

Not connected

melmartin · Sep 17, 2018

Sorry for the loss of your drone. Satellite lock was certainly not a problem, but I do note at times you were above 400 ft. and significantly beyond visual range. Neither caused the issue, of course, but when you are out of line of sight you diminish your options when things go wrong. Still, a mysterious incident.

SpinItUp · Sep 17, 2018

30m ain't a lot
You should try searching in the DJI store for a new piece of kit
Edit; sorry looks like it's ok for around there? I may be wrong..still trying to make head nor tail of your path

SpinItUp · Sep 17, 2018

Have you got the/any cached video?

sar104 · Sep 17, 2018

The aircraft should have had sufficient battery to make it back with over 30% remaining. Winds were out of the east at around 10 mph, but it had already entered one 30 s period of RTH due to signal loss at around 600 s, and the data show that it was able to fly at normal RTH speed towards the home point. Aircraft altitude was sufficient to clear any obstacles as far as I can see. I see no obvious explanation for failure here.

mjvthomas · Sep 17, 2018

sar104 said:
The aircraft should have had sufficient battery to make it back with over 30% remaining. Winds were out of the east at around 10 mph, but it had already entered one 30 s period of RTH due to signal loss at around 600 s, and the data show that it was able to fly at normal RTH speed towards the home point. Aircraft altitude was sufficient to clear any obstacles as far as I can see. I see no obvious explanation for failure here.

View attachment 46874

Thank you for looking into my flight records and giving me your thoughtful opinion.

According to the rep I spoke with at DJI if they find that it was a drone malufuction they would replace the drone through the Care Refresh program. I'm not holding my breath but at least theres a chance.

Meta4 · Sep 17, 2018

mjvthomas said:
According to the rep I spoke with at DJI if they find that it was a drone malufuction they would replace the drone through the Care Refresh program. I'm not holding my breath but at least theres a chance.

The catch is that they would need to see evidence that shows a malfunction.
But they have no additional evidence beyond what we can see in the log.
And that just shows your drone hovering almost 500 ft up and 10700 ft out with the battery at 51%.
There's nothing there to indicate what happened after you lost signal or hint at a malfunction.

SpinItUp · Sep 17, 2018

looks like that was the closest it would get to hit anything if it did fly straight home

mjvthomas · Sep 17, 2018

SpinItUp said:
looks like that was the closest it would get to hit anything if it did fly straight home

I’ll go check that out today

sar104 · Sep 17, 2018

SpinItUp said:
looks like that was the closest it would get to hit anything if it did fly straight home

The aircraft altitude was 150 m when it lost connection. That's way above any local obstacles.

SpinItUp · Sep 17, 2018

sar104 said:
The aircraft altitude was 150 m when it lost connection. That's way above any local obstacles.

but not set at that if it did! was it not?

sar104 · Sep 17, 2018

SpinItUp said:
but not set at that if it did! was it not?

Sorry - could you clarify what that means?

SpinItUp · Sep 17, 2018

no
was set @RTH for 30m not 150

melmartin said:
Sorry for the loss of your drone.

no sympathy here!
When the crazy altitude dropped, so did the signal (line of sight is not = to a line of signal and trying to compete with all the other signals bouncing around from the urban environment no doubt).

Won't some law enforcement come knocking on the OP door soon?