3 Week Old Mavic 2 Pro Flew Away seconds after take off

[icemadeit]

Hello Everyone, google pointed me in this direction for some help. Last night i was about to fly around Brooklyn, New York. I saw the ready status was all green and ready to go and took off. I straight went up 66 ft. saw a view of manhattan. And then slowly watched the drone take itself further away from the home position, ultimately looking like the tail end dipped down and i was looking at the sky, until a crash point. Which according to my smart controller happened 44 ft up, 395 ft away. I typed the coordinates into my google maps and was able to find the residential building that appeared that it could have been 4 stories + 4 feet that the drone could have crash landed on top of. After knocking for a half hour i caught somebody coming home. They searched their roof this morning to no avail. I’ll be going back to Brooklyn now to investigate further. Is there anyway anyone could help maybe find a more approximate location? I’d be so grateful. My drone is barely a month old and i’ve only had the opportunity to fly it less than a hand full of times.

 

[MarkusAtHome]

Hello Everyone, google pointed me in this direction for some help. Last night i was about to fly around Brooklyn, New York. I saw the ready status was all green and ready to go and took off. I straight went up 66 ft. saw a view of manhattan. And then slowly watched the drone take itself further away from the home position, ultimately looking like the tail end dipped down and i was looking at the sky, until a crash point. Which according to my smart controller happened 44 ft up, 395 ft away. I typed the coordinates into my google maps and was able to find the residential building that appeared that it could have been 4 stories + 4 feet that the drone could have crash landed on top of. After knocking for a half hour i caught somebody coming home. They searched their roof this morning to no avail. I’ll be going back to Brooklyn now to investigate further. Is there anyway anyone could help maybe find a more approximate location? I’d be so grateful. My drone is barely a month old and i’ve only had the opportunity to fly it less than a hand full of times.

Mavic Flight Log Retrieval and Analysis Guide​

Follow the instructions and I am sure you will get valuable help from the forum.

 

[MA2 317]

Hello from the Crossroads of America icemadeit.

Sorry about your loss.

There are some pilots here that are very knowledgeable in breaking down the flight and possibly locating the aircraft.

You'll want to follow the instructions below to retrieve the flight log from your device and post a link back here to the thread,

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

You can also set up a free account with AIR DATA to retrieve the log and post as well.

Drone Data Management and Flight Analysis | Airdata UAV

Need an easier way to manage and analyze drone flights? Get notified of potential problems, keep up with drone maintenance, and create customized reports with Airdata UAV. Sign up today!

airdata.com

Good luck and welcome to the Forum. ?


.

 

[icemadeit]

thank you so much, i’m out in new york now looking for the aircraft, it i don’t find it today i will definitely be following these instructions. I’m extremely grateful for the help. I’m an experienced cinematographer but very new to the drone field. This is actually my first drone and i’m really hoping it’s not goodbye forever.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Welcome to the forum, all be it under these circumstances.
Good luck with the search.
Trust people here, the sooner you can post your flight log the better.
Those here experienced in the analysis side of things can hopefully narrow down a truer search location.
Very often what find my drone gives is way off due to log stopping and wind conditions, then there may be obviously building factors in your flight to check too.

 

[eEridani]

thank you so much, i’m out in new york now looking for the aircraft, it i don’t find it today i will definitely be following these instructions. I’m extremely grateful for the help. I’m an experienced cinematographer but very new to the drone field. This is actually my first drone and i’m really hoping it’s not goodbye forever.

You really need to be using the built in and other finder tools - otherwise you are looking for a needle in a haystack. With the tools available you can even locate the drone if it landed in a tree next to that building you think it's in.

 

[icemadeit]

thank you for this, i’ve been using the finder controls built into the smart controller/ native dji apps. Because i was lacking an internet connection last night the map would reset itself every time i’d approach the coordinates provided.. had me walking in circles looking at all elevations. This is what gave me the thought of plugging the coordinates into google maps on my phone. Just an update- i just left the building where the find my drone app said it had landed, did a thorough search of back yard, roof tops, neighboring roof tops, alleys on the sides, and surrounding trees. No luck as of right now. I was able to get in touch with the surrounding neighbors whose roof i couldn’t access today to trade numbers. They all seem very willing to help me find it thankfully. I’ll be uploading the flight log when i get back home tonight.

 

[MA2 317]

I was able to get in touch with the surrounding neighbors whose roof i couldn’t access today to trade numbers. They all seem very willing to help me find it thankfully.

Do you have identification on the drone if somebody finds it?

The FAA registration number may be useful to find you and I've read that DJI will help sometimes via the serial number if somebody finds it down the road.

I have my contact information on little stickers attached to everything concerning the drone. Batteries , remote, filters, etc.


Another good place to store information is the SD card itself as a text file just in case the stickers wear out over time.

Should my drone become stuck in a tree or under water, the SD card should still be readable.



.

 

[Amichael]

Hello @icemadeit ,

Sorry for your loss. Do you have a friend with a drug that can help you search for yours from the air? Perhaps checking out nearby rooftops and trees?

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Do you have a friend with a drug that can help you search for yours from the air?

While the OP may be depressed, and that may ease the pain temporarily, it probably isn't a good idea to encourage illegal substance abuse ?

(We know you meant drone of course, lol.)

 

[icemadeit]

LMAO definitely depressed. & definitely just got home and I'm pretty beat from driving in traffic/ looking and climbing things all day. I'll look into/ upload the flight data tomorrow morning. Again, you guys all seem so warm and welcoming. There's always a cool nostalgic vibe to niche forums like this, and it's very clear in this case! I'm happy to be here, and although I didn't have a successful find today, I am grateful for finding you all & your willingness to help!!!

- Have a great night!

 

[icemadeit]

To all

@MA2 317 unfortunately i do not have any extra contact or id on the drone aside from the serial number and the identification of the model that DJI provides.. its so new i haven't thought this far ahead yet, and i wish i had.

@Altonmichael i do have a few friends with drugs. Just kidding. I have a few friends with drones that have offered to help circle the area to look! I think after I upload this data tomorrow and get some help, I'll have a better idea of where to look.

Curiously, I did buy the refresh package the day i purchased the drone... does anybody know if DJI covers fly-aways for the Mavic 2 Pro? On their website i'd seen they added coverage for the mavic mini and the mavic air, and even so this was something that had to be registered while the drone was connected... idk.. if anybody has any similar experience i'd love to know!

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Curiously, I did buy the refresh package the day i purchased the drone... does anybody know if DJI covers fly-aways for the Mavic 2 Pro? On their website i'd seen they added coverage for the mavic mini and the mavic air, and even so this was something that had to be registered while the drone was connected... idk.. if anybody has any similar experience i'd love to know!

It used to be that Refresh covered replacement (for fee) only if you had a drone 'body' to send in.
Now though, I think there is extra cover for flyaway, the fee might be higher from a vague recollection of reading other posts here.

Sometimes, depending on the flyaway reason, if obviously machine firmware or software fault, DJI would replace under Refresh, or even under straight out warranty.

A lot will depend on the reason for this flyaway.
From your original flight description, I would have said there and then it 'sounds' like a typical compass / IMU disagreement on start up, happens quite often especially when taking off near anything metal.
Being in the city, take off surface might have been a sidewalk with rebar metal etc.

 

[eEridani]

The camera pointed at the sky sounds like a rear prop came off or motor failure. A failing prop may also explain the immediate drift. By the way - the GPS coordinates can be off quite a ways:

This is a 30 minute hover in my garage - the drone never moved from hovering over the launch pad. So plan on searching a radius of 50 feet from the spot the log says the drone ended up.

 

[Amichael]

@icemadeit and @MAvic_South_Oz oof, I meant “drone.” I cannot tell you how many times my voice to text has not transposed as dictated.

I’ll stick around to see Icemadeit recover the lost drone as my curiosity is piqued.

 

[maven4336]

Sorry to hear about that that’s got a hurt, i’ve had my Mavic pro two from release just a pointer when you do not go up to 100 feet straight up from take off I’ve noticed that the GPS home point change is a little I am not saying that’s the problem also I know you said you had the greenlight but did you hear it say home point established there’s little and ends and outs about the Mavic two pro that you have to be careful about, good luck on finding your drone

 

[icemadeit]

Hey All-

Here is the flight log taken from my smart controller.. I was out quite late last night searching for it. I'm really looking forward to having this analyzed, so many pro's here. I feel i still have a lot to learn & this forum has been so helpful.

 

[GFields]

Greetings from Birmingham Alabama, welcome to the forum! So sorry for your loss. Here is a link for your uploaded file

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Looks like you might find your drone on top of this building

 

[icemadeit]

Greetings from Birmingham Alabama, welcome to the forum! So sorry for your loss. Here is a link for your uploaded file

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Looks like you might find your drone on top of this building

View attachment 135354

Ah Thank you so much!! Unfortunately i checked the roof top circled, and the rooftop to the right, yesterday and didn't find it! I'm going back today with a friend, and his drone to check it out again, maybe it landed in one of those surrounding trees and I just didn't look because i was so concentrated on finding it on the top of a building. I will post an update later today... Thanks so much again.

 

[sar104]

Hey All-

Here is the flight log taken from my smart controller.. I was out quite late last night searching for it. I'm really looking forward to having this analyzed, so many pro's here. I feel i still have a lot to learn & this forum has been so helpful.

This was a slightly strange one. The aircraft was facing NW on takeoff (hence your view of Manhatten), and the heading was correctly initialized, but at 3 seconds into the flight as the aircraft took off the heading abruptly changed to SE (the blue trace below).

That was the cause of the flyaway - when the aircraft started to drift to the SE the FC, incorrectly thinking the aircraft was facing SE, applied positive (nose-up) pitch (the red trace) to try to correct the drift. Since it was really facing NW that simply accelerated the motion to the SE (the black trace) rather than arresting the drift, creating a positive feedback loop and uncontrolled linear accelerating flight.



The final recorded pitch was stable at 25°, which is well within the performance envelope of the aircraft, and since the log ended abruptly that was most likely caused by collision with the tree as shown in the GE 3-D flight track shown below: