Hi folks!
This evening my son and I were flying our Mavics in front of our house and things almost went very bad. I want to share my experience in the hopes someone else doesn't replicate my stupidity.
Normally I takeoff from the street in front of my house and land manually in roughly the same spot. A few times I have tested the RTH function to make sure it works and that I understand how it works. All of these tests were without incident. I also typically land with 20-25% battery remaining.
Tonight for some stupid reason I decided to takeoff from the space between our cars and the open big garage door. There is roughly a 6-8' space between the bumpers and the opening/house. At the time, my thought process was that I would land as usual in the street when the battery was low. Takeoff went smooth enough as did the flight.
My low battery warning is set for 30% and my critical battery warning is set for 10%. As I passed 30% I started flying closer and closer to the landing spot. My other son's friend was leaving and we wanted to get some shots of him driving away. Before I knew it, I was at 10% and the drone was headed to home. At first, I thought it was no big deal as I was only at like 50 feet high and 30 feet or so away so I can quickly land like usual. Well...the drone had other plans such as landing at it's home point. It was headed towards our cars and the house no matter how hard I tried to land. While I trust the RTH function, I wasn't sure if it would miss the cars and house while landing on it's own.
Anyway, this is where things got way scary. I was able to fly forward and backward but not descend lower than about 6' nor hover. So as i was rocking it forward and backward, all I could think to do was hand grab it. I reached up with my right hand and grabbed it tightly so my left hand was free to pull back on the stick. Turns out it doesn't shut off when in this emergency return to home situation. Instead, it went to full power and ultimately slipped my grasp. Now I'm really s***ting bricks. Meanwhile, my son is wondering what is going on. I was unable to explain my situation but that I needed help. He quickly landed his and made a grab for mine. I told him to grab in firmly as it pulled hard. He had hand grabbed mine earlier and I was able to pull power like usual. As soon as he grabbed it his finger was nicked by a prop. I had to pull both sticks down and in to kill power.
Rightfully so, he started unleashing a tirade of four letter words directed at me and my stupidity.
The after incident analysis revealed a theme common to many accidents which is multiple things went bad at the same time.
1: Poor choice of takeoff location
2: Distracted attention to battery level to 'get the shot'
3: Not understanding the behavior of a critical battery return to home
4: Not immediately knowing that pulling the stick back will NOT kill the power
I know I will never make this mistake again and I'm grateful my son wasn't seriously cut and my drone is not hurt. Now it's time to read more about the behavior of the drone during a critical low battery RTH.
I truly hope my situation helps others avoid my near crash.
This evening my son and I were flying our Mavics in front of our house and things almost went very bad. I want to share my experience in the hopes someone else doesn't replicate my stupidity.
Normally I takeoff from the street in front of my house and land manually in roughly the same spot. A few times I have tested the RTH function to make sure it works and that I understand how it works. All of these tests were without incident. I also typically land with 20-25% battery remaining.
Tonight for some stupid reason I decided to takeoff from the space between our cars and the open big garage door. There is roughly a 6-8' space between the bumpers and the opening/house. At the time, my thought process was that I would land as usual in the street when the battery was low. Takeoff went smooth enough as did the flight.
My low battery warning is set for 30% and my critical battery warning is set for 10%. As I passed 30% I started flying closer and closer to the landing spot. My other son's friend was leaving and we wanted to get some shots of him driving away. Before I knew it, I was at 10% and the drone was headed to home. At first, I thought it was no big deal as I was only at like 50 feet high and 30 feet or so away so I can quickly land like usual. Well...the drone had other plans such as landing at it's home point. It was headed towards our cars and the house no matter how hard I tried to land. While I trust the RTH function, I wasn't sure if it would miss the cars and house while landing on it's own.
Anyway, this is where things got way scary. I was able to fly forward and backward but not descend lower than about 6' nor hover. So as i was rocking it forward and backward, all I could think to do was hand grab it. I reached up with my right hand and grabbed it tightly so my left hand was free to pull back on the stick. Turns out it doesn't shut off when in this emergency return to home situation. Instead, it went to full power and ultimately slipped my grasp. Now I'm really s***ting bricks. Meanwhile, my son is wondering what is going on. I was unable to explain my situation but that I needed help. He quickly landed his and made a grab for mine. I told him to grab in firmly as it pulled hard. He had hand grabbed mine earlier and I was able to pull power like usual. As soon as he grabbed it his finger was nicked by a prop. I had to pull both sticks down and in to kill power.
Rightfully so, he started unleashing a tirade of four letter words directed at me and my stupidity.
The after incident analysis revealed a theme common to many accidents which is multiple things went bad at the same time.
1: Poor choice of takeoff location
2: Distracted attention to battery level to 'get the shot'
3: Not understanding the behavior of a critical battery return to home
4: Not immediately knowing that pulling the stick back will NOT kill the power
I know I will never make this mistake again and I'm grateful my son wasn't seriously cut and my drone is not hurt. Now it's time to read more about the behavior of the drone during a critical low battery RTH.
I truly hope my situation helps others avoid my near crash.
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