Drifting Mini 2

[Joepeg]

Flew my Mini 2 yesterday Bout 10 minutes before sunrise. Objective was to get a good sunrise picture above the ground fog. Conditions were; 30 degrees f., foggy with 100 ft visibility, moderate darkness.
Launched straight up and it started drifting south about 20 feet at 75 ft. altitude. Had good satellite lock. Have never experienced this before. Finished my flight, got some good pictures, did my “RTH” and it landed within 4 ft of where it took off. Any idea why it drifted?

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Flew my Mini 2 yesterday Bout 10 minutes before sunrise. Objective was to get a good sunrise picture above the ground fog. Conditions were; 30 degrees f., foggy with 100 ft visibility, moderate darkness.
Launched straight up and it started drifting south about 20 feet at 75 ft. altitude. Had good satellite lock. Have never experienced this before. Finished my flight, got some good pictures, did my “RTH” and it landed within 4 ft of where it took off. Any idea why it drifted?

Need a little more info: Wind and where you took of from ?

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mini 2 in the Rain and Snow.

 

[raymairjr]

I'm a newbie but sounds like you could have some prop icing. At 30F and when you can see moisture in the air (fog) my flying friends tell me the props can ice. Just speculation on my part. I want to do some testing in similar conditions but with drone just 10 ft off the ground and close to me

 

[Phantomrain.org]

I'm a newbie but sounds like you could have some prop icing. At 30F and when you can see moisture in the air (fog) my flying friends tell me the props can ice. Just speculation on my part. I want to do some testing in similar conditions but with drone just 10 ft off the ground and close to me

Most likely not Ice on the Props , he would have noticed it right away but also we have found that it takes a lot of Ice on the Props to put your drone in Jeopardy . We have purposely Iced up Props on many flights and did not have any issues.

You can check out the videos at
Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic in the Rain and freezing Snow.

 

[raymairjr]

Most likely not Ice on the Props , he would have noticed it right away but also we have found that it takes a lot of Ice on the Props to put your drone in Jeopardy . We have purposely Iced up Props on many flights and did not have any issues.

You can check out the videos at
Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic in the Rain and freezing Snow.

Good information, thanks

 

[Joepeg]

Need a little more info: Wind and where you took of from ?

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mini 2 in the Rain and Snow.

There was no wind whatsoever and I took off from my concrete driveway. My normal takeoff routine. Sorry didn’t specify earlier. Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

There was no wind whatsoever and I took off from my concrete driveway. My normal takeoff routine. Sorry didn’t specify earlier. Thanks for your thoughts.

So the only red flag would be the concrete , which may have caused magnetic interference , did you finish a whole flight or did you land ?

 

[Rich QR]

Any time you fly in known icing conditions, you've got to consider prop icing as a real risk. Visible moisture and a temperature slightly below (or even a hair above) freezing is pretty much textbook "known icing conditions". Do a web search on the phrase for more info.

But that doesn't necessarily mean this incident was caused by ice buildup. Based on the symptoms, I tend to suspect compass error due to taking off near magnetic material, perhaps rebar inside cement. It's good practice to verify that the orientation of the drone on your map display matches what you can see the actual orientation to be before takeoff.

If you post flight logs, someone may be able to chime in with an analysis much more definitive than my speculation.

 

[Joepeg]

So the only red flag would be the concrete , which may have caused magnetic interference , did you finish a whole flight or did you land ?

Yes, I completed the flight. I take off from this spot regularly. Never a problem before this. Do you think that the fog together with the moderate darkness of early morning could have something to do with it? Again, this was 15 minutes or so before sunrise.
Thanks again.

 

[Thomas B]

Yes, I completed the flight. I take off from this spot regularly. Never a problem before this. Do you think that the fog together with the moderate darkness of early morning could have something to do with it? Again, this was 15 minutes or so before sunrise.
Thanks again.

Post your flight logs for a best interpretation.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Yes, I completed the flight. I take off from this spot regularly. Never a problem before this. Do you think that the fog together with the moderate darkness of early morning could have something to do with it? Again, this was 15 minutes or so before sunrise.
Thanks again.

Are you using the lattest Firmware update ? That kind of behavior was seen in the Mini 2 when with the sensors not working correctly but was fixed with the newest update.

 

[Joepeg]

Are you using the lattest Firmware update ? That kind of behavior was seen in the Mini 2 when with the sensors not working correctly but was fixed with the newest update.

Firmware is up to date.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Firmware is up to date.

Sadly that would have been the easy fix, now you need upload the tx log and others will chime in with the good stuff.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic in the Rain and Snow

 

[Joepeg]

Uncertain how to upload the log. Can someone give me some directions?
Thanks

 

[Thomas B]

Uncertain how to upload the log. Can someone give me some directions?
Thanks

Go here:

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

 

[Sakbaboy]

Hi,

I'm not a professional drone pilot in any sense of way it's my first drone and I barely have 1hr fly on mine but i read in the interweb that it might be caused by damaged propellers from flying without a propeller guard and bumping in to stuff which might bend and ruin the propellers.

Maybe a much more seasoned pilot can confirm.

Thank you

 

[SkyeHigh]

Hi,

I'm not a professional drone pilot in any sense of way it's my first drone and I barely have 1hr fly on mine but i read in the interweb that it might be caused by damaged propellers from flying without a propeller guard and bumping in to stuff which might bend and ruin the propellers.

Maybe a much more seasoned pilot can confirm.

Thank you

Very unlikely, don’t take too much notice of the misinformation you’ll find on the Internet/FaceBook/YouTube etc.

Posting the logs as earlier advised will almost certainly provide the answer. The guys on the forum do a great job of analysing the data to find a definitive cause.

 

[Mike Mas]

A few of the replies are not really accurate, the wind would not be a factor to move the machine 20 feet unless the GPS positioning was failing. Iceing on the props (not likely) would cause the motors to work harder but not move the machine from its current GPS position.

I would not worry about it for now fly the machine 15-20 feet for a 5-6 flights and see if it reoccurs.

Stay Safe - Mike

 

[hiflyer201]

Calibrate the controller maybe.
Those are ideal conditions for ice. Right at the freezing level and visible moisture. Ice is insidious. sometimes slow build up and other times it's very rapid. You're asking for it flying in those conditions even though you would have very little exposure with a shallow layer of fog.
I wouldn't worry so much about ice in that situation, but I wouldn't be comfortable lifting off zero/zero because I always, out of habit, check the behavior at about 5 feet. My Air 1 drifts occasionally for no reason at all. I can get it to stop drifting by a quick flick of the sticks. I've never had that problem with my Sparks or my 2.
Someone on the forum mentioned cycling the sticks before powering up the controller and I thank them for that. I think it's a worthwhile practice.

 

[Lastrexking]

Why do people keep flying their Mini’s in the fog? It’s in the manual - don’t fly in fog. Then when they inevitably have problems, or lose their drones they blame the product. Read the manual, then read it again.

From the manual;