Solo flew away and crashed in the ocean...

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So I'm reasonably new to the whole drone thing but being a photographer for the past 10years and avid explorer I thought I'd pick up a drone. Looked around and settled on the solo anyways three flights later I was in a park a little over 500ms from the our local beach and I took off flew away from myself in a straight line nothing fancy at a pretty slow speed about 5metres off the ground when all of a sudden Solo stopped paused for a split second then my controller lost connection and it shot straight up to about 30-50 meters did a 180 and took off VERY fast then angled nose down like it fixed on something and took off out of the park over the beach and make an angled decent before crashing into the water about 200meters offshore never to be seen again along with my brand new gopro hero 4 silver.

Submitted a ticket with 3dr help about 10days but have only got a "We haven't forgot about you" generic email.

Would be interested to know if the logs explain what has happened if someone could tell me how to upload them and have a look that would be great
 
not enough information there to venture a guess as to whether this was user error or failure, 3DR will figure that out
but I am curious, did you read much about solos failsafes and what happens if you lose GPS or Signal to the controller?
Part of what you describe is a Return Home was initiated, part sounds like some GPS loss going to manual.
 
The whole jetting off a high rate of speed with decaying altitude sounds an awful lot like the old EKF error fly away. That shouldn't be happening anymore with the last firmware update, and was only briefly an issue in the update before that. Describe what you did leading up to take off? And describe the takeoff area.
 
Little late for the OP, but I would suggest NOT flying over water until one has complete and utter confidence in the entire Solo system and in their own ability to fly and recover from errant flight issues - whether those issues were/are caused by pilot error or system error. Let's says 10-12 successful flights minimum (and maybe more) for training and discovery AND for time needed to page through this forum for about a month and read of other's issues and how they are resolved. As has been pointed out a few times, Solo has become a (largely) community-supported platform - or at least that is where all the good info is; mostly here!

In spite of the advertised RTF nature of Solo, it just isn't reasonable (for me at least) to take that on face value.

BTW, 3DR isn't replacing GoPros any longer, so that is history.

Suggest you try chatting with 3DR, which always takes priority over the mysterious black hole of ticket submissions.
 
Little late for the OP, but I would suggest NOT flying over water until one has complete and utter confidence in the entire Solo system and in their own ability to fly and recover from errant flight issues - whether those issues were/are caused by pilot error or system error. Let's says 10-12 successful flights minimum (and maybe more) for training and discovery

Great advice there. I flew the Solo and several home built quads for a year before I took mine over water... and was still very nervous doing so AND only did so after having bought a spare Solo.

Sorry the OP lost his Solo, and hopefully 3DR replaces it, but putting even the reduced cost of the Solo and that of the GoPro up in the air near or over water, with essentially no flying experience, is just a recipe for disaster.
 
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This sounds much like the Solo that spazzed out and flew right through somebody's window.

Don't remember if that was EKF or motor failure- anybody else remember?

In any event, that crash was NOT pilot error.
 
I thought the EKF problem put the Solo into manual mode? At least that's what it did with mine. Unfortunately mine also lost communication with the controller at the same time so I was unable to bring her home manually. Result was a lost Solo that 3DR replaced for me.
 
Little late for the OP, but I would suggest NOT flying over water until one has.

Very good advice.

But just to point out...he didn't fly over the water...the Solo flew away from land and THEN out into the ocean.

--

Bill
 
Hey guys,
Thanks for the replies.

As wsalopek said I wasn't over water or even flying towards water.

I also had all the controls set on slow and the ceiling limit at 10mtrs as I was only starting out so I wasn't flying around at high speed doing anything crazy.

pedals2paddles in regards to take off it was in an open grassed park
- Took off
- Was flying about 5mtrs high in a straight line
- Angled gimble up
- Video feed to my phone goes black
- Control says "looking for solo
- Drone shoots straight up
- Does 180 (now facing me again)
- Takes off at what my guess would be full throttle
- Never deviates from the path it sets its self on (out of the park, over two dbl lane roads, beach and goes out to sea crashing), never slows down just shoots straight ahead and down.

(I actually have the footage saved to my phone and shows the drone flying in a straight line perfectly and as the gimble angles up the feed cuts out)

I have watched that video of the Solo going through the window and that's what it looked like in person. Like a missile that had locked onto a certain point.

Still haven't heard a peep from 3DR and have sent two follow up emails.
 
...As wsalopek said I wasn't over water or even flying towards water....

Still haven't heard a peep from 3DR and have sent two follow up emails.
My home is on a canal in a city with more miles of canals than any other city in the world, that leads to a wide river, that leads to the very close-by Gulf of Mexico. For several miles around here I have to assume the risk of losing the Solo over water. Would hate for it to happen, as it did with you, but every time I put it in the air... I know where it could end up. :( Long drive to the desert, though.

Refer to my post #4 where I say, "Suggest you try chatting with 3DR, which always takes priority over the mysterious black hole of ticket submissions".
 
Is it possible someone hacked your drone and sent it to its demise?
 

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