After four days were the temp was 37-38°C, smoke from bushfires drifted in and the heavy winds dropped sufficiently to sneak in a quick flight.
Bit of sunset never hurts
Maybe the pilot wasn't used to mode 3... & fell back to a mode 2 thinking there close to the water with no height to give him head room to catch himself. The drone might have been piloted by a friend that's usually using mode 2?
No, the stick...
So a quick summary for the noobs like me means mode 3 has caused the OP to send the wrong commands to the drone?
Isn’t this part of most pilots check when first launched - about 6’ up? Or is it capable of switching modes during flight??
That's totally correct...
The throttle stick command correlates to heading speed seen in the chart below...
... and the elevator stick command correlates to height... & there it's easy to see that the OP constantly applied descent commands...