Almost lost my mavic air today

[droneloverair]

So heres what happened.

I flew in an open forest that had a patch open so i could atleast take off and land.
I wanted to film the horses on the other side of the road.
At first it went fine. Then i wanted to go left to trail the highway to the left. Once i had 6 minutes left of the battery i decided i needed to come home or atleast close so i could see it.

I got dissoriented and i couldnt see the drone on the direction i expected.
So i cheched the map.

Holy crap!! I was very far way. I hit RTH and as soon as the drone ponted on my direction, i hit cancel and i increased altitude from 30 meters to 50 meters just to make sure to clear any obstacle. Once 50 meters i headed straight to my direction.
I saw myself on the screen but i could not see the drone. So i went further closer.
Now i could see her but she was close to the power line. I wasnt sure if it was above, under or same height so i didnt change altitude but i needed to get away from the power line.

For some reason, the power line tried to pull my drone closer. It took seconds before the mavic air finally listened to my input of moving forward away.

Well away from power line i descended close to me and land it quickly.

I thank God at that moment that i didnt crash and i handled myself just fine.

I had 3 mins left before battery runs out.

How i got disoriented i dont know. Because when wanted to go left and trail the highway i was watching the drone go left like i wanted it. But when i wanted to go home, i didnt know that i passed my self in relation to the drone.

I also dont know why did the power line tried to pull my drone closer and i was watching that with VLOS. It took 3-4 seconds before my input of going forward that my drone started to move forward away from the power line.
Maybe i should have switch that to sports mode to use more motor power.

What would happen if i used the sports mode switch when the power line tried to pull the drone?

Anyways, thanks to the map, i could see where the drone and guide it back to me.

Thanks for reading.

Also, i never lost GPS, compass, live feed or control to the drone.

 

[slup]

Imagine that you want more then just wild speculations ... if that's the case you need to provide us with the mobile device TXT log. Read up here on how to retrieve (see section 3.) --> Mavic Flight Log Retrieval and Analysis Guide , attach it then to a new post in this thread.

 

[droneloverair]

Thanks slup.

I dont have any issues for now as i didnt have any disconnections to the drone or any loss or crashes other than i got disoriented.

Thanks for replying.


Was wondering if the magnetic field if the power line was trying to pull the ac or blocked my input as i was directly under the power line and the drone was 10 meters above the power line.

anyways. I aint flying in that place again.
My wife said that because i was in the forest, that trolls and out of this world beings were responsible for me disoriented.

 

[slup]

The log will probably give you answers to all your questions ...

 

[Don Engler]

I did lose my Mavic Air today. We were on our second battery after flying at the beach using the first. I knew that I have approximately 8 minutes to complete the capture of several kayakers in the wilds of an island with much surrounding water. When the alert sounded at 30% I notice I have 3 minutes to land. I attempted to land but bushes and my wife crowded the landing area. Keeping pressure on the down stick it quickly headed off in a southeastern direction in the wooded area and shallow water. I never experienced this in the 3 months of flying this drone. I am thinking of getting waders and to try and find it.

 

[droneloverair]

Sounds like you had compass errors interferance.
Did you compass calibrate before the 1st and second battery? I always calibrate compass each and every battery. It only takes 10-15 seconds.

I even flew my gorpo karma today just before my air and i knew there was something close by because it was drifting i that direction.

Didnt care for it so i flew at 25 meters high close to the high way with cars at just 30 meters distance. Out of nowhere it said compass error, fly manually with joysticks. So i pulled back on the right stick and lowered as fast as i could before it might fly away.

Lyckily close to me it said that GPS aquired (even i didnt lose gps before that) and so i landed it.
Packed it and im never fly that spot again.

 

[Don Engler]

Thanks slup.

I dont have any issues for now as i didnt have any disconnections to the drone or any loss or crashes other than i got disoriented.

Thanks for replying.


Was wondering if the magnetic field if the power line was trying to pull the ac or blocked my input as i was directly under the power line and the drone was 10 meters above the power line.

anyways. I aint flying in that place again.
My wife said that because i was in the forest, that trolls and out of this world beings were responsible for me disoriented.

Thanks for replying - I also do the compass calibrations each time I add a battery or change locations, but this time it was different. It went right to the vertical left side to counter clockwise and skipped the horizontal. I think I will find this Air in the mangroves since it kept the GPS active.

 

[Meta4]

Was wondering if the magnetic field if the power line was trying to pull the ac or blocked my input as i was directly under the power line and the drone was 10 meters above the power line.

Powerlines don't magnetically draw drones to them or block your signal.
But your recorded flight data might give an idea of what actually happened.

I always calibrate compass each and every battery. It only takes 10-15 seconds.

It's also a complete waste of your time and effort.
There's no need to recalibrate your compass each flight.
Unnecessarily recalibrating the compass won't make your flights any safer.
Understanding what compass calibration actually does (and doesn't do) might.

 

[Meta4]

Thanks for replying - I also do the compass calibrations each time I add a battery or change locations, but this time it was different. It went right to the vertical left side to counter clockwise and skipped the horizontal. I think I will find this Air in the mangroves since it kept the GPS active.

If you want to find out what happened and where to search ...
Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.

And as above, you are waasting your effort recalibrating each flight.
It's not at all necessary.

 

[Km5er]

I think if you made enough adjustments and got your drone back you did a good job. Plus may have learned a little. I do not understand how the power lines attracted the drone. Perhaps it may have messed with the signal but any other impact most likely can not occur. Especially with a mostly plastic drone. Again...you got it back....good job in a bad situation.

 

[Lets Fly]

I did lose my Mavic Air today. We were on our second battery after flying at the beach using the first. I knew that I have approximately 8 minutes to complete the capture of several kayakers in the wilds of an island with much surrounding water. When the alert sounded at 30% I notice I have 3 minutes to land. I attempted to land but bushes and my wife crowded the landing area. Keeping pressure on the down stick it quickly headed off in a southeastern direction in the wooded area and shallow water. I never experienced this in the 3 months of flying this drone. I am thinking of getting waders and to try and find it.

I attempted to land but bushes and my wife crowded the landing area.
What??

 

[Don Engler]

I attempted to land but bushes and my wife crowded the landing area.
What??

In retrospect, I believe there was a combination of errors resulting in this crash. 1/ I feel the compass coordination was not completely finished, but I was allowed to take-off. 2/ Takeoff took place at a more desolate location than where I was trying to land. 3/ My wife placed the landing matt too close to some bushes and she compounded this by standing too close as well. 4/ I waited too long to land. I haven't rescued the Mavic Air yet. I have the GPS of the flight path and where it went into a mangrove swamp into 15" of salt water. I have purchased waders and when they arrive I will find this upset MA. I plan to immediately place it in a bucket of fresh water and wait a day to blow it dry and take it to a DJI repair location nearby.

 

[Capt KO]

In retrospect, I believe there was a combination of errors resulting in this crash. 1/ I feel the compass coordination was not completely finished, but I was allowed to take-off. 2/ Takeoff took place at a more desolate location than where I was trying to land. 3/ My wife placed the landing matt too close to some bushes and she compounded this by standing too close as well. 4/ I waited too long to land. I haven't rescued the Mavic Air yet. I have the GPS of the flight path and where it went into a mangrove swamp into 15" of salt water. I have purchased waders and when they arrive I will find this upset MA. I plan to immediately place it in a bucket of fresh water and wait a day to blow it dry and take it to a DJI repair location nearby.

No one I’ve heard of will repair saltwater immersion. Insurance?

 

[JAW]

I plan to immediately place it in a bucket of fresh water and wait a day to blow it dry and take it to a DJI repair location nearby.

Salt water immersion? Save yourself some money and forget about a repair. It's trash, no matter what anyone says. Even if you can get it running you are creating a hazard for anyone close by if you decide to fly.

 

[Meta4]

In retrospect, I believe there was a combination of errors resulting in this crash.
1/ I feel the compass coordination was not completely finished, but I was allowed to take-off.
2/ Takeoff took place at a more desolate location than where I was trying to land.
3/ My wife placed the landing matt too close to some bushes and she compounded this by standing too close as well.
4/ I waited too long to land. I haven't rescued the Mavic Air yet.

None of those make any sense and guessing is unlikely to properly explain what really happened.
But your recorded flight data will show what actually happened and help to learn from the incident as well as point to where the Mavic ended up.
Post #9 gave instructions for getting help with your flight data.

I have the GPS of the flight path and where it went into a mangrove swamp into 15" of salt water. I have purchased waders and when they arrive I will find this upset MA.
I plan to immediately place it in a bucket of fresh water and wait a day to blow it dry and take it to a DJI repair location nearby.

If the drone landed in salt water, it's toast and only good for an interesting paperweight.
If it was caught in mangroves above the water, it will be worth recovering.

 

[Meta4]

I do not understand how the power lines attracted the drone.

There is no way it could have.
Until the flight data is available to study, we're not going to know what really happened.

 

[deltamike]

I feel the compass coordination was not completely finished, but I was allowed to take-off.

Do you carry out a pre-flight check before you take off? If not see HERE

I also suggest you set your low battery warning for 30 per cent. That way you will have plenty of time to return to home without any panic scenarios. It may shorten your flight time but at least you will have saved your aircraft safely. The shorter flight time can be mitigated by planning what you are going to do before taking off. Too many pilots just take off and wander around like lost sheep and are surprised when the low battery warning sounds off.

Plan - shoot and return home is the thing to practice on.

We all live and learn. Thats what makes life exciting. Remember what happened, review and learn.

 

[RichR]

You know how the drone regulations in most countries insist on retaining VLOS at all times? This is why - to prevent you getting into a situation where you don't know where it is, and causing a high risk of accidentally flying into something and causing damage or injury.

Anyway, we all learn from situations like this. The first time you fall off a bike you learn not to do what you did just before again

 

[droneloverair]

I think if you made enough adjustments and got your drone back you did a good job. Plus may have learned a little. I do not understand how the power lines attracted the drone. Perhaps it may have messed with the signal but any other impact most likely can not occur. Especially with a mostly plastic drone. Again...you got it back....good job in a bad situation.

I forgot one thing.


Before i armed the propellers i watched how slowly i got up to how many GPS locks i got. I started at around 5-7 then 15-20 seconds after i got 10.

I wasnt comfortable about 10 gps so i waited for 15. Which btw, took a lot long time.


All this was unusually slow as i usually get full 20+ gps with in seconds of turning on the AC battery.

This particular place was slow in gps and the entire flight of only like 100-200 meters distance of 30-50 meters height had a total of 17 gps. It would go up/down to 15 gps on some parts usually close to the power line.

I aint going back there again.


I think my problem was the drone is too small. VERY difficult to see in sunny bright sunlight. Even though the sun was on my full right and i was aiming to fly straight away from sunlight. The sky was also blue. I just had difficult seeing it in the blue sky with 100 meteres distance.
I usually see it clearly within 190 meters oit no probs.

 

[droneloverair]

Any here have any suggestions on some sort of bright reflecting decals i could put on bellow the battery side or even on the prop arms to make it even more visibile in sunlight?