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Critical battery auto landing

Bellaflys2016

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Has anyone had an issue with the MP2 saying “critical battery, now landing” when their is 10% battery left. I was flying about 200 yards from my house and it said that and I lost communication with it. I couldn’t stop it and I thought 10% would be plenty to come back from that far. Needless to say I took off running down my street as fast as I could in full on panic mode. I had no idea where it landed. It could have been on the train tracks, side of the road , middle of the road or someone’s yard. I was out of touch with it for about 5 minutes but it felt like forever. I thought I was going to have a heart attack ‍♂️. I ended up finding it in the middle of the road at an intersection. [emoji30]. A car drove past and slammed its brakes on when I was about 50 yards away. Passenger jumped out and looked like he was going to grab it but it sounded like he ran over it. I was heartbroken and panicked at the same time. I yelled “Hey! Did you run it over”? He just looked at me, jumped back in and took off. I completely expected to walk up and see it smashed all over the road and was practically in tears. So I walk up and it was just sitting there perfectly fine. Needless to say I was very relieved but out of breath and thought I was gonna have a heart attack. Lol. We have power lines and train track power lines right there so I’m thinking the magnetic field could be disrupting communication with it. Either way I thought 10% should have been plenty to fly back. But I was wrong.
 
Has anyone had an issue with the MP2 saying “critical battery, now landing” when their is 10% battery left
Yes, that's how the Mavic is designed to operate. It auto lands in order to prevent the battery from shutting off mid-flight. You should land before the battery reaches the critically low level.
 
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As msinger suggests, you cant return to the take off point at 0%
Keep in mind (with out adding a wind factor) it takes just as much battery to get back as it does to go out.
Just like you would not drive 90% of the gas out of your car in one direction and expect to get home without refilling the tank.
 
Your description of the flight area turned me mad.
Please learn the basics of aircraft flight rules before even taking off. Flying above houses, yards or even roads is dangerous. Imagine the consequences if you had caused a car accident.

Then read your Mavic manual.

In a few weeks, you'll understand the rationale behind this 10% and prevent the same situation to happen again.

Please be careful of others and yourself.
 
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All these reply’s makes sense. I guess watching so much footage of other people’s flights doing exactly what you guys say I shouldn’t do skews my decision making. I saw a YouTube video of a guy testing how far he could fly away. He made it to over 32,000 feet. Almost 6 miles and came back. He was still returning with 10% and he landed with 0%. It never initiated auto landing. Not sure how he pulled that off but it was the MP2. Needles to say I’m never doing that again.
 
All these reply’s makes sense. I guess watching so much footage of other people’s flights doing exactly what you guys say I shouldn’t do skews my decision making. I saw a YouTube video of a guy testing how far he could fly away. He made it to over 32,000 feet. Almost 6 miles and came back. He was still returning with 10% and he landed with 0%. It never initiated auto landing. Not sure how he pulled that off but it was the MP2. Needles to say I’m never doing that again.
A lot of those "looney toons" are doing it with modified devices, External add on batteries, antenna amps, and modified software.
 
A lot of those "looney toons" are doing it with modified devices, External add on batteries, antenna amps, and modified software.

I did not know you could do any of that. I’ve inquired about an extension antenna for my car to be able to fly while sitting in my car for P.I. work but can’t find anything. I’m reading about sigma repeaters and amps but it’s all talk from what I gather.
 
Even at critical battery where it wants to land, you can push up the throttle to override it's descent as well as go forward. I bet you were watching Billy Kyle flying in Long Island. That's how he was able to keep flying at 0% until it had absolutely no power to maintain flight.

Incidentally, 10% is just a rough point that it will critical land. Depending on height, it may try to land earlier than 10%.
Earlier models of DJI had critical battery setting with lowest setting being 10% but not the recent ones. At least not M2.
 
Dudes name is Dustin Dunnill. He’s from Hawaii. No interference and plenty of wide open space but he went 32,000 feet and landed on 0%. Even though the last two miles it was saying critically low battery, aircraft landing. He was still able to keep the throttle up and climb. Problem with my situation was I lost contact and wasn’t able to transmit anything. Which was crazy because I was only about 1/4 mile away. But I have lots of power lines and 5 track wide train tracks with overhead power lines. Here is the link to that dudes flight. It was badass.
 
Has anyone had an issue with the MP2 saying “critical battery, now landing” when their is 10% battery left. I was flying about 200 yards from my house and it said that and I lost communication with it. I couldn’t stop it and I thought 10% would be plenty to come back from that far. Needless to say I took off running down my street as fast as I could in full on panic mode. I had no idea where it landed. It could have been on the train tracks, side of the road , middle of the road or someone’s yard. I was out of touch with it for about 5 minutes but it felt like forever. I thought I was going to have a heart attack ‍♂️. I ended up finding it in the middle of the road at an intersection. [emoji30]. A car drove past and slammed its brakes on when I was about 50 yards away. Passenger jumped out and looked like he was going to grab it but it sounded like he ran over it. I was heartbroken and panicked at the same time. I yelled “Hey! Did you run it over”? He just looked at me, jumped back in and took off. I completely expected to walk up and see it smashed all over the road and was practically in tears. So I walk up and it was just sitting there perfectly fine. Needless to say I was very relieved but out of breath and thought I was gonna have a heart attack. Lol. We have power lines and train track power lines right there so I’m thinking the magnetic field could be disrupting communication with it. Either way I thought 10% should have been plenty to fly back. But I was wrong.
You probably need to understand more about your bird before flying, just say'n...
 
I did not know you could do any of that. I’ve inquired about an extension antenna for my car to be able to fly while sitting in my car for P.I. work but can’t find anything. I’m reading about sigma repeaters and amps but it’s all talk from what I gather.
First, flying it beyond where you can actually see it with the naked eye is Illegal.
Second, if you use it as a tool for PI work, a part 107 registration will be required.
Third, unless your PI work is done in the country, flying over people is Illegal.
 
Getting surveillance in that manner may also be illegal. At least it is for police to use helicopters to obtain evidence located on private property in some locations.
 
Getting surveillance in that manner may also be illegal. At least it is for police to use helicopters to obtain evidence located on private property in some locations.
PI's dont always use what evidence they get illegally for legal reasons. Sometimes a wife wants to know what her husband is doing in the neighbors back yard. PI's dont always need proof of things for court, most of the time it is for the piece of mind for the people that hired them. In that case almost anything goes. :D
 
You are putting a lot of faith on the status of your battery or the accuracy of the %.
Once you are with 1/3 of your battery juice left, you are in uncharted territory, based on how long you had this battery, and how often it has been charged.

Basically, if it took X amount of time to get down to 30%, it doesn’t mean that the remaining percentage will go down at the same rate.

When you add a buffer for the wind, and distance left to come back home, and it is often time to get back at 30%, just like you would not run your car on completely empty.

Or do you?
 
+1. Though i usually say RTFM.
Don't disagree. The only fault with that is that DJI does not include one with the drone and the person needs to go hunt for it.

That is, they don't include the full manual as they should.
 
I did not know you could do any of that. I’ve inquired about an extension antenna for my car to be able to fly while sitting in my car for P.I. work but can’t find anything. I’m reading about sigma repeaters and amps but it’s all talk from what I gather.
I did not know you could do any of that. I’ve inquired about an extension antenna for my car to be able to fly while sitting in my car for P.I. work but can’t find anything. I’m reading about sigma repeaters and amps but it’s all talk from what I gather.
That is a no, no too...you may want to read the FAA manual on Drone rules before flying your Drone while in a vehicle
 
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