First Post.. not a good one

[Brandon101884]

I’m an owner of a broken Mavic Pro, had it two years and two days ago was my first (and last) incident. I’m at the beach for the week and obviously brought the drone. I wanted to get some sunset pictures so I decided to take it out and over the water. I brought the drone up and went right out. As I was flying over the water I received a high wind advisory. Once I received the warning I immediately turned the aircraft around to return home. When trying to return home I noticed the aircraft drifting farther away. I was flying over the ocean and continued trying to get it to a safe spot to land. I decided to fly with the wind to be able to make it to land even though it would take the aircraft a greater distance away. I was intermittently losing connection towards the end of the flight. I finally got the aircraft away from the ocean and over the sand. I dropped altitude and tried to fly closer to the home point. This was an unsuccessful attempt and I decided to land it in the sand and pick up the aircraft. I landed in a safe spot in the sand and used the map to locate it. When enroute to recover the aircraft the connection was re-established. I’m not 100% sure if the aircraft tried to Return To Home on it’s own after landing. A message did pop up asking if I wanted to cancel the return to home. I did cancel it because I was unable to see anything on the camera and knew it would be unable to make it home with the wind in it’s current condition. Once I found the aircraft it was sitting closer to the ocean then where I had landed it. It was several hundred feet from where I landed it and where the flight records show. Here is the bad news, It was being hit with ocean waves. Is it possible for the aircraft to return to home on its own once it’s landed? It’s the only reasonable explanation as to why it wasn’t in the location I had landed.
As of now the drone turns on and lights up, it does not make its sound that it normally does. It is also not connecting to the controls. I’m assuming this is a goner. Is it worth sending back to see if it can be fixed?

 

[Deleted member 93449]

Based on what I've read the best thing to do, especially if salt water has gotten into the drone, is take the battery out and thoroughly rinse the drone with distilled water. Then let it air dry or put it in a container with packets of desiccate (I've heard raw rice will draw out moisture) and leave it for a few days. Salt water if left even for a short time can do serious damage to electronics. Note, I've never had the need to do this but I've read a number of times people have successfully revived their drone after a similar drop into salt water.

 

[brettbrandon]

It really should not be turned on until fully cleaned.
You will find some info in this post.
Mavic 2 pro Water damaged !!

EDIT: DJI will not do anything service wise with water damage other than refresh.

 

[MaxHam]

I’m not 100% sure if the aircraft tried to Return To Home on it’s own after landing.

After landing (and being switched off) the drone can't start up itself and travel somewhere.
Even if it could - it would record a new home point where it is sitting. The original home point would be lost.
Is there a chance someone found the drone and moved it towards the water?

If you fly in strong winds and RTH can't get the drone back, switch into Sports mode.
Then the drone has much more power.

Why did you say (last) incident? Do you want to give up flying?
I hope not! Every failure makes you stronger!

 

[BossBob]

Not a happy ending but a chance for us all to learn. Did you stop the motors once you’d landed? If all you did was land leaving the motors idling the drone was ready to take off again and did so after reconnecting. If the propellers are spinning the drone is ready to fly. A flight is only complete once the motors have stopped. Of course, if you’ve lost connection between the rc and drone and you are sure you’ve landed you can’t stop the motors so the safest thing to do in this case is turn off the rc. The last drone position available will still be showing on whatever viewing device you’re using.
Hard luck, ditch the battery and follow the many guides to resurrecting a drowned drone. Salt water makes it much more difficult as any salt left WILL cause corrosion in time.

 

[BigAl07]

You could send it to @djidroneservice for a FREE evaluation but since you've powered it back on AFTER it was wet I'd suspect there's some "Magic Smoke" that has been released from within.

 

[Brandon101884]

After landing (and being switched off) the drone can't start up itself and travel somewhere.
Even if it could - it would record a new home point where it is sitting. The original home point would be lost.
Is there a chance someone found the drone and moved it towards the water?

If you fly in strong winds and RTH can't get the drone back, switch into Sports mode.
Then the drone has much more power.

Why did you say (last) incident? Do you want to give up flying?
I hope not! Every failure makes you stronger!

I tried switching it to sport and I received the message “Not allowed to change Aircraft Mode. If needed, enable it in main settings”. I never received that message again. I really didn’t get a chance to read the second part, once I saw the first part I moved on into recovery mode with my brain.

when I recovered it, there was nobody around. I do remember that it said it was returning home, and I had to slide to cancel. I wonder what happened..

my last incident... For this drone. Definitely not ever.

 

[Brandon101884]

Not a happy ending but a chance for us all to learn. Did you stop the motors once you’d landed? If all you did was land leaving the motors idling the drone was ready to take off again and did so after reconnecting. If the propellers are spinning the drone is ready to fly. A flight is only complete once the motors have stopped. Of course, if you’ve lost connection between the rc and drone and you are sure you’ve landed you can’t stop the motors so the safest thing to do in this case is turn off the rc. The last drone position available will still be showing on whatever viewing device you’re using.
Hard luck, ditch the battery and follow the many guides to resurrecting a drowned drone. Salt water makes it much more difficult as any salt left WILL cause corrosion in time.

mill never be 100% certain it was landed. I think I saw it land, but the screen kept freezing and going black. I held the down stick for a long while, much more than needed for a typical landing.

 

[MaxHam]

I tried switching it to sport and I received the message “Not allowed to change Aircraft Mode. If needed, enable it in main settings”.

Too bad. It seems you didn't have multiple flight modes enabled.

 

[Plainview]

Not a happy ending but a chance for us all to learn. Did you stop the motors once you’d landed? If all you did was land leaving the motors idling the drone was ready to take off again and did so after reconnecting. If the propellers are spinning the drone is ready to fly. A flight is only complete once the motors have stopped. Of course, if you’ve lost connection between the rc and drone and you are sure you’ve landed you can’t stop the motors so the safest thing to do in this case is turn off the rc. The last drone position available will still be showing on whatever viewing device you’re using.
Hard luck, ditch the battery and follow the many guides to resurrecting a drowned drone. Salt water makes it much more difficult as any salt left WILL cause corrosion in time.

Bob, how can you land and leave the motors idling? Is that possible?

 

[MaxHam]

Bob, how can you land and leave the motors idling? Is that possible?

Just release the left stick after touch down and the motors stay on.
Any auto-landing procedure though results in shut-down.

 

[BossBob]

As MaxHam said, if you land manually and don’t continue to hold the left stick down the motors stay running. If the floor was to drop (as in the deck of of boat) the motors would ramp up to keep the drone in its position. A nudge upwards on the left stick (easily done) would cause the drone to take off again and depending on settings try to RTH. By the way, I’ve never used auto landing, preferring to be in control for the crucial moment of interface with the ground or my hand.

 

[Meta4]

I’m not 100% sure if the aircraft tried to Return To Home on it’s own after landing. A message did pop up asking if I wanted to cancel the return to home. I did cancel it because I was unable to see anything on the camera and knew it would be unable to make it home with the wind in it’s current condition. Once I found the aircraft it was sitting closer to the ocean then where I had landed it. It was several hundred feet from where I landed it and where the flight records show.
Here is the bad news, It was being hit with ocean waves. Is it possible for the aircraft to return to home on its own once it’s landed? It’s the only reasonable explanation as to why it wasn’t in the location I had landed.
As of now the drone turns on and lights up, it does not make its sound that it normally does. It is also not connecting to the controls. I’m assuming this is a goner. Is it worth sending back to see if it can be fixed?

More bad news ... if seawater got into the electronics, it's toast.
Even with work, the corrosion that starts immediately, will continue and will progressively get worse.

when I recovered it, there was nobody around. I do remember that it said it was returning home, and I had to slide to cancel. I wonder what happened.

On loss of signal the drone is programmed to return to home.
If you leave a drone running and switch off the controller or the drone just loses signal to the controller, RTH is what will happen.

It sounds like an interesting flight incident to investigate and probably one that has a few lessons to be learned.
The description doesn't give enough detail to say much but the recorded flight data will have plenty of information.
To find out more, go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides and someone might be able to analyse it and give you an understanding of the cause of the incident.

 

[Paulf10]

Thanks for sharing this unfortunate experience. I enjoy flying over water, especially the ocean. I always pay close attention to the wind with the UAV Forecast app but I realize conditions can change rapidly particularly over the ocean or large bodies of water. Brandon, your post will help others including myself, so I thank you for that!
Can you tell me:

1. What was the wind speed and altitude at take off?
2. What was the wind speed and altitude your MP was drifting?
3. Did you take off and fly with or against the wind?
4. What was your distance from home when you got the high wind warning?

Thanks for any further information and good luck going forward!

 

[Brandon101884]

Is there a way to upload the flight WITHOUT the use of a computer? I haven’t owned one in almost 7 years. All I use is my iPhone.

 

[Meta4]

Is there a way to upload the flight WITHOUT the use of a computer? I haven’t owned one in almost 7 years. All I use is my iPhone.

That's going to make things difficult.
We'd really need to see that .txt file to properly see what happened.

 

[Brandon101884]

until I can download the flight logs, here are some screen shots.
The first is a picture of when it gave me the warning about winds.
The second is the disaster of an end.
The third one shows where I landed (Blue X) and where I found the aircraft (Red X)

 

[Meta4]

until I can download the flight logs, here are some screen shots.
The first is a picture of when it gave me the warning about winds.
The second is the disaster of an end.
The third one shows where I landed (Blue X) and where I found the aircraft (Red X)

It's the recorded flight data that's needed.
It will contain a spreadsheet with full data for each 1/10th of a second during the flight.

 

[Paulf10]

until I can download the flight logs, here are some screen shots.
The first is a picture of when it gave me the warning about winds.
The second is the disaster of an end.
The third one shows where I landed (Blue X) and where I found the aircraft (Red X)

Thanks Brandon!
Until you can get those flight logs, these pics are helpful!?