Air2 S started landing over water.

Jpat · Jul 30, 2023

Hey hoping someone could give me a little insight to what happened to my air 2s. I was flying over water following a boat flying backwards and appeared that my air 2s just started a landing. Lost it in the water sadly. I guess the drone got hit by the boat and came back up after I thought it was gone in the water already could not see anything. Shortly after it just dropped into the water.

Here is the cache video landing started at 2:30 2023_07_26_19_03_10_Cache.mp4

Here it the link to the log DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

RodPad · Jul 30, 2023

Flight log loads up.
The real guys will be on it soon.

Rod ..

Cafguy · Jul 30, 2023

Im not to good with the logs yet Im still learning that part slowly
Hopefully you can get a tip from some of the more educated members for a closer inspection there are many on here that can pinpoint your problem with the log in no time I am trying to get there lol
I am curious (for my own benefit really) Were you using the DJI props and in what condition were they?

Jpat · Jul 30, 2023

Stock props no damage from what I could tell. Not too many flights even on this drone just took it out the week before and used all 3 batteries to about 20% without issue.

Cafguy · Jul 30, 2023

OK like I was saying I just started with the DJI flight log stuff and I was curious about all the gimble vibration errors maybe someone will be able to tell us

Jpat · Jul 30, 2023

Yeah I think the gimbal errors and such came after impact with the front of the boat. I don’t know why it started a landing from what it seemed like in the video. I was holding up maybe a little delayed but I thought it was gone after the impact. But it came back up and crashed after that. Pretty sure I just turned it off at the end not seeing anything and thought it was swimming already.

0Kajuna0 · Jul 31, 2023

The recorded altitude suddenly increases right before the crash, while the real altitude is obviously not increasing in the video. This confusion causes the drone to descend rapidly to maintain its previous altitude:

I don't know what sensor caused this confusion. GPS satellite count remains strong, so probably not that.

Meta4 · Jul 31, 2023

0Kajuna0 said:
I don't know what sensor caused this confusion. GPS satellite count remains strong, so probably not that.

Since DJI drones never gets altitude data from GPS, it probably wasn't that.

Jpat · Jul 31, 2023

0Kajuna0 said:
The recorded altitude suddenly increases right before the crash, while the real altitude is obviously not increasing in the video. This confusion causes the drone to descend rapidly to maintain its previous altitude:

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I don't know what sensor caused this confusion. GPS satellite count remains strong, so probably not that.

Thanks for the video I was just surprised in the moment thought I may have been lower and accidentally hit down. When I checked the logs I was not really able to see any obvious mistakes that would have caused the drone to start landing. Sadly my warranty was up the week prior I have an air 3 on order, fingers crossed nothing like this happens again.

msinger · Jul 31, 2023

I've never seen anything like this, but it appears the drone was attempting to correct the altitude by auto descending at this point where the flight log (but not the video) shows the drone ascending:

I think it would be worthwhile sending your flight log and video to DJI support. At the least, they might give you a discount on a replacement drone.

Jpat · Jul 31, 2023

msinger said:
I've never seen anything like this, but it appears the drone was attempting to correct the altitude by auto descending at this point where the flight log (but not the video) shows the drone ascending:

View attachment 166589

I think it would be worthwhile sending your flight log and video to DJI support. At the least, they might give you a discount on a replacement drone.

Just opened a email ticket with DJI. Kinda sad was not really planning to upgrade as I was still quite happy with the air 2s.

msinger · Jul 31, 2023

Jpat said:
was not really planning to upgrade as I was still quite happy with the air 2s

The Air 2S hasn't been discontinued yet, so you could still purchase a new one at this point

Jpat · Jul 31, 2023

msinger said:
The Air 2S hasn't been discontinued yet, so you could still purchase a new one at this point

Yeah I was debating just buying another air 2s but seemed like the cheapest I could find for just the drone was around $700. Would like the increased flight time and such that the air 3 seems to have was just not planing to drop 2k lol. Who knows maybe I'll still pickup a air 2s in the future if I can find one cheap enough.

msinger · Jul 31, 2023

The issue could have been VPS related (the downward sensors confused by the water below) as this is where things started to head south:

Jpat · Jul 31, 2023

msinger said:
The issue could have been VPS related (the downward sensors confused by the water below) as this is where things started to head south:

View attachment 166590

Yeah I had read about issues like that thought I would need to be lower for something like that to happen. Any real way to disable / prevent that from happening in the future? Don't want to have another drop as I frequently fly around water.

msinger · Jul 31, 2023

This looks like a related incident:

msinger · Jul 31, 2023

Jpat said:
Any real way to disable / prevent that from happening in the future?

There is no setting to disable the downward sensors in DJI Fly. You could cover them with a thin strip of gaffer's tape.

Jpat · Jul 31, 2023

msinger said:
There is no setting to disable the downward sensors in DJI Fly. You could cover them with a thin strip of gaffer's tape.

Seems to be alot of back and forth if disabling / covering the vps is good or not. Wild that it happened with how high I was I had heard of that issue before and tend to not get much lower than I was. Kinda making me scared to fly the air 3 over water when I get it.