Incredible saga!
Morning launch to catch a few shots of sunrise. Phantom was on GPS lock which SHOULD HAVE kept it in position. FPV and all flight data cut out leaving me blind.
While attempting to re-establish the connection the Phantom is pushed away from home by strong winds later determined to be 30+ mph. Normally the GPS lock would keep the PV2+ stationary but for reasons unknown it didn't.
By the time the connection was re-established the PV2+ was quite a ways away and all attempts to either turn it around or land it proved fruitless. Both controls and FPV were not responding. Last data sent from PV2+ indicated battery was at a critical level which would normally have initiated an auto land which also did not happen.
PV2+ drops from the sky into heavily wooded private land mass.
In an attempt to recover the Phantom a feature known as "find my Phantom", similar to find my iPhone is used. FMP uses last known position on google map to indicate last known position but will not continue to update info in the event of power loss.
Because the Phantom was at altitude and in heavy winds -AND- I was unaware as to whether the Phantom was attempting to land, return home or was doing neither it left me with a MASSIVE search area to cover.
The first portion of the video illustrates the four days of searching through the woods. Several clips from various points in the search -
I was in a race to find the Phantom as SNOW was forecast to fall. Finding the PV2+ in a forest was difficult enough, finding it in a snow covered forest would have been impossible so the race was on.
What made the entire search even more fun was that it was hunting season, I had no idea whether the Phantom was on the ground, in a tree or had taken a swim in the several lakes surrounding the area.
FINALLY, on the fourth day I FOUND THE PHANTOM JUST as it began to snow!! Amazingly - there was little physical damage. Two broken props, camera had detached, battery had been ejected but all pieces were found together approximately 5-800 feet from last known position on the ground.
After recharging the battery and drying everything off the PV2+ started up, functioned properly and even flew with a new set of props. Sadly, the camera and gimbal were not functional and require replacement or repair but I was able to retrieve the micro SD and have included the last minutes of the flight at the end of the video.
FLIGHT VIDEO:
Launch is normal. Once PV2+ is at altitude FPV cuts out.
PV2+ can be making movements and drifting. There are NO operator inputs after PV2+ reaches altitude. All spinning and circling is done by the Phantom.
Halfway through the flight the Phantom is pointed AWAY from launch point and can be seen moving either autonomously or directed by the winds AWAY from launch point.
As flight video ends there is no indication that the PV2+ is attempting to descend indicating that auto land has not initiated. Video ends abruptly as battery dies and Phantom falls to the ground.
Thankfully the Phantom and video were recovered or many questions would have remained unanswered.
- Other than launch and command to altitude, I as the pilot did not not direct the Phantom.
- I believe the spinning of the Phantom was the Phantom trying to hold position in strong winds.
- It appears the bird either lost GPS or lost home point as it was pointed away from home and did not make an attempt to return to home even after controller was turned off which should have initiated a return to home.
- I had been having problems with wifi FPV in the week leading up to the flyaway where it would intermittently cut out but restarting the wifi connection would always solve the issue and took less than a few seconds.
- I had over a thousand flights on this particular drone without incident.
- Uncertain as to whether the Phantom was attempting to return home or being blown away from home the search area was extended to nearly two miles away from launch point.
- Locating the Phantom and reviewing the video confirmed my suspicion that the PV2+ did not attempt to return home or land.
