I was doing a regular monthly mapping job on a large solar farm. I was on day two of mapping. The preflight checks completed and I hit start flight. The drone raised to 200 feet, hovered for a moment then took off in the direction of the first waypoint (I had a photo plan selected). Within less than a minute, I heard a pop the drone fell out the sky. I still haven’t found the drone as it’s in a solar farm and very hard to have access to. I tried using DJI find my drone but it last had my drone at the location I took off from. The only log file I could find for DD is going into my apple phone, but the log has no data. I will continue to try find my drone, but I am really interested in what happened. Can you shed any light on why DD didn’t create a log file in the app?
Hearing a pop from that distance sounds like a battery failure or a board could have shorted and caused the battery to overload. Unless the pop was it hitting something like a bird. Sorry for your loss. It happens to all of us at some point in time whether it’s equipment failure or operator error. I gotten one hung 80-100ft up in a tree that is still there 3 years later. It’s next to a creek so there’s no way to get up there. In the 8 years i’ve been flying I had 3 equipment failures (mainboard, battery an an ESC) so don’t feel bad.
Thanks Michael. It’s my first crash, so I’m still trying to figure out how it happened. I have almost 600 miles of flying. Flight number 617 was the one. It didn’t hit anything as there are no trees or anything above the solar panels. The pop I believe came from the drone. It tumbled but it goes down so quickly. Thanks for the encouragement.
Hey everyone,
I wanted to share an incident that recently occurred, which seems to have similarities with the crash discussed in this thread. I represent Skylark Drones, and we have a network of experienced pilots who have encountered various challenges during their flights. While accidents happen, it’s crucial to learn from them and improve our practices.
At Skylark Drones, we understand the importance of reliable flight planning tools and safe operations. That’s why we’ve developed a consolidated flight planning application that addresses the needs of drone pilots. Our application, Drone Mission Ops (DMO), combines advanced mission planning capabilities with live streaming support for real-time situational awareness.
We take pride in the fact that our DMO application has been extensively used by our network of pilots, and there haven’t been any reported issues to date. We prioritize the safety and efficiency of every flight, and our team continuously works on refining our software to ensure a seamless experience for our users.
If you’re looking for a comprehensive flight planning solution that combines mission planning features and live streaming capabilities, Skylark Drones’ DMO (Drone Mission Ops) might be the ideal choice for you. Our application streamlines the entire process, enabling you to plan your missions effectively while staying updated with real-time video feeds.
Feel free to reach out to us for more information or to share your own experiences. We value your feedback and are committed to enhancing the capabilities of our flight planning tools.
Fly safe and happy mapping!
Best regards,
Anand Mahesh
anand@skylarkdrones.com
Skylark Drones