Drone submerged in the lake

[msinger]

Would they offer confession / discounts on replacement aircraft?

They most likely won't offer a discount if they determine it was your fault. If you're not 100% sure it was your fault, then you have nothing to lose by submitting the flight data to them for review.

 

[Arkarian]

I had a panic situation where the Mavic was facing a headwind aloft coming back. The aircraft was barely moving. I panicked at first but then reduced altitude and switched on sport mode. Got back home ok. Just always pay attention to the wind. It can be even more windy above so if you are experiencing winds do fly out against the headwind so you have a tail wind coming back.

 

[Bergumbira]

Hi there, I'm new to the forum. My drone was down and I want to seek some advise on:
1) how come the auto RTB (and warning) did not function and gave me sufficient warning on returning earlier?
2) how do I go about the replacement drone (I still have the remote controller)? Neither the Mavic shop site nor other retailers have the bare drone for sale.

Here are more details.........(I live in Sydney, Australia)

I started the flight at Canton Beach with a fresh battery at 100%. At 60%, It was 4km away over the headland of The Entrance North. I decided it was time to bring it back and it still should have 20% left when it landed, in theory. What I did not notice was the wind direction and speed. The fact was it cruised at about 32km/h outbound with tail wind. Coming back it was doing only 15 to 20km/h with the dreadful head wind. The rest was history. It dived into the lake 545m from the shore where I stood. The emergency landing warning came up but that did not help before it was over a large body of water (the lake).

Thanks in advance folks...........

Here is the last 30 seconds of the flight before it dived into the lake, if you are interested.

The last 30 seconds of footage before my Mavic Pro dived into Tuggerah Lake, Central Coast, NSW, Australia, 545 metres off Canton Beach, Toukley | SkyPixel.com

For your next Mavic... 35/38 USD

 

[Bergumbira]

You can buy the Mavic aircraft only from DJI here.


You were pretty close to the shore. If this ever happens again, hold the throttle in the full up position while steering the Mavic back to land. That'll prevent the Mavic from descending when it starts to auto land. The battery will eventually shut off mid-flight when it has no usable power left, but it would be worth the risk since the alternative is losing the aircraft.

If this ever happens again and you still fly above water without floats.. Then is nothing we can do for you.

The alternative is neither lost the drone or try acrobatics maneuvers... Is to set floats... 35 usd

 

[Musnet]

How about using a drone floating gears

 

[Redline870]

LOL oh man that is a funny video! It’s only funny because it’s 100% operator error. If you decide you want to fly long distance without the experience to determine wind direction and then don’t even switch it to Sport Mode when flying into a head wind, it’s almost like you’re hoping for this to happen. Switching to Sport Mode would have doubled your speed for the same amount of battery.

 

[Porto]

Switching to Sport Mode would have doubled your speed for the same amount of battery.

Unfortunately that's not true, especially if you fly in P mode with OA off. You'll roughly gain 10kph with Sport mode. If you do parameter changes and set your switch into ATTI instead of Sport without changing the parameters, you'll roughly gain 5kph. Those figures are for if you fly into headwind. Please don't ask me about the parameters here as we are not allowed to discuss about it in this forum. I just don't want wrong information to be spread out.

As for "for the same amount of battery", that's wrong again. But indeed if you don't make forward progress with P mode OA off, you have no choice but to switch to Sport mode. I've explained about this "long distance" flight in post #16. I put the words long distance with quotes as what we do with stock battery is not really long distance that people like lolo780 or CyberNate do. What they do IS really long distance.

 

[Redline870]

I didn’t mean it literally. I guess what I should have said is, “you gain a lot more speed for a minimal amount more battery consumption”. Fly the Mavic full speed for 5% battery consumption and see how far you get. Now do the same test in Sport Mode and you will make it MUCH further

 

[Boogie_nights]

Hi there, I'm new to the forum. My drone was down and I want to seek some advise on:
1) how come the auto RTB (and warning) did not function and gave me sufficient warning on returning earlier?
2) how do I go about the replacement drone (I still have the remote controller)? Neither the Mavic shop site nor other retailers have the bare drone for sale.

Here are more details.........(I live in Sydney, Australia)

I started the flight at Canton Beach with a fresh battery at 100%. At 60%, It was 4km away over the headland of The Entrance North. I decided it was time to bring it back and it still should have 20% left when it landed, in theory. What I did not notice was the wind direction and speed. The fact was it cruised at about 32km/h outbound with tail wind. Coming back it was doing only 15 to 20km/h with the dreadful head wind. The rest was history. It dived into the lake 545m from the shore where I stood. The emergency landing warning came up but that did not help before it was over a large body of water (the lake).

Thanks in advance folks...........

Here is the last 30 seconds of the flight before it dived into the lake, if you are interested.

The last 30 seconds of footage before my Mavic Pro dived into Tuggerah Lake, Central Coast, NSW, Australia, 545 metres off Canton Beach, Toukley | SkyPixel.com

Newegg.com has a whole refurbished drone for $725, worth it

 

[bobj151]

There is such requirement in Australia. It was line of sight with unblocked view in my case. I must say though I struggle to "see" the actual aircraft further than 2km away on a clear day. I guess your point is to keep the max flying distance to the limit of what you can actually eyeball it. That way, you should always be able to return the aircraft safely.

You can pick up a Strobon UAV Strobe Light for your drone ,makes it easy to spot in daylight ,they come in white ,green ,red and blue.

 

[BubbaDan]

I had a bad wind issue one time. Flying in a buddy’s yard, showing him his first up close drone encounter. He has a wall of huge trees surrounding his yard. I got above the tree line and “whoosh”, there it went. Sport mode actually only held it in place against the wind. Fortunately, I grew up with a dad who was an avid sailboat freak. I applied what I knew about sailing to the wind and got it back by tacking into the wind. Fortunately I didn’t panic and still has 70% battery when the wind got it. It made it back with the battery in the low 20’s.

 

[contactpete]

Hi there, I'm new to the forum. My drone was down and I want to seek some advise on:
1) how come the auto RTB (and warning) did not function and gave me sufficient warning on returning earlier?
2) how do I go about the replacement drone (I still have the remote controller)? Neither the Mavic shop site nor other retailers have the bare drone for sale.

Here are more details.........(I live in Sydney, Australia)

I started the flight at Canton Beach with a fresh battery at 100%. At 60%, It was 4km away over the headland of The Entrance North. I decided it was time to bring it back and it still should have 20% left when it landed, in theory. What I did not notice was the wind direction and speed. The fact was it cruised at about 32km/h outbound with tail wind. Coming back it was doing only 15 to 20km/h with the dreadful head wind. The rest was history. It dived into the lake 545m from the shore where I stood. The emergency landing warning came up but that did not help before it was over a large body of water (the lake).

Thanks in advance folks...........

Here is the last 30 seconds of the flight before it dived into the lake, if you are interested.

The last 30 seconds of footage before my Mavic Pro dived into Tuggerah Lake, Central Coast, NSW, Australia, 545 metres off Canton Beach, Toukley | SkyPixel.com

I think you answered your own question.
Always be aware of wind conditions and battery life...

The only other way to get the drone to trave faster is in Sports mode but it depleats battery much faster....

I also fly around Tuggerah Lake, but normally only on very still days, for that exact reason, I have noticed the Mavic Pro and wind are not too friendly.

If you want to contact me we could meet up and swap notes;

Contact me on; @contactpete Twitter, Instagram, Periscope and now SnapChat