Mechanical failure?

bradaburns · May 7, 2019

My drone crashed in the sea while I was in RTH mode. It just dropped from the sky and sank. I checked the flight records and there is none for that final flight. Wouldn't that indicate that there was a mechanical or software failure? I am getting no where with support, they told me we have news regarding your claim-we intend to do nothing about it without flight records (which don't exist) am I missing something.

Red Baron · May 7, 2019

Post your flight logs for the experts- Sar will tell you what happened . Are you sure you initiated rth or did you by mistake hit land? I hate the fact that on the app these are right next to one another. Upload logs and ask SAR to help

Shon · May 7, 2019

There should definitely be flight records.

Hopefully someone from this forum more knowledgeable than me can help you problem solve and find them.

bradaburns · May 7, 2019

Red Baron said:
Post your flight logs for the experts- Sar will tell you what happened . Are you sure you initiated rth or did you by mistake hit land? I hate the fact that on the app these are right next to one another. Upload logs and ask SAR to help

Forgive my ignorance but what is SAR and how do I post files for them to review?

Red Baron · May 7, 2019

bradaburns said:
Forgive my ignorance but what is SAR and how do I post files for them to review?

Sorry bout that--SAR104 is a member here and is an expert on all things drones- You can message him or more than likely he will see this and chime in-If not message him he will tell you exactly what happened

Mossiback · May 7, 2019

Copied from another thread: DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Just upload the .dat file to the forum.

SAR is member @sar104 and is the forum wizard in interpreting flight logs. He will need the csv file that you will be able to download from the link above.

bradaburns · May 7, 2019

Here are the last five .dat files

sar104 · May 7, 2019

Unfortunately so far we've been unable to locate either a txt or DAT file for the flight in question. The OP is still searching.

Shon · May 7, 2019

sar104 said:
Unfortunately so far we've been unable to locate either a txt or DAT file for the flight in question. The OP is still searching.

Can you think of any scenario short of losing the drone, the remote, and your phone/tablet where this data would just go missing, especially after a crash?

sar104 · May 7, 2019

Shon said:
Can you think of any scenario short of losing the drone, the remote, and your phone/tablet where this data would just go missing, especially after a crash?

No - it's very unusual not to find a flight log and it would be a strange coincidence for it to happen on a flight that failed. Unless those two events are related, but I'm not sure why they would be since failure of the app shouldn't cause flight problems.

Ack · May 8, 2019

I'm wondering if it could be possible no GPS was obtained prior to flight and the battery somehow dislodged during flight

Shon · May 8, 2019

Ack said:
I'm wondering if it could be possible no GPS was obtained prior to flight and the battery somehow dislodged during flight

There would be a flight log that would show that. The flight logs are stored in the DJI App. Pretty easy to find and download.

Meta4 · May 8, 2019

bradaburns said:
Here are the last five .dat files

Try this ...
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 of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.

sar104 · May 8, 2019

Meta4 said:
Try this ...
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 of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.

He's already tried that, but can't find the relevant txt log either.

Ack · May 8, 2019

Shon said:
There would be a flight log that would show that. The flight logs are stored in the DJI App. Pretty easy to find and download.

Yes agreed they are easy to find. It's odd that no record exists given the prior flight before falling out of the sky which would suggest it was working correctly at the time. Question to sar thinking outside the box is it possible anti drone technology was used against this flight I am aware it can take over a flight not sure if it can also remove flight records?

sar104 · May 8, 2019

Ack said:
Yes agreed they are easy to find. It's odd that no record exists given the prior flight before falling out of the sky which would suggest it was working correctly at the time. Question to sar thinking outside the box is it possible anti drone technology was used against this flight I am aware it can take over a flight not sure if it can also remove flight records?

I'm not aware of any technology that can take over control of a DJI aircraft, and I cannot imagine how it could possibly delete flight logs on a mobile device - that would require hacking the device itself. And what would be the point of it anyway?

squashpile · May 8, 2019

sar104 said:
I'm not aware of any technology that can take over control of a DJI aircraft, and I cannot imagine how it could possibly delete flight logs on a mobile device - that would require hacking the device itself. And what would be the point of it anyway?

sar104 · May 8, 2019

squashpile said:

Yes - as he pointed out, that's not taking over control, it's just jamming the control signal and possibly the GPS reception. The logs from that flight would have made interesting reading.

Shon · May 8, 2019

Ack said:
Yes agreed they are easy to find. It's odd that no record exists given the prior flight before falling out of the sky which would suggest it was working correctly at the time. Question to sar thinking outside the box is it possible anti drone technology was used against this flight I am aware it can take over a flight not sure if it can also remove flight records?

Was Op flying in Litchi instead of DJI Go? Was Op using a different app on his phone to control the drone...a hacked app by any chance? Just wondering if the log could be saved somewhere else?

IF Op was using vanilla DJI GO, The most logical explanation that I can think of (And probably the most logical explanation to DJI as well) is that OP doesn't want the log to be found, because it would be proof positive of what really happened. "Oh..look...no flight log...see...this proves it was a mechanical error..right?" Playing a victim on social media is a common ploy used by individuals to gain sympathy and attention and perhaps influence a company to make a decision they wouldn't normally make.

I hope that isn't the case, and that there is another explanation as to where the logs went... Sorry that Op lost their drone regardless...

sar104 · May 8, 2019

Shon said:
Was Op flying in Litchi instead of DJI Go? Was Op using a different app on his phone to control the drone...a hacked app by any chance? Just wondering if the log could be saved somewhere else?

IF Op was using vanilla DJI GO, The most logical explanation that I can think of (And probably the most logical explanation to DJI as well) is that OP doesn't want the log to be found, because it would be proof positive of what really happened. "Oh..look...no flight log...see...this proves it was a mechanical error..right?" Playing a victim on social media is a common ploy used by individuals to gain sympathy and attention and perhaps influence a company to make a decision they wouldn't normally make.

I hope that isn't the case, and that there is another explanation as to where the logs went... Sorry that Op lost their drone regardless...

The OP confirmed that he was using the regular DJI GO 4 app.