TLDR: I was flying my drone (OG Mavic Pro) the other day when it got a weak signal notification, then disconnected. The drone never "returned home". I found it later in the flight path it was taking on it's return to home, when it either flew straight in to a rock wall or attempted to land in a boulder field and got all busted up. I'm looking to draw from everyones experience around the best way to get it fixed. Full story below.
So, this week I was in Lake Powell, filming my friends doing some wake boarding. For those unfamiliar with Lake Powell (you should google it, it's beautiful), it's a lake set deep inside red rock canyons. It's made up of a zillion fingers and has more coastline than the west coast of the United States. I was following the boat and flying manually in sport mode. It was out over open water, but apparently got some of that famous red rock between me and the drone, when all the sudden I got a "weak transmission signal" then almost immediately after a "disconnected" message. I immediately hit return to home, but the remote just kept saying connecting.
Frantically, I jumped on a jet ski and took off towards where the drone was. I was hoping the remote would reconnect as the drone was either flying home, or was hovering somewhere stuck. I could never get the remote to connect. I looked all over, but as it was out over open water and doesn't float I couldn't see anything. I followed the trajectory it was on and didn't see anything on the coast line it would have ran in to. I assumed the drone was lost and went back to the house boat.
Well, a couple of hours later my friends I was filming made it back, and they told me they saw the drone stop, fly up and start heading back towards the house boat. This was intriguing, so I looked at the map and plotted a straight shot line from the place the drone last communicated with the remote and my phone the house boat, and I could see there was a large red rock point that is ~1,000 feet high that was in the flight path. I thought maybe the drone tried to come home, couldn't find a way around that point, and when the battery got critically low it just decided to land. Now, at the bottom of that red rock wall was about a 100 foot tall, incredibly steep boulder field that lead down to the beach (the water level is insanely low right now). I took a rescue party over there, beached a boat and we started scrambling up the boulder field. I found the drone and it would appear what I expected happened was exactly what did happen. The drone is all busted up - one of the front "wings" is partially dislodged and the foot busted off. The camera is shattered. The battery was dislodged and is all scraped up. The metal plate on the bottom of the drone is all banged up and bent. The rubber feet on the bottom and plastic panel that covers a little access port on the back are missing. I was surprised to see the battery still lights up two lights when the power button is tapped.
I don't expect DJI to fix this for free, but it would be awesome if they did. The reality was I was 8,000 feet away and honestly couldn't see the drone anymore - I was tracking the boat with the camera and as such let something get between the drone and myself which caused this disconnect. What do you think would be the best way for me to get it fixed? Is it worth fixing? I can post pictures of the carnage if it would be helpful, and pictures of when I found it if anyone is interested. Also happy to retrieve and post any flight logs if there's value in that.
So, this week I was in Lake Powell, filming my friends doing some wake boarding. For those unfamiliar with Lake Powell (you should google it, it's beautiful), it's a lake set deep inside red rock canyons. It's made up of a zillion fingers and has more coastline than the west coast of the United States. I was following the boat and flying manually in sport mode. It was out over open water, but apparently got some of that famous red rock between me and the drone, when all the sudden I got a "weak transmission signal" then almost immediately after a "disconnected" message. I immediately hit return to home, but the remote just kept saying connecting.
Frantically, I jumped on a jet ski and took off towards where the drone was. I was hoping the remote would reconnect as the drone was either flying home, or was hovering somewhere stuck. I could never get the remote to connect. I looked all over, but as it was out over open water and doesn't float I couldn't see anything. I followed the trajectory it was on and didn't see anything on the coast line it would have ran in to. I assumed the drone was lost and went back to the house boat.
Well, a couple of hours later my friends I was filming made it back, and they told me they saw the drone stop, fly up and start heading back towards the house boat. This was intriguing, so I looked at the map and plotted a straight shot line from the place the drone last communicated with the remote and my phone the house boat, and I could see there was a large red rock point that is ~1,000 feet high that was in the flight path. I thought maybe the drone tried to come home, couldn't find a way around that point, and when the battery got critically low it just decided to land. Now, at the bottom of that red rock wall was about a 100 foot tall, incredibly steep boulder field that lead down to the beach (the water level is insanely low right now). I took a rescue party over there, beached a boat and we started scrambling up the boulder field. I found the drone and it would appear what I expected happened was exactly what did happen. The drone is all busted up - one of the front "wings" is partially dislodged and the foot busted off. The camera is shattered. The battery was dislodged and is all scraped up. The metal plate on the bottom of the drone is all banged up and bent. The rubber feet on the bottom and plastic panel that covers a little access port on the back are missing. I was surprised to see the battery still lights up two lights when the power button is tapped.
I don't expect DJI to fix this for free, but it would be awesome if they did. The reality was I was 8,000 feet away and honestly couldn't see the drone anymore - I was tracking the boat with the camera and as such let something get between the drone and myself which caused this disconnect. What do you think would be the best way for me to get it fixed? Is it worth fixing? I can post pictures of the carnage if it would be helpful, and pictures of when I found it if anyone is interested. Also happy to retrieve and post any flight logs if there's value in that.