I was attempting to film off a moving sailboat, just off the coast of Spain (about 10nautical miles northwest of Cadiz, where we were offshore heading towards). I had filmed twice already off this same boat the day before (while moving) and the day of (at anchor). As my previous flights were all successful, i was starting to feel like i was get the hang of filming of/from a boat. Boy was i wrong..
As i started the motors up, it wants to take off on me, so i let her go (hand-launching off near the port quarter), and she drifts to the side with the wind (may have been in ATTI mode still, so the wind was taking her away). I was still calm until i notice she seemed to be lowering and was not responding to stick-up, and seconds later, plummets into the ocean. The entire "flight" (if you can call it that) lasted under 10 seconds.. Flight controller said Aircraft Disconnected.. the worst outcome happened :-(
Things are tense (people asking WTF just happened, except in spanish). Within a few moments we turn the boat motor back on, furl away the sails and using the GPS on the controller, and power on back to the last known location where it happened. This was no drill, it was a real "man" (drone) overboard situation, and the depth at this spot was ~25 meters. With no diving gear at hand, short of someone willing to jump into the water and hopefully spotting it underwater, not much hope existed that the aircraft would float to be able to be even recovered, and this lack of hope already began while trying to get back to the spot :-(
Long story short, my Mavic 2 pro could not be recovered and is now "lost at sea" at the bottom near the Gibraltar Strait.. but I am thinking was there perhaps some sort of malfunction as the craft refused to gain altitude on command? Do i have any chance of trying to contact DJI support to ask for a replacement if there's a cause/fault other than my own? I've read about the VPS signal being confused over water as a result lowering, but shouldn't stick-up override that? Replying the flight logs in the App, i see stick input was sent in the final seconds before craft went down so given that I was in sport mode, rate of ascent shouldn't have been a problem either.
Any advice would be really appreciated as I'm wanting to contact DJI support next to see what they'll say.. I'm not a professional, just an amateur here and bought this thing with my own money so shame if this is how this new (~10 month) hobby of mine ends :-/
As i started the motors up, it wants to take off on me, so i let her go (hand-launching off near the port quarter), and she drifts to the side with the wind (may have been in ATTI mode still, so the wind was taking her away). I was still calm until i notice she seemed to be lowering and was not responding to stick-up, and seconds later, plummets into the ocean. The entire "flight" (if you can call it that) lasted under 10 seconds.. Flight controller said Aircraft Disconnected.. the worst outcome happened :-(
Things are tense (people asking WTF just happened, except in spanish). Within a few moments we turn the boat motor back on, furl away the sails and using the GPS on the controller, and power on back to the last known location where it happened. This was no drill, it was a real "man" (drone) overboard situation, and the depth at this spot was ~25 meters. With no diving gear at hand, short of someone willing to jump into the water and hopefully spotting it underwater, not much hope existed that the aircraft would float to be able to be even recovered, and this lack of hope already began while trying to get back to the spot :-(
Long story short, my Mavic 2 pro could not be recovered and is now "lost at sea" at the bottom near the Gibraltar Strait.. but I am thinking was there perhaps some sort of malfunction as the craft refused to gain altitude on command? Do i have any chance of trying to contact DJI support to ask for a replacement if there's a cause/fault other than my own? I've read about the VPS signal being confused over water as a result lowering, but shouldn't stick-up override that? Replying the flight logs in the App, i see stick input was sent in the final seconds before craft went down so given that I was in sport mode, rate of ascent shouldn't have been a problem either.
Any advice would be really appreciated as I'm wanting to contact DJI support next to see what they'll say.. I'm not a professional, just an amateur here and bought this thing with my own money so shame if this is how this new (~10 month) hobby of mine ends :-/
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