Gone in 45 seconds..Bye Bye Phantom Quadcopter over the ocean...or is it? 

That feeling of seeing what you thought you already lost.

Must say I was fooled by your title.

Still a Better Love Story than Twilight.

the rth feature is brilliant providing there is enough juice left in the battery. once its initiated it does come back very quickly. surprisingly quick

Quadcopter: ME IN YOUR HANDS, NOW!! Owner: how much was left? Quad: you dont want to know.

Ah, another super intelligent, highly educated person who calls a multirotor a Quadcopter (and that's exactly what they are). NorthOlbo, you are so lucky that your Quadcopter returned back on its own. I wish you happiness. Greetings from Australia.

Amazing close call! Instead of "flying on vapors" I prefer "flying on static" ;-)

Oh my gosh, lol, even this is old, I was climbing up on the table so I could get my eyes closer to the screen of my laptop, I was squinting and talking it home, lol. Dude, good video, well put together and well edited. I'm 3 years late but one of the best drone vids so far ! Whew !

Touching story..my tears are coming down...It feels like romeo is gone 4ever!!

For a second I thought the video title says "... INTO the ocean", which would be bad. Then I reread it :). Nice video! Be careful over the water, though!

Yeah, I wish I knew the actual battery life better, my next quad will have that capability. Especially flying into a headwind. I have flown over water at least a 100 times so it doesn't bother me, losing control does though, anywhere!

That must have been nerve wracking. Full marks though to DJI's tech for getting the quad back to you.

I'll have to stop watching all these close call with quadcopters---I'm becoming a nervous wreck!

Comments by me are very scarce but this one deserves a loud applause. Perfectly put together and very thrilling.

I have been told that the four antennas originally put out AM radio 1070 KHz at 10KW power, FM radio 107.3 MHz at 20 KW power, a ham radio at 550 W at 14.084-14.09 SSB (whatever that is) and 1400 W at 14.16-18 SSB (again, whatever that is) and on occasion 14.26 That info is a bit dated now and there may be additional AM and FM broadcasts from them. I don't know if these strong signals could create a secondary interference effect within the Phantom controls even though they arent on identical frequencies. Certainly there is a lot of transmission power focussed in that direction (the antennas direct north towards Victoria and Canada, not south towards the Washington state in the US). Any electrical engineers out there who can speak to this?

Nerve wrecking to watch. I thought you'll lose it, was imagining myself and prospect of losing my drone. Soooooo glad you got it back. Thumbs up.

that was suspense!

Nice! I lost 1st generation Phantom over the Mississippi River in New Orleans one flight It was unseen for about 2 minutes before I turned off the tx. Tourist were telling me they felt bad b/c I lost it. About 3 minutes after turning off, we "heard" it but couldn't see it. Suddenly it appeared, hovered, then defended into my hands!

great video. I am so envious. I can easily afford one, but don't know how to get around the fact that I have a very practical wife.

Thankyou so much for posting this... I recently lost my drone in nearly the same manner. My problem was that I was doing a quick manual run with no Gps and my transmitter went out.. This video has entirely changed my mind on how I will run next time. Thanks again This made me smile.......

At least you only needed new pants and not a new quad.

My first quadcopter was a v262. I lost it after about 3 weeks. After recovering it from a crash in tall trees, I couldn't tell which direction it was going, and it got caught in some winds. Was fighting to bring it back but couldn't tell which direction it was going. Then it went out of range and went down beyond a bunch of pine trees past a block of houses. I was glad it was a $70 mistake instead of having bought a 600-800 dollar unit as my first quadcopter.

I make double sure my iPhone volume is turned all the way up so I am sure to hear the 30% low battery alarm. I also make darn sure I have GPS lock before taking off, don't want to lose my expensive toy. I do a compass calibration before each days flying (overkill?) and head it back at 30% because at 15% it will land where it is, hopefully not in a lake, pool, or in a busy roadway. I was thinking of changing those values to 25 and 10% because it seems at 30 I still have 6 or 7 minutes of flying. This is a great video and a good warning on checking your intended flying area.

Man was that ever tense and this is only about the 4th vid to watch on these quads for me. Nice job in scaring me Sir. I think the music added to the mystery as to what might happen. Glad you got her back.

WOW! I can only imagine how you felt while this happened!!!! My blood pressure would have been through the roof!!!! Glad to see the Return To Home feature worked as intended!!!!

Great video. Very engaging. Don't know if I was more concerned about your possible loss or the little quad copter in trouble over the Ocean.

that's pretty awesome. I've purchased a drone with the return to home function, I hope I never have as close a call as you did.

MAN! that is IMPRESSIVE bit of tech right there! I ALWAYS dreamed of something like this, ever since i was a boy. Its a massive bit of coin for me to spend these days. But i have to do it! Im trying to decide on building a rig, or going DJI prebuilt. Any thoughts? {i realize you may be biased} I am an rc fixed wing and hell {poor} pilot with some 2.4g gear to get me started. Or is the DJI rig really that sorted?

I felt my stomach knot up! Way to get the tension built up! Great vid.

A frickin close one. Glad you got your quad copter safely back.

WOW, very lucky! Glad to see the automation worked and GPS brought it back!

I am extremely glad your harrowing tale had a happy ending. Among other good lessons to be learned there is to get a telemetry system, and I know I am guilty (up till now) of not doing a ground range check. You can be sure I will be doing that on ALL my fleet from now on.

Yikes! Glad it was a happy ending.

A DJI Phantom Quadcopter gets hijacked by radio antennas when flying over the ocean. Enterprise Channel in Victoria BC has a lot of interesting boat traffic. I tried flying my quad there when four large radio antennas overwhelmed my transmitter causing the quad to fly away. Enabling "Return to Home" brought the quad back safely, with no battery life left, but still alive! Enjoy my nerve wracking experience!

one word......SCARY!

A gentleman and his drone - true love.

Gone in ...wait ... its one of the misleading titles in RU-vid videos .

Good video. Had me a little worried it was gone for good but glad it had a happy ending.

That was scary, glad you got it back. I'm going to fly mine now ;-)

Great Video !! You had me worried of it would return. You must have been doubly excited. Best of Luck in Future Flights.

This sounds like a love story between you and the drone hahaha loved it.

Being new to the multirotor scene this is a stark warning of what can happen even to experienced pilots. I just hope my quad doesn't end up in a mangled heap somewhere. Thanks for a great video :-)

I think the water caused your problem along with the radio antennas in the distance. I notice a lot of issues when I fly over the ocean with my P4. Check out my channel when you get a chance, just subbed you.

They're four things you could do to improve your RC. 1) Modify your RC control to use any screw in antenna you want, which will give you a lot more gain. 2) Use a rf amplifier in addition to higher gain antenna. 3) Use a better RC control such a a futaba or even a Spektrum. 4) Use an EZUHF system. This plugs into the trainer port of either of the two transmitters I mentioned. You'll get much better overall range over stock and the chances of interference will be slim to none.

Wow, great video! You had me hooked at the very beginning and I actually caught my pulse bumping up in anticipation of the outcome. Glad you got it back.

I had a similar experience off Bell Island filming a berg. Great that you got it home, obviously the key is staying calm. Great job!

Holy crap that is one of the best luckiest moments I ever seen praise the rc gods that it returned home awesome vid

Wow, it made me nervous too! I remember almost losing a plane, (before GPS); in a last ditch effort I pulled up and my brother saw it in the distance, I could not see it. He guided me and I barely made it home when I ran out of gas.

Was rooting for it to come back! Thanks for sharing!

Wow!, loved the home mode. Thanks for posting.

Hence the reason to upgrade your radio to a FUTABA or other brand radio to avoid being overpowered by other rogue transmissions. Always good to do an Advanced Calibration before a long day of flying and even once again taking some time to do another calibration. Always recalibrate your compass before a flight and then again after several flights. There's no such thing as over calibrating. If you make it part of your standard routine then your level of enjoyment will increase because you'll have less mishaps and scratching your head saying . . . "hmmm I wonder what happened?" Treat the Phantom as if you were going to be traveling in it yourself. --- A great rule of thumb . . .

Great video! I would have been completely freaked out. Glad the phantom returned as programmed. Bravo!

so cool man, congrats on thinking fast and return to home. why was there so little battery life left? if i were flying over water i would make sure battery is full..

Glad she came back home and made it safe!

Awesome nerve wracking video. Tension till the end.

Nice flight and I am glad she came home to you. Well done.

Very nerve-wracking indeed. I wonder if it's possible to attach some kind of floatation device, in the event that it does end up in the water? I would also recommend having someone stand at the other end of your intended flight path and act as a spotter, using VHF radios for communication.

Good job man thanks. We need contributors like YOU who give the public valuable info like this when looking into making purchases.

Nerves of steel mate.. Great job!

Very cool. That return home feature is a must have.

Upps this was an adventure. Glad you made it.

Just bought my DJI Phantom. That is pretty scary. Glad it made it back.

Thank you for posting your story!!!

That was so stressful to watch. I'm glad it came back.

really nice to know it came back and that the fail safe actually worked. You never want to rely on it. So what lessons to learn ? maybe to try get it home before the juice gets so low ?

Im happy you got it back. I lost control of my quad today and it went into the next neighborhood. Good video.

wow even I was getting nervous !! Awesome and thanks for sharing this.

You should get a range extender. They cost around 5 bucks (although you can easily build one yourself froom cardboard and aluminium foil) and extend the range up to 200% (seens a guy who got up to 1.8 km with a Phantom 3 Standard and a DIY extender)

What a good story. The way you presented it, I thought for sure you'd lost the DJI. It was like a lost dog that found its way home. Good narration.

Im just getting into quadcopters. Haven't got up to the DJI level yet but even the 100$ copters are lots of fun. You're one lucky SOB!!! lol

Where is the video from the quad for the time being lost? Post it, I would like to see it. I am glad it came back safe and sound.

you never forget your 1st signal loss your heart sinks

Gees, you almost another episode of Gone in 60 Seconds!!

Very nice video man! I love the return to home function!!

Holy crap, that was AWESOME!!! I'm so very glad your Phantom came back to you. That was a real scary flight! I don't think I'll be flying over the Enterprise Channel anytime soon. :)

Wow that was close I feel for you buddy, i should have watched this a while ago when i nearly lost mine over water. forgot about turning it of, but as I was on a boat i did not want to chance it. thanks for sharing

its all in the learning curve buddy ive been a mile out with my cx-20 open source lol but yes the moments spent wondering if its going to return isnt great tho the fealing when you hear her comming over the horizon and looking at the sky like where the hell is she is a good one lol i keep full trust in my cx-20 on stock battery to go 1 mile out missions with fpv and and secondery cam installed and she comes back every time and every damn time it amazes me

Great video man. I believe I would have been sweating and nervous in that situation.

well you handled it like a professional dont panic and trust in your quad great video :)

Great video! Thanks for sharing. I'm entering this world and I didn't know about this awesome future. Need to save a little bit more for something like that.

Damn, I HATE that uncertainty feeling of NOT KNOWING IF IT'S GONNA COME BACK!! I had a many too much, but yet..........WE ALL STILL KEEP PUSHING THE "DARE", RIGHT??!!

Glad you got the Phantom back safe and sound, If your Batt goes down so quick couldn't you piggy back a 2nd Battery to give you some more retrieval time, So if you get 7 minutes, add a 1500 or 1800 and head for home at 6 minutes, Better to be safe than sorry.

OH Man, losing the Phantom would have been a major bummer. I got a Spark and trying my darnedest to not lose it.

i live in vic and my phantom 2 should be here today or tomorrow, thanks to this i am staying a good distance away from the water lol, well at least for the first bit

Sounds like the shrek is love shrek is life narrator

Thank you for posting this. Isn't one of the first rules of safety for drone flying that you should keep the aircraft within sight?

That would have made me sweat with worry. Good thing you got her back

WOW Nice lucky the phantom has that ability to fly home.

wow nice luck you have there. you made some good choices in the end. i was happy to see a dry landing XD

I hate Home lock and course lock .. I accidentally hit the switch and thought I had a flyaway with the dji Naza FC .. £1000+ Tbs Discovery . luckily I had the sense to hover and check my radio .. but still had a nasty 15 seconds of "what the HELLLLLLLL" .. Great video !

Wow that was a close one I’m sure you know this already but if you don’t always fly away into the wind and use a tailwind to bring home my friend great video by the way

I must say that I am very happy for you. I lost a phantom due to high altitude/interference but it was all my fault. DJI's are awesome to fly and quite reliable for the kind of risk this kind of machine runs in.

Woohoo, that was cool. Bet that relief really washed over you when you sighted the spec.

A guy posted a video on RU-vid where he lost response in front of the Hollywood Sign, because directly behind it are a large group of radio towers/antennas, he used the Home function as well, and it made it back, so it seems like those towers are a thing to watch out for, good luck! (your title is misleading btw)

Dang. Glad you got it back in time.

Did you know the antennas were there before your flight began ? If you did, then why would you even think of flying. An antenna (or aerial) is an electrical device which converts electric power into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver. In transmission, a radio transmitter supplies an electric current oscillating at radio frequency i.e. a high frequency alternating current (AC)) to the antenna's terminals, and the antenna radiates the energy from the current as electromagnetic waves (radio waves). In reception, an antenna intercepts some of the power of an electromagnetic wave in order to produce a tiny voltage at its terminals, that is applied to a receiver to be amplified. Antennas are essential components of all equipment that uses radio. They are used in systems such as radio broadcasting, broadcast television, two-way radio, communications receivers, radar, cell phones, and satellite communications, as well as other devices such as garage door openers, wireless microphones, Bluetooth-enabled devices, wireless computer networks, baby monitors, and RFID tags on merchandise. (RC Devices)

Glad it came back for ya. :)

Voice from deepest darkness.... nice movie

Liked this video very much, glad it came back!

Glad you got it back.