Another Mavic Mini needing your help please

[lannes]

I’m trying to eliminate whether the last picture of something definitely red, was perhaps a car door, or am I dreaming and it was just a pomegranate on a tree. Because there is a pomegranate tree within 50m of the last known gps coordinate. Trust me I’ve looked there, but if anyone can definitively give an initial connection range for sure, it would certainly help.

The red could be the roof of no. 77 Duffy Terrace, it looks like it's in the flight path

 

[Deleted member 114292]

how I made all the errors, please consider that I understand how supposedly I am to blame, my wife let’s me know, my Mavic pro owning friend let’s me know, so I get that part. $800 flying away in less than a week will teach me that.

So, from the.txt file hopefully one can see (yes, where I went wrong) but also some of the strange events throughout the flight that simply put, made it a lot harder to get and then keep control.
note: I also chased the drone; my friend quickly got his car and we went after it. At the final notification, I was within 200 metres of the drone when all comms just went dead.
The real question for me is, I was on scene at the last known location within 2 minutes, why could I not track onto it when it landed. Why does it give the last known location (at 7% battery left) at 40m in the air? Is It weird that it suddenly drops out so I end up looking in the wrong area for 30 minutes before realising that this is not actually where it is, but anywhere downwind.

also one last thing; after about 15 minutes of looking at the last known location point, I briefly, very briefly reconnected with the drone for about 2 seconds and saw from the camera that it appeared to be upside down and possibly near a car (blurred vision). Which makes sense of it being downwind amongst houses. But it disconnected so abruptly, as if it hits a tree, but then the reconnection shows it was still alive, so if it can reconnect, why can’t the gps be updated to take me to it? Seams so simple, but so many pilots seam to be losing drones when a gps should be guiding searchers to to its last known “landed” position.

Thankyou in adVance and I hope you guys can shed some light on this frustrating situation.

ps, I’m aware of the wind thing, I’ve told myself that a million times in the last 24 hours, seriously.

If you want to prevent this from happening again you need to delete the word “supposedly” from your narrative.
It would be interesting to hear what you feel is to blame.

 

[sar104]

Excellent idea thanks Iannes, yes during the day there’s a few red cars around in driveways but I notice that they’re often people visiting so it confuses the issue. Much better use of time a bit later on, plus people are home for a door knock and not so hot.
I’ll give it one last hurrah tonight and then back to reality tomorrow with work.

ps, to answer the question about the vision from that last connection.
the last known position is fair and square out in a clear paddock. At that point, telemetry said it was at about 40m altitude...

(Does anyone know if that means above the original starting/home point or above the ground where it is/was?) —- (confusing because the starting point is 60m above sea level and the ground height at the last known location is approx. 23m above sea level. So if it’s the height above the starting point (so 60m asl + 40m as indicated altitude at last known location, does that then put it at 100m asl?)

Can I please narrow down one or two last questions that will hopefully help me when I head back this arvo/tonight.

1. The manual says for the Mini to be within 1.5m from the RC when linking the unit. Considering the drone is upright (as opposed to upside down) and you attempt the connection, what would be the furthest distance one could possibly hope to get away from the unit at which the connection will not work?
Simply (maybe someone could test.) what distance will it link at unobstructed? What distance does it generally fail?
I assume there will be variables... when I last got connection, I was standing at the last known location, facing down wind (to the north west).
With this in mind, hopefully I can narrow the range drastically. If it’s 50m, that is awesome, it was within roughly 50m at that last contact. If for some reason it could still be 500m (even though the manual says 1.5m) then I’m stuck looking in the suburbs.

I’m trying to eliminate whether the last picture of something definitely red, was perhaps a car door, or am I dreaming and it was just a pomegranate on a tree. Because there is a pomegranate tree within 50m of the last known gps coordinate. Trust me I’ve looked there, but if anyone can definitively give an initial connection range for sure, it would certainly help.
Sincerely and greatly appreciated, I will throw everything into this, I really want to find the mini, obviously to get back flying, but to also clear up a whole pile of questions that arise from this situation.
Ie. last known gps vs. downwind trajectories vs starting altitudes vs brief last minute connections vs. what I should have done with that connection. etc. etc

Thankyou again, cheers appreciate all this

The final recorded height was 42 meters - that's above the take off elevation. However, ground elevation at the end of the flight was 38 meters lower than where you took off, so the aircraft was approximately 80 meters above the ground - hence the 80 meter descent shown in the graph that I posted.

On the issue of connection distance - that is heavily affected by obstacles, and so it is difficult to use that to predict anything. That battery-based autolanding calculation is going to be far more accurate. It did not end up "off in the suburbs". It simply cannot have travelled very far at all from the calculated location. And yes - you should check that patch of trees at that location if you are not certain of what you saw in the video link.

Also bear in mind that if it came down on or near the road then it may have been picked up by someone else.

 

[Capt KO]

I think a small sign posted on the road nearby might help. If you get it back or replace it, please mark it next time. FAA numbers if you have it but at least your phone number and possibly a $ sign. Best of luck

 

[xspwhite]

I know trees like drones, but they seem to have a real fetish for these Little Mavic Mini's.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

I know trees like drones, but they seem to have a real fetish for these Little Mavic Mini's.

They seemed perfectly happy eating 2 of my P4s

 

[Bebopperoo]

I think one of those people took it, the swine.
I suggest you stake out the area for a few days, and if anyone flies a drone there, check if it's yours.

 

[Deleted member 93449]

“Husband crucified by angry wife after drone flyway, left to rot in field at last known location”
“Let that be a lesson to other drone wannabe husbands - get ya head out of the clouds!” Says irate wife as she and the angry mob from Wives Against Drones (WAD) nail his hands and feet to the cross and hoist him aloft.
???

You might want to hide a gps tracker on you. If we don't hear from you for a day or two at least we'll at least be able to find you LOL.

Seriously, sorry to hear about the loss. At this point it looks like a long shot but hope you find it.

 

[VictorHug0]

After losing my Mavic Mini yesterday, blown away, can I please ask for some expert analysis on what it’s final moments were (after it just abruptly lost transmission), and possibly where it could have ended up?

And please before I get lectures on flying conditions and how I made all the errors, please consider that I understand how supposedly I am to blame, my wife let’s me know, my Mavic pro owning friend let’s me know, so I get that part. $800 flying away in less than a week will teach me that.

So, from the.txt file hopefully one can see (yes, where I went wrong) but also some of the strange events throughout the flight that simply put, made it a lot harder to get and then keep control.
note: I also chased the drone; my friend quickly got his car and we went after it. At the final notification, I was within 200 metres of the drone when all comms just went dead.
The real question for me is, I was on scene at the last known location within 2 minutes, why could I not track onto it when it landed. Why does it give the last known location (at 7% battery left) at 40m in the air? Is It weird that it suddenly drops out so I end up looking in the wrong area for 30 minutes before realising that this is not actually where it is, but anywhere downwind.

also one last thing; after about 15 minutes of looking at the last known location point, I briefly, very briefly reconnected with the drone for about 2 seconds and saw from the camera that it appeared to be upside down and possibly near a car (blurred vision). Which makes sense of it being downwind amongst houses. But it disconnected so abruptly, as if it hits a tree, but then the reconnection shows it was still alive, so if it can reconnect, why can’t the gps be updated to take me to it? Seams so simple, but so many pilots seam to be losing drones when a gps should be guiding searchers to to its last known “landed” position.

Thankyou in adVance and I hope you guys can shed some light on this frustrating situation.

ps, I’m aware of the wind thing, I’ve told myself that a million times in the last 24 hours, seriously.

Hello, I've analyzed your flight and this is the last registered location. Are you sure, you have looked there?. I've seen that the app sent you 75 warning messages and you ignored them. The mavic landed with a 7% battery and maybe the wind took it far away from it's last location. The battery issue explains why you lost connection with it.
try to look in the area that is marked with the rectangle in white. Maybe it's between the trees.
Hope you find it!!

 

[sar104]

Hello, I've analyzed your flight and this is the last registered location. Are you sure, you have looked there?. I've seen that the app sent you 75 warning messages and you ignored them. The mavic landed with a 7% battery and maybe the wind took it far away from it's last location. The battery issue explains why you lost connection with it.
try to look in the area that is marked with the rectangle in white. Maybe it's between the trees.View attachment 95745
Hope you find it!!

The last recorded location was at the end of the yellow track. In that kind of wind, how do you propose that it may have reversed course?

 

[AlaskaKid]

After losing my Mavic Mini yesterday, blown away, can I please ask for some expert analysis on what it’s final moments were (after it just abruptly lost transmission), and possibly where it could have ended up?

And please before I get lectures on flying conditions and how I made all the errors, please consider that I understand how supposedly I am to blame, my wife let’s me know, my Mavic pro owning friend let’s me know, so I get that part. $800 flying away in less than a week will teach me that.

So, from the.txt file hopefully one can see (yes, where I went wrong) but also some of the strange events throughout the flight that simply put, made it a lot harder to get and then keep control.
note: I also chased the drone; my friend quickly got his car and we went after it. At the final notification, I was within 200 metres of the drone when all comms just went dead.
The real question for me is, I was on scene at the last known location within 2 minutes, why could I not track onto it when it landed. Why does it give the last known location (at 7% battery left) at 40m in the air? Is It weird that it suddenly drops out so I end up looking in the wrong area for 30 minutes before realising that this is not actually where it is, but anywhere downwind.

also one last thing; after about 15 minutes of looking at the last known location point, I briefly, very briefly reconnected with the drone for about 2 seconds and saw from the camera that it appeared to be upside down and possibly near a car (blurred vision). Which makes sense of it being downwind amongst houses. But it disconnected so abruptly, as if it hits a tree, but then the reconnection shows it was still alive, so if it can reconnect, why can’t the gps be updated to take me to it? Seams so simple, but so many pilots seam to be losing drones when a gps should be guiding searchers to to its last known “landed” position.

Thankyou in adVance and I hope you guys can shed some light on this frustrating situation.

ps, I’m aware of the wind thing, I’ve told myself that a million times in the last 24 hours, seriously.

 

[AlaskaKid]

Hi!! I would be interested to know, why did you fly the drone so far away that you couldn''t see it. I got my drone two weeks ago, Mavic mini so I am definitely in learning stage. It work superbly, it so easy to fly. I am glad that you posted your trouble here, it is a lesson for all of us to learn from.

 

[HutchHavic]

Hello, I've analyzed your flight and this is the last registered location. Are you sure, you have looked there?. I've seen that the app sent you 75 warning messages and you ignored them. The mavic landed with a 7% battery and maybe the wind took it far away from it's last location. The battery issue explains why you lost connection with it.
try to look in the area that is marked with the rectangle in white. Maybe it's between the trees.View attachment 95745
Hope you find it!!

I have always thought that area may be a chance, heading back this arvo again, hope renewed. Thanks again guys

 

[JAW]

Even if the little critter was run over by a truck there'd be some identifiable debris in the roadway or in the gutter. I'm thinking it's curled up in a bush somewhere waiting for you to find it.

 

[unionglzr]

Unfortunately that is correct. I guess that would have been too easy.

but sar i dont see it in the road....

 

[HutchHavic]

The last thing my little tree hugger said to me was;
“7% Battery at maximum distance”

and then signal was lost completely. I was no more than 200m away at the south end of the bush land there and running towards it.

Can anyone possibly clear up exactly what that means. The message on my screen was this;

Thanks again

 

[Deleted member 114292]

The last thing my little tree hugger said to me was;
“7% Battery at maximum distance”

and then signal was lost completely. I was no more than 200m away at the south end of the bush land there and running towards it.

Can anyone possibly clear up exactly what that means. The message on my screen was this;

Thanks again

My guess would be the battery was done. "signal was lost completely. " That would be because the battery was dead.

 

[slup]

The last thing my little tree hugger said to me was;
“7% Battery at maximum distance”

and then signal was lost completely. I was no more than 200m away at the south end of the bush land there and running towards it.

Can anyone possibly clear up exactly what that means. The message on my screen was this;
View attachment 95825
Thanks again

At that point you had 7% battery left ... the autoland was defined to 6%. This meant that you had just 1% until autolanding would start which took 10sec according to earlier calculation by sar104. The message are a warning about that ... Battery power limit (6% as said) will automatically reduce ...(autoland) ... Reason: to ensure flight safety (instead of just dropping from the sky with 0% battery)

And for the record ... the battery wasn't done/dead as said here above, it still had 7% ... so the disconnect were most probably going out of line of sight & possibly in combination with stronger WiFi interference coming closer to that suburban area.

 

[HutchHavic]

At that point you had 7% battery left ... the autoland was defined to 6%. This meant that you had just 1% until autolanding would start which took 10sec according to earlier calculation by sar104. The message are a warning about that ... Battery power limit (6% as said) will automatically reduce ...(autoland) ... Reason: to ensure flight safety (instead of just dropping from the sky with 0% battery)

And for the record ... the battery wasn't done/dead as said here above, it still had 7% ... so the disconnect were most probably going out of line of sight & possibly in combination with stronger WiFi interference coming closer to that suburban area.

Hey slup, thanks for that completely logical assessment and that definitely makes perfect sense given where I was (running towards the last known location from the south at most 200m away - I was amongst trees and the mini was losing altitude). It gives me renewed hope to have another look. It can’t be far from that location.
Cheers
Will hopefully return with good news