Inspire 1 pro went walkabout !!

gpro13 · Jun 1, 2019

Strange experience today. Went flying local fields for a farmer. No Problems. Job done. Went to another location a few miles away for another farmer. While flying along a tree line - trees on left sowed field on right, sloping ground to right, I suddenly got lost transmission warnings and then camera picture froze. No big deal as FPV camera was still working so set controls full up, right and back which should bring it away from the tree line and back within range and was still LOS.
No such luck so hit return to home. The FPV camera showed the drone was turning left towards the trees !! The Go app was still frozen. Decided to wait as battery was 70%. Then the FPV camera went dead.
After a few minutes got a bit concerned so walked to where I figured it was last seen, however I noticed on my map view it was on the other side of the woods and stationery. The woods are on a slope but I new the return to home was set for 25 meters and I started the flight half way up so would have easily cleared the trees.
Now there is another problem. Return to home was set to return to controller !! Why was it flying away to the left??
The long and short of it is that the drone appears to have tried to fly back to the first farmers field as I eventually found the drone in a corn field where it had crashed landed.
I realised that the sloping woodland and corn field combined where more than 25 meters high from my start point and therefore it flew into the ground. Now wait a minute. The first flight of the day was higher up than where I was when I lost control. So why did it not fly way above the trees and sloping ground ?
Its fortunate that it did not as there are some hefty pylons between my location and the previous location which would have caused a bigger headache !!
The battery had jumped out on impact and was off although showed 3 lights when powered on. There was no damage at all to the drone. The corn damage showed how it had flown straight in and the corn leaves had saved the day. The FPV camera was in fact still transmitting with diversity which enabled me to find the source of the transmission.
Checked the settings and the drone is set to return to controller. Can only assume that if its lost sight of the controller it has some inbuilt memory to fly back to last known controller location !! Nah - that does not make sense as it should return to me with the controller in hand.
I am baffled. Thankfully I had my trusty dog with me and she actually found the I1 in the 3 foot high corn. Yep - she loves to fly too ;-)
Also a bit worried as to what might have happened near a built up area !!
Its ironic that I usually fly with anti collision strobes on front, rear and top as there often military low flying helicopters flying nearby, which would have made finding it a lot easier. I decided not to use them on these flights today - its Saturday and even the military have a day off !!
Hmm! maybe someone is trying to tell me something.

Any ideas on this would be gratefully received. My devices are not Huawei compatible in any way so Chinese not to blame !! ;-)

PatR · Jun 1, 2019

When it comes to drones and “walkabouts”, all I can say is; chit happens.

rcdancer · Jun 1, 2019

Yup - dogs are much more amazing (and trustworthy) than drones.

LUIS MARTINEZ · Jun 1, 2019

gpro13 said:
Strange experience today. Went flying local fields for a farmer. No Problems. Job done. Went to another location a few miles away for another farmer. While flying along a tree line - trees on left sowed field on right, sloping ground to right, I suddenly got lost transmission warnings and then camera picture froze. No big deal as FPV camera was still working so set controls full up, right and back which should bring it away from the tree line and back within range and was still LOS.
No such luck so hit return to home. The FPV camera showed the drone was turning left towards the trees !! The Go app was still frozen. Decided to wait as battery was 70%. Then the FPV camera went dead.
After a few minutes got a bit concerned so walked to where I figured it was last seen, however I noticed on my map view it was on the other side of the woods and stationery. The woods are on a slope but I new the return to home was set for 25 meters and I started the flight half way up so would have easily cleared the trees.
Now there is another problem. Return to home was set to return to controller !! Why was it flying away to the left??
The long and short of it is that the drone appears to have tried to fly back to the first farmers field as I eventually found the drone in a corn field where it had crashed landed.
I realised that the sloping woodland and corn field combined where more than 25 meters high from my start point and therefore it flew into the ground. Now wait a minute. The first flight of the day was higher up than where I was when I lost control. So why did it not fly way above the trees and sloping ground ?
Its fortunate that it did not as there are some hefty pylons between my location and the previous location which would have caused a bigger headache !!
The battery had jumped out on impact and was off although showed 3 lights when powered on. There was no damage at all to the drone. The corn damage showed how it had flown straight in and the corn leaves had saved the day. The FPV camera was in fact still transmitting with diversity which enabled me to find the source of the transmission.
Checked the settings and the drone is set to return to controller. Can only assume that if its lost sight of the controller it has some inbuilt memory to fly back to last known controller location !! Nah - that does not make sense as it should return to me with the controller in hand.
I am baffled. Thankfully I had my trusty dog with me and she actually found the I1 in the 3 foot high corn. Yep - she loves to fly too ;-)
Also a bit worried as to what might have happened near a built up area !!
Its ironic that I usually fly with anti collision strobes on front, rear and top as there often military low flying helicopters flying nearby, which would have made finding it a lot easier. I decided not to use them on these flights today - its Saturday and even the military have a day off !!
Hmm! maybe someone is trying to tell me something.

Any ideas on this would be gratefully received. My devices are not Huawei compatible in any way so Chinese not to blame !! ;-)

logs?

gpro13 · Jun 2, 2019

LUIS MARTINEZ said:
logs?

Good point - am out on another job today but will check them tonight when I get back. Thanks for that.

R.P..R · Jun 2, 2019

gpro13 said:
Good point - am out on another job today but will check them tonight when I get back. Thanks for that.

That’s strange, before you took off, did the i1 record the home point?
When the remote controller disconnects, the drone will retrace its previous flight path for about 60 seconds. If the signal doesn't reconnect after 60 seconds, it'll abort the retrace attempt and fly directly back to the first home point. At times it is better to turn off and turn the RC back again. Knock on wood, this has not happened to me. I have a paranoia syndrome any glitch, I land QUICKLY! lol

But, yeah. Post log.

gpro13 · Jun 2, 2019

I have now revued the log and I am more mystified. It shows the take off and home point being the same - then the flight progresses as planned up to 25 metres high then along the tree line at a steady pace 5 mph. Then approx 65 metres away it turns left suddenly then procedes over the trees where it does a 180 and rises to 32 metres and speeds up to 15mph going backwards in a straight line to the point where it landed.
Unfortunatly there is no record of command input so I must assume after it decided to turn left over the trees it then got my input to rise and turn right which would explain it flying backward and the speed and height increase presumable because I hit the return to home button.
Flight time was 8 mins 56 secs final distance 526m battery 70%
I thought it odd that the FPV camera on the nose was completely undamaged or even moved by the impact which it would have been if it nosed in. The FPV aerial had clicked forwards on its swivel so the landing "crash" backwards does make sense.
So overall most of what happened now makes sense except why it lost transmission at 65 metres LOS and then turned left to disappear over the trees ??
I fly with Epson Moverio glasses so have not found the log which tells you the command inputs only the map of the flight. I am assuming the controller inputs are recorded ?
Incidently I have some 50 hours with this drone and no issues. I have not done any updating of firmware as non required so far.
I cannot think of anything I did differently except the first flight of the day I did not use the FPV camera but did on this 2nd flight. Surely that FPV transmission could not have affected the normal DJI transmissions and has not done so in the past.
Yes I could have done an immediate land as I was clear of the trees and the ground was a newly seeded field.
But could I as it seemed to have a mind of its own at the point of no connection and might well have turned left into the trees while trying to land.

Me thinks explosive bolts under the battery triggered by a parachute system would be the safest way forward ;-)

Thank you all for your input. I will keep doing searches on the forum to see if anything similar has happened to someone else.
ttfn.

LUIS MARTINEZ · Jun 2, 2019

gpro13 said:
I have now revued the log and I am more mystified. It shows the take off and home point being the same - then the flight progresses as planned up to 25 metres high then along the tree line at a steady pace 5 mph. Then approx 65 metres away it turns left suddenly then procedes over the trees where it does a 180 and rises to 32 metres and speeds up to 15mph going backwards in a straight line to the point where it landed.
Unfortunatly there is no record of command input so I must assume after it decided to turn left over the trees it then got my input to rise and turn right which would explain it flying backward and the speed and height increase presumable because I hit the return to home button.
Flight time was 8 mins 56 secs final distance 526m battery 70%
I thought it odd that the FPV camera on the nose was completely undamaged or even moved by the impact which it would have been if it nosed in. The FPV aerial had clicked forwards on its swivel so the landing "crash" backwards does make sense.
So overall most of what happened now makes sense except why it lost transmission at 65 metres LOS and then turned left to disappear over the trees ??
I fly with Epson Moverio glasses so have not found the log which tells you the command inputs only the map of the flight. I am assuming the controller inputs are recorded ?
Incidently I have some 50 hours with this drone and no issues. I have not done any updating of firmware as non required so far.
I cannot think of anything I did differently except the first flight of the day I did not use the FPV camera but did on this 2nd flight. Surely that FPV transmission could not have affected the normal DJI transmissions and has not done so in the past.
Yes I could have done an immediate land as I was clear of the trees and the ground was a newly seeded field.
But could I as it seemed to have a mind of its own at the point of no connection and might well have turned left into the trees while trying to land.

Me thinks explosive bolts under the battery triggered by a parachute system would be the safest way forward ;-)

Thank you all for your input. I will keep doing searches on the forum to see if anything similar has happened to someone else.
ttfn.

No useful input from anyone here can be coming w/o the log.

gpro13 · Jun 4, 2019

LUIS MARTINEZ said:
No useful input from anyone here can be coming w/o the log.

The only log I can find is the actual flight pattern. In the "Warnings" there is a reference to power control limited due to battery.
Correction to above the speeds were in fact 5 m/s upto the point I lost transmission and then it went to 18 m/s !!
Its definetly flying backwards at speed after transmission lost which is really weird.