Sorry to hear about, but it’s the same stupidity as to fly under bridges close to water just for a good movieclip. The gps satellites are all over the sky in all directions and most of the time the drone can see 12-20 of those, if you then cover the receiving by flying under something (bridges, threes, rock, caves) for a few seconds there might not be enough with just 6-9 satellites and the drone goes in to atti-mode wich means manually flying, and then you must know how to solve it. A expensive learning money for the future.
I prefere an app called ”UAV Forecast” wich show me how many sats that is receivable right now depending on weather and wind and atmosphere.
Not sure you need to be as abrupt as this! It was more 'naivety' / lack of knowledge that caused this
Yes, I am also sorry OP lost his new drone, but he is guilty of several stupid mistakes:
1. He has obviously not read the manual, that explains the operation of a very complex device.
2: He did not read, understand, or interpret the data given from the instrumentation, nor the terminology.
3. He never practiced flying in ATTI mode, that would have helped him recognize the ACs erratic behavior, and either fly with caution, or abandon the idea about flying in a cave.
4. He was overcome and "was so thrilled about the beautiful nature and
instantly grabbed my new Mavic Air. Due to impatience, OP neglected pre-flight checks and procedures, and took off with 0 satellites in view.
5. Experienced pilots know 80%+ of AC mishaps occur due to pilot error, and not claim-worthy DJI hardware failures.
#2, 3, and 5 could be called naiveté . It's tough to say the same about #1 and #4. I think that DJI, however, shares much of the blame, by marketing their ACs to make drone flight look totally automated, with no experience needed. Common sense is still required.
I'm not trying to be harsh.....it happens to everyone. 3 nights ago, my Mav Air was 15" (6cm) above water, auto landing. I had ASSUMED the HP was still set the same as the 1st flight. I couldn't see the AC, with all the water reflection....and ascended in the nick of time. I'll admit is was stupid to activate RTH, when the AC didn't know where home was located....the last 10 seconds shows the AC almost 6 feet below my location.
I hope OP's Mav dries out, he never crashes again, and captures wonderful video