Air 2 fell out of the sky with 12% battery , do i have any chance of getting a replacement from dji

[arshad2107]

Dear All

Please can i get some assistance ive had my mavic air 2 for 2 years

Last week i was flying it and the low battery warning appeared. As i was bringing down to land it basically fell out of the sky and i could not find it. I am reviewing the logs and it shows the drone still had 12% battery life.

Can someone please assist me by letting me know

1) What happened to the drone and caused it to fall out of the sky?
2) Do i have any case for DJi to prove that the drone was at fault and possibly get a replacement ?
3) How do i go about contacting DJI with my case?

P.S im trying to upload the logs onto the site but i am not able to , I will upload screenshots of the analysis

 

[arshad2107]

 

[samysys]

can you share the link of your Phantomhelp?

 

[arshad2107]

Hi
Heres the link to the phantomhelp

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[arshad2107]

also the log files can be found here

 

[Phantomrain.org]

No, not after 2 years, I think you will be Frustrated with. the results..

Most likely the Air 2 got really Low as it was forcing itself to land, and you lost signal at that point and it landed nice an comfy but lost none the less.

Did you try to use Find my drone ?

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Air 2 in the Rain. Land on the Water.

 

[arshad2107]

Ah man

But thanks for the feedback , i did try to use find my drone and it gave a general location , i searched for an hour and could not find it. The option to make a sound or blink lights did not work

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Well you got Lions and Tigers out there so it might have been food for the gods. lol
Sorry about your loss, I lost a drone a few years ago 50 ft from my house and I still cannot find it and it was Air 2

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain.

 

[arshad2107]

Haha i like that response

well it landed in a field of flowers so kinda had its own funeral lol

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Seriously , you might be able to spot it with another drone from the sky, with some low level skimming , you might try that. Might have ate up some petals , and if daniel Boon can do it we can to.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain.

 

[slup]

Fell out of the sky..?

Could you actually see it falling from a 3028ft distance... according to the log the drone was in a critical low voltage auto landing when you lost connection with it, the motors was reported to be on until the very end of the log.

You seems not to be aware of the critical low voltage auto landing function... it's there to safeguard that the drone reaches ground before it start to freefall with a totally drained battery.

405sec into the flight, then 4473ft from the HP & on a 500ft height and 26% battery... you decides to flat out the aileron stick for sideways flight & the throttle until you reaches a 1082ft altitude. This drains down the battery to the critical low voltage auto landing threshold percentage, which was 17% on that height.



At 502sec the battery reaches 17% & the drone starts to autoland. When you notice this you try to reach back to the HP with max heading speed... but at 599sec you lose connection down at 130ft altitude & the log ends (you had connection problems on the same height & distance from HP on the outbound leg also).

You have all relevant telemetry in below chart which covers the ending part of the log... click on it to make it larger. The chart also includes the latitude & longitude coordinates (see the legend below the chart which have values from the chartmarker placed in the very end of the log) where the drone disconnected... the touch down would be very near that position.



Nothing in the log indicate any falling at all... furthermore it doesn't indicate any fault that can be blamed on DJI either. This was a pure pilot error draining down the battery far out from the HP until the critical low voltage auto landing started & then lost connection.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Ahh I was going to say much the same as @slup ,
Fell from the sky?? Could you see it at a distance of 922m?
I'd bet it landed in a controlled manner not far from the loss of connection point.

 

[arshad2107]

Thanks for the response guys

I assumed it fell out of the sky because it had 12% battery life and was at a height of approx. 100 - 150m up when it completely lost all connections , i did not know it has the emergency landing option , can you please explain why with 12% battery everything just went blank is that part of the emergency feature that it lands it safely but you loose all connection?

Also when i went to the field to go look for it the option to flash lights or make a sound did not work as the remote said that connection was not available.

If i understand correctly from the diagram at a heigh of 120m and a distance of 600m away from me the drone initiated emergency landing and landed safely?

apologies im new to analyzing the logs , this is the first drone ive lost

 

[arshad2107]

Also what could i have done differently in that situation to prevent it from happening again the first time the RTH warning came on should i have just allowed it to return ?

 

[Starz]

what could i have done differently

The better option would be to not drain the battery down far enough that you can’t fly back to home point. Battery life and how far you fly is a learning experience with any DJI product. Unfortunately, this lesson goes against your wallet. I tend to start a return to home flight when the battery hits no less than 50%. Always good to have more battery power than needed when it gets back to where you are. Wind speed and direction is a large part of the battery level needed to still have the flying camera in your possession when all the flying fun is over.

 

[msinger]

first time the RTH warning came on should i have just allowed it to return ?

That occurred when the uplink signal was lost.

Also what could i have done differently in that situation to prevent it from happening again

Keep an eye on the battery level. If you don't, the drone will and will attempt to land wherever it can (like in this case) when the battery level is too low to continue flying.

The drone did attempt to auto return home when the battery reached the low level (30%). You cancelled that action and continued to fly further away.

 

[slup]

Also what could i have done differently in that situation to prevent it from happening again...

-You need to know the functionality of your drone... it's capabilities & limitations - Read the downloadable user manual.

-Don't push the battery & don't disregard messages about it (like low battery RTH) if you don't know exactly what you're doing & what risks you're taking. In this you also need to have experience/knowledge regarding what's consuming battery... ascending up to 1082ft far out as you did, with only fumes left in the battery, isn't the best if you want to reach back to the HP. Also knowledge about different wind conditions is crucial... flying high were the wind speeds usually is faster & going back with a headwind will also significantly increase the battery consumption.

...is that part of the emergency feature that it lands it safely but you loose all connection?

Loosing connection isn't part of the Low voltage Auto Landing... my guess is that you had some kind of disturbance there, you lost connection on the outbound leg on approx. the same height & distance as where you lost it on the way back.

...If i understand correctly from the diagram at a heigh of 120m and a distance of 600m away from me the drone initiated emergency landing and landed safely?

Remember that the units are feet for heights & distances in the chart, not meters.

A Low battery RTH countdown starts at 356sec into the flight (black graph on a light green background=Sport mode)
You cancel the Low battery RTH at 360sec into the flight
You then ascend up to 1082ft (red graph for height on a blue background=ordinary GPS mode)
At 503sec the Low battery landing starts as the battery percentage have reached the 17% height dependent threshold
Your drone is there on a 1044ft height & 5196ft from HP
You then lose connection on a 130ft height & 3028ft from HP



Reasons for disconnects aren't in general included in the log, therefore the exact reason is unknown.
But all below messages is included in the log event stream & would have been visible on your screen... all these give a clue about the reason.

Image transmission signal may be blocked. Position remote controller to face aircraft
Position remote controller to face aircraft and adjust antennas for optimal signal strength
Remote controller signal may be blocked. Position remote controller to face aircraft
Downlink Lost
Downlink Restored
Weak signal. Adjust antennas
Remote controller in high interference environment. Manually adjust flight route or return to home

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

The combination of a height of 130ft and a distance of 3,028ft, both relative to the home point means the line of sight between the controller and the drone was approximately 2.5 deg above horizontal .... I think.
Looking at Googles street view from the homepoint it looks as if a low hill might have blocked the line of sight signal between the drone and the controller.

 

[MS Coast]

It's also worth noting that the flight was begun with only 54% charge on the battery. Then it was flown beyond the point of no return and it auto-landed, as designed to do.

DJI drones are great little machines, but they don't fly without electricity.

 

[gnp-droneflyer]

Fell out of the sky..?

Could you actually see it falling from a 3028ft distance... according to the log the drone was in a critical low voltage auto landing when you lost connection with it, the motors was reported to be on until the very end of the log.

You seems not to be aware of the critical low voltage auto landing function... it's there to safeguard that the drone reaches ground before it start to freefall with a totally drained battery.

405sec into the flight, then 4473ft from the HP & on a 500ft height and 26% battery... you decides to flat out the aileron stick for sideways flight & the throttle until you reaches a 1082ft altitude. This drains down the battery to the critical low voltage auto landing threshold percentage, which was 17% on that height.

View attachment 167442

At 502sec the battery reaches 17% & the drone starts to autoland. When you notice this you try to reach back to the HP with max heading speed... but at 599sec you lose connection down at 130ft altitude & the log ends (you had connection problems on the same height & distance from HP on the outbound leg also).

You have all relevant telemetry in below chart which covers the ending part of the log... click on it to make it larger. The chart also includes the latitude & longitude coordinates (see the legend below the chart which have values from the chartmarker placed in the very end of the log) where the drone disconnected... the touch down would be very near that position.

View attachment 167443

Nothing in the log indicate any falling at all... furthermore it doesn't indicate any fault that can be blamed on DJI either. This was a pure pilot error draining down the battery far out from the HP until the critical low voltage auto landing started & then lost connection.

@slup Where did you get that graph with the hight that's awesome!

It's prob there you just have to look hard... Also flying at 1,000 feet high (If i'm reading that correctly) is way higher than you should... The faa limit is 400ft agl Just as a heads up.... And like already said, just know the limits of the battery esp if it's 2 yrs old they go fast at the end of the battery life. Was your RTH set to land? or return? I just recently lost my drone for a bit. found it after the 4th day of looking. GL!