It just flew away! - <correction> it didn't fly away at all.

[John Tarvin]

Toughen up, buttercup!

 

[QuadKid]

(On a side note, I have all my drones insured through State Farm Insurance. Very cheap and effective and you don't have to worry about things like this.)

Absolutely !!!! Lost a P3S due to my own fault, filed a claim, had the money directly deposited into my checking account 3 days later, outstanding service in my opinion.

 

[itshowiroll]

Phantoms don't usually just fly away and I expect the same is true for the Mavic.
Looking at your flight log, I see some parts that don't quite match your story.
But that's OK, confusion is common and that's why we have recorded data..

I think this flight will be one of those painful lessons that is very effective because it will cost you.
The cause appears quite obvious.
What can you say about the wind conditions that day?


The flight record does not agree with this.
The Mavic maintained connection and was responding to your controls the whole time.

There have been cases of Phantoms and Mavics climbing when they were pointing into the sun and obstacle avoidance was to blame because it kept climbing to avoid hitting what it thought was an obstacle.
But I don't think that it the case in this incident.
Looking at the flight record, it shows the left stick being pushed hard forward from 9:39.2 - 10:42.5 and again from 11:03.9 - 11:05.2.
That is the cause of it climbing to 935 feet.

From 11:12.6 you brought the Mavic back down and closer by using full left and right sticks.
When you eased up on the right stick your speed quickly slowed.
When you tried Sport mode, with full right stick, the speed went up to 20 mph and you were getting closer.
You brought it down to 432 feet and only 387 feet away at 12:45.5 when you engaged RTH mode.
You left the Mavic at 432 feet from then on.
In RTH with no stick input, the Mavic is going backwards at 2-9 mph
From 13:49.8 you mysteriously pulled the right stick hard down sending the Mavic backwards at greater speed and quickly lost another 300 feet distance.
And from then on you didn't touch the right stick letting the Mavic be blown away.

Some points to remember to prevent this sort of thing.
The wind is always stronger up high.
If your drone is struggling against a headwind, bring it down lower where the wind is less.
RTH is a slow driver. If RTH isn't making headway against a wind, take over and do the driving yourself.
You can fly 50% faster (in still air) than RTH.

Your Mavic didn't just fly away, you allowed it to be blown away.
It should have been a simple matter to bring the Mavic back when it was only 387 feet away at 12:45.5.
Simply descending would have made it easy.
If you look back earlier in the flight from 70% - 60% you flew almost the same direction at 104 ft and could travel at 17 mph with full right stick.

Agreed on the last part of your post. There is sometimes a lot snarkiness directed at those asking for help. Some people should be a little more sensitive. We're all here to ask questions in time of need not here to get verbally beaten.

 

[chris digata]

Hi Meta4. Thank you for the reply. I appreciate you taking the time to review the flight log. Here are my thoughts on what your wrote:
1) There were spurts of wind but it was not a super windy day. I agree that wind is higher at higher altitudes so wind surely did play some part
2) The climb to 935 was planned as I was directly over the marina and I was recording a steady, ascending video straight upward from the center of the marina. I got that shot and everything was working fine
3) From there, the RC controller stopped displaying anything on the screen. I was not in visual site of the drone as I was blocked by the building. I was flying with the RC display on my Samsung Galaxy S7.
4) Because I could not see anything on the screen (and it showed RC disonncected), I hit RTH. During the time that I was trying to gain control of the drone, I am sure that during my various manual flight modes I would have been erratic. I had no visual site on the drone and the feet and height were no longer displaying on the screen. Those the key indicators when flying without visual site. You need to know your location, distance away and height to pilot the drone back to your location. Those were no longer moving, changing or going in any direction on the screen.
5) Once I realized I had no screen to display, distance or height for me to navigate, I engaged RTH. As you can see, it did not respond and continously got farther away. It seemed to think a new RTH point had been recorded in the water a mile away. You did not address in your response.

I disagree with the statement that I allowed it to be blown away. When the device will not respond to controls and screen display is gone/disconnected then RTH is supposed and was designed to bring the drone home and at least back into visual range. When that does not happen, and I cannot see the drone, how can you blame the pilot? Kind of like blaming the buyer of the Remington guns for their faulty product that fires unexpectedly.

Maybe i missed this.. but you say you flew it to 900ft, youdid this and that... DID YOU NOT SAY YOU WAS IN BEGINNERS MODE?

 

[Just Mark]

I hope you don't mind me asking some stupid questions, since I am just studying for my Part 107 and I am hoping this might be a "teachable moment" for me.

Without trying to make judgements, there are some things that seem to kind of contradict best practices in the 107 study guide.

I believe the original poster said that his aircraft went behind some buildings? Regardless of whether this is a commercial or hobby flight, aren't we supposed to maintain visual line of sight at all times? Won't having the drone fly behind some buildings (and losing line of sight) also mean that we will lose connection with the UAS?

Also, if I read correctly, didn't the operator say that he purposely brought the drone up to around 900' AGL? That doesn't seem like that would be legal to me (unless it was to avoid an imminent low-flying danger, such as a helicopter or a hang glider or something like that). I know you can fly up to 400' above the highest obstacle within 400', but those condos don't look to be 500' AGL tall.

And for people who are flying for hobby (I am assuming this was a non-commercial flight) are they still responsible for checking metars / TAFS / notams / TFRs and sectional charts? It seems as though for 107 holders these things are REQUIRED so I thought they might be required for non-commercial flights (although maybe I am confused... maybe they aren't required for commercial flights / 107 holders).

Anyway, I guess I am concerned / befuddled because it seems like the main question behind this thread is whether the original poster should expect to get reimbursed for the loss of his UAS, while to me, the main question should be more along the lines of, "Was this a legal flight?"

Apologies in advance if these are stupid questions and comments. I go in for my 107 test next week and so I am just trying to learn as much as possible ablut all the rules and regulations.

 

[SeabeeEO3]

I was making light of the fact that the OP thought Meta's analysis was mean, somehow.

I believe it's called sarcasm.

 

[sar104]

I hope you don't mind me asking some stupid questions, since I am just studying for my Part 107 and I am hoping this might be a "teachable moment" for me.

Without trying to make judgements, there are some things that seem to kind of contradict best practices in the 107 study guide.

I believe the original poster said that his aircraft went behind some buildings? Regardless of whether this is a commercial or hobby flight, aren't we supposed to maintain visual line of sight at all times? Won't having the drone fly behind some buildings (and losing line of sight) also mean that we will lose connection with the UAS?

Also, if I read correctly, didn't the operator say that he purposely brought the drone up to around 900' AGL? That doesn't seem like that would be legal to me (unless it was to avoid an imminent low-flying danger, such as a helicopter or a hang glider or something like that). I know you can fly up to 400' above the highest obstacle within 400', but those condos don't look to be 500' AGL tall.

And for people who are flying for hobby (I am assuming this was a non-commercial flight) are they still responsible for checking metars / TAFS / notams / TFRs and sectional charts? It seems as though for 107 holders these things are REQUIRED so I thought they might be required for non-commercial flights (although maybe I am confused... maybe they aren't required for commercial flights / 107 holders).

Anyway, I guess I am concerned / befuddled because it seems like the main question behind this thread is whether the original poster should expect to get reimbursed for the loss of his UAS, while to me, the main question should be more along the lines of, "Was this a legal flight?"

Apologies in advance if these are stupid questions and comments. I go in for my 107 test next week and so I am just trying to learn as much as possible ablut all the rules and regulations.

Those are perfectly reasonable questions. I don't think the OP ever stated whether the flight was hobby or Part 107. His flight would have been illegal under Part 107 for altitude and VLOS (unless he had a waiver for that). It would have been contrary to guidelines if it were under hobby rules.

Part 107 requires you to follow the specified rules (subject to waiver and authorization exemptions), but does not prescribe how to achieve that. If you don't check for TFRs and don't fly inside one, then that is compliant. Best practice, of course, is to check for TFRs before flying.

 

[blackcrusader]

I believe it's called sarcasm.

Sometimes the truth is hard to accept for people who lose their drones. Their first act is the blame the drone. Then when others analyze what really happened they may not like the result. I did a "fly away" for a DJI forum member. We pinpointed where he drone had flown too. He was a bit upset but went out and ... found his drone just where we said it would be more or less several feet.

 

[sar104]

Sometimes the truth is hard to accept for people who lose their drones. Their first act is the blame the drone. Then when others analyze what really happened they may not like the result. I did a "fly away" for a DJI forum member. We pinpointed where he drone had flown too. He was a bit upset but went out and ... found his drone just where we said it would be more or less several feet.

That's a big element of it, I'm sure. But the real problem occurs when someone makes the assumption that it was equipment failure (or wants it to be true), asks for help, and then starts complaining about the analysis, claiming the log file is wrong, asserting that those of us analysing the data don't know what we are doing, etc.. That tends to lead to blunt rebuttals and an offended OP.

I do log file analysis just because I find it interesting and because there is some satisfaction in helping to solve these puzzles, and I have little sympathy for anyone who simply asserts that the analysis is wrong when they don't like the results.

 

[blackcrusader]

That's a big element of it, I'm sure. But the real problem occurs when someone makes the assumption that it was equipment failure (or wants it to be true), asks for help, and then starts complaining about the analysis, claiming the log file is wrong, asserting that those of us analysing the data don't know what we are doing, etc.. That tends to lead to blunt rebuttals and an offended OP.

I do log file analysis just because I find it interesting and because there is some satisfaction in helping to solve these puzzles, and I have little sympathy for anyone who simply asserts that the analysis is wrong when they don't like the results.

Yup Truth Hurts as they say. Some people will not accept they were at fault. I was doing a sunrise video basically hovering at max height about 2500 feet distance in a strong wind. My drone went to critical battery at 35% autoland. Not much you can do in Autoland except control where you drone is going. However I had flown into a headwind so had a nice tail wind. My P3S came home at 50mph with full left stick down and full throttle forward and by the time it arrived at home point it had recovered and power levels were back to normal. I had height and distance to cover and the distance was not as much an issue with the wind. Later on I wrote a thread about my experience on the DJI forums so others could learn from mine. If I had lost my drone I would have understood why. The wind up at over 11000 feet altitude near the mountains in the early morning can be ripping. Was very little wind at home point. I live in a no fly zone for aircraft so no danger of hitting one, except another drone lol. The mountain peaks are at 14000 feet. Sure was also cold as well.

 

[WayneO]

I am an experienced pilot with hundreds of flight hours and several drones including the P4 and Mavic Pro. I am not asking for advice but merely telling the story for your own information. I was in beginner mode for a quick photo shoot over a marina. After a few minutes of good flight, the Mavic Pro lost connection and just flew away. Everything was calibrated and I had recorded the RTH location. All batteries and controller were fully charged. The Mavic suddenly rose to over 900 feet in the air (despite my RTH height being set to 100 meters) and just flew away and was non-responsive to manual controls. I hit the RTH button but no response. I tried the combination of manual flight and RTH five times but soon it was nearly 3,000 feet away an over the water. The Find My Drone feature shows it in the water over a mile away. I have opened a case with DJI and they have the flight log records and all associated files and are analyzing. I guess my only question is should I expect a new drone from DJI? I have spent $5,800 with them on my drones, accessories and drones for some of my close friends. I am certainly a good customer.

 

[ArmyVet]

WOW! As mentioned by several others. I learned a great deal from this posting. Each point was probably obvious taken out of context. Yes, we all know the winds are faster as altitude increases. Yes we all know RTH speed is reduced.

But when you put this all together in a cogent fashion as was done it makes for a valuable learning lesson. At least for me. And truthfully, I saw no disparaging in the initial analysis.

Have fun!

Bill

 

[WayneO]

• I am an experienced pilot with hundreds of flight hours and several drones including the P4 and Mavic Pro. I am not asking for advice but merely telling the story for your own information. I was in beginner mode for a quick photo shoot over a marina. After a few minutes of good flight, the Mavic Pro lost connection and just flew away. Everything was calibrated and I had recorded the RTH location. All batteries and controller were fully charged. The Mavic suddenly rose to over 900 feet in the air (despite my RTH height being set to 100 meters) and just flew away and was non-responsive to manual controls. I hit the RTH button but no response. I tried the combination of manual flight and RTH five times but soon it was nearly 3,000 feet away an over the water. The Find My Drone feature shows it in the water over a mile away. I have opened a case with DJI and they have the flight log records and all associated files and are analyzing. I guess my only question is should I expect a new drone from DJI? I have spent $5,800 with them on my drones, accessories and drones for some of my close friends. I am certainly a good customer.

Exact same thing happened to my phantom 3 pro.. problem I'm not an experienced pilot where do I find the flight log?

I am an experienced pilot with hundreds of flight hours and several drones including the P4 and Mavic Pro. I am not asking for advice but merely telling the story for your own information. I was in beginner mode for a quick photo shoot over a marina. After a few minutes of good flight, the Mavic Pro lost connection and just flew away. Everything was calibrated and I had recorded the RTH location. All batteries and controller were fully charged. The Mavic suddenly rose to over 900 feet in the air (despite my RTH height being set to 100 meters) and just flew away and was non-responsive to manual controls. I hit the RTH button but no response. I tried the combination of manual flight and RTH five times but soon it was nearly 3,000 feet away an over the water. The Find My Drone feature shows it in the water over a mile away. I have opened a case with DJI and they have the flight log records and all associated files and are analyzing. I guess my only question is should I expect a new drone from DJI? I have spent $5,800 with them on my drones, accessories and drones for some of my close friends. I am certainly a good customer.

• All good points. I thought the product was more robust that it could handle a 80 foot building and virtually no wind. If you really think that a slight breeze (5 mph-ish at ground level and maybe higher at 900 feel) disconnected the RC, froze the screen and drove the device backwards 2,000+ feet then I guess so be it and lesson learned on my part. Additionally, if visually watching the drone at all times is required (I know it is recommended) then that really hinders the usefulness of the product as well. I will keep everyone posted on the outcome with DJI on the issue. I truly appreciate the responses and the time put forth.
  
  On another note, the biggest knock about this forum is the "snarkiness" of some of the posts. There is a tone of rudeness and defensiveness that starts to build-up and I think some of those folks should consider toning it down if they want more participation. I was concerned to even post because I have seen this in the past with other pilots that dared to question the great DJI in this forum. I think if you read my posts and the posts of Fly Dawg and GMack you see a tone of professionalism and politeness despite the direction of the thread. When Meta and AirMan weigh in it becomes a sour tone. Words and phrases like below are really not needed:
  
  1) "don't quite match your story"
  2) "you mysteriously pulled the right stick hard down sending the Mavic backwards at greater speed and quickly lost another 300 feet distance. And from then on you didn't touch the right stick letting the Mavic be blown away."
  3) "Your lack of experience and understanding allowed it to be blown away when it should have been easily brought back"
  4) "Your thread title is misleading"
  5) "Also, in your original post you sure made it sound like it rose to 900 feet on it's own, now you say you did it on purpose. So I'm not really sure what to think at this point"
  
  This is a forum and not a court of legal authority. I was not expecting every word to get dissected and thrown back at me. I wrote my initial post in a minute without thoroughly examining the flight log so some details were missed or incorrectly remembered. Remember guys, one of your forum members just had a $1,000 drone vanish. Try to cut down on the sour tone and snarkiness and just help where you can with facts.

  I am an experienced pilot with hundreds of flight hours and several drones including the P4 and Mavic Pro. I am not asking for advice but merely telling the story for your own information. I was in beginner mode for a quick photo shoot over a marina. After a few minutes of good flight, the Mavic Pro lost connection and just flew away. Everything was calibrated and I had recorded the RTH location. All batteries and controller were fully charged. The Mavic suddenly rose to over 900 feet in the air (despite my RTH height being set to 100 meters) and just flew away and was non-responsive to manual controls. I hit the RTH button but no response. I tried the combination of manual flight and RTH five times but soon it was nearly 3,000 feet away an over the water. The Find My Drone feature shows it in the water over a mile away. I have opened a case with DJI and they have the flight log records and all associated files and are analyzing. I guess my only question is should I expect a new drone from DJI? I have spent $5,800 with them on my drones, accessories and drones for some of my close friends. I am certainly a good customer.

  
  

 

[sar104]

Exact same thing happened to my phantom 3 pro.. problem I'm not an experienced pilot where do I find the flight log?

Follow the instructions here. Also, if you still have the aircraft, you can get the DAT file from the internal SD card, which has much more data than the mobile .txt log file.

 

[SeabeeEO3]

With crayons, coloring books, and LOT's of affirmation.

Don't forget the Play-Doh and stuffed animals.

 

[beads555]

Experience pilot lol I think not.

I am an experienced pilot with hundreds of flight hours and several drones including the P4 and Mavic Pro. I am not asking for advice but merely telling the story for your own information. I was in beginner mode for a quick photo shoot over a marina. After a few minutes of good flight, the Mavic Pro lost connection and just flew away. Everything was calibrated and I had recorded the RTH location. All batteries and controller were fully charged. The Mavic suddenly rose to over 900 feet in the air (despite my RTH height being set to 100 meters) and just flew away and was non-responsive to manual controls. I hit the RTH button but no response. I tried the combination of manual flight and RTH five times but soon it was nearly 3,000 feet away an over the water. The Find My Drone feature shows it in the water over a mile away. I have opened a case with DJI and they have the flight log records and all associated files and are analyzing. I guess my only question is should I expect a new drone from DJI? I have spent $5,800 with them on my drones, accessories and drones for some of my close friends. I am certainly a good customer.

I am an experienced pilot with hundreds of flight hours and several drones including the P4 and Mavic Pro. I am not asking for advice but merely telling the story for your own information. I was in beginner mode for a quick photo shoot over a marina. After a few minutes of good flight, the Mavic Pro lost connection and just flew away. Everything was calibrated and I had recorded the RTH location. All batteries and controller were fully charged. The Mavic suddenly rose to over 900 feet in the air (despite my RTH height being set to 100 meters) and just flew away and was non-responsive to manual controls. I hit the RTH button but no response. I tried the combination of manual flight and RTH five times but soon it was nearly 3,000 feet away an over the water. The Find My Drone feature shows it in the water over a mile away. I have opened a case with DJI and they have the flight log records and all associated files and are analyzing. I guess my only question is should I expect a new drone from DJI? I have spent $5,800 with them on my drones, accessories and drones for some of my close friends. I am certainly a good customer.

 

[beads555]

Not very experienced in my book. I'm experienced, not you by the sounds of things and don't back peddle 900 ft on its own then it was intentional. Please, don't insult the breaks like me and others on here.

 

[beads555]

It's not a matter of "if I think .... Your flight data clearly shows that at 900 feet and 435 feet the wind conditions were more than your Mavic could deal with in RTH.

The flying environment can be very unforgiving, mistakes mean going home with one less drone.
To survive in that environment you have to be aware of what your drone can and can't do and operate it appropriately.
I'm disappointed that you have learned nothing, won't accept responsibility and are upset at what you perceive to be a sour tone while you continue to ignore facts that matter.

This shows how you just don't get it.
I said that the data didn't quite match your story because so little of your story was true.
Here are the points for which I can't find any factual basis:

• I am an experienced pilot with hundreds of flight hours
• After a few minutes of good flight, the Mavic Pro lost connection and just flew away
• The Mavic suddenly rose to over 900 feet in the air (despite my RTH height being set to 100 meters) and just flew away and was non-responsive to manual controls.
• I hit the RTH button but no response.

I said the data doesn't quite match your story because I was sugarcoating it and being polite.
Your explanation was misleading, confused and highly inaccurate.
Likewise your points 2-5 were all factual, are substantiated by the data and are important in understanding the incident.
I'm sorry if accurately reporting the cause of the incident offends your delicate sensibilities but I can't see any other way.
I'm amazed that you can't see how your thread title is misleading.
You say that your Mavic just flew away and just a casual scan of the data shows how wrong this is. You let your Mavic blow away when it would have been easy to bring it back.
You are blaming the Mavic for your own deficiencies as a pilot.
It's thread titles like yours that encourage a false belief that drones will just fly away.
If you don't have the honesty to change the title to something more accurate, I'll do it for you.

 

[beads555]

Couldn't have said it better myself. Unresponsive rose to 900 but then it was intentional. Who's this kid think we are? Born under a bus, please

 

[SkyFrog]

I hope you don't mind me asking some stupid questions, since I am just studying for my Part 107 and I am hoping this might be a "teachable moment" for me.

Without trying to make judgements, there are some things that seem to kind of contradict best practices in the 107 study guide.

I believe the original poster said that his aircraft went behind some buildings? Regardless of whether this is a commercial or hobby flight, aren't we supposed to maintain visual line of sight at all times? Won't having the drone fly behind some buildings (and losing line of sight) also mean that we will lose connection with the UAS?

Also, if I read correctly, didn't the operator say that he purposely brought the drone up to around 900' AGL? That doesn't seem like that would be legal to me (unless it was to avoid an imminent low-flying danger, such as a helicopter or a hang glider or something like that). I know you can fly up to 400' above the highest obstacle within 400', but those condos don't look to be 500' AGL tall.

And for people who are flying for hobby (I am assuming this was a non-commercial flight) are they still responsible for checking metars / TAFS / notams / TFRs and sectional charts? It seems as though for 107 holders these things are REQUIRED so I thought they might be required for non-commercial flights (although maybe I am confused... maybe they aren't required for commercial flights / 107 holders).

Anyway, I guess I am concerned / befuddled because it seems like the main question behind this thread is whether the original poster should expect to get reimbursed for the loss of his UAS, while to me, the main question should be more along the lines of, "Was this a legal flight?"

Apologies in advance if these are stupid questions and comments. I go in for my 107 test next week and so I am just trying to learn as much as possible ablut all the rules and regulations.

None of those are stupid questions or observations. You're exactly right. And given your awareness of the part 107 regulations and recommendations, you'll do just fine on the test. Make sure you're also comfortable with METARS, cloud coverage, types, and impact; amd runway air traffic patterns.

OP unfortunately lost his drone due to his own misgivings - and I don't say that to be harsh or critical. I just had a crash the other day doing something really stupid that I had no business doing. And I completely own it and have learned from it. That's all we can do.