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Small drone operator reports losing control of a mini drone which disappears out of sight vertically and is not recovered. The drone had a pre programmed altitude limit of nine meters and was being controlled by an iphone with a free flight application via bluetooth.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1228374 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201412 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1201-1800 |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | UAV - Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle |
| Flight Phase | Takeoff |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Pilot Flying |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Private |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Deviation - Procedural FAR |
Narrative:
Toy/consumer unmanned aircraft system - parrot south.a. Rolling spider mini drone. We were flying it outside using an iphone 6 plus; via bluetooth 4.0; and the parrot south.a. Freeflight 3.0 ios application. The application has an altitude limitation option which was on by default to (according to my best recollection) on or about 9 meters (I can't access the option to verify the value without the uas; but it was active). The aircraft was outside and went into an uncontrolled straight vertical climb. The bluetooth 4.0 range is about 20 meters; which it rapidly exceeded and lost connectivity with the controller. The uas; being so small (approximately 5 inches in length; 5 inches in width; and 2 inches height) continued to climb until we lost visual contact. The device had approximately 80% battery life remaining; and can fly up to 5-10 minutes at full charge. I do not know how high the uas climbed out of control before it began a descent. The uas has not been found. There were no other aircraft in the immediate vicinity. A brief search on[line] indicates other users having similar problems with these toy/consumer uas devices.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: Small drone operator reports losing control of a mini drone which disappears out of sight vertically and is not recovered. The drone had a pre programmed altitude limit of nine meters and was being controlled by an iPhone with a free flight application via bluetooth.
Narrative: Toy/Consumer Unmanned Aircraft System - Parrot S.A. Rolling Spider Mini Drone. We were flying it outside using an iPhone 6 Plus; via Bluetooth 4.0; and the Parrot S.A. FreeFlight 3.0 iOS application. The application has an altitude limitation option which was on by default to (according to my best recollection) on or about 9 meters (I can't access the option to verify the value without the UAS; but it was active). The aircraft was outside and went into an uncontrolled straight vertical climb. The Bluetooth 4.0 range is about 20 meters; which it rapidly exceeded and lost connectivity with the controller. The UAS; being so small (approximately 5 inches in length; 5 inches in width; and 2 inches height) continued to climb until we lost visual contact. The device had approximately 80% battery life remaining; and can fly up to 5-10 minutes at full charge. I do not know how high the UAS climbed out of control before it began a descent. The UAS has not been found. There were no other aircraft in the immediate vicinity. A brief search on[line] indicates other users having similar problems with these Toy/Consumer UAS devices.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.