My Mavic flew off today in the NV wilderness

Revoh713 · Dec 26, 2016

utahlasvegas said:
Exit 112 on I-15 North, about 10 miles west of Mesquite, NV, is the exit to get there. You have to follow that road until it crosses the Virgin River, and then turn right on Gold Butte Road. From there, it's about 20-30 minutes down that road before there are some signs. There is a right hand turn that can be made that I think is the second sign, but there is another road that goes to the area from a landmark called "Devil's Throat." Both of those routes follow some fairly rough dirt roads, and then a right hand turn has to be made on a road that is supposedly called, "Mud Wash Road." It is 1.7 miles long and ends in a flat area where I parked and used as home for the flight.

Hey UtahLasVegas! I'd be up to help you go back out there to take a look for it. I'm in Henderson and could go out on a weekend if you're up for it! I don't expect to get my Mavic before the end of January, so wouldn't be able to do any aerial recon, but with those coordinates, I'm sure we would find it!

utahlasvegas · Dec 28, 2016

This was my reply from DJI

DJI Support here. Thanks for your patience.
We have analyzed the flight records and found that:
1) At flight time 14’52’’, the pilot has initiated a RTH (Return To Home) via the DJI GO app. The RTH height was 30 meters and the drone was with 119 meters high from home point then. The drone started to fly towards the home point despite the orientation of the drone’s head;
2) The pilot has later pushed yaw stick to the right and the drone turned its head to the right and the drone started to fly to the left horizontally;
3) At flight time 15’17’’, the drone crashed into a stone hill when flying left horizontally.
Please kindly note that the drone could not avoid obstacle when it was flying to the left.
According to the analysis result, the incident was caused by a pilot error rather than product malfunction factors, thus we could not provide warranty service.
We really appreciate your choosing DJI. We would love to have you continue using our product, so we would like to provide you a 15% discount coupon for a Mavic Pro drone body (with a battery, gimbal camera, a set of propellers, worth 799$).
To accept this offer, please reply to this email affirming, for example “I accept the offer.”
If you have somehow retrieved the drone, it's most recommended for you to send the drone back to us for a paid repair. For this, please reply to my email for example: "I would like to send the drone back. Please send me a shipping label". After your confirmation, I will have our specialists to contact you for the shipping label.
Should you have more questions, please feel free to let me know.
Warm regards,
DJI Support

As soon as I hit "RTH", my controller said "lost connection." I never pushed it into the rocks.

DroningOn · Dec 28, 2016

But they said "warm regards" :-/

Sorry man, what a load!

ElGuapo · Dec 28, 2016

I hope you find it!. I wish I was closer to help out.

Good luck Utah.!

chippie · Dec 28, 2016

utahlasvegas said:
This was my reply from DJI

DJI Support here. Thanks for your patience.
We have analyzed the flight records and found that:
1) At flight time 14’52’’, the pilot has initiated a RTH (Return To Home) via the DJI GO app. The RTH height was 30 meters and the drone was with 119 meters high from home point then. The drone started to fly towards the home point despite the orientation of the drone’s head;
2) The pilot has later pushed yaw stick to the right and the drone turned its head to the right and the drone started to fly to the left horizontally;
3) At flight time 15’17’’, the drone crashed into a stone hill when flying left horizontally.
Please kindly note that the drone could not avoid obstacle when it was flying to the left.
According to the analysis result, the incident was caused by a pilot error rather than product malfunction factors, thus we could not provide warranty service.
We really appreciate your choosing DJI. We would love to have you continue using our product, so we would like to provide you a 15% discount coupon for a Mavic Pro drone body (with a battery, gimbal camera, a set of propellers, worth 799$).
To accept this offer, please reply to this email affirming, for example “I accept the offer.”
If you have somehow retrieved the drone, it's most recommended for you to send the drone back to us for a paid repair. For this, please reply to my email for example: "I would like to send the drone back. Please send me a shipping label". After your confirmation, I will have our specialists to contact you for the shipping label.
Should you have more questions, please feel free to let me know.
Warm regards,
DJI Support

As soon as I hit "RTH", my controller said "lost connection." I never pushed it into the rocks.

I have not looked at the logs but can anyone confirm that it actually hit something rather then simply losing contact with the controller and coming to a standstill due to OA before eventually attempting to land.

utahlasvegas · Dec 28, 2016

I called and said that my controller said, "lost connection," as soon as I hit "return to home," and they're going to evaluate the records again. I also asked if I could get a refund on my $99 DJI Care policy, and they said no.

Squamer · Dec 28, 2016

At least they were smart enough to tell you you hit a stone hill... what a crock of ish

chippie · Dec 28, 2016

utahlasvegas said:
I called and said that my controller said, "lost connection," as soon as I hit "return to home," and they're going to evaluate the records again. I also asked if I could get a refund on my $99 DJI Care policy, and they said no.

Really need to get it back somehow! At least that way even if they argue blue in the face it hit something then the Care will cover it at a small cost. Still keeping my fingers crossed you can recover it dude!

Vin829 · Dec 28, 2016

Is there anyway you can get a 3rd party to look at the flight record?

utahlasvegas · Dec 28, 2016

I think that I might have found some rock-climbers in Las Vegas that might go look for it. If that doesn't work out, I'm going to make a special trip. @Revoh713 , let me know when you get yours, and I'll make a weekend trip down there from Reno. My email address is beaurogers74 at gmail dot com, thanks!

Revoh713 · Dec 28, 2016

utahlasvegas said:
I think that I might have found some rock-climbers in Las Vegas that might go look for it. If that doesn't work out, I'm going to make a special trip. @Revoh713 , let me know when you get yours, and I'll make a weekend trip down there from Reno. My email address is beaurogers74 at gmail dot com, thanks!

Will do. Hopefully you find it before then, but I'll for sure be happy to help you locate it. I think a lot of people would do the same if they were closer. It's great to see the support of all the pilots on this forum!!

Squamer · Dec 28, 2016

I've been watching this thread and its good to see others willing to help. Hoping this forum stays this way and doesnt become a place to point fingers and argue! Hope you get it back!

william · Dec 28, 2016

hope you find it from one who has lost a drone i know that sinking feeling in your gut but dont lose hope i found mine ....unfortunately under 2 meters of water ......

msinger · Dec 28, 2016

utahlasvegas said:
This was my reply from DJI

DJI Support here. Thanks for your patience.
We have analyzed the flight records and found that:
1) At flight time 14’52’’, the pilot has initiated a RTH (Return To Home) via the DJI GO app. The RTH height was 30 meters and the drone was with 119 meters high from home point then. The drone started to fly towards the home point despite the orientation of the drone’s head;
2) The pilot has later pushed yaw stick to the right and the drone turned its head to the right and the drone started to fly to the left horizontally;
3) At flight time 15’17’’, the drone crashed into a stone hill when flying left horizontally.
Please kindly note that the drone could not avoid obstacle when it was flying to the left.
According to the analysis result, the incident was caused by a pilot error rather than product malfunction factors, thus we could not provide warranty service.
We really appreciate your choosing DJI. We would love to have you continue using our product, so we would like to provide you a 15% discount coupon for a Mavic Pro drone body (with a battery, gimbal camera, a set of propellers, worth 799$).
To accept this offer, please reply to this email affirming, for example “I accept the offer.”
If you have somehow retrieved the drone, it's most recommended for you to send the drone back to us for a paid repair. For this, please reply to my email for example: "I would like to send the drone back. Please send me a shipping label". After your confirmation, I will have our specialists to contact you for the shipping label.
Should you have more questions, please feel free to let me know.
Warm regards,
DJI Support

As soon as I hit "RTH", my controller said "lost connection." I never pushed it into the rocks.

I reviewed your flight log and agree with this assessment. After you manually initiated RTH, the Mavic lost connection and then regained the connection before the connection was lost again prior to the impact. At the end of your flight log, your Mavic was facing away from the hill. That would have made it impossible to detect the hill even if the sensors were enabled.

Asaulo1 · Dec 28, 2016

hope you find it, Utah. It's good to see that there's some good folks out there willing to help out.

beatnik · Dec 28, 2016

I hope you guys get a chance to go look for it. Makes me want to tape some super reflective tape to mine, so just in case at least it's not the same color as the ground. But I agree, an aerial survey with a big tab would be worth it before climbing a huge cliff.

m0j0 · Jan 21, 2017

Still nada?

Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

erkme73 · Jan 21, 2017

I was wondering about this too... Especially after following every twist and turn of the recovery of the British fellow's AZ drone. Too bad none of the locals from that thread have been able to help the OP...