Lost my bird

Bjorn C · Mar 17, 2017

After reading other threads on this subject I unfortunately must add my story. I was flying at a place called Stone Island yesterday, just a bit south of Mazatlan when things went wrong pretty quickly. My app was updated, my compass and IMU were good, I don't take off until I have the green bar and GPS ready to go signal from my controller. I took off, RTH was tagged and I started to fly out to an outcropping (or island ) of rocks about a KM off shore. I was initially flying at about 7 meters above the water at about 32 KM's, there was a light breeze but nothing drastic, I flown in windier conditions before. As I approached the island I elevated to about 13 meters and started to round the island flying counterclockwise until halfway around it I lost my signal, video and with the controller. Now I've had this happen before, (more often than I think I should) and not really at crazy distances or with any real obstructions but RTH has always kicked in and when I would regain the video I would turn off the RTH and take command of the bird again. That did not happen yesterday. The controller kept reading "Connecting" I tried to manually initiate the RTH but it only beeped. My battery life on the bird registered 89%, the controller was at 94% and my iPad was at 88%. It never reconnected, the numbers on the screen never changed. I tried to fly straight up and back towards myself but nothing happened, it just kept beeping. I waited about 45 minutes but we all know that battery was long dead and my bird was now a fish. I don't know how to transfer my flight logs, I tried connecting my iPad to my computer, it says I've successfully exported my CSV files to the DJI Go/Documents but I don't know how to find those in the app. I've contacted DJI hoping, praying they will help me but I'm not holding my breath. Can you guys help me out please, I really don't think I did anything wrong. This was an easy low risk flight that should have ended with me enjoying my Margarita not just letting the ice melt and my blood boil.

Lapeer20m · Mar 17, 2017

Good luck

Karl2951 · Mar 17, 2017

That's pretty **** mate.

Pedro · Mar 17, 2017

Is the island tall enough to have blocked your radio signal? What did you have the bird set to in the event of loss of radio signal, RTH? What RTH height was it set to?

Pedro · Mar 17, 2017

By the way, sorry to hear this..

Pedro · Mar 17, 2017

Have you done a firmware upgrade recently that would/could have reset your normal RTH settings?

Bjorn C · Mar 17, 2017

Island was approx 18-20 meters high and TYH set at 30 meters

Pedro · Mar 17, 2017

So chances are it flew behind the island and you lost signal that way? I'm not looking to criticise, more to find out what happened but a 30m RTH when flying over water and a 20m (possibly higher?) island is cutting things pretty close..

Was obstacle avoidance on?

james_mav · Mar 17, 2017

Bjorn C said:
After reading other threads on this subject I unfortunately must add my story. I was flying at a place called Stone Island yesterday, just a bit south of Mazatlan when things went wrong pretty quickly. My app was updated, my compass and IMU were good, I don't take off until I have the green bar and GPS ready to go signal from my controller. I took off, RTH was tagged and I started to fly out to an outcropping (or island ) of rocks about a KM off shore. I was initially flying at about 7 meters above the water at about 32 KM's, there was a light breeze but nothing drastic, I flown in windier conditions before. As I approached the island I elevated to about 13 meters and started to round the island flying counterclockwise until halfway around it I lost my signal, video and with the controller. Now I've had this happen before, (more often than I think I should) and not really at crazy distances or with any real obstructions but RTH has always kicked in and when I would regain the video I would turn off the RTH and take command of the bird again. That did not happen yesterday. The controller kept reading "Connecting" I tried to manually initiate the RTH but it only beeped. My battery life on the bird registered 89%, the controller was at 94% and my iPad was at 88%. It never reconnected, the numbers on the screen never changed. I tried to fly straight up and back towards myself but nothing happened, it just kept beeping. I waited about 45 minutes but we all know that battery was long dead and my bird was now a fish. I don't know how to transfer my flight logs, I tried connecting my iPad to my computer, it says I've successfully exported my CSV files to the DJI Go/Documents but I don't know how to find those in the app. I've contacted DJI hoping, praying they will help me but I'm not holding my breath. Can you guys help me out please, I really don't think I did anything wrong. This was an easy low risk flight that should have ended with me enjoying my Margarita not just letting the ice melt and my blood boil.

If you click on "Members"/"Notable Members" in the top bar you will see a poster "Msinger". Send him a message if he doesn't see this thread. He can walk you through the steps to download the files & he'll tell you what happened.

m0j0 · Mar 17, 2017

Two things.. Return to home height was it high enough to clear the island? Second, did you have OA on?

msinger · Mar 17, 2017

If you upload your TXT flight log here and post a link back here, we can review it and try to figure out what happened.

CCDD · Mar 17, 2017

7 meters above water is not high enough when at any distance. A very small margin of error should your Mavic descend just a few meters. You mentioned the island is 18-20 meters high yet you only increased to 13m. Perhaps you struck something on the other side due to your elevation.

Bjorn C · Mar 17, 2017

My OA was on and RTH was at 30 meters, there was nothing I could have stuck on the other side of the island as I was at least 25-30 meters away from it as seen on the GPS map I included initially. I felt comfortable at 7 meters as the ocean was relatively flat and my training on this bird was in Thailand on the Island of Koh Samui wear I would fly between 2 and 5 meters comfortably as once again, seas were calm. I never had an issue and I flew to other islands there at distances of 3 km, thats why I am dumbfounded and upset I lost her on what should have been a relatively routine flight. I am aware that bad things happen any and all times (especially now) but it doesn't make any sense to me.
Thank you all for your time and opinions.

Bjorn C · Mar 17, 2017

Hi singer I think I just uploaded my info, please let me know what you think

Thanks

erkme73 · Mar 17, 2017

Bjorn C said:
Hi singer I think I just uploaded my info, please let me know what you think

Thanks

Can you paste the link to the page phantomhelp generated? It'll get more eyes on data...

Bjorn C · Mar 17, 2017

I'm looking for it but am not familiar with this site, sorry

erkme73 · Mar 17, 2017

A couple of thoughts while we wait...

Were you recording video during the flight (i.e. was it cached on your device locally)? The last few seconds of that video may show something?

Are there birds that fly near or around that island? Would you have been able to see a flock of them (with your eyes, not FPV) at the point where it went down?

erkme73 · Mar 17, 2017

Bjorn C said:
I'm looking for it but am not familiar with this site, sorry

After you uploaded your file, it creates a page with all your stats, a map, and a (very long) log of data. That page has a URL at the top of your browser. Just copy that and paste it here.

Bjorn C · Mar 17, 2017

I was recording and have had experience with them in the past, I could see them high above the island. I've gone over the last few seconds dozens of time and there were no birds at that time. In the past I had an encounter with a Thai eagle and my OA went crazy I almost dropped the controller as I was flying over open water not expecting something to set of the alarm. I also flew my bird around the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur and mistakenly clipped a building, she recovered and continued her flight, both reasons I felt fairly comfortable with her, at the same time knowing full well that bad stuff happens but I always fly with caution as it's always a little nerve racking, more reason to be pissed at myself and potentially the failure out of my control.