Hi all,
New to the forums (found by googling related things to the events that occurred today) - sorry for the long-winded post!
Well, today (like other days I decided to fly the mini) was low wind, nice sunny day.
I decided to take off from a coastal town lookout, the lookout was higher than the surrounding area, so I knew I was free of obstacles. The lookout was probably around 1-2kms from the coast so I flew from there and started to record video of the beach etc. Wasn't long before I started to get wind warnings at around 100-120m high - which was a bit odd as I felt nothing and trees in the area were completely still. I know that it's always windier at altitude, anyway decided to start flying back, and that's when things got weird.
I lowered the altitude to perhaps 50-70m to reduce the wind warnings and it didn't seem to make any difference. Lowered the altitude again, knowing that even at 0m I'd still be higher than everything at the relative level. Technically I lost sight of the drone (because of my eyesight really and facing the sun). It would easily have been in line of sight if I had looked hard enough. Yet, I was starting to get connection issues and the video feed would drop off and on. I was still connected and looking at the map I was slowly (very slowly) making progress on returning home. Then things got even weirder, the connection issues were worse where eventually it would disconnect completely (while I am maybe 1k away and very likely to have a line of sight). Of course this initiated a RTH, which I decided to let it do it's thing, but noticed when it got back it's connection and video feed, it was getting further away. I thought maybe the wind picked up and was far too strong for the drone.
Meanwhile, battery was now under 10 mins remaining, and I thought I would override the RTH and put it in sports mode, reduce altitude, and using the map fly as fast as I can towards me. I then had signal and video feed, yet it didn't seem to be moving in my direction. The speed of the drone as recorded on the screen was a negative number as in -3m/s etc. Does this mean the headwind was stronger than the Mavic's sports mode speed? That's how I interpret it.
Now the time remaining was quite low, I thought right there that my best chance of retrieving the drone was to land it in a suitable location where I could drive to pick it up. I turned the camera down and picked a spot and continuously held the down stick, meanwhile losing the connection to the video and eventually the controller. It was probably still 50m above actual ground level before losing signal completely. I had no idea what happened after that and the only information I had after that point was the 'last known coordinates'. I immediately drove the location, jumped a barbed wired fence onto a rural property, and searched the area thoroughly for about half an hour. I couldn't connect to the controller while I was in that area, so I assumed it was crashed and dead, or dead battery not sure.
After searching thoroughly, I decided it was history and jumped in the car to leave.
Almost an hour later when I was nearly home, my phone rang when a nearby resident found the drone in his yard (about 250m from last known coordinates). He said it looked ok, nothing seemed to look broken. He sent me a picture and sure enough, it looked like it landed ok. I returned to pick it up and sure enough, it doesn't appear to be damaged at all.
I replaced the battery with a spare that I had and it connected to the controller and iPad as per normal, with no errors on startup other than a compass calibration requirement. Tomorrow I will attempt to fly it (cautiously, in the park to test all the functions out again).
My main question is - did this thing land itself? or did it survive a crash (i.e how robust is it?) The actual ground level in that location is probably 100m lower than it's take-off location, how does the Mavic mini know it's close enough to the ground to land itself?
The actual events may not be precisely described as I was in panic mode, but it will be somewhat accurate!
New to the forums (found by googling related things to the events that occurred today) - sorry for the long-winded post!
Well, today (like other days I decided to fly the mini) was low wind, nice sunny day.
I decided to take off from a coastal town lookout, the lookout was higher than the surrounding area, so I knew I was free of obstacles. The lookout was probably around 1-2kms from the coast so I flew from there and started to record video of the beach etc. Wasn't long before I started to get wind warnings at around 100-120m high - which was a bit odd as I felt nothing and trees in the area were completely still. I know that it's always windier at altitude, anyway decided to start flying back, and that's when things got weird.
I lowered the altitude to perhaps 50-70m to reduce the wind warnings and it didn't seem to make any difference. Lowered the altitude again, knowing that even at 0m I'd still be higher than everything at the relative level. Technically I lost sight of the drone (because of my eyesight really and facing the sun). It would easily have been in line of sight if I had looked hard enough. Yet, I was starting to get connection issues and the video feed would drop off and on. I was still connected and looking at the map I was slowly (very slowly) making progress on returning home. Then things got even weirder, the connection issues were worse where eventually it would disconnect completely (while I am maybe 1k away and very likely to have a line of sight). Of course this initiated a RTH, which I decided to let it do it's thing, but noticed when it got back it's connection and video feed, it was getting further away. I thought maybe the wind picked up and was far too strong for the drone.
Meanwhile, battery was now under 10 mins remaining, and I thought I would override the RTH and put it in sports mode, reduce altitude, and using the map fly as fast as I can towards me. I then had signal and video feed, yet it didn't seem to be moving in my direction. The speed of the drone as recorded on the screen was a negative number as in -3m/s etc. Does this mean the headwind was stronger than the Mavic's sports mode speed? That's how I interpret it.
Now the time remaining was quite low, I thought right there that my best chance of retrieving the drone was to land it in a suitable location where I could drive to pick it up. I turned the camera down and picked a spot and continuously held the down stick, meanwhile losing the connection to the video and eventually the controller. It was probably still 50m above actual ground level before losing signal completely. I had no idea what happened after that and the only information I had after that point was the 'last known coordinates'. I immediately drove the location, jumped a barbed wired fence onto a rural property, and searched the area thoroughly for about half an hour. I couldn't connect to the controller while I was in that area, so I assumed it was crashed and dead, or dead battery not sure.
After searching thoroughly, I decided it was history and jumped in the car to leave.
Almost an hour later when I was nearly home, my phone rang when a nearby resident found the drone in his yard (about 250m from last known coordinates). He said it looked ok, nothing seemed to look broken. He sent me a picture and sure enough, it looked like it landed ok. I returned to pick it up and sure enough, it doesn't appear to be damaged at all.
I replaced the battery with a spare that I had and it connected to the controller and iPad as per normal, with no errors on startup other than a compass calibration requirement. Tomorrow I will attempt to fly it (cautiously, in the park to test all the functions out again).
My main question is - did this thing land itself? or did it survive a crash (i.e how robust is it?) The actual ground level in that location is probably 100m lower than it's take-off location, how does the Mavic mini know it's close enough to the ground to land itself?
The actual events may not be precisely described as I was in panic mode, but it will be somewhat accurate!
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