Have you recently lost a drone out of your sight? Well, I have and that is my worst nightmare. Many users even lose the raw footage of their equipment while flying. Sometimes the drones get disoriented in the air and stop communication with the owner. According to a GPS tracking organization named Trackimo, almost 30% of the owners lose control of their drones while operating and thus lose them forever. So here are some tips which will lead the way to find your lost drone. Check the article below.
Reasons as to why the Drones get lost
First, let us take a quick look at the reasons as to why the drones mostly get lost:
- Drop in the connection: A connection drop prevents all the controls and stops the feed of the camera. The crash is likely to happen in both situations. There might be some giant structure that might have hit the drone. The new model of drones includes failing safe functions that will direct your drone from where it has started flying when it will lose the connectivity.
- Inference or Fault: Sometimes interference or some of the kind fault might disrupt the signal. If the error is probable in the drone, then upload the fight logs to the manufacturer of the machine. If there is an error, the company will find the fault in that way and you may even get a refund or replacement for it.
- Traveling to the Difficult Terrain: It is very difficult to navigate a lost drone if it has moved into the terrains like Lakes, oceans, and dense woods.
Check below the key tips to Find the Lost Drone
Well, this article is all about how to find the drone that has been lost out somewhere there be it through any of the reasons stated. So, here are a few tips that have been proven fruitful to find these lost toys and bring them back home.
- Tracker
Tracker is the most convenient way to determine where your lost drone is right now. A tracker with GPS location will pinpoint the exact area where your drone has gone missing. A tracker is available for almost $80 that will make the chance of finding the lost UAV higher. There are cheaper trackers as well that uses a sim card of your phone and offer coordinates when necessary.
Another type of tracker implements cellular connection along with Google Maps to offer the real-time and precise location of the machine. It also tracks the duration of the flight, ascent, altitude, ascent, and distance apart from the location. Just match your preference according to your budget and fit it into your favorite drone.
- Always Turn Your Controller on
When you start searching for your drone, turn on your controller. But if the battery of your drone dies, the method will not work. Just press the return button and at some point, the drone will come back within the range and will reconnect with the controller. Look out for the telemetry information inside the controller. If the numbers of the information are going down, then the drone is nearby and is coming back to you.
- Last Known Coordinates
If the battery of the drone dies, do not worry as you still have your controller. If you do not switch off your controller, then the last known coordinates of the drone can be known which is stored by it. All you have to do is just plug a phone with GPS into the controller and move towards the identified location. Though it still needs to be searched manually, it will definitely narrow down the area.
- Press Return to Home Button
At first, when the drone starts going out of your range, the live feeds of the video goes off. If at this point, the return to the home button is pressed on the controller, then there might still be a chance that the drone will come to you.
- Check for the Telemetry Information
When the drone starts losing connectivity with the controller, check out the telemetry information. It will indicate in which direction the drone was moving and how far it is the last good point of connectivity. Most of the telemetry information is displayed at the bottom of IPads, smartphones, or physical controllers.
- Report to the FAA
You must report your missing drone to the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) who will notify the owner if they see anything. Since the drone includes a registration number, this will be a piece of cake for FAA
Hopefully, these tips will assist you to find a lost drone. Losing your drone is depressing and never finding it still more annoying. However, do not send any of your technical birds to the sky without any tracker. As we all know that ‘prevention is always better than cure’, so why not take the preventive measure before it gets lost. Well, Happy flying to you all!