Hi I’ve retrieved the flight log from my tablet. not the drone or the sd card. its been a shitty weekend.
I have a dji phantom 3 pro since 2016 being flying almost all the time since then. till it fell in the water.
I was recording us pouring cement on a slipway to repair and a few pictures for my sailing club, and well we thought it would be cool to have a video of us doing it from the air i also got some cool pictures of the area aswell. i flew the drone approx 25m up and 30 meters out from the shore above the water i set the quality to 720p cause it was going to be viewed on whatsapp more then likely. insert my 1st mistake of the day. i put down the remote with the drone still recording and help the lads with the cement i checked on it 4 mins later all good, briefly checked settings etc. I worked for a bit checked drone= good, it was a few mins later when i saw drone finishing descent to its doom i saw it on its last meter. take a guess of the reaction. i instantly went to the remote full power up… nothing it hovered for 2 more seconds on the water then went down. i swam for 30 mins looking for it, nothing. It sank in a reservoir, at that location it was approx 25 meters deep. i cant free dive that deep, none of us could. I took the ■■■■ happens route for this
but i want to know in which way i screwed up having it autoland instead of RTH or battery had critical voltage and forced to land. i feel like it was the 2nd option but still, that battery has been charged about 49-54 times and close to retirement, well would have been. Ive looked at the flight record but I want to be sure.
If anyone has any recommendations on how to retrieve the drone i am all ears
Wasn’t a battery “problem”. It was critical low battery, per your settings in the app. The aircraft will autoland at that point. There were a few major deviations in the cells, but overall the battery was fine. The aircraft did what it was designed to do. Sorry for the loss.
When the “Smart Return-to-Home” setting is enabled in DJI GO (see the screenshot below), the Phantom will auto return back to the home point when the battery reaches the low level (unless you cancel that action in DJI GO). Since you had that setting disabled, your Phantom continued to fly until it reached the critically low level. At the critically low level, it will always auto land at its current location to prevent the battery from shutting off mid-flight.
i know i have no way to prove it but i very rarely have it off from smart RTH.
This is just a theory but does settings say like the RTH feature be transferred from one device to another as i have a beefy tablet i use as my main device, but on that day i used my phone as it was kinda last minute planning with the drone. The last time I had smart RTH off was using that phone ( I was flying under tree canopy) i last used the phone with the drone in july.
I know Its still my fault not the device i am just wondering.
Anyone know if there’s some trade in/ sell water damaged parts or sell other drone parts as i have lots of spares.
I may buy A new drone or build one or never fly a drone again, probably not the last one
If you have any recommendations for drone build kits/setups or just experience ill appreciate it if you gave me advice
