Afternoon folks,
So today I replaced one of the propellers on my spark, took it up in the garden maybe 20ft and a message showed on the app that the drone had disconnected. I looked back to roughly where the drone should have been and it had disappeared.
From what I can gather no home point had currently been set, It is usually pretty quick to do so and then I will fly off at that point. Though the in app flight records show an H on the timeline, I am not sure where this relates too. Distance travelled appears to show as 0m ( which would indicate its in my garden still which 100% it is not )
Flight log is here https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/80XY5T5J3BQO4IPAP8E2
Also app screenshot with the timeline. Literally have no idea where to begin. Find my drone points me to where it last took off from a week ago so literally nothing from today.
Any help would be appreciated.
First, a question and a few observations on your data. Question: Were you flying with an RC and your mobile device? Or only your mobile device?
Observations: # 1 You were flying at ~20 meters which is ~ 65ft, not 20ft.
#2 With no GPS the “Distance Travelled” will obviously be zero. This is calculated from GPS.
As a rule of thumb, so to speak you should never even start the motors until GPS Lock.
#3 It appears that you manually switched flight modes twice. As I understand, Sport mode is disabled when only using your mobile device, although Fly State Data says otherwise, which is why I asked the question above. That is something that @BudWalker could answer.
#4 All of this being said, At ~ 23 Seconds, the aircraft switched to ATTI mode, which is basically the same as no GPS Positioning, you still had control of the aircraft judging by the rudder bumps after the switch. The aircraft should have been well within view to regain control at that point. Just my opinion, but without GPS Data, that cannot be confirmed.
Bottom line here is. We cant help you locate it without the GPS data.
Hi Fly Dawg,
Thanks for taking the time to respond. To answer your question and observations I will add that I was using both mobile and RC.
However, the device disconnected message came up on the screen after around 10 seconds and I was faced with a black screen. At this point I could still see the drone, closed the mobile app and reopened but to no avail, and then I couldn’t see the drone, because of this also I would not have then known I had no GPS lock.
Looking at the logs and data it then goes to a height of 20m as you rightly say, and any rudder input would have been me trying to locate.
Pressing return to home did nothing to bring back towards me despite the RC making the RTH sound. Had this of been at the previously used location the drone would have still flown directly above me in order to get there. But the timeline picture appears to show that RTH point is logged or am I wrong there? ( the H on the bar )
I just don’t know what happened at 33seconds… at that point according to the data its at 20meters still but that would be when I closed the app.
Looks like I’m lucked out then, have to hope for an honest person finding it !
One final question then…
At the speed it was travelling what distance would we be looking at it potentially travelling? I mean, if it travelled off in a straight line that might open up some potential search areas as there is a fair bit of open field in the direction it may “hopefully” have flown.
RTH will not work without GPS Lock. The aircraft has no idea where it is or where to go to.
That depends if you had visual sight on the Spark, and if there was any wind and what speed and what direction. In ATTI mode, the quad cannot hover or maneuver on its on. If there was any wind at all at 65 Ft or so, it will drift in that direction. It will maintain altitude unless you still have control and command it otherwise. Once the battery is low it enough it will Autoland at that point. But as I said, with no GPS whatsoever your guess would be better than mine. You weren’t issuing any commands for the last 5 seconds of data or so. The flight wasn’t long enough to gather wind data so that is another point.
Hey 
Thought I had better update this since I forgot to last week.
So I took a walk to the area on my photos with the bushes in a square shape. This was the last thing I saw on the screen before the disconnect. An hour walk around what is now an overgrown garden centre and my spark was literally at the bottom of one of the conifers! Guess it maintained height and just landed there. No damage other than a slight bend to a prop!
Lucky this time!
Thank you for your input into this, will certainly be more wary about gps locking in future 
