Dumb, Different, and Dangerous.

[Falcon1az]

I've told my kids, "Don't do anything Dumb, Different, or Dangerous." I've said that regularly to them beginning at an early age. Boy did I ever forget the meaning of that phrase this weekend.

Confession time.

I've gotta share this with the community. This was something very Dumb, Different, and Dangerous I did. I want to share it so it doesn't happen to you.

Bottom line up front: Don't fly indoors with people nearby.

I have over 50 successful flights with my Mavic. I've tested several intelligent flight modes. I've flown it in P-mode and Sport-mode. I've flown it in windy conditions. I've had DJI Go 4 crash on me several times during multiple flights. I've flown indoors. (Also race drones, have 2 micro drones for indoor fight with several flights on them.)
My confidence is/was high with the Mavic Pro.

I brought the machine to a family event. Took it outside the hotel some of my family was staying. I flew it outside in an open parking lot and took a few pictures/videos. 3 short flights, all very successful.

I packed the machine up and put it in the case and brought the machine up to my family's suite.

Both confident and proud of my, relatively new machine, I wanted to briefly hover it for them in the living room of their suite. I had done this at home and in an office previously both experiences predictable and successful.

Now the Dumb, Different, and Dangerous part.

Flying indoors, near people is Dumb, Different, and Dangerous.

I took my Mavic Pro out of the DJI case and set it up to show my family members. Very excited and proud of this latest addition to the 8 drones I own (3 of them are racing drones).

I ran my preflight checklist in the parking lot. When I put the machine away in the parking lot the flight mode switch was accidently moved to Sport-mode.

Besides flying the machine indoors, near people... my next mistake was to think I didn't need to run my preflight checklist again. Its a thorough and excellent checklist I downloaded from this sight.

So I powered the machine on, spun the machine up, then down, and determined it was "SAFE" to bring the machine to a hover. The machine lifted off to about 1 foot, then begin drifting off position, and before I could catch it... it struck a foot stool.
Dumb, Different, and Dangerous.

I put family members in a very dangerous situation without really realizing it until after the event. I could have easily struck one of them causing great harm and injury. I can't begin to tell you how foolish this stunt was... how dangerous.

I was lucky... no one was hurt. Luck, my friends, is NOTHING you count on when you fly anything. Flying is very thorough, thoughtful, with attention to detail and great attention to safety among ALL ELSE.

My take aways from this colossal lack of judgement, airmenship, and disregarding years of experience in this moment:
- Never fly your Mavic indoors (or outdoors), even remotely, near people. DON'T DO IT.
- Always run you pre-flight checklist (if you don't have one - get one).
- You always provide yourself with a wide margin for safety.
- Trust your best judgement as to whether it is safe to fly or not. Always err on the side of safety.

You have no idea how lucky I was no one was hurt or injured by my lack of judgement.
I had to share this huge error in judgement. It is an extremely painful lesson for me.
A mistake I will NEVER make again.

Remember... Dumb, Different, or Dangerous.

 

[Kilrah]

Dumb and Dangerous I agree, Different however should be encouraged as that is what makes life interesting and makes you go forward (as long as it's not Dumb or Dangerous or only reasonably so).

But in this case the accepted recommendation is don't fly indoors, since it's known to be dangerous it becomes quite dumb to do it especially with people around.

 

[BD0G]

Flying indoors is just a marketing gimmick by DJI to sell more drones.
If you must fly indoors. install prop guards , turn on the prop guard setting in the DJI GO 4 app and fly in a large open space like a warehouse. Or better yet. Never fly indoors.

 

[Kestrel]

Yeah even the Mavic is to small to fly indoors IMO. That is unless you are in some sort of warehouse.

 

[tcope]

What BDoG stated.

I got this far.. "Bottom line up front: Don't fly indoors with people nearby" and was simply going to say that DJI should not advertise that their drones can be flown indoors. But I can't say it any better then BD0G.

 

[duelingglove]

Self identified and rectified problem with a solution. You're GTG, I learned not to fly outside at the night the hard way. A month and half later drone was replaced by DJI.

 

[quick_dry]

don't beat yourself up about it too much, I've seen video of someone flying an Inspire a couple of feet above a class of primary schoolers who were sitting down - just standing up would've been a haircut (at best)

 

[zpdana]

Agree 100% with Kilrah.