For those new to the Hobby, and important way NOT to lose your drone

LakeTravis · Nov 19, 2016

On the PhantomPilots version of this same site, there's a post titled "First flight - RIP", in which our good friend (on this and the other site) MavicHelp (msinger) does an excellent diagnosis of why this user lost his Phantom 4 on what I think was the maiden flight. Sadly, this same procedure is a common cause of loss of aircraft for just about every advanced drone and non-advanced user. Definitely an important read for all you new folks... As always, it reminds me of my favorite slogan "just because it says ready to fly, doesn't mean you are".

And yes, the name of the thread should have been "an important..."

First flight - RIP

Mahoosiv · Nov 19, 2016

Thank you for pointing this out. Noted.

niclariv · Nov 19, 2016

That post is about someone who lost contact with his new drone and had his RTH height set too low so it crashed in to a building on the way to the launch point. With the Mavic's obstacle avoidance it's supposed to detect obstacles and go over them... hopefully that works reliably - like in this video. anyone had that fail to work during RTH?

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Gimpy · Nov 19, 2016

niclariv said:
With the Mavic's obstacle avoidance it's supposed to detect obstacles and go over them . . . anyone had that fail to work during RTH?

Yes, it should. Just the same, though, once I get my Mavic I plan to keep the RTH altitude well above any obstacle it might encounter on the way back; I'd prefer to let someone else figure out how reliable obstacle avoidance really is.

Thanks for the video link, though; that's encouraging.

niclariv · Nov 19, 2016

Definitely. I do wonder how small an obstacle it can detect - like can it detect a single power line? That would be a good one to know.

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F6Rider · Nov 19, 2016

niclariv said:
Definitely. I do wonder how small an obstacle it can detect - like can it detect a single power line? That would be a good one to know.

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I am going out on a limb here and say NO!, the tower, yes, the power line, not so much. I learned to stay away from those things.

niclariv · Nov 19, 2016

Thanks!

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LakeTravis · Nov 20, 2016

niclariv said:
That post is about someone who lost contact with his new drone and had his RTH height set too low so it crashed in to a building on the way to the launch point. With the Mavic's obstacle avoidance it's supposed to detect obstacles and go over them... hopefully that works reliably - like in this video.

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anyone had that fail to work during RTH?

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Correction, the post I mentioned was a P3.

m0j0 · Nov 23, 2016

Power line no way. That worked like a charm though

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Marco Cantieni · Nov 23, 2016

I plan to put a GPS tracker on my drone, the RF-V16. I have tested it off drone for a few day works good. Updating every 60sec the position sent to the internet via SIM card for 9h took 50% of it battery live and did cost 30cents of my prepaid card

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Random155 · Nov 23, 2016

I watched a youtube video where a guy stretched a hose across in front of the mavic, and the mavic didnt detect it. So I can say that it won't detect a power line.