I'm through taking chances

[cameraz]

Last night I went downtown to in hopes of taking some photos I've been wanting to take for a long time. But every time I got to the location, the weather changed so I couldn't fly. Well, last night, at dusk, the skies were clear, with my UAV Forecast app showing wind gusts of 19 mph at 100 feet. I figured that I'm not going up that high, so it was safe to fly.

I launched my Mavic Mini and was up in the air only about 10 feet, when I got a warning on my screen that my drone was in Attitude Mode. I figured that if I waited a couple of minutes, it surely would latch onto some GPS signals.

Well, I was wrong because about 60 seconds later, the drone flew sideways at high speed, slamming into the side of a building. It slid vertically down the side of the building, and I was able to catch the drone before it hit the ground. But as I held the drone in my hand, the prop speed increased incredibly fast! The pull I felt on my arm was amazing. But somehow I was able to turn the drone off with one hand while I was holding the remote with my other hand.

To make a long story short, the damage was a broken gimball, a broken prop, and some scuff marks to the body of the drone. Luckily, I have one more use of my DJI Care Service, and will be sending the drone back to them. But I will make sure to always have a solid GPS lock when flying from now on.

 

[Meta4]

I launched my Mavic Mini and was up in the air only about 10 feet, when I got a warning on my screen that my drone was in Attitude Mode......

Well, I was wrong because about 60 seconds later, the drone flew sideways at high speed, slamming into the side of a building.

Your description sounds a lot like you encountered a yaw error.

But I will make sure to always have a solid GPS lock when flying from now on.

Although it's always a good idea to have full GPS before launching, launching without GPS doesn't cause the problem you encountered.

If you want to find out more about what actually happened, why and how to prevent it in future, post your recorded flight data.

Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report on the flight data.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides.
Or just post the .txt file.

 

[cameraz]

Your description sounds a lot like you encountered a yaw error.

Although it's always a good idea to have full GPS before launching, launching without GPS doesn't cause the problem you encountered.

If you want to find out more about what actually happened, why and how to prevent it in future, post your recorded flight data.

Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report on the flight data.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides.
Or just post the .txt file.

First of all, thank you for your help. However, my brain is not working properly today. I was able to find on my phone what I think is my flight record (a zipped file) from yesterday, but I can't seem to upload it to the DJI Flight Log Viewer you mentioned. It keeps timing out and giving me an error message. I was able open the file and paste the contents of the file onto a Notepad file, which I have attached here. If somebody can work with this, I'd appreciate it. If not, I'll try something else. Thanks.

 

[Meta4]

If somebody can work with this, I'd appreciate it. If not, I'll try something else.

That file doesn't work.
The one you are looking for should have a name like this: DJIFlightRecord_2022-05-18_[16-43-24].txt

 

[cameraz]

That file doesn't work.
The one you are looking for should have a name like this: DJIFlightRecord_2022-05-18_[16-43-24].txt

Yes, I have that file. I had unzipped it and pasted it to a text file. But here is the original (zipped) file. Thanks.

 

[Meta4]

Yes, I have that file. I had unzipped it and pasted it to a text file. But here is the original (zipped) file. Thanks.

That filename looks good, except that it's a zip file and it doesn't want to unzip.

 

[Eagle Eye 62]

Not to sound like your Mother, but a wise man once said "Always wait for the Lady". The RTH function is a nice safety feature to have and has saved my butt more than once.

Also, It does seem something else caused your issue in the case, but I just think it is proper operating procedure to always wait for that home point update before you fly.....ok, that is the end of my PSA.

 

[Jess--]

If you are using an android device with your controller (and a recent version of the fly app) the file you are after will be located on the phone / tablet under \Android\data\dji.go.v5\FlightRecord

For apple devices look for instructions in the flyaway assistance section of the forum.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Not to sound like your Mother, but a wise man once said "Always wait for the Lady". The RTH function is a nice safety feature to have and has saved my butt more than once.

Also, It does seem something else caused your issue in the case, but I just think it is proper operating procedure to always wait for that home point update before you fly.....ok, that is the end of my PSA.

And always “check it on the map” !

Your general direction on the ground should match the way the drone is facing on the map, if not a likely yaw error is present.
Shutdown, move away a little, try again.

 

[cameraz]

That filename looks good, except that it's a zip file and it doesn't want to unzip.

OK, I think I've got it. I think the info you need is at this link:

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Thanks.

 

[cameraz]

Not to sound like your Mother, but a wise man once said "Always wait for the Lady". The RTH function is a nice safety feature to have and has saved my butt more than once.

Also, It does seem something else caused your issue in the case, but I just think it is proper operating procedure to always wait for that home point update before you fly.....ok, that is the end of my PSA.

The reason why I didn't use Return to Home is because I was flying at only 10 feet. If I had hit RTH, my Mini would have ascended to 125 feet (which I have it set to do) and the drone would have hit some pretty stiff wind gusts.

 

[footfly]

Last night I went downtown to in hopes of taking some photos I've been wanting to take for a long time. But every time I got to the location, the weather changed so I couldn't fly. Well, last night, at dusk, the skies were clear, with my UAV Forecast app showing wind gusts of 19 mph at 100 feet. I figured that I'm not going up that high, so it was safe to fly.

I launched my Mavic Mini and was up in the air only about 10 feet, when I got a warning on my screen that my drone was in Attitude Mode. I figured that if I waited a couple of minutes, it surely would latch onto some GPS signals.

Well, I was wrong because about 60 seconds later, the drone flew sideways at high speed, slamming into the side of a building. It slid vertically down the side of the building, and I was able to catch the drone before it hit the ground. But as I held the drone in my hand, the prop speed increased incredibly fast! The pull I felt on my arm was amazing. But somehow I was able to turn the drone off with one hand while I was holding the remote with my other hand.

To make a long story short, the damage was a broken gimball, a broken prop, and some scuff marks to the body of the drone. Luckily, I have one more use of my DJI Care Service, and will be sending the drone back to them. But I will make sure to always have a solid GPS lock when flying from now on.

Yes. I would recommend keeping the drone on ground until it register at least 7+ satellite before taking off. It should signal "home point has been set" .

 

[cameraz]

Yes. I would recommend keeping the drone on ground until it register at least 7+ satellite before taking off. It should signal "home point has been set" .

Yes, thanks. I've been flying for several years now and I'm still learning!

 

[KB4MTO]

Sorry to hear about this. I have a mini and Mavic 2 Pro, and on both of them, I fire them up and let them sit and spin on the ground until I'm happy with the number of GPS locks. I have flown my mini without GPS locks and it's not the stable bird it is with them.

 

[Meta4]

Yes. I would recommend keeping the drone on ground until it register at least 7+ satellite before taking off. It should signal "home point has been set" .

It would be very rare for the homepoint to be set with only seven sats.
There is no single number of sats that guarantees full GPS and a home point will be recorded, because the number of sats is not what counts.
Wait for the homepoint announcement.
If your drone uses DJI Fly, watch for the GPS icon to turn white.

 

[Meta4]

OK, I think I've got it. I think the info you need is at this link:

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

I've never seen an incident with flight data quite like this.
It's not the simple yaw error that I expected from your description.
I can see a few things that are wrong with it but can't be sure of the cause.

The position of the flight as shown on Google Earth puts it on or in a building, rather than in the open between buildings.
This suggests faulty GPS location data.

At the start, before the drone lifts off, the compass heading is changing as if the drone was rotating 26° anticlockwise.
Was teh drone sitting on the ground and what direction was it facing?
Was it west, northwest or something else?

What was the surface that you launched from?
What steel objects might have been within a few feet of the drone?

I'm surprised that the data never shows the drone hovering in place and holding position.
The data shows low speed all the time, varying erratically between 0-5 mph, even when the sticks are centred.
I can't be sure how much of this was genuine or if it was due to poor GPS.

The collision occurred at low indicated speed (3mph) at 54.4 seconds.

Perhaps @slup can make more sense of the data than I can?

 

[cameraz]

I've never seen an incident with flight data quite like this.
It's not the simple yaw error that I expected from your description.
I can see a few things that are wrong with it but can't be sure of the cause.

The position of the flight as shown on Google Earth puts it on or in a building, rather than in the open between buildings.
This suggests faulty GPS location data.

At the start, before the drone lifts off, the compass heading is changing as if the drone was rotating 26° anticlockwise.
Was teh drone sitting on the ground and what direction was it facing?
Was it west, northwest or something else?

What was the surface that you launched from?
What steel objects might have been within a few feet of the drone?

I'm surprised that the data never shows the drone hovering in place and holding position.
The data shows low speed all the time, varying erratically between 0-5 mph, even when the sticks are centred.
I can't be sure how much of this was genuine or if it was due to poor GPS.

The collision occurred at low indicated speed (3mph) at 54.4 seconds.

Perhaps @slup can make more sense of the data than I can?

Yes, it looks very confusing. I'll see if I can straighten some of it out.

I was standing on a sidewalk, near a curb where my car was parked. Since I had attached a strobe light underneath my drone, I could not launch it from a flat surface, so I wanted to launch it from my hand. But before I could do that, I received an error message on the screen, telling me I had to calibrate my compass.

So, I knelt down on the ground, putting my remote w/phone on the sidewalk while I rotated my drone as instructed to by the messages on the screen. It didn't work the first time, so I had to calibrate it again.

Finally, I stood up and launched the drone from my hand. I flew it out to the middle of the street, about 10 feet off the ground. But I noticed that the drone was not fixed in one spot. It was wobbling all over the place, as if being buffeted by the wind. So I decided I'd better land this thing. (Btw, during the takeoff I was standing right next to my car.)

But as it headed back to the curb where I was standing, it kept going and headed straight for the building that was about 8 feet away from me. I panicked and started pushing the joysticks around, but since I didn't have time to see which direction the drone was oriented, I probably helped send it into the building's glass window.

I ran over to the building, just in time to catch the drone as it slid down the window (the drone was in a vertical orientation). How I didn't cut my hand with those spinning blades, I'll never know. But when I grabbed the drone in my hand, all of the sudden the motors sped up unbelievably fast, making a roar that anyone on the other side of the street could have heard. I somehow got my finger over the strobe light and hit the drone's on/off switch.

Meanwhile, today, in my house, I got a chance to examine the damage, and the only things that appeared broken were the camera gimbal and one of the rear props. The body of the drone had slightly separated at the front seam, but I was able to snap it back together. The amazing thing is that after replacing all of the rear props (the ones on the other side had nicks on them), the drone flew perfectly around my living room. The camera was tilted at an angle, however, due to the broken gimbal.

Finally, I filled out a repair request with DJI, and am awaiting their sending me a shipping label. Hopefully, within a couple of weeks I'll have a new drone.

 

[Meta4]

Since I had attached a strobe light underneath my drone, I could not launch it from a flat surface, so I wanted to launch it from my hand. But before I could do that, I received an error message on the screen, telling me I had to calibrate my compass.

Was the strobe light newly attached or have you flown with it before?
I'm trying to identify whether the calibration request was because of a newly fitted strobe or because of electromagnetic interference in the launch environment.

So, I knelt down on the ground, putting my remote w/phone on the sidewalk while I rotated my drone as instructed to by the messages on the screen. It didn't work the first time, so I had to calibrate it again.

This sounds like a bad sign.
If the compass warning was because of local magnetic interference, there was no need to calibrate the compass and moving away from the source of the problem would have been the correct action.
Failure to calibrate suggests that the drone was too close to the magnetic interference.
If you managed to calibrate the compass while too close, it might be that the resulting calibration was bad.

Looking at Google Earth itself, rather than the Phantomhelp summary, the flight shows as on a sidewalk area rather than on the building, so GPS inaccuracy wasn't the problem.

The incident was due to compass interference, but the source hasn't been identified.

 

[cameraz]

Was the strobe light newly attached or have you flown with it before?
I'm trying to identify whether the calibration request was because of a newly fitted strobe or because of electromagnetic interference in the launch environment.

This sounds like a bad sign.
If the compass warning was because of local magnetic interference, there was no need to calibrate the compass and moving away from the source of the problem would have been the correct action.
Failure to calibrate suggests that the drone was too close to the magnetic interference.
If you managed to calibrate the compass while too close, it might be that the resulting calibration was bad.

Looking at Google Earth itself, rather than the Phantomhelp summary, the flight shows as on a sidewalk area rather than on the building, so GPS inaccuracy wasn't the problem.

The incident was due to compass interference, but the source hasn't been identified.

Yes, I have flown with the strobe light attached many times before with no problems. And I probably was too close to my car when both calibrating my compass and launching.

It reminds me of several years ago when I owned my first "real" drone -- a DJI Spark. I wanted to launch it from a sidewalk, but wanted it to have a reference point to find when it returned to home. So I put it on a manhole cover! The Spark took off and immediately went into Attitude Mode. I almost lost it that day!

 

[spsphotos]

I'm confused as to why it didn't auto-shutoff when it went vertical. Normally when I hand catch I just flip it over and it shuts off immediately. Next time try that before looking for the power button, safer option.