I crash my Mavic in Terrain Follow Mode.

[cj cake]

Let me start by saying that it was more of an unexpected Landing then really a crash. There was absolutely no damage to the Mavic.

I drove up to the High Sierra this weekend in the Jeep with some friends two try out some of the trails with all the fresh snow we've been getting. I took the Mavic along just in case there was an opportunity to get in a couple short flights. We stopped near a clearing and parked the Jeeps and set up for a picnic style lunch. I brought out the mavic and had a couple nice lights up and down the clearing and I brought it over the tops of some of the pine trees. The clearing had a gradual slope which eventually turned into a moderately Steep Hill, so I decided to try the terrain-following mode to see if it would climb as it progressed across toward the hill. I moved it forward very slowly and I noticed that it was gradually climbing but it seemed a little choppy. It would move forward and then quickly increase elevation and then move forward and increase elevation as if it was climbing stairs. As we approach the hill it decided it didn't want to climb anymore and the front landing gear touched the snow causing it to tip forward. Since I was not concerned about video quality I had the gimbal cover on and it buried into the soft snow and the two forward props started kicking up snow every which way. I did an emergency shutdown and walked over and picked it up. I dusted the snow off of it and did inspection. It looks fine so I continue to fly in normal mode without any further problems.

So the moral of the story is..... Mavic has a hard time determining its position relative to the ground in snowy conditions.

Sent from my SM-G900V using MavicPilots mobile app

 

[GlenT]

Let me start by saying that it was more of an unexpected Landing then really a crash. There was absolutely no damage to the Mavic.

I drove up to the High Sierra this weekend in the Jeep with some friends two try out some of the trails with all the fresh snow we've been getting. I took the Mavic along just in case there was an opportunity to get in a couple short flights. We stopped near a clearing and parked the Jeeps and set up for a picnic style lunch. I brought out the mavic and had a couple nice lights up and down the clearing and I brought it over the tops of some of the pine trees. The clearing had a gradual slope which eventually turned into a moderately Steep Hill, so I decided to try the terrain-following mode to see if it would climb as it progressed across toward the hill. I moved it forward very slowly and I noticed that it was gradually climbing but it seemed a little choppy. It would move forward and then quickly increase elevation and then move forward and increase elevation as if it was climbing stairs. As we approach the hill it decided it didn't want to climb anymore and the front landing gear touched the snow causing it to tip forward. Since I was not concerned about video quality I had the gimbal cover on and it buried into the soft snow and the two forward props started kicking up snow every which way. I did an emergency shutdown and walked over and picked it up. I dusted the snow off of it and did inspection. It looks fine so I continue to fly in normal mode without any further problems.

So the moral of the story is..... Mavic has a hard time determining its position relative to the ground in snowy conditions.

Sent from my SM-G900V using MavicPilots mobile app

I can imagine it is very hard for the Mavic to ascertain height when above snow. After all it is just a plain white canvas, and absorbs some of the pulses from the sonic sensors. Also similar when flying low over water. I saw my Mavic twitch a bit when doing a rather low pass over some water recently. I figured it was having difficulty and thought it was too low then raising itself slightly as I flew along, so I simply raised altitude a further 3 feet or so and it was fine.
Glad your "incident" ended well. I bet you got some nice footage of the area.