Yesterday I reversed my Mavic into a tree. Of course this was my fault. After footling about for some time shooting a POI, I flew forwards along a rocky stream, recording a video tracking shot, then simply reversed to bring the MP back for a second attempt. However the MP drifted slightly and instead of returning along the same trajectory, it ended up over the far bank, overgrown with young trees, and embedded itself in one of them (R). From my position (A), some distance back from the opposite bank, it was not easy to see this discrepancy while watching the MP and with hindsight I might have avoided the tree by watching the GPS track instead. I've checked the flight animation and at no time in either direction did I alter course. However, as you can see, the outbound trajectory appears to have "kinked", possibly due to magnetic influence of the large rocks. As you can see, this was not replicated on the return leg...
Flight path courtesy of Airdata.com
The point of my post is to highlight the danger of assuming that your MP will always return along exactly the same route! And if you're going to fly into a tree, try to pick a young one; luckily the tender branches simply clutched my Mavic and held it aloft until I climbed over the stream to rescue it. There was no damage whatsoever, confirmed with a further test flight!
Flight path courtesy of Airdata.com
The point of my post is to highlight the danger of assuming that your MP will always return along exactly the same route! And if you're going to fly into a tree, try to pick a young one; luckily the tender branches simply clutched my Mavic and held it aloft until I climbed over the stream to rescue it. There was no damage whatsoever, confirmed with a further test flight!
