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HELP Recovering a missing flight log

Mtntrogger

Well-Known Member
Join
Aug 16, 2019
Messages
92
Age
50
Hello fellow pilots. I am really hoping someone on here can help me out with this. I bought my first drone, a barely used Spark from Craigslist about a month and a half ago. I proceeded to fly it over a large lake before having enough experience to do so. Total Noob move !! I ended up crashing it into the water and had no idea where it went in, as I had lost visual contact. I did have a very broken video feed, but it isnt as helpfull as I would hope.

In the few times I flew it I fell in love, so I ended up buying a new replacement a week later. Since it was NIB I purchased the DJI Refresh and also spent a ton of time to learn all the ins and outs of controlling the bird in different situations. I feel like Im actually a proficient pilot now !

I havent been able to stop thinking about that first spark being in the lake this whole time. I fully understand that everything electronic is for sure ruined, but I think the shell could still be used for some parts.

From the video feed I could tell that it wasnt too far from shore when it when in, but I feel like having an exact gps point could possibly lead to a recovery.

HERES the big issue...The flight (all of them from that day and the day before) doesnt show up in my DJI go flight records. So I looked in the DJI go files in the phone I was flying with that day and found all the records BUT I cant open them with anything ! ? Ive copied them onto my desktop and tried importing each different file type with Airdata UAV and it wont accept any of the several different file formats that I found. Can anyone please help me figure out how to access this flight data ? There must be a way ! Thanks again, any responses are appreciated
 
See the instructions at the bottom of the this page for locating the correct log file. You can also upload and view your log file there.
 
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See the instructions at the bottom of the this page for locating the correct log file. You can also upload and view your log file there.
Thanks Spark help ! No dice yet...I only have DAT files for that day. Most other flights show a txt log, but that one and a few others are DAT only.
 
You can use DatCon to view the data in that DAT log.
 
It took some time but I definitely got a flight track that shows up in Google Earth and also GPS coordinates of where in the lake that track ended. Looks like it was about 30 feet offshore. I'm excited to try to recover it. I have a rough image from the video feed of what the shore looked like where it went in. With that and the exact GPS location I think its possible to recover.
It is ambitious since this lake is located at about 10,000 feet above sea level the water is quite cold ! The biggest optimism comes from knowing how much the water level drops from lakes up here in the fall, combined with this particular lake has a fluctuating water level which is always much lower in the morning than any other time of day. If I time it right, the drone may not be far from shore at all. I understand it's a small object and the sand could have easily buried it by now, but I am still planning on giving it a shot. Will update with results. Thanks again for the help !
 
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