Death of a Drone

BrownsFan12 · Feb 12, 2019

Cymruflyer- Those are great shots. And thanks for the advice. In regards to their intent, it is very possible that they simply flew through the area my drone within without knowing. I am projecting negative assumptions because they killed my drone!

Cheers!

Moose1967 · Feb 12, 2019

I feel your pain - here is a close call with a bald eagle - I have flown here many times and never saw one - around the 3 minute mark:

Mavic Pro Platinum · Feb 12, 2019

Possums said:
Revenge of the Mavics - Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

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LOL![emoji23]

bushie · Feb 12, 2019

Have a look at my video in the video thread. Flew over hundreds of swans. They ignored my Mavic, though i was fairly high
The pelicans just moved of when i got close. Nothing looked a threat.

Test pilot · Feb 13, 2019

BrownsFan12 said:
Hi. This is my first post. I hope "general discussions" is the right place for this. I have been a photographer for many years and finally decided to make the leap into drones. Two weeks ago, I purchased a Mavid Pro 2 from my local DJI dealer who spent a lot of time with me getting everything up and running. Rather then just go out and fly on my own immediately, I did a week of my own "ground training" watching videos, reading, and trying to prepare as well as possible for the contingencies that I might face. So on Saturday, the weather finally cleared and I dared to take to the air. The attached photo clip is from my first video the last video that this drone will ever take.

So, for anyone (like me) that is new to drones, what did I learn here?

1) I knew that there were geese in the area but I was going with the "big sky little bullet theory". That's probably reasonable in certain situations, but we are entering into mating season, so I think their behavior is more aggressive. These geese deviated from a flight path almost half a kilometer away, and my gut tells me that this was not a coincidence. They were coming after the drone. So in addition to NOT flying where there are a lot of geese, be aware of the season and how the season could effect behavior.

2) Not sure if you can tell in the video, but it went down in a swamp. My unsuccessful recovery efforts are worth telling in separate post, but I digress. The point I want to make is that if you don't HAVE to fly over water, or otherwise inaccessible area, then just don't.

3) I have a new appreciation of why you don't fly a drone near people or private property. This flight was perfectly legal without anyone around, but had I been 25 feet away from people at 100-200 feet, this impact could have resulted in someone getting hurt.

OK. Those are my take-aways. I will get another drone once I process everything and save some some money.

For those of you more experienced than me, what do you do if you see birds nearby like this? My immediate response was just to keep the drone in place and not attract their attention. Obvisouly, that didn't work for me. Now I wonder if I should have dropped altitude....got closer to the ground.

Cheers!

Very cool love the eagle flyby!

BrownsFan12 · Feb 13, 2019

Moose1967 said:
I feel your pain - here is a close call with a bald eagle - I have flown here many times and never saw one - around the 3 minute mark:

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Ha! He definately noticed you. Glad he went about his business. BTW, that was a great video. Beautiful scenery. Thanks for sharing.

erkme73 · Feb 16, 2019

Do you have access to a metal detector and maybe some swamp boots? How deep is the water? Or is it just marshy and swampy

LawFlyer · Feb 16, 2019

BrownsFan12 said:
... So on Saturday, the weather finally cleared and I dared to take to the air. The attached photo clip is from my first video[;] the last video that this drone will ever take.

Cheers!

For pure sympathy purposes, I just wanted to offer my, um....deepest sympathy -- THAT SUCKS. You did everything right....took it slow...learned on the ground....and then on your first real flight the worst possible thing happened?!

Yeah, that's really a shame, but just chalk it up to really bad luck. Happens to everyone at one point or another.

Also, I don't see that you mentioned having DJI care refresh? I assume you didn't sign up for that? YES, you need to recover the drone to send it back, but we've seen many people recover drones that they thought were unrecoverable (often with help from people on this board). Even if you need to buy a small inflatable raft and a snorkel, I wouldn't give up trying to recover your Mavic unless it is clearly unsafe and impossible.

bentbrent · Feb 16, 2019

Last Spring, early into my drone hobby, I was flying at an unused soccer complex. It was surrounded by trees. I got too close to some of them. Birds came out of the trees and started swarming around my MP. I flew very erratically, up, down, left and right, with no rhyme or reason. The climbing definitely seemed to work the best. I managed to avoid them enough to exit their area. I avoided their area for the rest of their flight and they left me alone.

JSKCKNIT · Feb 16, 2019

Moose1967 said:
I feel your pain - here is a close call with a bald eagle - I have flown here many times and never saw one - around the 3 minute mark:

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Man, that was a nice flight!

Torcan · Feb 16, 2019

BrownsFan12 said:
That's awesome!

it wasn't awesome at all, the pilot is a jerk. His disclaimer that no ducks were harmed doesn't hold water with me. How convenient that at his last shot the video suddenly ends. My bet is he hit that duck and he ended the video so as to cover his butt. Hopefully the conservation officers, or someone that sees that video and knows who it is reports it and charges the guy by taking his licence away.

BrownsFan12 · Feb 16, 2019

bentbrent said:
Last Spring, early into my drone hobby, I was flying at an unused soccer complex. It was surrounded by trees. I got too close to some of them. Birds came out of the trees and started swarming around my MP. I flew very erratically, up, down, left and right, with no rhyme or reason. The climbing definitely seemed to work the best. I managed to avoid them enough to exit their area. I avoided their area for the rest of their flight and they left me alone.

That seems to be the consensus. Gain altitude as soon as possible. Thanks for sharing your experience.

BrownsFan12 · Feb 16, 2019

LawFlyer said:
For pure sympathy purposes, I just wanted to offer my, um....deepest sympathy -- THAT SUCKS. You did everything right....took it slow...learned on the ground....and then on your first real flight the worst possible thing happened?!

Yeah, that's really a shame, but just chalk it up to really bad luck. Happens to everyone at one point or another.

Also, I don't see that you mentioned having DJI care refresh? I assume you didn't sign up for that? YES, you need to recover the drone to send it back, but we've seen many people recover drones that they thought were unrecoverable (often with help from people on this board). Even if you need to buy a small inflatable raft and a snorkel, I wouldn't give up trying to recover your Mavic unless it is clearly unsafe and impossible.

I did not purchase Refresh, but I am seriosuly considering it for my new Mavic. Yes, I do intend to put more effort into recovering it. While the swamp remains lightly frozen it is very likely not in the drink. I purchased some waders and walked around a bit in the shallow area, but not sure about water depth further in. Will be using my new Mavic to do a flyover and see if I can locate it from the air before deciding on next steps. The "where's my drone" feature on my smart controller is not giving a correct location. That being said, I think the flight log last location IS correct, so I have a good location to start my aerial recon. My credit card company gives me 120 days from purchase to put in a damage claim on an item, which if approved would get me up to $1000 in repair credit. So if I can find it sometime within the next 90 days, I may be in business.

BrownsFan12 · Feb 16, 2019

erkme73 said:
Do you have access to a metal detector and maybe some swamp boots? How deep is the water? Or is it just marshy and swampy

Its a marshy area with a thin layer of ice on it here in Northeast Ohio. I got waders and ventured out a bit, but I have some concerns that it may get deeper. I am going to use my new drone do a little aerial recon (on a day when the geese are not around). If I see it in the imagery I capture, I will pursue it further. Thanks for checking.

BrownsFan12 · Feb 16, 2019

Torcan said:
it wasn't awesome at all, the pilot is a jerk. His disclaimer that no ducks were harmed doesn't hold water with me. How convenient that at his last shot the video suddenly ends. My bet is he hit that duck and he ended the video so as to cover his butt. Hopefully the conservation officers, or someone that sees that video and knows who it is reports it and charges the guy by taking his licence away.

I'm pretty sure that the original post as well as my reply were posted as a joke, in the context of the loss of my drone. I love animals, and believe it or not, one of my immediate concerns after my drone was struck was that the bird was not injured. (It appeared to be fine.) I aplogize if anything I posted offended you.

hermitdog · Feb 16, 2019

Great photos and video (of the sunset, swans, and geese) in this thread! Although I have encountered many birds in rural areas - with no problems so far, this video was taken in a city park, so the geese were tame and accustomed to seeing man-made contraptions. btw, I used a Mavic 2 Zoom for this video, so the birds appear a lot closer than they actually were:
Drone watches geese watching drone

I found their "standing-on-one-leg" behavior to be interesting. Does anyone know if that is some sort of signal - perhaps a warning of possible danger?

Torcan · Feb 16, 2019

BrownsFan12 said:
I'm pretty sure that the original post as well as my reply were posted as a joke, in the context of the loss of my drone. I love animals, and believe it or not, one of my immediate concerns after my drone was struck was that the bird was not injured. (It appeared to be fine.) I aplogize if anything I posted offended you.

Sorry, I wasn't referring to your original post, I was referring to the video "REVENGE" where the pilot goes up in a one seat aircraft and shoots paintballs at the mallards, apologize if it wasn't clear, absolutely nothing against your post at all

Mike4884 · Feb 17, 2019

This guy seemed to like the phantom note wasnt actually this close as he would have probably shredded the p4p....but look how relaxed....guess u just have to watch for mating season