Hi all,
I've been a longtime reader of this forum, all the way back to my Phantom 3 Professional days. I've owned the P3P, the P4, and now, for a brief time, the Mavic Pro. According to my profile, I have 1,131,787 feet logged (214.35 miles) and 16 hours 14 minutes of flight time, synced between my iPhone and iPad. Not professing to be a pro, but not considering myself a novice. This is my first post. The reason I'm motivated to make a post is because I want to share with you what happened to me today. I ordered the Mavic Pro Fly More Combo direct from DJI on 10-3-16. I picked it up from the FedEx center last night after 6pm on 11-29-16 because no one was home to sign for it. Got it home, charged up the batteries and remote. Did the compulsory update. Flew it twice that night from my house. Short flights, nothing fancy, just checking out the handling and functions. I noticed it had a tendency to drift to the left or crab sideways in forward flight. Did the stick calibration which seemed to alleviate it somewhat but did not eliminate it. Gimball had a slightly tilted horizon, adjusted that in software. Other than that, all seemed well and I was very wowed and pleased with the diminutive size of it along with the build quality and solid construction of the airframe and remote. Ok, onto the third and final flight. That happened today, at around 11:30 am. I took off near the downtown of a major metropolitan area. I flew towards the city center. Had good solid signal with the Occusync system - it isn't all just marketing hype, I can really tell the difference between the strength of the video downlink as well as the higher quality of the feed. Still crabbing a bit, it was challenging to fly in a straight line. I flew about 7800 feet to the city center with a good signal. Here's where everything went pear shaped. I could tell the signal was starting to degrade around the tall buildings. Battery was at 47%. Altitude was around 300 feet. I was in the process of ascending to get better signal to make the trip back home when the image greyed out and finally dropped. Got the prompt asking if I wanted to return to home, which I said yes. Stood there for about 20 - 40 seconds, expecting to get signal back any second. A minute goes by. Then two and three. Then four minutes. At which time I started to get that panicky feeling rising in my chest. I jumped in my car and drove the straight shot downtown, got there in about 4 minutes, holding my remote out the window the whole time. Got all the way to where I last lost it. Nothing. Never re-established signal. The remote just sat there, saying "CONNECTING" on the screen. It was gone. Went back to where I launched. It was nowhere to be found. Vision positioning system was turned OFF. Smart return to home was turned ON. Return to home altitude set at 90 meters. Buildings in that area are around 450+ feet tall. I have the FAA registration in the battery compartment as well as my telephone number to claim a reward. I had the drone about 18 hours before I lost it.
After taking some time to compose myself I picked up the phone and called DJI technical support. I spoke to a tech and described my situation, in which he opened a case for review. I synced my flight records, provided my email address and serial number on the back of my controller, a screen shot of my order number for proof of sale, along with the above description of what happened. The rep said that they would review the incident and get back with me in one to two weeks. What they will determine, or do, I don't know and the tech was noncommital when I asked him that. I contacted DJI sales through chat and waited awhile before one became available (there were 91 people ahead of me) and asked about the $749 Mavic without the RC option to see if it was available, as it is not available for purchase on their website. The $749 option without the remote was touted during the official announcement. The DJI sales rep replied with:
"Right now there is not any Mavic without remote controller for sale yet. We may release one later. Mavic pro comes with a remote controller. You are not recommended to use Mavic without controller. When you fly in wifi mode, the max height and range will be cut."
So now my options are to wait till the tech support gets back to me about my fly away issue, or I can order a $999 Mavic with RC, or do without. I have all the other accessories to the drone, extra batteries, car charger, bag, etc. I just really need the aircraft. After considering this issue all day, I went ahead and ordered the $999 Mavic. If tech support gets back to me and determines that I can get a concession whether its a full replacement or option to buy the aircraft only at a reduced price, I can always cancel my order. Somehow I don't feel optimistic about this though.
I am writing this to share with you my experience as both a precautionary tale and maybe as an example of a product feature not working as intended. With the smart return to home, when the drone encounters an obstacle it should try to ascend and go over, or at the very least, hover in place. I've lost connection with my Phantoms countless times and they have always come back. It's very possible that a tall building was in the return path. Ask questions, make comments, offer ideas - this is what the forum is for. I've been beating myself up all day about this, and will continue to do so for quite a while, so please, I don't need comments about maintaining visual line of sight, I'm ruining the hobby for everyone else, etc. There's a very good reason why I don't post on forums. Not just this forum, but most of them. And on here there's always going to be the people thumping rule books and that isn't something that is going to be constructive in my case. But I digress and I shall wait for it to start. Shouldn't take long.
I've been a longtime reader of this forum, all the way back to my Phantom 3 Professional days. I've owned the P3P, the P4, and now, for a brief time, the Mavic Pro. According to my profile, I have 1,131,787 feet logged (214.35 miles) and 16 hours 14 minutes of flight time, synced between my iPhone and iPad. Not professing to be a pro, but not considering myself a novice. This is my first post. The reason I'm motivated to make a post is because I want to share with you what happened to me today. I ordered the Mavic Pro Fly More Combo direct from DJI on 10-3-16. I picked it up from the FedEx center last night after 6pm on 11-29-16 because no one was home to sign for it. Got it home, charged up the batteries and remote. Did the compulsory update. Flew it twice that night from my house. Short flights, nothing fancy, just checking out the handling and functions. I noticed it had a tendency to drift to the left or crab sideways in forward flight. Did the stick calibration which seemed to alleviate it somewhat but did not eliminate it. Gimball had a slightly tilted horizon, adjusted that in software. Other than that, all seemed well and I was very wowed and pleased with the diminutive size of it along with the build quality and solid construction of the airframe and remote. Ok, onto the third and final flight. That happened today, at around 11:30 am. I took off near the downtown of a major metropolitan area. I flew towards the city center. Had good solid signal with the Occusync system - it isn't all just marketing hype, I can really tell the difference between the strength of the video downlink as well as the higher quality of the feed. Still crabbing a bit, it was challenging to fly in a straight line. I flew about 7800 feet to the city center with a good signal. Here's where everything went pear shaped. I could tell the signal was starting to degrade around the tall buildings. Battery was at 47%. Altitude was around 300 feet. I was in the process of ascending to get better signal to make the trip back home when the image greyed out and finally dropped. Got the prompt asking if I wanted to return to home, which I said yes. Stood there for about 20 - 40 seconds, expecting to get signal back any second. A minute goes by. Then two and three. Then four minutes. At which time I started to get that panicky feeling rising in my chest. I jumped in my car and drove the straight shot downtown, got there in about 4 minutes, holding my remote out the window the whole time. Got all the way to where I last lost it. Nothing. Never re-established signal. The remote just sat there, saying "CONNECTING" on the screen. It was gone. Went back to where I launched. It was nowhere to be found. Vision positioning system was turned OFF. Smart return to home was turned ON. Return to home altitude set at 90 meters. Buildings in that area are around 450+ feet tall. I have the FAA registration in the battery compartment as well as my telephone number to claim a reward. I had the drone about 18 hours before I lost it.
After taking some time to compose myself I picked up the phone and called DJI technical support. I spoke to a tech and described my situation, in which he opened a case for review. I synced my flight records, provided my email address and serial number on the back of my controller, a screen shot of my order number for proof of sale, along with the above description of what happened. The rep said that they would review the incident and get back with me in one to two weeks. What they will determine, or do, I don't know and the tech was noncommital when I asked him that. I contacted DJI sales through chat and waited awhile before one became available (there were 91 people ahead of me) and asked about the $749 Mavic without the RC option to see if it was available, as it is not available for purchase on their website. The $749 option without the remote was touted during the official announcement. The DJI sales rep replied with:
"Right now there is not any Mavic without remote controller for sale yet. We may release one later. Mavic pro comes with a remote controller. You are not recommended to use Mavic without controller. When you fly in wifi mode, the max height and range will be cut."
So now my options are to wait till the tech support gets back to me about my fly away issue, or I can order a $999 Mavic with RC, or do without. I have all the other accessories to the drone, extra batteries, car charger, bag, etc. I just really need the aircraft. After considering this issue all day, I went ahead and ordered the $999 Mavic. If tech support gets back to me and determines that I can get a concession whether its a full replacement or option to buy the aircraft only at a reduced price, I can always cancel my order. Somehow I don't feel optimistic about this though.
I am writing this to share with you my experience as both a precautionary tale and maybe as an example of a product feature not working as intended. With the smart return to home, when the drone encounters an obstacle it should try to ascend and go over, or at the very least, hover in place. I've lost connection with my Phantoms countless times and they have always come back. It's very possible that a tall building was in the return path. Ask questions, make comments, offer ideas - this is what the forum is for. I've been beating myself up all day about this, and will continue to do so for quite a while, so please, I don't need comments about maintaining visual line of sight, I'm ruining the hobby for everyone else, etc. There's a very good reason why I don't post on forums. Not just this forum, but most of them. And on here there's always going to be the people thumping rule books and that isn't something that is going to be constructive in my case. But I digress and I shall wait for it to start. Shouldn't take long.
