Will my Mavic fall out of the sky?

[DroneNoob-TN]

So I order my Mavic on Monday and got it today. Between Monday and today, I have been reading about Mavic's with a March 2017 build date that have fallen from the sky mid flight. So I check my build date and its Friday, March, 17th 2017. Has there been a determination on what is causing the crashes? Other than buying insurance is there anything I can do to reduce the chance of a loss?

 

[djhoodrich]

So I order my Mavic on Monday and got it today. Between Monday and today, I have been reading about Mavic's with a March 2017 build date that have fallen from the sky mid flight. So I check my build date and its Friday, March, 17th 2017. Has there been a determination on what is causing the crashes? Other than buying insurance is there anything I can do to reduce the chance of a loss?

Where is the build date I want to check mine

 

[DroneNoob-TN]

Use this link to check your build date.

DJI Mavic Pro Serial Number Decoder

 

[Former Member]

Other than buying insurance is there anything I can do to reduce the chance of a loss?

If you have been reading about Mavics falling out of the sky, it has surely not been here. Most Mavics fall from the sky because people hit trees, or other obstacles. Other people dont securely latch their batteries into the Mavic which would cause in-flight failure. Other people hit birds.

If you are worried about your Mavic falling from the sky, just hover it in front of you about 5 feet off the ground a dozen or more times to give you confidence.

 

[Cyberpower678]

If you have been reading about Mavics falling out of the sky, it has surely not been here. Most Mavics fall from the sky because people hit trees, or other obstacles. Other people dont securely latch their batteries into the Mavic which would cause in-flight failure. Other people hit birds.

If you are worried about your Mavic falling from the sky, just hover it in front of you about 5 feet off the ground a dozen or more times to give you confidence.

Actually no. I was involved in all of these reported dropouts in this forum, and they did indeed suddenly fall mid flight. Nothing in the flight logs to show pilot error. We initially assumed improperly latched battery, and then discovered some oddities in the flight logs. @BudWalker and @Robbyg have the details.

 

[djhoodrich]

Use this link to check your build date.

DJI Mavic Pro Serial Number Decoder

Thank you mine was manufactured March 8th anything about that is that one going to fall out of the sky

 

[Former Member]

Actually no. I was involved in all of these reported dropouts in this forum, and they did indeed suddenly fall mid flight. Nothing in the flight logs to show pilot error. We initially assumed improperly latched battery, and then discovered some oddities in the flight logs. @BudWalker and @Robbyg have the details.

"ALL" being how many? Maybe others whose birds have fallen out of the sky can chime in, but I have repaired many, including some manufactured in March, and every single one was due to operator error. There were none falling from the sky due to unknown reasons. I have also sold 2 dozen since then and not one fell for unknown reasons.

Before people start fear mongering, its time to come up with facts instead of scaring 99% of the people here to death.

Please feel free to take this poll.

Poll: Has you Mavic fallen from the sky for unknown reasons?

And this poll:

Poll: Are you happy with your Mavic?

 

[Cyberpower678]

"ALL" being how many? Maybe others whose birds have fallen out of the sky can chime in, but I have repaired many, including some manufactured in March, and every single one was due to operator error. There were none falling from the sky due to unknown reasons. I have also sold 2 dozen since then and not one fell for unknown reasons.

Before people start fear mongering, its time to come up with facts instead of scaring 99% of the people here to death.

Please feel free to take this poll.

Poll: Has you Mavic fallen from the sky for unknown reasons?

There were 3 or 4 different threads from different users reporting the same thing within a 48 hour timespan. All of their Mavics were new and from a March batch.

I'm not trying to fear monger, just bring awareness to that rather disturbing information. It's not likely going to fall from the sky. I'm still inclined to believe the batteries weren't secure enough, and somehow disconnected, and that the March Mavics may have some sort of latch issue.

 

[djhoodrich]

Got my 4 days ago have already flown over 28 miles I love it

 

[theAlexanderGraham]

Like any forum with any product....when's the last time you went on the internet and gave praise to something?

I've been completely happy with my Mavic, my Samsung 4K OLED, my MacBook....etc.

I don't recall ever going online anywhere and giving any of them praise.

Let's assume most people owning a Mavic or any drone are relatively intermediate to advanced users of tech.

Those are the type of people who congregate on forums to share thoughts and experiences to solve their problems. They don't call tech support.

It speaks to reason on any forum you're going to have a large user base with issues for the reason above.

It's not because you've got a product with issues, but rather a new approach to solving issues.

Crowdsource support if you will.

I've gotten better help on forums from everything to speakers to motors than most books or 1-800 numbers will ever offer.

 

[alexcannas]

Mine was built in March and have no issues.

Since the batteries are mentioned: I have the fly more combo and I noticed a manufacturing deviation in one of the three batteries: when seated and locked it is protruding by 0.5mm over the plane's body. The other two seem perfect by comparison. At the same time the odd battery latches in easily, the other two you need to press in harder.

Bottom line, if you have the tighter version (and my guess is that most will be of that variety) I could see how you can place in the battery but not latch is properly. Just pay attention when putting in the battery.

 

[Huddy]

I don't think the opening poster should be berated in here for raising their concerns. It seems to me he had good reason to ask for our thoughts on this issue, and maybe seek to put his mind at rest. We don't need self-appointed forum police decrying him for "fear-mongering". This is supposed to be a forum where we try to help each other.

 

[Michael Ainsworth]

Can't see any berating going on.
Will be obvious differences in opinions and experience.

 

[draxler_17]

Mine was March 7th. I have no issues with it and really looking forward every weekend to fly. Also I use it in my project site twice a week. Every flight is different, I try to push my mavic to its limits. So far, so good. Good luck to you and don't lose confidence with your mavic.

 

[BudWalker]

I just posted an analysis of a power loss incident over on forum.dji.com. It's clear the battery didn't come loose. And, there were no missing record issues. Look here
http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=94294&pid=781107&page=1&extra=page=1#pid781107

 

[BorisTheSpider]

I agree these cases look odd and more is going on that unlatched batteries - the case BudWalker refers to is useful since it may be the only one where no damage has occurred and the mavic was able to be flown again right after indicating that there was no physical failure of an irreversible type, although something like a processor overheating is still possible.

OP - if I were you I'd also be concerned, however I think you can take comfort in knowing that if you have a failure it will most likely be covered under warranty, and out of all the many mavics constructed in March the vast majority haven't suffered this failure. I guess there's not much you can do right now apart from hope for the best.

Incidentally, THIS among other things is why some of us labour the point about not flying consumer electronics over people and towns - anyone who thinks their remarkable piece of technology can't turn itself into an inert brick at any moment should bear it in mind. The chances may be slim but slim is not good enough.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

Don't worry about it.

Don't fly over the water until you've gone through each battery 5 times or more (to eliminate "infant mortality" failures). If each battery goes 5 cycles of 75% burn then the chances are the batteries and the drone are good builds.

Do be sure the battery is securely latched. There are two cases a month or so ago where it's possible batteries were not latched and eventually disconnected in flight. Might be something else, but securing the batteries is easy enough to do and check.

 

[Cerberus]

I don't think the opening poster should be berated in here for raising their concerns. It seems to me he had good reason to ask for our thoughts on this issue, and maybe seek to put his mind at rest. We don't need self-appointed forum police decrying him for "fear-mongering". This is supposed to be a forum where we try to help each other.

Very well said

 

[DroneNoob-TN]

To add more concern, when I tried to update the firmware to .600 last night the DJI Go4 app stopped at 51%. I heard the Mavic restart but the app never advanced. I end up closing the app and restating it after waiting 15 minutes and all looked fine. Is there a way to see if the update was installed completely?

 

[Pipes101]

Got my 4 days ago have already flown over 28 miles I love it

That's a lot flying [emoji106]