Don't be fooled by that video guy.
He was the whole problem.
That video popped up recently and the actual issue was explained here:
Flying my DJI
Air 2s in hilly area it reported on app that it was experiencing high winds and that RTH would not be allowed. I was told to lower the altitude and fly home manually. My previous drone the original Mavic pro would never do this . Hate to think that if contact to the drone was lost...
mavicpilots.com
I mentioned the video because something similar happened to me with the
Air 2S, and the wind was imperceptible when I flew. I took his word at face value regarding his wind conditions. On the day I flew, the situation I encountered happened on the 6th flight and conditions were just about perfect.
Posting this in case it helps others in a similar situation.
I canceled my initial RTH warning, as I have done countless times on the
M2P, and when the battery got to 11% the
Air 2S started to auto-land. RTH speed transitioned from +23mph to zero in the final seconds of 12% battery. It was 977 ft. away, however the only way I could navigate it toward home was to ascend. When I attempted to descend, it started flying backwards - not blown backwards. We have all seen what a drone looks like when it flies backwards vs what it looks like when it's fighting wind. As mentioned, wind was not a factor.
At 977ft away, simple math suggests it would have been back at the home point in less than 40 secs, assuming power (and speed) depletion rate prior to 11%. It would have landed with 6-7% battery.
When I left the sticks alone, it attempted to auto-land at its present location. Each time I descended and/or attempted to fly in any direction, it flew away from the home point. I was not able to yaw it 180 degrees and fly it home backwards, most likely because it was locked into RTH. Occasionally I could get it to yaw, but without any consistency or ability to manage it.
The initial auto-land location would have put it in the middle of a dense set of trees, where I suspect it would have been difficult to recover. I was able to maneuver it to a less dense, safe location where it took a tumble and got pretty mangled, but I was able to retrieve it and send it back for my first ever use of refresh.
Had the
Air 2S not allowed me to do anything but auto-land, I would simply recalibrate my expectations for RTH (I will now anyway), but remain curious why I could ascend and continue to fly forward as close as 284 ft. from my home point, only to watch it fly backwards to a distance of 1,281 ft. before I left it alone to auto-land.
After hundreds of
M2P flights, I'm dialed in regarding how much battery I need relative to distance and environmental conditions. The
Air 2S is a different platform, and my fault for not knowing its tolerances prior to this incident, but it is worth noting that the drone had more than needed to return to the home point after its first attempt to auto-land. That includes traveling over an additional 2,000 ft, multiple changes in altitude, and several minutes battling to keep it in a hovering mode while I contemplated a plan. Final touchdown was 3mins 32 secs after it began flying backwards once it reached 284 ft from home.
On a positive note, the battery life was impressive.
