ArranEye
Well-Known Member
A most helpful original post and thread. As others have said, we can all learn from others' experiences. Thanks for taking the time to share and better luck with your new MP!
Bye Bye Mavic - How to lose it in 5 easy steps... (and how not to)
- Thread starter Ian in London
- Start date
Terrifying story, sorry to read this.
I was flying my Mavic yesterday and, thankfully, managed to avoid the situation you were in, but not by much. I was about 900 feet away, still had visual contact with the Mavic, when I encountered such strong wind that even with the stick at full throttle, it was still moving away from me. I started looking for alternate landing sites, but they would've been a half mile away at best.
Thankfully, I had the time to think through it and managed to yaw my way over to a path where I could drop altitude safely. I then had to put the Mavic into sport mode to make any forward progress. Yes, it burned battery quickly but it got me home.
Scary moment for sure.... great lesson to keep an eye on the wind direction at all times.
And the big lesson I'm getting from your case? Don't turn that remote off until the Mavic is in my hands.
Again - sorry for your loss. Don't let it discourage you - this is a great hobby!
I was flying my Mavic yesterday and, thankfully, managed to avoid the situation you were in, but not by much. I was about 900 feet away, still had visual contact with the Mavic, when I encountered such strong wind that even with the stick at full throttle, it was still moving away from me. I started looking for alternate landing sites, but they would've been a half mile away at best.
Thankfully, I had the time to think through it and managed to yaw my way over to a path where I could drop altitude safely. I then had to put the Mavic into sport mode to make any forward progress. Yes, it burned battery quickly but it got me home.
Scary moment for sure.... great lesson to keep an eye on the wind direction at all times.
And the big lesson I'm getting from your case? Don't turn that remote off until the Mavic is in my hands.
Again - sorry for your loss. Don't let it discourage you - this is a great hobby!
I'm looking at adapting an APRS balloon tracker for drone use. Upside is that if you use the standard APRS frequencies there are repeaters all over that can pick up and retransmit the location. Downside is you need to have an amateur radio license and can't be used if you're flying commercially. Ideally it would only start transmitting if needed, such as if there was enough of an impact to trigger it. Thinking there might be some sort of breakable/fusable link like the sensors shippers use that would complete a circuit. That way the device wouldn't power up until needed, so to avoid interfering with the Mavic, and could use also use a much smaller battery.
famy mavic
Member
Thanks for creating the video. I would have shut the controller off as well once it landed in the park and made the same mistake. Very kind of you to allow others to learn from your mistake. You may have saved a few people from losing their drones.
High222
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Wow, I will donate some money to help you get another Mavic. Let me know if I can help.
Thanks for the very kind offer... I've already got the new Mavic and waiting on an insurance decision!
Cerberus
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Actually no! I've tried all over and there is nothing.... So I'm back to just Bluetooth based (50 metres max) or cellphone based (how often you do you lose your cellphone signal when out in the countryside?)
Market gap me thinks......
Ian
Ian - I'm also in Europe, and can't find a Marco Polo, not that I'd likely pay the cost anyway, I think perhaps it's using frequencies that are not permitted in Europe hence the lack of EU stockists.
I have however found the Loc8tor. It has substantially less range than a Marco Polo, but it's a proper RF tracker rather than a Bluetooth device and still should have enough range with a decent fix from the last known position to track down a stray mavic. It's a lot cheaper so may be worth a try.
If you do try one I'd be interested to hear your opinion before buying one myself.
I have however found the Loc8tor. It has substantially less range than a Marco Polo, but it's a proper RF tracker rather than a Bluetooth device and still should have enough range with a decent fix from the last known position to track down a stray mavic. It's a lot cheaper so may be worth a try.
If you do try one I'd be interested to hear your opinion before buying one myself.
Cutaway
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Sorry Ian about your loss. Kudos for sharing it with us. Got a PayPal? I'd like to contribute to your purchase fund. Cheers.
Well, I did this video to help people; given its narrow subject matter, I think the usual YouTube revenue of $1.50 per thousand views won't even stretch to a new pair of propellers LOL.
Of course I'd always be grateful for replacement help to my paypal at Pay Ian In London using PayPal.Me but truly, I made the video for fun and to let people take away some tips to avoid making the same mistakes!
Cheers,
Ian
Last edited:
I hadn't come across the Loc8tor either... It's range states 500 feet which seems a bit too far for bluetooth; has anyone used one of these?
Cheers
Ian
Hey Ian
I know it's been said already but thanks for sharing the video and your experience. I've learnt a ton about my future flying just here at my desk.
Hope you're up in the air again soon. Keep learning and sharing.
BTW I know it's a 2 hour drive south but have you sent another drone into the area. You could set the camera to face the ground / shrub and set a grid via Litchi app or similar?
I know it's been said already but thanks for sharing the video and your experience. I've learnt a ton about my future flying just here at my desk.
Hope you're up in the air again soon. Keep learning and sharing.
BTW I know it's a 2 hour drive south but have you sent another drone into the area. You could set the camera to face the ground / shrub and set a grid via Litchi app or similar?
If you seen his name it was 198 short of realityI like you...
High222 +198 = High420
Technically this would not be short of reality...
420 Higher than realityIan
Maybe they need to add a little Mavic memorial beside that Battle of Britain one?
On a serious note, I was just thinking how stressful that episode must have been. Imagine how it was in WW2 with a busted spitfire engine, a plane riddled with bullet holes and fuel leaking from your bird. The guys then didn't have sat nav, return to home etc etc
Although I'm gutted for you and for your loss I think it'd make some of those pilots smile seeing that Mavic fly around and come down. It was a nice way to honour them
Maybe they need to add a little Mavic memorial beside that Battle of Britain one?
On a serious note, I was just thinking how stressful that episode must have been. Imagine how it was in WW2 with a busted spitfire engine, a plane riddled with bullet holes and fuel leaking from your bird. The guys then didn't have sat nav, return to home etc etc
Although I'm gutted for you and for your loss I think it'd make some of those pilots smile seeing that Mavic fly around and come down. It was a nice way to honour them
The rememberance wall of names is sobering reading.... But the irony of where I went down isn't lost on meIan
Maybe they need to add a little Mavic memorial beside that Battle of Britain one?
On a serious note, I was just thinking how stressful that episode must have been. Imagine how it was in WW2 with a busted spitfire engine, a plane riddled with bullet holes and fuel leaking from your bird. The guys then didn't have sat nav, return to home etc etc
Although I'm gutted for you and for your loss I think it'd make some of those pilots smile seeing that Mavic fly around and come down. It was a nice way to honour them
waylander
Well-Known Member
Hi All
After reading Wellsi's sad story and his extremely good post event account of what he did wrong (see link if U have not seen his video here it is.
)
To try and help newbies I'm prompted to add some advice from my own experience, I was flying FPV ( yea I know VLOS etc etc. ), it was a very dull day and very low cloud level, the terrain where I was flying from was at an altitude of 1000' or so, and as is want to happen on this particular moor, a fog bank rolled in really quick, I was already out of VLOS and had no chance to see her even from100' feet away.
So the point of my post, the Radar on the DJI go app is your best friend, ( that and the altitude readout), yaw the bird until the Radar arrow is pointing at you ( the Home Point) and push the right stick forwards, she will come come back, no need to try and work out the direction needed to fly in, or drift caused by cross winds, use the yaw control to keep the arrow pointing at you ( the Home point ), stop and check every so often that the arrow is pointing straight at you and adjust using the Yaw control accordingly. After a few minutes I heard the noise from the rotor's, and a combination of sound and the Flight readout's got her back.
In wellsi's case if he had looked at the Radar he would have seen the point where the Mavic passed his position, and then he would have understood why the Distance readout was increasing.
Put some headphones on play loud music and fly around ( at altitude ) using only the Radar, you will soon learn to pilot the bird without VLOS, and get her back to you.
Sorry for your loss Wellsi, and many thanks for such a good post.
Waylander
After reading Wellsi's sad story and his extremely good post event account of what he did wrong (see link if U have not seen his video here it is.
)
To try and help newbies I'm prompted to add some advice from my own experience, I was flying FPV ( yea I know VLOS etc etc. ), it was a very dull day and very low cloud level, the terrain where I was flying from was at an altitude of 1000' or so, and as is want to happen on this particular moor, a fog bank rolled in really quick, I was already out of VLOS and had no chance to see her even from100' feet away.
So the point of my post, the Radar on the DJI go app is your best friend, ( that and the altitude readout), yaw the bird until the Radar arrow is pointing at you ( the Home Point) and push the right stick forwards, she will come come back, no need to try and work out the direction needed to fly in, or drift caused by cross winds, use the yaw control to keep the arrow pointing at you ( the Home point ), stop and check every so often that the arrow is pointing straight at you and adjust using the Yaw control accordingly. After a few minutes I heard the noise from the rotor's, and a combination of sound and the Flight readout's got her back.
In wellsi's case if he had looked at the Radar he would have seen the point where the Mavic passed his position, and then he would have understood why the Distance readout was increasing.
Put some headphones on play loud music and fly around ( at altitude ) using only the Radar, you will soon learn to pilot the bird without VLOS, and get her back to you.
Sorry for your loss Wellsi, and many thanks for such a good post.
Waylander
Thanks Waylander
Yes, I absolutely hold my hand up and admit the red radar arrow and the map would have been my best friend that day; a shame they're only an inch wide now.
Since learned you can swap the small map with the main video view by dragging out the upper right corner of the map view. Being able to swap views is pretty useful, so again, another tip for new pilots and old.
And as your help was aimed at new pilots, decode is:
FPV = First Person View (ie using the video feed on your phone )
VLOS = Visual Line of Sight (ie using your eyes to actually watch the (tiny dot) of your Mavic in the distance)
Yes, I absolutely hold my hand up and admit the red radar arrow and the map would have been my best friend that day; a shame they're only an inch wide now.
Since learned you can swap the small map with the main video view by dragging out the upper right corner of the map view. Being able to swap views is pretty useful, so again, another tip for new pilots and old.
And as your help was aimed at new pilots, decode is:
FPV = First Person View (ie using the video feed on your phone )
VLOS = Visual Line of Sight (ie using your eyes to actually watch the (tiny dot) of your Mavic in the distance)
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