How to Find a Drone Without GPS – No Nonsense Guide

So you’ve lost your drone.  Wondering on how to find a drone without GPS? No worries, we’ve got you covered. This page will provide a number of tips and tricks on what you can do when trying to locate your lost drone.

How to find a drone without GPS? Unfortunately, this is an all too common of a question that fellow drone pilots tend to ask more than we would like to hear.

The best way to avoid having to deal with this issue in the future is to just go ahead and get a tracker for your drone. These trackers are inexpensive and can be the different between finding your lost drone or losing it forever. We know that drone’s are not cheap. Please consider the tracker below, as it might save you this type of a lost drone headache in the future.  Here is a link to the Marco Polo Drone Tracker Amazon Product page.

How to Find a Drone Without GPS Tips and IDEAS – Continued below..

There are 5 common reasons why one might ask such a question. The 5 reasons are outlined below.

We will do our best to help out with some tips and suggestions with these issues to help you answer the how to find a drone without GPS question.

1. My drone flew away due to the drone flying out of the controller’s range capability. Can it be found?
   
2. Help, my drone is lost; I believe that the battery has died on it. What to do?
3. The video feed on my FPV drone has been lost, what do I do?
4. My drone hit a tree and the propeller blades got damaged. The drone then fell to the ground somewhere.
5. My drone doesn’t have GPS, can I still find it if it gets lost?

How to find a drone without GPS cont..

As you can see, there are a variety of different reasons as to why a GPS less drone might get lost. The 5 questions mentioned above are only a few of the more common reasons that drone pilots might have to deal with when looking for a lost drone. Drones are amazing machines; but they are just that, machines. As you might have already experienced with computers, cell phones, cameras and other portable technology, technology; these devices tend to work really well initially for long periods of time, but eventually you might end up seeing technical issues with the batteries, power supplies, mother boards, camera’s etc.

Just like laptops, cell phones and cameras, drones can have similar issues. On top of everything else, drones also have an additional component which sets them apart from the previous mentioned devices. This component of course is the drone’s controller. Not only do you have the drone to worry about breaking, you now also have a second device to worry about, the controller. Here are some of the more common components that tend to break on both devices, the drone as well as it’s controller.

Drone Components that tend to break or malfunction.

1. The Propeller – propeller might break
2. Battery Life – battery life might not be too good
3. Battery Packet – might get dislodged and disconnected from the drone
4. LED Lights – might short circuit the drone if in contact with water
5. Drone Motor – depending on the type of drone you have, you could have 2, 4, 6 or more motors that could each fail
6. Camera failure – lose connection
7. Receiver Range – the range of the Receiver might not be that great

Drone Controller Components which can break or malfunction

1. Battery Life – the battery life on the controller can be an issue at times
2. Transmitter Strength – the range of the transmitter might be poor
3. Controller Button – from time to time, the controller’s buttons might wear out or malfunction

Now that we have covered some of the components that can break on the drone and it’s controller, it is time to jump into the 5 common reasons why drone pilots might end up having to search the world wide web for “how to find a drone without GPS”. Let’s get to it.

How to find a drone without GPS – 5 Questions Answered

1. My drone flew away due to the drone flying out of the controller’s range capability. Can it be found?

• • The controller device has a limit on the range between the transmitter and the drone’s on-board receiver. The most common range with the cheaper drones (under $200 usually), the range is less than 100 meters. These cheaper drones are typically the ones that end up getting lost or flying away. To make matters worse, most of these cheaper drones don’t have built in GPS tracking. The more expensive drones (usually $200 and up) have better range, sometimes over 4 miles. But the more expensive drones typically do have GPS tracking systems in place to help locate lost ones. But for the none GPS lost drones, what do you do when your drone flies away? Take a look below for some tips on how to find a drone without GPS.
  • TIPS and IDEAS – First thing you want to do is to not turn your drone’s controller off. If you remember the general direction in which your drone flew away; with your controller turned on, start walking in that general direction. Your controller will continue trying to establish connectivity with the drone as long as the controller is powered on and as long as the drone continues having battery life left in it. If you are unable to find it with this information, continue reading this no nonsense guide on how to find a drone without GPS page.

• TIPS and IDEAS continued.. – Get a second drone to help with the search. It is always easier to search for the lost drone using a bird’s eye point of view. Even if you don’t have a second drone, buy a cheep one with a camera or borrow one from a friend. More tips and ideas will be discussed in the next question.  Continue reading if still unable to find the drone.

2. Help, my drone is lost; I believe that the battery has died on it. What to do?

• Your drone’s battery has died. What to do now? You still have power in your drone’s controller/transmitter, but not in the drone itself. Don’t panic, you still have a good chance of salvaging your drone. Continue reading below.
• How to find a drone without GPS – TIPS and IDEAS – Since the drone’s battery is toast, your best bet at this point is to utilize the second drone mentioned from the above tips and ideas section to get a bird’s eye view. Make sure to check any tree and building tops. Drones will typically stick out like a sore thumb in a tree or building due to it’s none camouflage color schemes. Most drones are white/black, so they are easier to spot if lost. Continue reading below for more.
• TIPS and IDEAS – Most drone controllers have the drone’s last coordinates saved in the controller.  Once the controller loses connectivity with the drone, the last coordinates should still be visible on the controller. Again, super important that your controller isn’t turned off. Use these last coordinates to walk towards the general area where the drone wen’t missing.
• TIPS and IDEAS continued.. – If you were piloting your drone through an APP, there is a good chance that the app has the last coordinates stored either on your phone or in the cloud. Might be worth doing a quick google search for your app name to see if it has logs that you can look at. We also have a drone tracking app page here dedicated to just that, drone tracking apps.  Take a look..  DRONE TRACKING APP.

3. The video feed on my FPV drone has been lost, what do I do?

• When the video feed on your controller or app goes out, this is a good indication that you are about to lose all connectivity with your drone. however, if you are quick enough to react to this situation, you might be able to salvage your drone. Take a look below for some suggestions on how to find a drone without GPS when the FPV drone has gotten lost.
• TIPS and IDEAS – First things first. As soon as your video live feed goes out, press the return-home button on your controller (if equipped). Even though the live feed has been cut, there is a good chance that you can still get the drone back as connectivity between the transmitter and the receiver on the drone might still be in communication.
• TIPS and IDEAS continued.. – We will mention this once again as this is VERY important. Never, ever turn your controller off when you start experiencing any technical or connectivity issues with your drone. Your controller will always try to reestablish connectivity with the drone as soon as it is within it’s range again.

4. My drone hit a tree and the propeller blades got damaged. The drone then fell to the ground somewhere.

• This is an all too common of a thing to happen with drones. Even without any tree or bird damage, drone blades seem to be the first components to get damaged if not an experiencing drone flier. Heck, even if you are experienced, the blades are typically the first part to break off , get bent or damaged. What do you do in a situation like this? Continue reading this guide on how to find a drone without GPS 🙂
• TIPS and IDEAS – Second drone to the rescue once again. If possible utilize a second drone for that bird’s eye view to look for any flashing lights on the ground. The reason behind this is that most drone’s will have a safety setting built into them where the drone’s LED lights will start flashing like crazy when there is physical damage to the propeller blades. The flashing will usually be red in color, but can be either white or blue as well. This should be easy to spot with your secondary drone. If you don’t own a second drone, then just walk in the general area where you believe your downed drone might be.

5. My drone doesn’t have GPS, can I still find it if it gets lost?

• This is what this whole page is about, how to find a drone without GPS. It is most definitely possible to locate a drone without the use of GPS. You just have to become a little innovative in your outside of the box thinking on how to find your lost drone.
• TIPS and IDEAS – We have a super detailed page that is completely dedicated to locating lost drones when you don’t have a GPS or tracker to work with. Please go ahead and check out this awesome resource here with 14 Real World Tips and Ideas on what you can do to find your lost drone.  Link here:  HOW TO FIND A LOST DRONE WITHOUT A TRACKER.

Drone Tracker – Marco Polo Drone Tracking

Once again, I want to mention the Marco Polo Drone Tracker. This device is almost a necessity when owning a drone. It’s like having insurance on your drone in the case of lost drone issues. Check it out here on the Amazon Product Page .  There are a ton of details and good information on how to use the device and what to use it for.

Some information from Amazon’s Site below about the Marco Polo Tracking device..
Location and Recovery System
No GPS or Cell Service Required
No Monthly Fees
Never Lose your Drone Again
Starter System for 1 Aircraft

 

1. Simple to setup and use, single button-push to begin searching for lost RC model with real-time distance and direction feedback
2. Works anywhere, totally self-contained, no GPS or cell network required, no monthly service contracts, ideal for remote areas
3. Rechargeable lithium-ion battery in transceiver tag gives you up to 15 days to find your lost model
4. Super small, compact tag transceiver easily fits on even small RC models, weighs only .42 oz. (12 g)
5. Does not interfere with RC radios – Marco Polo only transmits when you activate search mode from the handheld locator
6. If you want to learn about how to track a drone, this is the device for you

 

I really hope that the information on this page has been helpful to you in your search for your lost drone. Please feel free to stop by the Contact Us page and ask a question, leave feedback or comment on anything whatsoever related to drones. As always, happy flying my fellow Drone Enthusiasts.

How to find lost drone without GPS – Were you able to say “found drone” from our tips and ideas? We sure hope so 🙂

This page is not to be confused with the “how to find lost drone eve” for the Eve gaming universe. Instead, it can be used a good resource for searches such as “how to find a lost Syma drone”.