New Fly Away Victim, Need Advice

[Matt Simok]

Hey all,

I have now had the unfortunate pleasure of my Inspire flying away . I was up in Big Bear California last evening finished the day of snowboarding and decided to fly up to grab a few shots of the sunset. I had flown up there earlier that morning no issues at all. I have a battery heater and insulating stickers I had attached, did everything by the book, Flew it up and a little away just past some trees out of my line of site. Suddenly the DJI App showed that the camera was disconnected, I quit the app and restarted and there was no aircraft connected, I hit the return home button on the controller, nothing, after scrambling to find it no luck. I had perfect signal 15 Satellites GPS engaged perfect transmission, and poof gone disconnected not to be seen again. Firmware was all up to date, everything was fine. I looked on my flight records for the GPS location and nothing was recorded, not the pictures, not anything. The flight was completely missing. To say I am crushed is putting it mildly. I've been a long time DJI customer and remember the days of good ol' US customer service right out of Torrance. I recalled how lenient they used to be with replacing fly aways. I hear its not so simple any more... DJI is on vacation so I could not contact them yet. I've owned the Inspire since April so less than a year, bought it from an authorized DJI dealer via Ebay so I know I should good there. I'm just hoping to get some advice when contacting DJI and the do's and dont's of trying to get this resolved, any advice would be much appreciated.

~Thanks!

 

[The Editor]

Hey all,

I have now had the unfortunate pleasure of my Inspire flying away . I was up in Big Bear California last evening finished the day of snowboarding and decided to fly up to grab a few shots of the sunset. I had flown up there earlier that morning no issues at all. I have a battery heater and insulating stickers I had attached, did everything by the book, Flew it up and a little away just past some trees out of my line of site. Suddenly the DJI App showed that the camera was disconnected, I quit the app and restarted and there was no aircraft connected, I hit the return home button on the controller, nothing, after scrambling to find it no luck. I had perfect signal 15 Satellites GPS engaged perfect transmission, and poof gone disconnected not to be seen again. Firmware was all up to date, everything was fine. I looked on my flight records for the GPS location and nothing was recorded, not the pictures, not anything. The flight was completely missing. To say I am crushed is putting it mildly. I've been a long time DJI customer and remember the days of good ol' US customer service right out of Torrance. I recalled how lenient they used to be with replacing fly aways. I hear its not so simple any more... DJI is on vacation so I could not contact them yet. I've owned the Inspire since April so less than a year, bought it from an authorized DJI dealer via Ebay so I know I should good there. I'm just hoping to get some advice when contacting DJI and the do's and dont's of trying to get this resolved, any advice would be much appreciated.

~Thanks!

What was your RTH height set at? How high were the trees?
Did you fly behind them?

 

[Matt Simok]

I flew past them (up and over) they were about 100 feet tall, my height was set higher than 400 feet, I think at 250 Meters, but I was not that high, I can't recall the height, but I wasn't to high, I was afraid that setting the RTH more than 120m would make my warranty void, but hoped that it's more legality (FAA, stuff) than warranty stuff. I could still see my drone past the trees, but once it disconnected I couldn't see it anymore, I believe it took off.

 

[The Editor]

I flew past them (up and over) they were about 100 feet tall, my height was set higher than 400 feet, I think at 250 Meters, but I was not that high, I can't recall the height, but I wasn't to high, I was afraid that setting the RTH more than 120m would make my warranty void, but hoped that it's more legality (FAA, stuff) than warranty stuff. I could still see my drone past the trees, but once it disconnected I couldn't see it anymore, I believe it took off.

Do you recall what your battery level was at the time?
If it was low, auto land may have been initiated.
Just losing video feed should not affect your ability to control the aircraft or its RTH function.
So, are you saying that you flew over the top of the trees and the I1 was in sight but upon disconnect (and presumably letting go of the sticks) the Inspire continued to fly in a particular direction?

 

[Matt Simok]

The battery was around 76% Voltage I believe was 3.74 it was green, it was within a few minutes of flight, I throttled up as soon as I lost sight in hopes of spotting it and piloting it back, but it was gone it was as if I couldn't control it. I've had similar things happen where the app glitches or auto quits, and I've flown it back no problem, it seemed not to respond to any commands, I always flight in a straight line from my position so in this event I can pull straight back and have it return. Upon disconnect I lost sight of the craft so I presume it took off or input its own command. I cannot be certain, I did however pull back on the throttle towards me and ascended rapidly to regain sight, that did not work. I drove in the direction of where it was last and it never reconnected.

 

[The Editor]

The battery was around 76% Voltage I believe was 3.74 it was green, it was within a few minutes of flight, I throttled up as soon as I lost sight in hopes of spotting it and piloting it back, but it was gone it was as if I couldn't control it. I've had similar things happen where the app glitches or auto quits, and I've flown it back no problem, it seemed not to respond to any commands, I always flight in a straight line from my position so in this event I can pull straight back and have it return. Upon disconnect I lost sight of the craft so I presume it took off or input its own command. I cannot be certain, I did however pull back on the throttle towards me and ascended rapidly to regain sight, that did not work. I drove in the direction of where it was last and it never reconnected.

Hmmmmm......strange one this. Without any logs on the tablet or logs recovered from the aircraft we are going to struggle a bit to fully understand exactly what occurred.

 

[Matt Simok]

Hmmmmm......strange one this. Without any logs on the tablet or logs recovered from the aircraft we are going to struggle a bit to fully understand exactly what occurred.

It is not the first time I've had a flight not record either, I thought that flights not recording is a fairly regular sporadic occurrence, nothing out of the ordinary.

 

[gray52]

Android or iOS? I had a crash on android once, will never use that again. Never had a problem with iOS.

 

[Matt Simok]

I'm on Android :/

 

[Patriot1776]

Hi Matt,is there still customer service available in Torrance ?

 

[Patriot1776]

Being new Matt and very conservative on flying, stories like this scare the crap out me. If nothing ever recorded even from the start that's a WHAT THE HELL is happening story Matt.
Now would my insurance policy i got from DJI cover this full coverage minus
Deductible Wow that's scary Brother I feel for you sorry for your loss

 

[Matt Simok]

Hi Matt,is there still customer service available in Torrance ?

I believe I was mistaken originally, the number I called today was an 818 area code so I assume that means there still is.

 

[Matt Simok]

Being new Matt and very conservative on flying, stories like this scare the crap out me. If nothing ever recorded eve from the star that's a WHAT THE HELL
Now would my insurance policy i got from DJI cover this full coverage minus
Deductible Wow that's scary Brother I feel for you sorry for your loss

Hey do not fret! This is a highly unusual occurrence, at least my situation is. I've pushed this thing to the max (3,000 feet over the ocean) no issues ever, this case is EXTREMELY bizarre. Now the non record of the flight is the most unusual thing about it, however, it's happened a few times. You also have to realize the location I was at is about 2.5 hours away from were I live way up in the mountains, so retrieval and search was near impossible . The problem for me is I do not have the wreckage, so I really have nothing to show for, If I were to retrieve it and it was determined not my fault they would replace it no problem or repair it, so your insurance should be fine, if it's your fault then you will use the insurance, if it is not your fault (my case) you shouldn't be responsible. Just make sure wherever you fly you know the area fairly well and make sure it always in sight. Don't be scared! I'm looking into getting a GPS tracking unit, it's relatively inexpensive considering, looking at the trackimo right now. Seems pretty good!

Anyways good luck I'm sure you'll be fine!

 

[Patriot1776]

Being new Matt and very conservative on flying, stories like this scare the crap out me. If nothing ever recorded eve from the star that's a WHAT THE HELL
Now would my insurance policy i got from DJI cover this full coverage minus
Deductible Wow that's scary Brother I feel for you sorry for your loss

 

[Scott Strimple]

So just to be certain... At the time of video feed failure you were not actually looking at your aircraft? What I'm getting at here is did you actually see your inspire fly away or did you simply have your head buried in the pilot app until video feed lost and then look up to try to find your inspire ? I'm assuming you did not have a VO with you as that would probably have mitigated the lose of visual sight and provided you with the information your missing such as it descended out of sight or it flew off in a certain direction etc. it sucks to lose a bird no matter how it happens ... Sorry

 

[Matt Simok]

No not exactly, I was watching the aircraft the entire time, I had visual contact, upon glancing to down for a photo op, I noticed the feed was disconnected. I spent about 30 seconds to 1 minute trying to fix the feed having not looked up for the duration of that time, at which point when I looked back up the aircraft was gone. So admittedly I am completely uncertain which direction the aircraft went if any. I attempted to ascend as high as I could to no avail and I attempted RTH to no avail.

 

[Steve@AerialImagesPro]

If you were in the mountains, 400 ft RTH would be below ground. Remember altitude is ASL not AGL. So if it went into fail safe, it probably tried to descend DOWN to 400 ft and flew right into trees. OR someone could have shot it out of the sky on you which would explain the sudden loss of signal.

 

[Scott Strimple]

If you were in the mountains, 400 ft RTH would be below ground. Remember altitude is ASL not AGL. So if it went into fail safe, it probably tried to descend DOWN to 400 ft and flew right into trees. OR someone could have shot it out of the sky on you which would explain the sudden loss of signal.

You are on to something but more correctly the altitude is derived thru the GPS based on when the aircraft is powered up and is AGL from that point. Now if the launch point happens to be at a lower altitude than the mountains/trees and one flew up and over the top and then the RTH was invoked, there is a possibility that the RTH altitude is now in the trees.

 

[Matt Simok]

If you were in the mountains, 400 ft RTH would be below ground. Remember altitude is ASL not AGL. So if it went into fail safe, it probably tried to descend DOWN to 400 ft and flew right into trees. OR someone could have shot it out of the sky on you which would explain the sudden loss of signal.

But if the the height was accurate from where I was located wouldn't that be void? So in other words, I was about 8,000ft in elevation, but from take off the aircraft read accurately my height 100ft was 100ft from that point. So if RTH was 400ft wouldn't be 400ft from the ground up at whatever location? I don't believe that RTH is derived from the elevation at which you are, whatever point you take off from is 0ft and RTH would be initiated from that reference. If I am wrong please let me know cause I was completely unaware of that.

 

[Scott Strimple]

But if the the height was accurate from where I was located wouldn't that be void? So in other words, I was about 8,000ft in elevation, but from take off the aircraft read accurately my height 100ft was 100ft from that point. So if RTH was 400ft wouldn't be 400ft from the ground up at whatever location? I don't believe that RTH is derived from the elevation at which you are, whatever point you take off from is 0ft and RTH would be initiated from that reference. If I am wrong please let me know cause I was completely unaware of that.

You are correct... Regardless of your altitude above sea level 8000' in your case your drone sees 0' at take off... If you only flew to 100' above ground level and then started RTH with a higher altitude set as the RTH parameter then yes it should climb to that alt