Inspire 1 pro started descending, almost falling and sunk into the sea.

[licensed pilot]

Sorry for your loss, I would never have my bird over the sea on 14% battery full stop. Warning set at 30% and its back to me. I would never trust a battery below 20%. Not much help I know, what sort of condition was the battery, did you have a regular discharge regime to keep the battery calibration on point? Good luck with your dealing with DJI.

"Warning set at 30% and its back to me." Ditto here. Even at 30% I'm nervous.

Thanks for your inputs I appreciate it. I have been flying under the impression that dji go would warn me if something goes wrong. It slows me down if the motors are overloaded, but than allow me to fly the drone into the abyss by overloading the battery while using a flying mode designed by same smartasses that decided what kind of battery the device would be equipped with. This is nonsense from my point of view (not saying it isn't the fact) just saying how stupit and not very responsible by dji designs. I had not one battery warning I. This flight and have never been warned or shown anything about this battery being unstable or being told that full throttle on atti is on any way a risky behavior. I've been led to belive that I'm using smart tools that will make adjustments when needed and give warnings when needed.

It's like designing a car that blows up if the gas levels are below 30% while driving in 5th gear. Wouldn't it be demanded that the manufacturer wouldn't equipp the car with that fifth gear?

This is obviously a huge flaw in design. Or at least a huge amount of irresponsibility by manufacturer to not provide information needed to fly safe.
And actually it's just another case of Chinese ethics, use sweet talk about smart stuff and safety to s ll product but not provide the info about the self destruct possibility when using one of the smart function provided.....

I'm pissed about this crash, so I am truly a bit biased here, but is it really to much to ask that advertised smart devices actually outsmart the self destruct function?

Sorry you lost ur bird. Yes, we can tell you are pissed, and should be pissed at yourself. Sending your bird out over the ocean and waiting to hit 30% before coming back is risky behavior. "Smart" batteries and "Smart" drones can only do so much. Ultimately the PIC is in control.

 

[William Gaddy]

Well, let me express my opinion this way. When I climb onto a helo and I ask the pilot "how long is the flight" and he says "45 minutes" and then I ask "how much is she fueled for" and he says "45 minutes" I GET OFF the helo. In the infamous words of Ron White: "Hey man, if one of the engines goes out, how far will the other one take us?" I look at him. "All the way to the scene of the crash!
Which is pretty lucky, because that's where we're headed! I bet we beat the paramedics by a good half hour! We're haulin' ***!"

 

[DaBone]

Looks like the voltage dropped below critical level. Battery was in bad shape. You were down to 3.3V and drawing 30 amps. You must have been hammering on it coming back. Sorry for the loss.

06m 10s 163.7 ft 5,572 ft Warning Warning:Motor Overloaded. Aircraft will decelerate to ensure safety.
06m 29s 173.6 ft 4,600 ft

40% Battery
07m 19s 172.2 ft 3,212 ft

30% Battery
07m 20s 173.2 ft 3,176 ft Warning Warning:Motor Overloaded. Aircraft will decelerate to ensure safety.
07m 41s 176.2 ft 2,322 ft Warning Warning:Motor Overloaded. Aircraft will decelerate to ensure safety.
08m 01s 167.0 ft 1,500 ft

20% Battery

I would calm down if I received such messages... especially when the battery runs out so fast (8-10min) and the temperature is only 59.1F / 15C.

 

[Adelberg aerial imaging]

The battery willl turn off if one cell drops below 3.0 volts. Unless battery is within warranty dji will not cover under warranty. Happened to me and I posted the event and dealings with dji

 

[Skydog]

Kinda reminds me of the movie I watched last night - "Amelia"

Sorry for your loss - bummer

 

[tibook]

This is the kind of thing the dual battery system in the I2 is supposed to protect you from, yes?

(Going to turn on battery voltage monitoring now...)

 

[licensed pilot]

This is the kind of thing the dual battery system in the I2 is supposed to protect you from, yes?

(Going to turn on battery voltage monitoring now...)

All the electronics and "smart" software in the world does not protect you against poor aeronautical decision making.

 

[tibook]

All the electronics and "smart" software in the world does not protect you against poor aeronautical decision making.

While I appreciate you passing on the wisdom, I was simply asking if this is a situation DJI has dealt with in the past enough to warrant a dual battery system

 

[tibook]

Besides, I don't care how experienced my pilot is on a commercial flight, I am happy for any safeguards provided by the airliner. There is nothing wrong with a safety net!

 

[John P]

Lost my bird due to a return to home failure. Dji said it was my fault because the showed a stick pull down after my bird flew away. Lots of luck with dji!!!

 

[licensed pilot]

Lost my bird due to a return to home failure. Dji said it was my fault because the showed a stick pull down after my bird flew away. Lots of luck with dji!!!

"return to home failure.' What is that exactly? You couldn't regain control with ATTI mode?

 

[Donnie Frank]

Ok guys it happened. I was just about reaching the bay where i stood at homepoint, batt at 14% when I simply watched inspire throw itself into the sea. It did not answer to me trying to ascend like it would if auto landing were happening.

It was an errorless flight from start
And everything seemed just fine
Dji go didn't show any errors not even at the moment it crashed.

So here I am left without a clue what happened. the log files I know how to access don't show me anything, the inspire is on the bottom of the ocean.

I called Dji in the United States and were told to contact Dji in Netherlands by email and I've already done so but not received any reply since this happened just tonight. how does the dji deal with such cases?

Do they ever take any responsibility themselves or do they try to put this on me?

Is there anyone here who can reach into those log files of mine and find out what really happened?
I would be really grateful if someone would give me some helping hand here.

Here's the airdata log :

Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

From your description, it sounds like you flew your bird out to sea until the battery reached 14%, THEN decided to take action. Surely this isn't what happened. Please clarify.

 

[DaBone]

From your description, it sounds like you flew your bird out to sea until the battery reached 14%, THEN decided to take action. Surely this isn't what happened. Please clarify.

Checked the link in the first post?

 

[Donnie Frank]

Checked the link in the first post?

Touché. I did not. Judging by the warnings, I'm going to say the OP was fighting some pretty stiff wind. Dollars to doughnuts, had there not been any wind to fight, he would've made it back.

 

[Steve@AerialImagesPro]

Another example of why people without any kind of experience with either piloting procedures, R/C flying etc shouldn't be flying these. I mean it's fine if they do, but don't blame the manufacturer when something goes wrong.

I fly over water sometimes, but because of mt experience I wouldn't fly over it with less than 40%. Over land, not a problem.

And to use your car analogy, did you know that your gas tank may hold 18 gallons, but, being experienced, I know NOT to run it down to under a gallon or you risk clogging your fuel filter or doing some other damage. Just because you have a gallon left doesn't mean you'll make it to the gas station.

What people don't seem to get is HOW MANY THINGS THAT CAN GO WRONG.