Good news...bad news

[ninja_geezer]

The good news first. From my 105’ high condo balcony, into a totally clear unobstructed horizon, my little MA2 actually made a trip some 27,744 before I had to abort and RTH. Starting out at a 200’ alt. I had to climb several times up toward to the 400’ ceiling after several LOS’s. With 50% battery remaining I started the RTH. That’s unfortunately the end of the good news.

The wind direction changed from a cross to more head-on over a reservoir about 3.5 miles out. I made it back to about a mile away when forced to land. I looked for a clearing on the map to safely land and found one on the Google map and emergency landed. I marked the GPS coords, did a “find my drone” and headed out to the site.

Problem was that, while the terrain showed clear on the Google map, it was fully wooded when I got there! Bottom line, drone lost. Couldn’t find it up in the trees along the flight path.

I’m a very unhappy x-drone owner. I know...join the club, right ?. I do have a three-yr DJI Fresh Care Replacement Policy, but it doesn’t support lost drones.

???????

This is why to my the DJI refresh is a rip off, what kind of insurance makes you have to find the lost drone to make a claim ,sorry but its a waste of money.......sorry about your lost drone ,i insure mine independently and if i lose or damage i get a replacement

 

[Meta4]

This flight was always going to end badly.
It looks like you really didn't want to bring the drone home.

With 50% battery remaining I started the RTH.

Looking at the flight data, what actually happened was that you started your flight with battery at 94%.
You flew out a great distance and initiated RTH at 17:26.2 with battery showing 39%.
You don't need a calculator to see the problem there.

But wait ... there's more.

The wind direction changed from a cross to more head-on over a reservoir about 3.5 miles out.

On your flight out, the drone had an easy ride on a tailwind.
It's max pitch angle was 10° and much of the time the drone was cruising along at only half of that.

Returning home, the drone had a pitch angle of around 30° (which is what it uses for Sport Mode) but only achieving 80% of the regular speed of Normal Mode.
It was having to fight a significant headwind 400 feet up.

But this was all avoidable.
Your flight data shows that when the battery was still showing 66% you started to return home ... but changed your mind and cancelled after 14 seconds and resumed the doomed flight.
Looking at the data from that short RTH, with the drone 158 ft up it was pitching to 20° to fight the headwind and only reaching 80% of the normal full speed.

Some rough calculating suggests that your drone might have almost made the distance home from that point, particularly if you had reduced your altitude to be fighting a weaker headwind.
But going beyond that point was a fatal mistake.

 

[prestonrich]

This flight was always going to end badly.
It looks like you really didn't want to bring the drone home.

Looking at the flight data, what actually happened was that you started your flight with battery at 94%.
You flew out a great distance and initiated RTH at 17:26.2 with battery showing 39%.
You don't need a calculator to see the problem there.

But wait ... there's more.

On your flight out, the drone had an easy ride on a tailwind.
It's max pitch angle was 10° and much of the time the drone was cruising along at only half of that.

Returning home, the drone had a pitch angle of around 30° (which is what it uses for Sport Mode) but only achieving 80% of the regular speed of Normal Mode.
It was having to fight a significant headwind 400 feet up.

But this was all avoidable.
Your flight data shows that when the battery was still showing 66% you started to return home ... but changed your mind and cancelled after 14 seconds and resumed the doomed flight.
Looking at the data from that short RTH, with the drone 158 ft up it was pitching to 20° to fight the headwind and only reaching 80% of the normal full speed.

Some rough calculating suggests that your drone might have almost made the distance home from that point, particularly if you had reduced your altitude to be fighting a weaker headwind.
But going beyond that point was a fatal mistake.

This flight was always going to end badly.
It looks like you really didn't want to bring the drone home.

Looking at the flight data, what actually happened was that you started your flight with battery at 94%.
You flew out a great distance and initiated RTH at 17:26.2 with battery showing 39%.
You don't need a calculator to see the problem there.

But wait ... there's more.

On your flight out, the drone had an easy ride on a tailwind.
It's max pitch angle was 10° and much of the time the drone was cruising along at only half of that.

Returning home, the drone had a pitch angle of around 30° (which is what it uses for Sport Mode) but only achieving 80% of the regular speed of Normal Mode.
It was having to fight a significant headwind 400 feet up.

But this was all avoidable.
Your flight data shows that when the battery was still showing 66% you started to return home ... but changed your mind and cancelled after 14 seconds and resumed the doomed flight.
Looking at the data from that short RTH, with the drone 158 ft up it was pitching to 20° to fight the headwind and only reaching 80% of the normal full speed.

Some rough calculating suggests that your drone might have almost made the distance home from that point, particularly if you had reduced your altitude to be fighting a weaker headwind.
But going beyond that point was a fatal mistake.

I largely agree with your conclusions and assumptions. This was essentially pilot error on the part of a newbie. When I turned back after the first RTH warning I seemed to be getting confusing compass readings and started struggling (panicking) a bit trying to get my bearings back. That was costly delay and lessons learned. Thank you for weighing in on this.

 

[Thomas B]

Errors in judgement, for whatever reason, are the reason for the majority of unplanned outcomes and these are compounded by overextending.

 

[rcourtney671]

Sorry to hear your MA2 may be lost but thanks for sharing the adventure and I hope you're able to find it. I think you already know all the mistakes made so no need to reiterate what others have said. I'm relatively new and learning from the mistakes others have made and posted here. I looked at your flight log and it appears your max distance from home was 29,109 ft. (a little over 5.5 miles) and I gotta say WOW!! That's not an encouragement or let's do it again WOW but simply an I'm amazed kind of WOW. Let's not do that again.

 

[DanMan32]

I largely agree with your conclusions and assumptions. This was essentially pilot error on the part of a newbie. When I turned back after the first RTH warning I seemed to be getting confusing compass readings and started struggling (panicking) a bit trying to get my bearings back. That was costly delay and lessons learned. Thank you for weighing in on this.

By "compass readings" I assume you mean the relative position indicator on the middle bottom. Forget that as it can be confusing. It depends on your device compass to know which way YOU are facing in relation to where the drone is, and device compasses are notorious for getting out of calibration. If you do use it, only go by which way the triangle (the AC) is pointing towards center. Center being you.
Better yet, bring up the map view which will show a line between it and home point. Just orient the AC to point back towards the line.

 

[Thomas B]

By "compass readings" I assume you mean the relative position indicator on the middle bottom. Forget that as it can be confusing. It depends on your device compass to know which way YOU are facing in relation to where the drone is, and device compasses are notorious for getting out of calibration. If you do use it, only go by which way the triangle (the AC) is pointing towards center. Center being you.
Better yet, bring up the map view which will show a line between it and home point. Just orient the AC to point back towards the line.

Better yet fly VLOS and just look.

 

[DanMan32]

I'm not sure about the MA2, but most other Mavics, you can override auto landing descent by throttling up on left stick enough to counter the descent rate and keep flying forward.
With the M2, you can fly as long as 2 minutes longer after battery shows 0%

If wind is against you while you are high up, try descending to a lower altitude. There may be less wind at lower altitudes. Of course at lower altitudes, you are more susceptible to signal loss, so you have to strike a balance.

If you are far out, don't ignore call for RTH.
Try to fly upwind when starting out on long excursions, so that you have a tail wind coming back.

Don't fly so far out until you get experience with your particular aircraft.