First scare with Mavic Air

[Quebecnewf]

Flying today , very close maybe 150 yds in sight. Suddenly controller disconnects and I get a black screen . I kind of panic have no control . Red light blinking in controller . Air does as its supposed and comes back and lands all ok .

Can not figure out why it disconnected . It seemed to take a meandering flight back but this might just be panic talking .

Have no idea why it disconnected . Never reconnected until I turned air of and back on . Batt on both controller and air were 68 and 74 per cent . Flew it after and all seemed fine .

Any ideas

Quebecnewf

 

[Scottalmas]

Regarding its flight path back, I think that the return to home follows the route backwards that you flew it out.

 

[Thomas B]

Regarding its flight path back, I think that the return to home follows the route backwards that you flew it out.

Check the manual... full one from DJI on the website.
My Spark, MPP, and M2P take the most direct route to the recorded home point. This could be a drone saver.

https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/Mavic%20Air/20180525/Mavic%20Air%20User%20Manual%20v1.2.pdf

Also be sure your RTH altitude relative to takeoff point (aka home point) will be above all obstacles.

 

[Quebecnewf]

Ok that explains that . Still not sure why the complete disconnect ?

 

[Meta4]

It seemed to take a meandering flight back but this might just be panic talking .

That's the way it's programmed to work.
See page 14 from your manual ....

 

[Quebecnewf]

Ok that seems to be how it went . It sort of went back over the path it had made I guess and then because there was no reconnect it then straightened it self up came home and landed.

That is all good but I would like to know why it disconnected . My first time having this happen . Maybe I should have powered of the controller and repowered it in order to try and reconnect but as it was coming home I expected it to reconnect at any moment so I just kept waiting until it landed .

Given what we know what should have been my best move . Do nothing or repower theccontroller

Quebecnewf

 

[Olav van Gerven]

I have tried RTH a few times now, simply to see how accurate it is and from a difficult spot I flew into, to return without collisions. After I pushed the RTH a moment, the young ladfy they have banned in the controller told me "RTH is activated...", the drone went up to 50 meters (as instructed pre-flight), took position for the shortest route back and returned.

BTW: Do I have to provide the lady inside the controler with coffee once in a while?

 

[Quebecnewf]

I’ve tried RTH as well and it works fine . Thank god it works fine I guess in this case .

Quebecnewf

 

[Deleted member 94047]

I think there is a difference in procedure between Failsafe RTH (i.e. when remote controller signal is lost) is triggered vs when you activate it yourself. In the later, I don't think the drone tries to retrace its flight path for 60s as it does in the former. It adjusts its altitude (if conditions are met), re orients itself, and flies straight to the home point. Once it reaches its home point, i have seen the drone realign itself as precision landing kicks in. In either case, I think it is worthwhile to learn how to properly respond in such situations and the best way to do that is to practice them. Find a safe environment such as a wide open field with no trees or other obstructions. Send the drone some distance and go through every possible emergency scenario including a remote controller signal loss (resulting in a Fail-safe RTH), a remote controller cable disconnect, an app crash, a phone restart, a smart RTH, a self-triggered RTH, and so on. You will be all the more prepared when such events happen; and they will at some point. I have had a signal loss just after take off, the drone was may be 50m away. Fail safe RTH kicked in, drone came back and tried to land on wet ground. Not enough time to restart the remote controller. Didn't know what to do and instinctively I extended my palm below the drone as it was coming in to land hoping it would land on my palm. Drone sensed my hand, rose up a little and hovered in place. I was then able to restart the remote controller. It reconnected and I was able to land it safely.

 

[Dakarenduro]

To the OP. Lots of variables. What environment were you flying in? Open field. Trees. Urban city street. Etc.?

Where (USA or abroad)? Makes a different in default RC power.

Did you have your mobile in airplane mode?

Have you since tried to reconnect?

 

[Quebecnewf]

Flying in open . Nothing around . No wifi interference . Flying in Canada. Mobile not in airplane mode . Should it be?
It reconnected as soon as I swapped battery in MA and started it again. Batt was still at 68 per cent :

Flew a couple flights after no problem but I would love to know what caused problem .

I like the idea of doing drills on what to do in different situations will try to practise that

Quebecnewf

 

[Dakarenduro]

OK. Others can chime in because I do not know if Canada suffers from the reduced power. You can Google or YouTube how to switch into FCC mode. And also how to tell what mode you are in. Its very simple.

Here is a thread. FCC mode

And from my readings, in CE mode 150yds is quite possible to have interference.

I recommend going into airplane mode. Not worth risking interference from your phone, since the RC is using standard wifi...

 

[Deleted member 3792]

Flying in open . Nothing around . No wifi interference . Flying in Canada. Mobile not in airplane mode . Should it be?
It reconnected as soon as I swapped battery in MA and started it again. Batt was still at 68 per cent :

Flew a couple flights after no problem but I would love to know what caused problem .

I like the idea of doing drills on what to do in different situations will try to practise that

Quebecnewf

I always fly with phone in airplane mode, who wants to have a phonecall then?

 

[Quebecnewf]

No cell service where I live so I’m not getting any calls airplane mode or not

Quebecnewf

 

[Bruce Lythe]

My guess is it is a dodgy cable. Get an Anker and use the bottom big USB port. If failure of app, don't panic, unplug and replug the phone cable. It should reconnect no worries

 

[The Editor]

No cell service where I live so I’m not getting any calls airplane mode or not

Quebecnewf

Makes no difference - your phone/tablet will try and poll the network to establish a connection.
It is ALWAYS good practice to place the phone in airplane mode prior to flight.

 

[Quebecnewf]

I was thinking maybe cable I was using the USB connection but thinking back there has times when I’ve used one of my cables and you plug it in and it don’t charge and then you replug and it’s good.

New cable and shorter one on my list

Good info about airplane mode will switch it on before flights

Quebecnewf

 

[Joe Boudreault]

Flying today , very close maybe 150 yds in sight. Suddenly controller disconnects and I get a black screen . I kind of panic have no control . Red light blinking in controller . Air does as its supposed and comes back and lands all ok .

Can not figure out why it disconnected . It seemed to take a meandering flight back but this might just be panic talking .

Have no idea why it disconnected . Never reconnected until I turned air of and back on . Batt on both controller and air were 68 and 74 per cent . Flew it after and all seemed fine .

Any ideas

Quebecnewf

There is no guarantee of a continuous signal. The RTH is almost fail-safe, however, as it doesn't depend on that signal but uses a programmed return data path to launch point.

 

[Choppermagic]

New member here.
I've had disconnects a bunch of times when blocked by an object temporarily like trees, a low wall, etc. It always came back so i got used to it and don't realy panic.

 

[vili]

USB cable? NO!
"I kind of panic have no control . Red light blinking in controller "
So no connection between RC and Aircraft. Just like out of range, but why not green led when close?