How To Find A Lost Drone Without A tracker

You broke the bank to get your first drone, and now the drone decides to just leave on its own. Worse, it was a drone without a tracker. A flyaway drone without a tracker is a nightmare for drone owners around the world. The worst part is that this can happen anytime for various reasons—from strong winds, software glitches, and out-of-range flight to malfunctioning, a drained battery, and many more.

Drones can get lost any time they lose connection. Most likely, you’ll find it right away. Other times, it’s an adventure tracking it down. I didn’t invest in a tracker for my first drone, which was a DJI Phantom 3. Mistake! However, there are ways to find a lost drone without a tracker too. Read on for tips on how to find a lost drone.

Most tips listed below assume your drone has a camera, by the way. If your drone does not, however, your best bet is to head in the direction of your drone and look for it among the trees or bushes. Luckily, drones are not painted in camouflage, so they’ll stand out when you’re searching for them.

Let’s continue.

Steps On How To Find A Lost Drone Without A Tracker below.

Four Common Reasons Why Drones Get Lost (None GPS Drones)

1. Failsafe / Return Home Button Malfunctions or Doesn’t Work – Most decent drones out there nowadays have failsafe or return home buttons. These buttons have one job, and one job alone; for the drone to fly back to you when you press the button.

 But as with all technology, things break, wiring gets disconnected, solder wears off, corrosion happens etc.. There are times when these return home buttons malfunction and completely stop working.  It could happen to any drone. But then again, you do get what you pay for.

2. Strong Wind Gusts / Mother Nature / My Drone Flew Away – If you have been flying drones for any length of time, you will know that mother nature doesn’t always play nice. Although most drones nowadays are pretty sturdy and can handle some pretty rough weather, there is one drone killer out there that is hard to deal with.

  I am of course talking about Wind.  On this part of the “how to find a lost drone without a tracker (gps tracker)” page, we delve a bit more on the issue of the wind when it comes to drones. The wind gusts can be your drone’s worst enemy.  As you can imagine, the higher up in altitude that you get; more windy it becomes.

 I know out of personal experience, living in Denver, Colorado. Drones truly do have to battle against some forces, unseen forces.  Wind can take a toll on a drone. It can carry it out of controller range, it can bang it against a tree, wall or other obstacle. Winds are a common thing to worry about when flying your drone. It is best to be aware of what the weather will be like before going out there with your drone.

3. The Battery on the Drone Died – Having the battery on your drone or quadcopter die can be a real headache. Imagine this, you are flying your drone out there on a beautiful sunny day; then the dreaded low-battery warning/alarm comes-on, either on your controller’s indicator or on your tablet/smart phone.

Typically, the battery alarm should give you adequate time to fly your drone back, but at other times if not careful, this could backfire. Now, one important thing. Always, and I really mean that… Always make sure that you are keeping tabs on the battery life of your drone. Too many times have drones become lost or damaged due to drone pilots not paying attention to the battery indicators. Don’t be one of them.

Then again, if this is the reason why you have come here, just don’t let it repeat. Now on a good note, we are almost getting to the good stuff.  In just a bit, I will share with you some good tips and ideas on how to find a lost drone without a tracker.

4. Receiver / Controller Distance is too Large (DJI Phantom is Notorious for This) – This is an all too common issue with drone flyers these days ..There you are, having a good time with your friends in the mountains; showing off the drone to everyone, and then all of a sudden, you completely lose control of your drone. Your controller has stopped communicating with the drone. This is a drone pilot’s worst nightmare; you have zero control of your drone and have no idea where it is.

There are Two Different Kinds of Drone Trackers

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1. GPS DRONE TRACKERS

The tracker is connected to the network of satellites circling the earth in service of the global positioning system. While this technology allows for tracking virtually anywhere on the planet, there are two practical limitations. First, the drone tracker’s signal must not be obstructed by solid structures.

It won’t track very well from inside buildings etc. You get best results in the open. Secondly, you need a cellular plan for the tracker, otherwise, it cannot send its position to your phone.

GPS trackers to help you keep track of your drone, advanced drones have built-in GPS tracking devices that either send the unit "home" when it encounters a problem or help you recover it in the event of a crash.

2. RF DRONE TRACKERS

These trackers broadcast radio waves that are received by detection devices. The good is, this technology does not rely on GSM reception as GPS drone trackers do.

That is why they work even in remote areas with little infrastructure. The drawback: Most RF trackers available on the market give you a maximum range of 2 miles.

most people don’t use trackers. Word of advice – always use some type of tracking for lost drones. There are many GPS-based drone trackers on the market that will do this job perfectly.

My personal favorite is the TK102. It costs a little under $30 and works with a SIM card. In case my drone gets lost, all I have to do is call the SIM number of TK102, and I’ll get the exact coordinates of the drone via a text message.

There are some similar, yet more expensive trackers such as Flytrex Live 3G and TRACKIMO.

Flytrex also comes with a SIM card feature, and it integrates with Google Maps. When I used this tracker, I could literally locate my drone anywhere thanks to its interconnectivity.

 Not only that, but I also had the info on the speed, ascent, altitude, flight duration and distance the lost drone passed.

 TRACKIMO, on the other hand, has a free app AND browser-based tracking. Naturally, it’s waterproof, in case my drone decides to take an impromptu swim.

Here are the tips on how to find a lost drone without a tracker:

1. Never Turn Off the Controller

Every new drone pilot first instinct when they lose their drone, may be to turn your controller off, since you might assume that having it wouldn’t do you any good. But this is incorrect. 

You can find your drone by listening for the sound of it, but for that, you need to leave the controller switched on so that the props will continue spinning. This won’t damage your drone, but it may be your best chance of recovering it.

Walk toward the direction that your drone was last seen, and see if you can reconnect to your drone using your controller. While you search for your lost drone the controller will keep searching for the drone’s signal while it is still powered on.

2. The Physical Search

Walking about the area usually yields good results. I remember once losing track of my drone somewhere in a massive park close to the town center. Naturally, I did the whole controller step, but since I didn’t have a whole lot of patience, I just began to walk around and look for the lost drone. Roughly ten minutes later I spotted it behind a big rock, about to be chewed by a stray dog.

While moving on foot, I also recommend observing tree canopies. More often than not, a drone will be stuck in the branches, and its propellers will be stuck. The smartest thing to do is to look at any tree in the area carefully. However, this step can last for a long time if, for example, I decide to fly my drone near a forest. A combination of several steps will help here.

3. Check Trees and Rooftops

The most common places drones end up are in trees or on a roof. Being aware of the surrounding in the immediate area and checking these areas, you may get very lucky. Check out the tips below for getting a drone out of a tree.

4. Hit the Return to Home button on the controller

If your drone loses controller connectivity and you start losing the video feed, press the Return to Home button on your controller immediately. The first thing that happens when a drone starts going out of the controller’s range is that the live video feed goes out. But although you lost the video feed on your controller, there’s still a chance that you are connected with your drone. In this situation, just follow the previous step. Don’t turn off your controller, and head toward the last-seen direction of your drone. You need to get somewhere closer to it so that you can be in range to regain control. If the video feed starts working again, you’ll see your drone heading back to you shortly.

5.  Keep Track of Where It Was

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When I lose track of a drone I’m flying, I make a mental note of exactly where it was and what direction it was headed. In the heat of the moment, it can be easy to get confused. This makes finding the drone after losing it even more difficult. Once you begin losing the drone, you should have been reducing the engines – although not cutting them off entirely – so it could come down quickly. Reacting correctly and immediately when you encounter a problem with your drone is an essential part of recovering it.

And while doing this, it is important to note roughly where the drone would have come down. This will give you your best reference point for potentially finding it once you start your search. And if you are aware of just which direction your drone was heading when going down, you can check out Google maps in your location and determine what structures or buildings might be in that area. This information can be vital in helping you recover your drone.

In other words, there’s a good chance your drone is most likely not nearly as far away from you as you think it is. However, there is one exception to this point. If you have extremely strong winds at the altitude your drone was flying at, it is possible that it could have been blown a goodly distance away where you were standing. If this is true, then this tip won’t necessarily help you a great deal in recovering your loss drone.

Also, be aware of another point: our brains tend to interpret a vertical distance as being larger than a horizontal one. This means that if your drone is 200 feet up when you cut the engines, geometry and physics tell us that it will certainly be fewer than 200 feet from you when it reaches the ground. It will almost certainly be closer than you think it could possibly be given the distance you thought it was – or perceived it as being – when it was lost.

6. Check Craigslist / Ebay

If you happened to save the Serial Number from the drone (This could come in handy), you should start looking on Craigslist and Ebay to see if you might get lucky. As mentioned earlier, most people are actually good people that will return belongings, but not everybody is. If you come across your item on Craigslist or Ebay, you can message the user and let them know that he is trying to sell your personal item that you bought (you have the serial number). You could also just contact the authorities and let them know whats going on.

7. Using a Different Drone

Yes, the budget isn’t very forgiving of this step. However, drones can be rented, and renting a drone for the night can help.

There’ll be times when my drone just loses power on a tree somewhere, or in thick forest foliage. Or maybe even on a roof somewhere. Since climbing them and walking about presents a huge chore, the easiest search would be from the air.

Now, I could buy a smaller, cheaper drone for this purpose. However, most people don’t have the luxury of buying two drones. All in all, a decent sweep of the area will probably help with the search.

This step is also my go-to one during the night. Should my lost drone have any juice left in the battery, its lights will be blinking and giving my second drone a clear signal. As such, the search will be far easier.

Settings that Reduce the Chances of Losing Your Drone

Now that we covered ways to recover a lost drone, why not cover some of the ways you can prevent, or at least reduce the chances that you may lose your drone in the future.

You may not be aware of some of the settings built in many drones that are designed to prevent this very thing.

Return to Home

In most larger drones, and even in some Nano and mini-drones, there is a setting option that will automatically give the command to the drone to return to the home location. In most cases, this will be the location they took off. Some models do allow for programmable home locations, this is a cool feature, but not necessary for most drones.

The Return to Home feature can operate in two ways. The first is that you can use your controller to give the command. Second, the return to home functions has an automatic setting that will cause the drone to return to the home location if it loses signal.

Additional Settings

Utilizing your drones built-in flight modes can also help to reduce the chances of fly-aways, crashing, and getting stuck in a tree. These modes include Follow Me, Object Detection, and Active Tracking.

When you are flying your drone in areas where you may easily lose sight of your drone, activating these modes can help to keep your drone safe.

Set Your RTH

Also, remember to set the Return to Home function. You don’t want your baby flying into a hillside because you didn’t adjust the altitude.

Ensure Proper Lighting

Finally, if you have an FAA waiver to fly at night, be sure to use proper lighting. You’ll be able to keep a better visual on your drone that way.

Stay in Sight

Whenever possible, keep your drone or quadcopter within your line of sight. Practically-speaking, if you have eyes on it, you know where it is….and you stay legal.