Best NONONOYES! Mavic moment?

[AlwaysAWOL]

Had my first 'pit of your stomach' moment the other day. Flew a 1000m across an abandoned gravel pit then straight out over open ocean. Took a picture of a tanker anchored, but kept my distance so I didn't get any interference. Checked my signal, which was great at 4000m out, but then noticed I had dropped from 17 to 13 minutes of flight time over 10 seconds.
Thought something had gone wrong with the battery, or RTH, so all I could do was head back and hope the Mavic didn't die over open water.
Of course, I never looked at the battery % in my light panic, and see now it was just extra draw against a stronger breeze. Made it back with 30%; helped that the wind was against me going out (had checked) so less power consumed coming back. Was a relief seeing the flight time stabilize and making it back over land!

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[darkwing]

Glad you got it back safe I had one of those moments 2 days ago I flew I was talking pictures between 2 land masses when I droped my altitude the eind was taking a toll on the AC Iblost about 5 minutes of flight time instantly. My experience with flying on low batteries atleast on my drone it will not let you climb once it start beeping.

 

[AcorreiA]

Its not only luck! The fact that you checked befere: "the wind was against me going out (had checked)" has helped!
Keep safe!

 

[Platinum 4 ever]

Had my first 'pit of your stomach' moment the other day. Flew a 1000m across an abandoned gravel pit then straight out over open ocean. Took a picture of a tanker anchored, but kept my distance so I didn't get any interference. Checked my signal, which was great at 4000m out, but then noticed I had dropped from 17 to 13 minutes of flight time over 10 seconds.
Thought something had gone wrong with the battery, or RTH, so all I could do was head back and hope the Mavic didn't die over open water.
Of course, I never looked at the battery % in my light panic, and see now it was just extra draw against a stronger breeze. Made it back with 30%; helped that the wind was against me going out (had checked) so less power consumed coming back. Was a relief seeing the flight time stabilize and making it back over land!

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I really really try not to have any NO NO moments. It was only my first time flying my spark. I ended up getting tangled with some electrical wires. Boring story I know. But sometimes boring is a good thing. [emoji41].

 

[JohnLietzke]

I have had the same wind-to-battery change the last couple of days when flying. It has been very windy here in California. The first time I also panicked and did the same thing and began flying back to home. Once I saw that it was an estimate of time and that the battery percentage was correct I felt better and turned around and finished my flight.

I usually fly in an area with hills and set my Return to Home Altitude to the max of the airspace ceiling so that way I will not collide with something on an emergency Return to Home. But I have learned that ascending to 400' also eats battery rapidly. Now I just stop and turn around and head home.

I once had the controller disconnection from my phone because of debris in the lighting port mid-flight. I lost camera visual and control. Fortunately, I had my Return to Home Altitude set to the max. At the time time I was up about 1,200' on mountain and had dropped down to -700' to look at the reservoir. The mountains around me were about 200' higher than where I was. I had given up on my bird and figured I had lost it. As I was moping and packing up my stuff in the car I heard it and watched it land. Watching the footage I could see it took a Return to Home path over one of those mountain tops 200' above where I was. The drone actually ascended almost 1,100' before returning to home.

Moral of the story, if possible set the Return to Altitude higher than anything around you. I would not do it higher if it were not in compliance with airspace altitude restrictions.

Also, I discovered that on a Return to Home due to loss of communication with the controller if your craft is above 400' like when flying up a mountain it will maintain the height it is at above the return to Home Altitude. At times this could be a violation of the FAA altitude above ground or objects rule.

I had an incident like this when flying in an open pit quarry that was 700' above where I took off and I tried to stay an additional 150-200' keeping well within compliance of altitude to ground regulations. When I lost signal/connections and Auto Return to Home was initiated I just waited for it to reconnect. I was able to see that my altitude on the return to home was slightly above 900' when it reconnect. At that point I descended to get closer to the ground.