Hi all! My Mavic Pro had a fly-away and DJI is giving me Bull.

[kyle76joslin]

I don't know why people continue to operate suavs in a city environment. Fairly obvious by now that when you fly in a city....your going to have issues. If anyone decides to fly in a city...get state farm personal insurance or similar apart from refresh care...and hope you don't cause any personal damage to someone's property when you loose signal yet again because y'all can't learn from others lessons. Lets use some common sense people.

 

[HWCM]

Sorry to hear of your missing MP, but IMHO, anyone who flies in that sort of environment is simply asking for trouble. Tall buildings can cause some powerful wind vortex and you have the potential of reflected radio signals and probably a lot of other radio and wifi signals all over the place.
Hope you find it. It should be VERY close to the battery. They don't get far without one, unless someone found it and took it home.

Also taking off from a roof of a building. There is a lot of metal to confuse the compass.

 

[kelf]

I don't know why people continue to operate suavs in a city environment. Fairly obvious by now that when you fly in a city....your going to have issues. If anyone decides to fly in a city...get state farm personal insurance or similar apart from refresh care...and hope you don't cause any personal damage to someone's property when you loose signal yet again because y'all can't learn from others lessons. Lets use some common sense people.

No offence, but maybe we are brought up in different environments, we can never find flat land here, in Hong Kong. I flew many many times in the metropolitan, in between buildings. I dont deny that this crash might be because of RTH going crazy, but losing signal is not that often contrary to popular belief.

Shots like these are rather rewarding, this is the last shot before it flew away.

 

[kelf]

Also taking off from a roof of a building. There is a lot of metal to confuse the compass.

Done that many many times, if the compass is confused, it shouts in big red flags.

 

[HWCM]

Flying into a building is not a fly away. No offense. This was pilot error, you are making it out to be a software problem.
Sorry about your loss.

 

[rfc]

I'd look on the roof of the building. If It's near the reported 35 m last reported position, it could have cleared the edge, and run into something on the roof top.
Ask the building owners for a tour of the roof.

 

[ac0j]

I took off from a roof, which is some 70m high, then at the point of "missing" it was at 35m + takeoff altitude.

Homepoint was well recorded. Dont the forward sensors work during RTH? I switched those sensors options on, im pretty sure.

And finally at the point of "missing" it had good GPS and 78% battery.

Thank you all for your attention.

If that is 35 meters, those are tiny buildings. unless return to home was set at less than the 10 foot tall buildings, it should have come right home.

 

[donj91711]

To your original question: has anyone had a flyaway and successfully got a replacement drone?

My Mavic went wacky over a lake and fell in, sinking to the bottom. I uploaded the flight data and submitted a claim. They determined that it was a warranty issue and they are going to send me a new Mavic.

Here's my post: Mavic down in the water

Maybe I just got lucky, but I think DJI treated me well.

 

[Ping^Spike]

Shots like these are rather rewarding, this is the last shot before it flew away.

That is an absolutely stunning photo my friend

Sorry for your loss too

 

[kelf]

To your original question: has anyone had a flyaway and successfully got a replacement drone?

My Mavic went wacky over a lake and fell in, sinking to the bottom. I uploaded the flight data and submitted a claim. They determined that it was a warranty issue and they are going to send me a new Mavic.

Here's my post: Mavic down in the water

Maybe I just got lucky, but I think DJI treated me well.

Hello good sir, I read your post too, your video is scary. Did your props fly out? In my case I think it was just a test of DJI's RTH gone wrong. Everyone here telling me RTH killed my bird, but then whats the point of those forward proximity sensors if they would suddenly decide not to work during the event when they are most required.

Anyway, thank you so much for dropping by, happy for your successful replacement claim... (even without the wreckage)

 

[kelf]

That is an absolutely stunning photo my friend

Sorry for your loss too

Thank you fellow bro! :')

 

[kelf]

I'd look on the roof of the building. If It's near the reported 35 m last reported position, it could have cleared the edge, and run into something on the roof top.
Ask the building owners for a tour of the roof.

I did check everywhere possible... maybe it got hung on the tree where the battery was found under.

 

[kelf]

Flying into a building is not a fly away. No offense. This was pilot error, you are making it out to be a software problem.
Sorry about your loss.

I really dont get how it would fly into a building when flying forward, in P-mode. But everyone is pointing me in that direction...

 

[Mr. Salty]

I really dont get how it would fly into a building when flying forward, in P-mode. But everyone is pointing me in that direction...

Judging from the photo it looks like you were flying at night. If that’s the case the obstacle avoidance sensors don’t work well in low light.

 

[HWCM]

I took off from a roof, which is some 70m high, then at the point of "missing" it was at 35m + takeoff altitude.

Homepoint was well recorded. Dont the forward sensors work during RTH? I switched those sensors options on, im pretty sure.

And finally at the point of "missing" it had good GPS and 78% battery.

Thank you all for your attention.

Obstacle avoidance does not work in low light, or at night.

 

[kelf]

Obstacle avoidance does not work in low light, or at night.

That is not all true, see my attachment, the forward sensors worked when i was trying to fly close to this sky scraper for a selfie (of the drone), which I often like to do and without a time the sensors not working.

Hong kong is pretty lit up, during the night, even if its night time the buildings and streets are quite well lit, at least good enough for filming and live visual flying.

 

[Zonian]

Another point to consider...

If I am reading the manual correctly, it indicates that it could take as long as 3 seconds for the mavic to initiate RTH after signal loss. If the mavic is travelling at 10mph when the connection is lost, it theoretically could travel 45 ft (+stopping distance) with no control.

 

[Kilrah]

whats the point of those forward proximity sensors if they would suddenly decide not to work during the event when they are most required.

OA sensors are to be considered as something that MIGHT help save your *** after you made a mistake WHEN they work, there is a non-zero chance of them working which is better than nothing, but it's you're responsibility to make sure you're never putting yourself in a situation where they're REQUIRED to prevent a crash.

I.e. it's an additional chance but absolutely not something that's guaranteed to work and you should thus never rely on them. I.e. set your RTH height correctly for example.

 

[tracer bullet]

Hong kong is pretty lit up, during the night, even if its night time the buildings and streets are quite well lit, at least good enough for filming and live visual flying.

I get what you're saying but calling it lit up in terms for your eyes is one thing, lit up enough for obstacle avoidance is another. It might work most of the time but I wouldn't count on it being 100%. Even lit up it's a small percentage of a daylight condition which would be ideal.

 

[Skippy905]

OP: So sorry -- My guess is the battery pooped out when it crashed and someone has your Mavic. In the future, you may want to looks at a remote mod to pump that signal up some. The Mavic's signal penetration in quite good, but if I was flying in your environment a lot I'd get the mod. Good luck and welcome to the forum!

This was my exact same thought when you said you found the battery. My guess (without looking at any data) is this: Your Mavic went behind the building, lost signal and initiated RTH. At this point there are variables with regards to your settings, but most likely it crashed. Could be from climbing to avoid the building and hitting a balcony above it (since it doesn't have any sensor to avoid things above), or the RTH setting don't have the forward sensor turned on, or something else.
Either way, it crashed. Probably fell to the ground, and the battery popped out on impact. Someone spotted the drone (and didn't see the battery or didn't care) and picked up the drone. Battery was damaged on impact and even maybe sitting in the sun caused the bloating.

Again, I don't see anything that would say this is DJI's fault, but more of a pilot error. This is why most rules around drones say to fly in line of sight. Sorry, but it's a hard lesson to learn (but sometimes the shot is just worth it!)