Got in panic with police and lost Mavic. Critical battery vs RTH?

[Av8rshane]

Seems like our society doesn’t know how to talk to one another anymore. There is a way to get your point across to someone post on here without leaving the impression that your calling them an idiot. After the first person pointed out every mistake he made then we don’t need to cover that 20 more times, I’m sure he got it the first time. We need to be civil and constructive if we want change. People stop listening when everyone jumps on them. To me it seems because we mostly do this on social media and wouldnt say the same thing is person.

 

[DroningOn]

Hmzzz... Sorry, but is it me...? I don't get this... I read this every time: Pilots ignoring signals, interrupting or canceling RTH once, twice or whatever how many times for whatever reason often saying 'last time I could fly way less than 5% or even under 0% battery charge' or reading whatever excuses to justify ignoring signals...

We're supposed to be 'pilots' of an 'aircraft' !

If I was on a plane finding out my pilot was ignoring signals during my flight I don't know what I would do to him if I ran in to him somewhere in public...
Not much good I guess...

1. Real 'pilots' should not 'panic'. They are trained to act in emergencies, follow rules and protocols, obey signals and use their common sense. We all should do the same.
2. When you aircraft says RTH you RTH, you don't cancel any signal, you just stick to what you're supposed to do. The manufacturer set the aviation electronics to certain settings and we're not supposed to play with them when flying.
3. If you want to play with settings and see how far you can go, what your aircraft can do, you do it out in a field where you can't harm anyone, but when you're out flying for what ever other reason consider yourself a 'real pilot' and remember the results may differ anytime, so don't use them to play with when flying for real.

Out here I'm supposed to keep my drone visual. I'm not allowed to fly further away from me than 200m and 150m high. I stick to the 150m due to suddenly passing jet fighters a couple of times weekly. Those 200m is the only rule I ignore, I fly 2000m distance max trying not to loose any signal, but I don't ignore my settings and signals.
When my signals are getting blurry I take it closer to me.
When my remote starts beeping at 30% I do what I'm supposed to do: fly home and not wait until it wants to RTH by itself. Who knows what the wind will do. Who knows what other problems I run into and who knows what mistakes I might make when flying home. I'm a human, I make mistakes.
To me, it's not about what I payed for the aircraft, it's about respecting rules, settings, avionics and chances... If it crashes due to my playing around, if I loose my Mavic to my stupidity it's up to me... It's my own fault and I will take my loss.

Anyway, probably best thing to do in this case would have been: drive off and let the Mavic hover. Never use the remote while driving to make it follow you. Flying takes more energy than hovering. After the cops drove past make a u-turn and get your drone. Don't make it follow you while driving. It knows where it is, it knows its home point. It will stay there hoving or land safely...

BTW. I'm happy for everyone finding their lost aircraft in good shape, but I hope next time common sense will rule out panic or any playing around with settings and avionics.
Lessons learned? I might hope so...

Sage words Campagnard, worth the read. Unfortunately in today’s Twitter culture, a lot of the “pilots” here will not take the time. Sad

 

[DroningOn]

Seems like our society doesn’t know how to talk to one another anymore. There is a way to get your point across to someone post on here without leaving the impression that your calling them an idiot. After the first person pointed out every mistake he made then we don’t need to cover that 20 more times, I’m sure he got it the first time. We need to be civil and constructive if we want change. People stop listening when everyone jumps on them. To me it seems because we mostly do this on social media and wouldnt say the same thing is person.

Well said, couldn’t agree more.

Let me add this... while I try not to use such imprecise terms like “idiot” or “stupid” etc, the “Internet“ is full of such words and actions. The big problem is that people have lost the ability to or were never taught to distinguish between “stupid” people and “stupid” words or actions. They are NOT synonymous! There may be “stupid“ people posting here but I have no ability to know this. I do know when “stupid“ things are written though. In short, criticizing somebody’s words is not the same as criticizing the person. I would never do that.
P.S. I’m not referring to the OP who I thank for bringing this topic up.

 

[John MacAulay]

Seems like our society doesn’t know how to talk to one another anymore. There is a way to get your point across to someone post on here without leaving the impression that your calling them an idiot. After the first person pointed out every mistake he made then we don’t need to cover that 20 more times, I’m sure he got it the first time. We need to be civil and constructive if we want change. People stop listening when everyone jumps on them. To me it seems because we mostly do this on social media and wouldnt say the same thing is person.

Couldn't. Agree more.

 

[TotemLake]

Seriously I think most of you need to chill out, I’ve pulled off the road dozens of times for shots although not on a freeway LoL , it’s public property for Pete’s sake, also this op came for help finding his drone not to be berated, there’s been a massive amount of help here but as of late I see More and more put downs then help! The guy admittedly panicked, could have been anyone of us so cut him some slack people!

You obviously need to understand what a controlled access highway system is. There is a reason why hitchhikers are not allowed past the on ramp entry point. Parking on the side of a freeway is not a public access freedom but an emergency use only. The danger for both the parked car/ driver and the traffic is extremely high. The Internet is full of videos displaying the distracted driving wreckage. A little light reading for you...

Controlled-access highway - Wikipedia

 

[John MacAulay]

And the drone police rave on and on.

 

[Campagnard]

Let me make a few things crystal clear:

1. I am not calling anyone an idiot. If anyone says I am in whatever way calling someone an idiot he's an idiot himself !

2. I don't need to read 60+ replies to see what others have replied and to think about what I should reply to this post. If it was a post about some unfamiliar technical issues I certainly would have...

3. Anyone who can't stand to be criticized and needs to be petted on the head just hearing he's a good boy and we're sorry for you : welcome to the real world !
If you are allergic to any level of criticism than please don't post these kind of stories or do not participate in them.

I was just referring to what's happening more and more these days. This is about not respecting aviation & avionics in whatever kind of way and we don't pet pilots for that...

Finally, why do I get this very strong strange feeling that there are some people out here who seem to feel attracted to their own similar flying behavior ... ?

 

[PeteS2017]

"Anyone who can't stand to be criticized and needs to be petted on the head just hearing he's a good boy and we're sorry for you : welcome to the real world !"

That is just SO patronising!

 

[ptander]

@iamvolitant This is a very happy ending!

• you found your drone
• The drone wasn't damaged
• you didn't get any drama, warnings, or tickets from the copper,
• you didn't damage anything with your car or the drone while operating both simultaneously

I appreciate you posting about the event. Lot's to learn from- it's easy to panic when flying the bird, independent of any other circumstances like a COP pulling up to you.

Now I HAVE to ask: please share the sunset pictures that you went through all of this trouble to acquire!

 

[RoboticTundra]

Threads like this are why I will be all for strict licensing of purchase and flying of drones. I don't want to see my wife, daughter, son, or friends killed by someone acting this irresponsibly.

It's fascinating to me that in Europe people will not let others drive drunk. In the U.S. we laugh it off just as many are excusing the dangerous and irresponsible behavior of the OP. Why don't we take the killing of 40,000 people each and every year seriously?

 

[Campagnard]

"Anyone who can't stand to be criticized and needs to be petted on the head just hearing he's a good boy and we're sorry for you : welcome to the real world !"

That is just SO patronising!

Well Pete, you may find this patronising, but if you want to treat adults ignoring safety rules like 6 year old kids by petting them (like you just did) dry their tears and telling them to behave and send them off with a lollypop be my guest. Dream your dream and run away from reallity. They will never learn and you will neither... Where I'm from we're way more direct to adults. You stick to the rules, no excuses, zero tolerance ... you can be fined up to 75.000.- behaving like that.

Anyway if the majority of the 'pilots' on this forum think that playing with aviation / avionics and ignoring signals while flying is natural behaviour I hope this majority is also aware that 'pilots' ignoring safety signals are the cause that governments have to implement strict rules and enforcement to drone flying, that we have to be certified for almost everything we want to do and we can hardly fly anywhere anymore... THANKS for that !

 

[SteveInYa]

Awesome post great story great info to learn from.

 

[Just_nick]

Coming back to update everyone, Mavic was found safely, thanks for the advice/encouragment in the search efforts

Drove an hour or so back to the landing site in the morning, and widened the search in the daylight. Looking at the logs I saw 10% battery left before losing signal, which made me uncomfortable wondering how much of a RTH sequence couldve been flown with 10% battery. Gave @AMRE2ME2 ’s advice a try and spent an hour scouring the area between the home point and lost recorded point but nothing found at first.

Decided to check logs one more time before giving up and driving home, and noticed that the last 3 points were all in a quick trajectory forward, with the final datapoint being exactly where I was trying to get the Mavic to land over the gravel patch.
But the last data point was still showing some right stick input pushing it to fly forward (my last quick flick of the stick to stretch the glide into the gravel). Also showed 6 foot altitude (probably 26 ft AGL considering my launch point) and 16 satellites.

I wondered if somehow instead of landing, hovering, or RTH, the drone just maintained those inputs and kept flying forward after losing signal. Seemed unlikely, but I had looked everywhere else and was ready to give up so i looked anyway. Sure enough I walked about 60 feet beyond its last reported location, crossed the street and waded through the weeds on the opposite side of the road and found it gently resting atop some long grass, without even a cracked prop.
Not sure if that’s always the case, but at least in this instance of a forced low battery landing, lost signal didn’t initiate RTH, the Mavic kept it’s downward glide forward as if it were still following it's last stick inputs. @RayOZ and @Paul2660 were spot on.


Lessons learned:

Come back and land with more battery than minimums. As a comparison when I fly, I never land with FAA fuel minimums, always plan an extra amount of buffer in the fuel tanks just in case, should practice the same with the mavic.

Number one regret was I should’ve swiped to enable autoland over the weeds when I had the chance and the signal, and should’ve realized I was going to lose signal that low anyway. At the time I was too afraid I wouldn't have be able find it in the weeds or would damage it if I didn’t have the most perfectly flat landing surface. Wrong on both accounts.

Also probably should’ve just landed on the side of the road in front of the cop. @macoman is right, a ticket for stopping roadside is still much cheaper than a lost Mavic. With everything going on at the moment, I didn’t make that realization until after it was lost.

Thanks everyone for the comments, quick feedback:
Sorry @Irish-apple , I'm with @Canuk on this one. It's not wrong to fly within visual sight of any other driver, neat story but ridiculous not "sensible".

@tcope I dont disagree with your or other's opinions on what the right thing to do would've been, but I do disagree with your "tough love" strategy. What do you really think that will accomplish? If i came on these boards boasting about reckless behavior or encouraging others to do something unsafe, that's one thing, but I came with a simple question and gave an honest and cautionary backstory where i admit to several wrongdoings and my mistakes, (hopefully so others can learn from them like I did) and your answer is to lose the drone and quit flying? I believe you when you say you aren't trying to be petty, but just be aware that the hyperbolic self-righteousness is what makes people not want to come to these boards at all, let alone share when they make mistakes.

@lightbg may take your advice if only 30 more drones are needed til i get a seat on the board

Do you not understand that your stupidity could have killed someone? A nearly 2-pound drone deciding to autoland wherever could have gone down in the road, where someone could have hit it at speed and lost control because that amount of mass being hit at speed can do some serious damage and scare someone.

Sometimes it takes being smacked in the face with the truth with little regard for feelings, and not being coddled like a sensitive child, to wake people up. If you don't like that, perhaps you need to invoke some common sense BEFORE you think of flying. I'm not saying it to be mean, but rather to make you think a plan or idea through BEFORE you do it. Think about what could go wrong, and if it is something bad, then you probably shouldn't do it. Stop trying to change the world when the thing that needs to be changed is you. I'm glad you found your drone, but was this a horrible, stupid, and downright dangerous idea that you had.

 

[Campagnard]

To me and every other sane pilot this is nothing more than a pathetic tear jerking story about some ignorant unprofessional showing what happens when you ignore signals.

And the petters go on petting... 'And the drone police rave on and on' ... 'This is sooo patronising' ... 'Show me your pictures'

Let's rewrite the story...

"Flying a Dreamliner from JFK to Miami I saw this exciting thunderstorm coming up ahead and I thought 'wow, what a beauty'. It's been long since I've seen one like this with that purple to black coloring sky so I thought 'what the heck, let's have a closer look' I have always been curious about this phenomenon.
The first warning to change my headings came up but I ignored it..."

And you are a passenger...

Who are these people, calling themselves 'pilots' thinking they're just flying a pricy toy? What kind of humans are you thinking you have rights to ignore safety signals and act as you like?
I doesn't matter in which country you live and when and where you are flying, it's the behaviour that matters. It's neglecting principles, standards of conduct and manufacturers safety adjustments that affects international laws and law enforcement..

Is it the same kind of behaviour they have towards colleagues, their family or while in trafic thinking they have rights to ignore rules and other people and make their own rules?

Who are these pathetic little creatures behind their keyboards defending such story tellers when someone else is making a point about disrespecting safety regulations calling them the 'raving drone police'?
What's wrong with you?

Do you want to be part of such a community...?
Do you want to be pointed at by passers by when professionally flying a drone hearing them say "look out, there's another unprofessional wit a pricy toy endangering people'?
Do we need more law enforcement on this subject just because there is a bunch of ignorant idiots calling themselves 'pilots'...?

Look in the mirror! What kind of pilot are you?

If anyone has the guts to report this post as inappropriate be my guest, be your own hero.
If this post will result in my being kicked out of this forum so be it.
I won't shed a tear ...

 

[RayOZ]

This keeping droning on and on. People need to let this go and move on.
Mistakes made, lessons learnt. Nobody died, yet.
I've realised a while ago, if people are ignoring rules, they are going to ignore whatever you say about them breaking the rules. I won't waste my time, cos it's not going to change anything.

 

[Qoncussion]

This keeping droning on and on. People need to let this go and move on.
Mistakes made, lessons learnt. Nobody died, yet.
I've realised a while ago, if people are ignoring rules, they are going to ignore whatever you say about them breaking the rules. I won't waste my time, cos it's not going to change anything.

HEY!! The theme of this party is (apparently) ridiculing and bashing. So... Stop making sense!

 

[Campagnard]

HEY!! The theme of this party is (apparently) ridiculing and bashing. So... Stop making sense!

Hi Kevin, it all depends on who's ridiculing who and who is bashing who.
In some way RayOz is right: there are some people who will never change. That's the mentaltity part, the 'f#$%-you part and I will do as I like cause I'm an A€#45hole-part.
The people who don't care about and disrespect one another or about what they are causing for the whole droning community...

It's the same with hooligans in soccer making all supporters look like hooligans all over Europe...

The only part in Ray's reply that needs to be altered is "Mistakes made, lessons learnt...' because there were no 'mistakes made' it's all about intentional neglection and recidivism so there are no lessons learnt...
It's about screwing up the whole droning community ...

 

[Lake_Flyer]

Awesome post great story great info to learn from.

I learn the most from certain replies. Fascinating.

 

[colinfowler]

will this ever thread end?
oo iv just made it longer
seriously, it must be over now

 

[macoman]

I think this topic or thread ran his curse and needs to be closed. No worthy keeping a dead horse alive.