Help finding Mavic Mini

[Gunner3629]

I lost my MM on 25th December during a short flight. It lost connection to the controller and never regained it. There was ample battery and satellites. I had a home point set but it never returned home. Hours of searching at the last know location (from find my drone feature on DJI Fly app & logdata) proved unsuccessful. I provided the flightlog to DJI and they gave me an analysis of what happened, essentially putting it down to wind preventing the MM from being able to return home. They did not give any assistance or advice on where drone may have come down/landed. Analysis from DJI: 1. The aircraft worked in GPS mode; 2. T=00:07, H=115.2 m, D=258.5 m, the warning of "Strong wind velocity. Fly with caution" popped up; 3. T=01:02, H=176.6 m, D=300.6 m, there was no pilot’s input, the aircraft tilted forward for 23.8 degrees to resist the wind, but it was still blown away at a speed of 3.6 m/s, which indicated that the aircraft was affected by the high wind; 4. T=02:03, H=241.2 m, D=509.4 m, RTH was triggered by the remote controller's connection lost, but the aircraft could not return home normally due to the strong wind; 5. T=03:16 H=244.2 m, D=751.9 m, Battery=47 %, the flight record ended during the RTH process. ***I am NOT looking for judgement on the altitude of the MM or the weather conditions at the time, I am well aware that the conditions and altitude were not ideal for flying*** I am however looking for HELP in where I should be looking in order to find the drone. Please find flight log before it lost connection to RC. DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones www.phantomhelp.com If you're wondering how it was already in the air , here is the initial stage of the flight which is a separate flight record for some reason: DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones www.phantomhelp.com Any help would be appreciated?

 

[sar104]

Yes - that was blown away by high winds - AirData estimates over 40 mph out of the SE. The wind looks to have been fairly consistent, and so it is possible to estimate how far it would have drifted before the FC started low-battery autoland assuming a constant drift direction and speed:



Plotting that result on Google Earth gives the following track and landing location:



The uncertainty is probably ± 100 meters in all directions - shown by the light blue circle.

 

[Mavic Mac]

@sar104 Your willingness to help shows there are still people with compassion for fellow mankind

 

[Skywatcher2001]

***I am NOT looking for judgement on the altitude of the MM or the weather conditions at the time, I am well aware that the conditions and altitude were not ideal for flying***

Beautiful area to fly. I can see why you wanted to get airborne. Don't look at the responses as judgement but as education that you may not be aware of (such as wind speeds at 800' AGL as apposed to AGL). No judgement, just help (like @sar104 ) provided with no condemnation. Good luck finding your bird.

 

[m80116]

My own condolences... I've had a Boxing Day loss of my Mavic Mini as well.
I still wish you luck for the recovery. And now I am even more keen to data analysis knowing that you can plot a graph like that one from @sar104

I just need to find the right tools, I already have the log.

 

[sar104]

My own condolences... I've had a Boxing Day loss of my Mavic Mini as well.
I still wish you luck for the recovery. And now I am even more keen to data analysis knowing that you can plot a graph like that one from @sar104

I just need to find the right tools, I already have the log.

I provided some basic guidance here:

Mavic Flight Log Retrieval and Analysis Guide

With the introduction of the Mavic Mini there has been a noticeable uptick in the number of posts requesting help with lost or crashed aircraft. While there is plenty of help and advice available on this forum, and detailed guidance and options on several other websites, I thought that perhaps a...

mavicpilots.com

 

[Gunner3629]

Thanks @sar104 and all, I searched that radius yesterday without success. I will search more today.

 

[Ivan_LCF_666]

Thanks @sar104 and all, I searched that radius yesterday without success. I will search more today.

While this does sometimes help to find lost drones (Mavic Minis) - you cannot for the love of God assume a constant wind speed and hence constant direction at all times! If the wind started blowing just a bit differently in the early stages of loosing the drone, then it could be all over these fields, a way way way bigger circle is needed I think. I really do praise you guys for helping and trying to plot down where lost drones would have landed, or ended up - but lets be honest: "there is always quite a big chance of path deviation along the way." Especially such strong wind near 80km/h! The Mini is designed to fly in 29.km/h maximum winds, anything above that is just stupid to fly in if you value your Mini like I value mine!

I recommend getting another Mavic Mini - a brand new one. Then get Care Refresh (gotta have the old, broken drone)

Sweet

 

[Gunner3629]

While this does sometimes help to find lost drones (Mavic Minis) - you cannot for the love of God assume a constant wind speed and hence constant direction at all times! If the wind started blowing just a bit differently in the early stages of loosing the drone, then it could be all over these fields, a way way way bigger circle is needed I think. I really do praise you guys for helping and trying to plot down where lost drones would have landed, or ended up - but lets be honest: "there is always quite a big chance of path deviation along the way." Especially such strong wind near 80km/h! The Mini is designed to fly in 29.km/h maximum winds, anything above that is just stupid to fly in if you value your Mini like I value mine!

I recommend getting another Mavic Mini - a brand new one. Then get Care Refresh (gotta have the old, broken drone)

Sweet

Ya i already had care refresh but no good in this situation.

at the moment I'm up in the air whether to buy a brand new one or get a replacement aircraft which DJ I will give a discount on.

At the end of the day there is very little difference in price however so may buy new and have second RC.

80kmph? Where was it that wind speed?

 

[Ivan_LCF_666]

Ya i already had care refresh but no good in this situation.

at the moment I'm up in the air whether to buy a brand new one or get a replacement aircraft which DJ I will give a discount on.

At the end of the day there is very little difference in price however so may buy new and have second RC.

80kmph? Where was it that wind speed?

Sorry I over-calculated by mistake! But sar104 already gave you these details: "AirData estimates over 40 mph out of the SE" - I just miscalculated - its 65km/h probably gusting to 75km/h and more! Mini is designed to fly in 8m/s(29km/h) max wind speed!

In other words you were flying your Mini in wind speeds well exceeding double the maximum allowed! Its amazing how you decided to fly, not sure what you were thinking - or was it all calm down on the ground at that time?

 

[kidroc]

While this does sometimes help to find lost drones (Mavic Minis) - you cannot for the love of God assume a constant wind speed and hence constant direction at all times! If the wind started blowing just a bit differently in the early stages of loosing the drone, then it could be all over these fields, a way way way bigger circle is needed I think. I really do praise you guys for helping and trying to plot down where lost drones would have landed, or ended up - but lets be honest: "there is always quite a big chance of path deviation along the way." Especially such strong wind near 80km/h! The Mini is designed to fly in 29.km/h maximum winds, anything above that is just stupid to fly in if you value your Mini like I value mine!

I recommend getting another Mavic Mini - a brand new one. Then get Care Refresh (gotta have the old, broken drone)

Sweet

Ture but Sar has an uncanny ability to find blown away drones!!!

 

[Ivan_LCF_666]

Ture but Sar has an uncanny ability to find blown away drones!!!

WOW, really - well real respect for that! I know how bad it is to have a fly-away! I've had my XK K110 fly away from me when I was first getting into micro 3D helicopters 4 years ago! I had no experience yet to switch it into idle-up mode and hence then have negative pitch and force my heli down - not just watch it fly away with the throttle stick pretty low!

I would have loved to be able to find that heli, I cried real tears back then. I was 31 years old - but cried like a 4 year old who just lost his best new toy! These days with all these super advanced technologies, you have very very sweet data - its literally like looking into the black-box of an airplane, all the data is there! So it does make it very interesting to try and use the data to locate the lost drone!

I hope that I never have to use this type of services, and I hope that I never loose my beloved Mavic Mini which I really really love to fly very much.

Sweet

PS: I hope all lost drones are found...

 

[Julez]

Hope it's found. Not a judgement but a request- all pilots please fly at heights that don't pose a risk to other aircraft. 400' is plenty. Lost drones are annoying, but lives are more important. Keep legal keep safe.

 

[kidroc]

WOW, really - well real respect for that! I know how bad it is to have a fly-away! I've had my XK K110 fly away from me when I was first getting into micro 3D helicopters 4 years ago! I had no experience yet to switch it into idle-up mode and hence then have negative pitch and force my heli down - not just watch it fly away with the throttle stick pretty low!

I would have loved to be able to find that heli, I cried real tears back then. I was 31 years old - but cried like a 4 year old who just lost his best new toy! These days with all these super advanced technologies, you have very very sweet data - its literally like looking into the black-box of an airplane, all the data is there! So it does make it very interesting to try and use the data to locate the lost drone!

I hope that I never have to use this type of services, and I hope that I never loose my beloved Mavic Mini which I really really love to fly very much.

Sweet

PS: I hope all lost drones are found...

LOL... then you lost the ability to control your chopper and YOU!!! lost it lol... It did not fly away.. I have been flying RC Helios over 15 years I know what you mean they can and will fly away!!!!