First bird encounter mid-air!?

[lepracaun]

Hello all Mavic Pilots! So i had a strange encounter today, at first while flying i thought i had connection issues, then after going to the scene where i had the encounter, i thought i might have clipped the trees as i was around 500m away and didn't have open line of sight. I am flying with a huawei p10 so could not really see much especially with the bright sun out today.

Viewing the footage later i see i did in fact clear the trees, so my only logical explanation is that a bird from the trees below didn't like the visitor. You will see there are 3 instances when the Mavic behaved strange, even after initiating the RTH.

Here is a link to the clip talked above, what is your thoughts on what might have happened? Very curious!

 

[sar104]

Hello all Mavic Pilots! So i had a strange encounter today, at first while flying i thought i had connection issues, then after going to the scene where i had the encounter, i thought i might have clipped the trees as i was around 500m away and didn't have open line of sight. I am flying with a huawei p10 so could not really see much especially with the bright sun out today.

Viewing the footage later i see i did in fact clear the trees, so my only logical explanation is that a bird from the trees below didn't like the visitor. You will see there are 3 instances when the Mavic behaved strange, even after initiating the RTH.

Here is a link to the clip talked above, what is your thoughts on what might have happened? Very curious!

That's hard to determine without seeing the flight log.

 

[lepracaun]

That's hard to determine without seeing the flight log.

Never used it before, where do i load the. DAT file once i downloaded from Mavic?

 

[Gray_seagull]

Looks like a gimbal reset mid-flight
It happens once a while

 

[sar104]

Never used it before, where do i load the. DAT file once i downloaded from Mavic?

Just the txt log from the device should be sufficient. You can post that here or upload it to PhantomHelp:

DJI Flight Log Viewer

 

[sar104]

Looks like a gimbal reset mid-flight
It happens once a while

I agree - it looks like a gimbal issue rather than the aircraft itself.

 

[Hpacura]

Gimbal reset.

 

[lepracaun]

Just the txt log from the device should be sufficient. You can post that here or upload it to PhantomHelp:

DJI Flight Log Viewer

Thx: Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[sar104]

Thx: Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

There are no obvious anomalies in the flight telemetry, specifically pitch/roll/yaw data, but there are three periods of strange values in the gimbal roll data:

 

[lepracaun]

There are no obvious anomalies in the flight telemetry, specifically pitch/roll/yaw data, but there are three periods of strange values in the gimbal roll data:

View attachment 33399

Thank you for all the help. Will monitor over next few flights and see if it happens again [emoji106]

 

[Flynz]

I have had many occasions where flights of pigeons have taken an interest in my Mavic Pro. There are a few flashes in my videos as the pass by. The seem to be interested and just wing past me in formation.
However I have also had sea gulls take an interest. A whole different game. They act far more aggressively and I am told can attack. perhaps that is what happened to you?

An instructor told me that he puts the drone in sports mode and flies vertically very quickly. He says this startles the gulls as they are not familiar with vertical flight and they leave it alone. I tried this but the AP told me I could not change mode while flying.

I have got used to the pigeons, just, but avoid the larger and more aggressive gulls.

 

[Flynz]

Magpies might be another thing yet!!

 

[Wilbur&Garth]

Looks like a gimbal reset mid-flight
It happens once a while

Ya, the exact thing happened to me once. Scared the crap out of me. I thought it hit something and was coming down, then realized it was just the camera acting wonky. Glad to hear it's not too big a deal.

 

[fiftiesnut]

Hello all Mavic Pilots! So i had a strange encounter today, at first while flying i thought i had connection issues, then after going to the scene where i had the encounter, i thought i might have clipped the trees as i was around 500m away and didn't have open line of sight. I am flying with a huawei p10 so could not really see much especially with the bright sun out today.

Viewing the footage later i see i did in fact clear the trees, so my only logical explanation is that a bird from the trees below didn't like the visitor. You will see there are 3 instances when the Mavic behaved strange, even after initiating the RTH.

Here is a link to the clip talked above, what is your thoughts on what might have happened? Very curious!

After viewing your video, here is my opinion. I had the exact same experience flying my Mavic about 160 feet well above the trees. I viewed the same type of jerking viewed in your video. After four or five hits like this, my drone finally fell from the sky. This was less than a quarter of a mile from my house. I had some idea of where the drone was in flight at that time so took my controller with phone and scouted my neighborhood. Finally I received a picture (gimbal was still recording) of what looked to be a blue sky, the limbs of a Crape Myrtle bush and a chain link fence. I also saw a fast moving shadow pass above the fallen drone twice and then later two large birds circling high above. My conclusion is that the drone was brought down by a bird attack. Thank goodness for the "find my drone" on the DJI Go app. It pinpointed the fallen drone perfectly. I have flown this drone since and as far as I can tell the only damage was broken props and very small chip in one corner.