Here’s how easily you could lose a Mavic Mini to wind over open waters

[chuckm]

Perfect. Cut and paste this reply every time the water question comes up. Especially for the mini.

Thanks, everyone.

 

[zparker]

Hopefully some can learn from my mistakes:

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That was a nail biter! Nice job. Phew!!!!!

 

[Mikey's]

Page 16 of the Mini manual lists 10 situations that can be difficult for the VPS sensors, including:
The Vision System may not function properly when the aircraft is flying over water or snow-covered areas.
The Vision System cannot work properly over surfaces that do not have clear pattern variations.
The Vision System cannot work properly in any of the following situations. Operate the aircraft cautiously:

b. Flying over highly reflective surfaces.​

c. Flying over water or transparent surfaces.​

d. Flying over moving surfaces or objects.​

h. Flying over surfaces without clear patterns or texture.​

Additionally, With very clear water, it is possible for the sensors to pick up the bottom and not the water surface.

But why should it DROP over water ??? Thought the sensors would be there for safe landing and when flying indoors (ATTI mode)?

 

[Meta4]

But why should it DROP over water ??? Thought the sensors would be there for safe landing and when flying indoors (ATTI mode)?

If you are dealing with clear water and it completely misses the surface and measures to the bottom?

 

[Skywalker]

Good job getting her back!
When some would panic you kept your wits about you and made it happen. Good lesson for all.

Sure, the comments on the video project nerves of steel, but you weren’t there for the on-site commentary. I’d be willing to bet a camera on the pilot wild have been entertaining. Nice job.

 

[Mikey's]

If you are dealing with clear water and it completely misses the surface and measures to the bottom?

VPS should not need to meassure when the AC is not descending by RC control command? I can understand it can miss such surfaces when I pull the stick down but not to drop on its own? Otherwise I can not understand VPS correctly.

 

[pelagic_one]

Way to bring her home!

I fly my Mini over water quite bit, since it’s the San Francisco Bay. But I shoot for 200 feet above me before pushing forward. UAV Forecast app lets me know wind speed and gust, in case I need to keep her in the bag.

And we’re not dealing with clear water in the Bay.

 

[JoshC]

I'm curious whether hitting the auto return to home might have worked fine as well, insofar as the drone would likely have flown a direct path back to you (without the benefit of lower flying / lower wind speed).

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

I'm curious whether hitting the auto return to home might have worked fine as well, insofar as the drone would likely have flown a direct path back to you (without the benefit of lower flying / lower wind speed).

Possible, but probably wouldn't have helped.
No doubt RTH altitude would have been higher, not sure what minimum can be set on the mini, but it would be dangerous not to fly it manually at that altitude, would rather not leave the RTH as it is possible over water issues could come into effect.
The uncommanded descent thing would be a danger too.

Also the OP was in Sports mode when flying home manually, typically it SHOULD be a lot faster than normal RTH, but of course the mini is having some problems with pitch at times.
It certainly didn't seem to be going that much faster in Sports mode over P-GPS when it switched over on this flight.

 

[JoshC]

You can manually set the RTH height quite low, say 15 metres, I'm not sure what the minimum is.

Possible, but probably wouldn't have helped.
No doubt RTH altitude would have been higher, not sure what minimum can be set on the mini, but it would be dangerous not to fly it manually at that altitude, would rather not leave the RTH as it is possible over water issues could come into effect.
The uncommanded descent thing would be a danger too.

Also the OP was in Sports mode when flying home manually, typically it SHOULD be a lot faster than normal RTH, but of course the mini is having some problems with pitch at times.
It certainly didn't seem to be going that much faster in Sports mode over P-GPS when it switched over on this flight.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

You can manually set the RTH height quite low, say 15 metres, I'm not sure what the minimum is.

Sure Josh, but in this case the OP was flying between a metre and several metres above the water at times on that last leg fighting to get home.

I had the Fly app on the phone just checking it out a while ago, but have deleted now.
Found this . . .

Doesn't look like much scale left under that 85' setting, so not sure what minimum can be set there . . . can anyone with Fly confirm ?

 

[JoshC]

I checked, looks like 15 metres is in fact the minimum.

Anyway I'd be curious about repeating via RTH, and seeing how direct the path of the MM is back to the home point. Certainly something to consider if you're not certain about your navigating, I've seen a number of low battery flights where the operators wasted a lot of juice flying via indirect routes home.

Sure Josh, but in this case the OP was flying between a metre and several metres above the water at times on that last leg fighting to get home.

I had the Fly app on the phone just checking it out a while ago, but have deleted now.
Found this . . .

Doesn't look like much scale left under that 85' setting, so not sure what minimum can be set there . . . can anyone with Fly confirm ?

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

From the time of the video start, the OP was not going that far off direct flight back, or at least pointing that way, and one would assume it was full right stick and no other input (apart from controlled descent).
It did look like some drifting, and that must have been wind . . . if flight logs were posted, some analysis could be done to confirm @ChristophB
Minis are so prone to wind, I bet it was just blown slightly off course at times with erratic wind direction.
A look at the TXT logs would confirm stick inputs.

 

[stpatrick]

Good job...an amazing recovery [emoji106]

 

[ajkm]

Hopefully some can learn from my mistakes:

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It's surprising how many people forget about or ignore the physics around land and sea breezes.

 

[ChristophB]

Sure, the comments on the video project nerves of steel, but you weren’t there for the on-site commentary. I’d be willing to bet a camera on the pilot wild have been entertaining. Nice job.

You might be right regarding the cam on the pilot

 

[ChristophB]

. . . if flight logs were posted, some analysis could be done to confirm @ChristophB

i see what i can dig out...

 

[Deleted member 114292]

Hopefully some can learn from my mistakes:

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I’d be really interested to know why you made the choice to fly with two elevated risk factors.
Did you not know they were risk factors?
Did you think “ it won’t happen to me”?
Or did you just want the adventure and didn’t mind risking your drone?
Or some other reason?
I’m very curious.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Also curious as to other flight behaviour before the video starts . . . there was considerable flight distance and time spent flying over that reef (by the way, the reef looks amazing, bet you got some great footage to edit !) and obviously nothing much alerted ChristophB to any problems, the battery health was great it seems, as the video started with 59%, which is probably why ChristophB decided time to come home (?).

 

[Prismatic]

It's surprising how many people forget about or ignore the physics around land and sea breezes.

That may be, but you must allow that very few recreational pilots are even vaguely as knowledgeable as yourself. Those are impressive credentials, sir. ?‍