Drone Would Not Land - In Restricted Flight Zone - Badly Cut Index Fingers

[tlblitzer]

I was in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on vacation. I launched the Mavic 3 from the beach area on a beach chaise lounge. After flying it without issues, I tried to land the drone, but it came to a hover about 3’-0” or 4’-0” up in the air above the chaise lounge, but it would not land. The controller then said it could not land because it was in a Restricted Flight Zone (or something along those lines) and it was not safe to land. So, I grabbed the drone and tried to turn off the battery. No luck. I then tried to remove the battery from the drone. Unfortunately, the tabs to remove the battery are very high up on the drone. In process of “successfully” ejecting the battery from the drone, I BADLY cut both Index fingers and had to go to the hospital. One finger was injured much more severely than the other. The right Index finger had two deep cuts that required stitches. Thankfully no nerves or tendons were damaged in the proces. $900 of medical bills later, my fingers are now healing. Yes, that was stupid. I admit it. I should have thrown a towel over the drone and risked damaging the propellors and not my fingers.

Has anybody ever have this happen to them? Do you have any suggestions on how to address this in the future should this occur? If I wore kevlar reinforced gloves or thick work gloves, what would happen if I grab the propellors? How else could I have turned off the drone? This is ludicrous. It was not a Restricted Flight Zone when I took off, but it was when I tried to land the Mavic 3 but couldn’t.

 

[GFields]

Did you not try an emergency stop?

Or, although I would only do this in such an emergency situation and that is flip the drone sideways which will shut it down.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Did you not try an emergency stop?

Or, although I would only do this in such an emergency situation and that is flip the drone sideways which will shut it down.

Sorry but, for two separate reasons, I would suggest that an attempted emergency stop with the CSC was not something for this situation.
1) with the setting at the default, "emergency only" it will not work as a motor stop, the setting needs to be changed to "Anytime"/"Always", which ever is applicable. With "emergency only" and the situation described by the OP, I suspect the drone would have orbited and possibly not even descended. Which leads to
2) Ignoring "down" for the moment, the CSC commands full speed reverse & sideways flight combined with full speed yaw. The result, in free flight with ample height, would be a circle at the radius and speed determined by the flight mode i.e. it could have hit other people. If the drone can reduce its height then that circle becomes a descending helix but again at the maximum speeds of the flight mode. Even with the "emergency motor stop" setting set to "Anytime" etc. the CSC takes probably takes 1.7 seconds to work, by which time the drone is likely to have an appreciable horizontal speed.

In the OP's situation something was preventing the drone landing, if that continued to work the drone would, setting depending, have traced out that circle/arc.

Why doesn't the CSC work with "emergency only" set? Because the programming is set up so that the drone itself has to 'think' it has suffered an emergency and the OP's situation would not have fulfilled its criteria.

The OP would have done better to use your second suggestion or, and this is with the benefit of not panicking hindsight, simply leave the drone hovering until the battery ran out and critical landing forced the drone done.

As a third suggestion the OP could possibly have done a normal hand catch.

 

[Meta4]

The controller then said it could not land because it was in a Restricted Flight Zone (or something along those lines) and it was not safe to land.

It's unlikely that the screen message said anything about a restricted area, as that wouldn't prevent landing.
It was probably that the drone identified your intended landing spot as unsuitable and simply flying a short distance away you could have easily landed somewhere else.

So, I grabbed the drone and tried to turn off the battery. No luck. I then tried to remove the battery from the drone.

You could have safely landed on a hand, or lowered the drone and held it from underneath and held the left stick down for two seconds to stop the motors.
Trying to mess with the battery with the props still spinning was asking for trouble

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

To the OP, sorry about the finger. Blimey that some bill for a couple of stitches.
If you upload the flight log for the flight to PhantomHelp or replay the flight in the App's flight records section you may see the warning message with out the need for 'something like that'.
If you do up load the flight log to Phantomhelp please post the resulting URL here.

It may well have been that all you needed to do was touch the message to reveal "something like" a "Do you want the drone to land?" option.

I often see 'you can't land the drone here because the landing site is not suitable' messages and I think all I do is touch the message, acknowledge the subsequent whatever and the drone either lands or accepts a descend command from the controller. It's so routine I no longer give it the attention necessary to remember the message or, in detail, the procedure.

If your recollection of the message is correct, I would post this story on the DJI forum and ask DJI what you should have done.

Aside from GFields "snatch and twist", which is a valid emergency procedure - I've used it, for real, once myself - the alternatives I can come up with are let the drone hover until the battery runs out or do a 'normal' hand catch.

 

[mobilehomer]

[Comment removed by ADMIN, Be NICE...] Then practice landing and reading warnings. If that doesn't work, I highly recommend selling the drone.

 

[LoudThunder]

If all else fails and you are able to get your hand on the drone, the secret is then to turn the drone over on its side. The IMU will recognize the "out of control position" of the drone and shut the motors down.

 

[mavic3usa]

Just let the drone run out of battery.

 

[Repaid1]

As post #7 outlined, the easiest way is to just immediately flip the "Drone" inverted with a simple arm rotation with the aircraft held at arms length below the eye level. This has been the case for over 5 years and "Should" be well known to DJI flyers. This is how it is done on boats and other such terrain where playing with the remote is secondary for instant power off. This should be practiced as among other things to routine flying skills long before venturing out in public to responsibly flying these things.

Know how immediately handle pretty much all scenarios of a "emergency" situation, not learn after the fact that I should have done this, instead of "Freaking out". Be a responsible pilot for this community...not "One of those guys".

 

[Anthony Ivory]

I just left Punta Cana in June flew with no problem. There are no NO FLY Zones in the resort areas more than a mile from the airport.
The sand was probably the issue . You just have to be patient and learn the proper steps to a HAND RECOVERY And Launch. PLEASE watch YOUTUBE videos on drone subjects. 90% of all questions can be found there or on this form. You can’t beat someone showing step by step what to do.

 

[howardK]

From one Houstonian to another, i hope you are feeling better. I like the idea of either a hand catch or just let the battery fizzle out

 

[Joey Yambor]

I was in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on vacation. I launched the Mavic 3 from the beach area on a beach chaise lounge. After flying it without issues, I tried to land the drone, but it came to a hover about 3’-0” or 4’-0” up in the air above the chaise lounge, but it would not land. The controller then said it could not land because it was in a Restricted Flight Zone (or something along those lines) and it was not safe to land. So, I grabbed the drone and tried to turn off the battery. No luck. I then tried to remove the battery from the drone. Unfortunately, the tabs to remove the battery are very high up on the drone. In process of “successfully” ejecting the battery from the drone, I BADLY cut both Index fingers and had to go to the hospital. One finger was injured much more severely than the other. The right Index finger had two deep cuts that required stitches. Thankfully no nerves or tendons were damaged in the proces. $900 of medical bills later, my fingers are now healing. Yes, that was stupid. I admit it. I should have thrown a towel over the drone and risked damaging the propellors and not my fingers.

Has anybody ever have this happen to them? Do you have any suggestions on how to address this in the future should this occur? If I wore kevlar reinforced gloves or thick work gloves, what would happen if I grab the propellors? How else could I have turned off the drone? This is ludicrous. It was not a Restricted Flight Zone when I took off, but it was when I tried to land the Mavic 3 but couldn’t.

Actually yes I have had this happen to me twice with my Mavic Air 2. Soon as I entered the restriction zone I could not fly it anywhere else I started going down If you start going down first then pull back to bring it back you're all right If you're high up you can just come down 50 ft or so and then you can come back to your point of takeoff that's what I had to do both times. But you must descend first before you're able to come back...

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Then practice landing and reading warnings. If that doesn't work, I highly recommend selling the drone.

One comment about that, warnings sometime flash up and disappear too quickly to be read, especially if you are watching the drone and not staring at the screen device. This is one reason for the use of a screen recorder though that is only of use afterwards.

 

[JimSteadman]

I feel your pain. I too have had a couple of completely unanticipated issues arise, but managed to get the drone back under control after a few moments of intense anxiety and a fair amount of sweating. To those who responded RTFM, yes, that is a good idea. But when confronted with what seems to be an emergency situation, it sometimes results in not being able to remember the entirety of the manual or be able to remember the particular bit of info which would get you out of that situation. Now you will remember and it won't be a problem. I hope your healing continues and you have a full recovery.

 

[tlblitzer]

I feel your pain. I too have had a couple of completely unanticipated issues arise, but managed to get the drone back under control after a few moments of intense anxiety and a fair amount of sweating. To those who responded RTFM, yes, that is a good idea. But when confronted with what seems to be an emergency situation, it sometimes results in not being able to remember the entirety of the manual or be able to remember the particular bit of info which would get you out of that situation. Now you will remember and it won't be a problem. I hope your healing continues and you have a full recovery.

Thank you!

 

[Felix le Chat]

I was in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on vacation. I launched the Mavic 3 from the beach area on a beach chaise lounge. After flying it without issues, I tried to land the drone, but it came to a hover about 3’-0” or 4’-0” up in the air above the chaise lounge, but it would not land. The controller then said it could not land because it was in a Restricted Flight Zone (or something along those lines) and it was not safe to land. So, I grabbed the drone and tried to turn off the battery. No luck. I then tried to remove the battery from the drone. Unfortunately, the tabs to remove the battery are very high up on the drone. In process of “successfully” ejecting the battery from the drone, I BADLY cut both Index fingers and had to go to the hospital. One finger was injured much more severely than the other. The right Index finger had two deep cuts that required stitches. Thankfully no nerves or tendons were damaged in the proces. $900 of medical bills later, my fingers are now healing. Yes, that was stupid. I admit it. I should have thrown a towel over the drone and risked damaging the propellors and not my fingers.

Has anybody ever have this happen to them? Do you have any suggestions on how to address this in the future should this occur? If I wore kevlar reinforced gloves or thick work gloves, what would happen if I grab the propellors? How else could I have turned off the drone? This is ludicrous. It was not a Restricted Flight Zone when I took off, but it was when I tried to land the Mavic 3 but couldn’t.

Perhaps the problem lay in the drone registering the chaise longue as a foreign object impeding a safe landing (regardless of the fact you took off from it).

 

[MS Coast]

Perhaps the problem lay in the drone registering the chaise longue as a foreign object impeding a safe landing (regardless of the fact you took off from it).

Yes, especially if the chaise lounge had arms or the surfaces were slats rather than solid, of if the upper portion was tilted up. All those things could have triggered the landing protection system to decide that the landing surface wasn't suitable. The drone behavior and warning the OP described are consistent with that.

 

[Droning on and on...]

I've had the unsuitable landing surface warning many times, and I swear just holding the throttle stick down overrides the condition and it lands.

Can't be sure, but man that's stuck in my memory.

 

[MS Coast]

I've had the unsuitable landing surface warning many times, and I swear just holding the throttle stick down overrides the condition and it lands.

Can't be sure, but man that's stuck in my memory.

Yes, that's what I observed. I suspect that the OP just didn't hold the left stick down long enough.

 

[NightFlightAlright]

I was flying out of a friends balcony I DTLA, on returning, the mini 3 pro was being stubborn do to the proliferation of house plants.

I’ve hand caught before but in this case the plants and drone were all awkward, the mini 3 was over the sidewalk 6 stories down, as it wouldn’t cross over the handrail/plant fiasco.

Ouch, is what I yelped as a rear blade sliced into my finger.

First time a blade hit me since starting with drones… it was more painful than expected… they appear so lightweight I wasn’t expecting that… felt more like the scalpel of a drunken surgeon…