Inspire lost at sea

VAP · May 26, 2016

Experienced a sudden loss of video signal on DJI inspire 1 over the water. The app screen went blank along with no GPS data. Never seen this kind of failure before. VLOS could not be maintained as it was into the sun. Fail-safe RTH did not return it. The Inspire 1 was lost at sea. The flight log showed the distance of the failure was not a result of it being too far away, but rather a failure of the data links. DJI has not been helpful in telling me what went wrong after I filed a report of exactly what happened.

steelkite · May 26, 2016

I fly long distances over water in a majority of my flights, usually imagining a catastrophe such as you've documented.

I'm very sorry to hear your story.

gruvpix · May 26, 2016

VAP said:
Experienced a sudden loss of video signal on DJI inspire 1 over the water. The app screen went blank along with no GPS data. Never seen this kind of failure before. VLOS could not be maintained as it was into the sun. Fail-safe RTH did not return it. The Inspire 1 was lost at sea. The flight log showed the distance of the failure was not a result of it being too far away, but rather a failure of the data links. DJI has not been helpful in telling me what went wrong after I filed a report of exactly what happened.

I had a similar problem with our Inspire last summer. Lost video feed and GPS simultaneously and while I was trying to reconnect the feed by restarting the app, I lost VLOS with the drone. Only thing I can say is LOS, LOS, LOS - it's the most practical failsafe we have.
Ultimately DJI deemed that it was indeed a malfunction of the systems, and we were sent a brand new unit. Fortunately for us, the crash occurred over a treed area and we were able to recover the drone to send it back, which clearly is not an option for you guys. Very sorry about the loss.

emtea · May 27, 2016

Please let us know what happens with the claim, I'm sorry for what happened. I think many of us fly over water here (myself included) so I am curious to see what DJI says or does, since it sounds like it was a technical failure and not pilot error.

lake_flyer · Jun 4, 2016

emtea said:
it sounds like it was a technical failure and not pilot error.

Losing VLOS is always a pilot error.
EDIT:

OK, not ALWAYS, if someone blinds you with a laser or something like that, it's not your fault. But getting blinded by the sun is a pilot error. You shouldn't fly your craft into the sun. And one should always have a person standing by observing the craft and the area, preventing you from having to take your eyes off of the craft.

Apart from that, I feel for your (OP's) loss. Must be gut wrenching to suddenly lose sight and realise your craft is not coming back.

lake_flyer · Jun 4, 2016

[QUOTE="gruvpix, post: 107197, member: 2051"Only thing I can say is LOS, LOS, LOS - it's the most practical failsafe we have.[/QUOTE]

That's for sure. Another failsafe is learning how to fly manually. When all electronic assistance is failing it's very handy to know how to fly and land (has to become a second nature) a fully manual multirotor in a gusty wind. When the **** hits the fan and Murphy's standing behind your back and shouting in your ear, it's good to know that your own automatic responses are reliable.

emtea · Jun 5, 2016

lake_flyer said:
Losing VLOS is always a pilot error.
EDIT:

OK, not ALWAYS, if someone blinds you with a laser or something like that, it's not your fault. But getting blinded by the sun is a pilot error. You shouldn't fly your craft into the sun. And one should always have a person standing by observing the craft and the area, preventing you from having to take your eyes off of the craft.

Apart from that, I feel for your (OP's) loss. Must be gut wrenching to suddenly lose sight and realise your craft is not coming back.

Not sure how losing VLOS was the direct cause of his misfortune--if you lose VLOS and a missile takes out your drone, it's be pilot error...?

lake_flyer · Jun 5, 2016

emtea said:
Not sure how losing VLOS was the direct cause of his misfortune--if you lose VLOS and a missile takes out your drone, it's be pilot error...?

That why I said not ALWAYS....

But the OP stated that he flew his bird into the sun, thus losing VLOS. And just at that moment he lost GPS and the bird probably drifted away with the windspeed, hence he couldn't see it no longer on the spot where he thought it should still be. If he could have kept his eye on the craft he would have noticed that the bird was starting to drift and realise it was in Atti. IF that is what happened and we don't really know for sure. But it is likely.