so i was out in Palm Springs, CA this past week and encountered my first controlled crash landing.
there are 2 lessons that i learned that could have avoided this crash landing:
1) Be Aware of your Flying Conditions
I was flying in a legal zone - near some of the majestic mountains in PS. here the winds speeds are about 20-25mph with gusts. I thought it would be a good test of the Mavic and in that regard it handled beautifully!
now, because of the wind conditions I did not account for the extra forces on the Mavic - sure the gimbal was great in high wind but then battery plays a roll...
2) Be Aware of your Battery Life and Range
Because of the high winds, the Mavic had to the fight headwinds that effected my RTH feature. I had taken it to almost its max range on my controller which was 4k km or 2.5miles. because of these headwinds it took longer for the craft to return home which ate up battery. I tried to negotiate diff head winds by changing my altitude and also my changing my flight heading. because of the range i was at or maybe interference, i began having navigational instrument FAIL - my altimeter was coming up with an error giving me negative altitude and so I was not too trustworthy of those indicators. i did also get Heavy Wind warnings even though footage looked great and i never lost signal completely - it did freeze up and break up at one point. thats when i hit RTH and it started to turn around but bc the altimeter was not working properly - i did not trust it and so I cancelled and did a manual RTH. at this point due to headwinds the Mavic may have been going at half speed and at this time i am seeing how much battery i had left to stay in stable flight. i did not panic and set my course heading to RTH and tried to work with the wind. knowing wind is like water and knowing that fighting a rip current is useless sometimes its easier to alter my route and going less at a head wind and more of a angle - i also changed my altitude from 400ft to 300ft to 200ft and vice versa to allow for diff gusts and such.
eventually i shortened the distance to about 1500ft from Home yet i did not have visual confirmation of where the drone was in the sky. i began to see my altitude falling and kept pulling up - and i realized that my battery had been drained - i still had power but not enough to maintain my current altitude - i was now in a controlled descent. i saw there was a spot of open grass in front of me but had not visual as of yet so instead of letting the aircraft run out of power altogether and possibly damage the aircraft I found a decent spot and kept giving it altitude to compensate for its drop and set it down just as it died.
at this point i believe i lose image and brought up the Find my Drone setting on the DJI4 app and started running toward the fallen drone. eventually after a half mile in and a lot of turns I found the drone sitting in grass next to a bush! no damage to the craft, propellers look good, and gimbal looked fine.
bc of the crash i reinstalled the DJI app, calibrated everything back up to speed, and actually flew again later that day - but thank God nothing had happened.
the next time - I have to be aware of my range, my battery power, and my wind speed and direction when plotting my course. its always better to go into a head wind but return on a tailwind as well as not go too far out before returning home. also to be sure you get what you need, and return home ASAP - i.e. keep your flight plan shorter than you'd expect to allow time to return home safe and sound!
love to hear your stories, and advice, council, and notes....thank you!
there are 2 lessons that i learned that could have avoided this crash landing:
1) Be Aware of your Flying Conditions
I was flying in a legal zone - near some of the majestic mountains in PS. here the winds speeds are about 20-25mph with gusts. I thought it would be a good test of the Mavic and in that regard it handled beautifully!
now, because of the wind conditions I did not account for the extra forces on the Mavic - sure the gimbal was great in high wind but then battery plays a roll...
2) Be Aware of your Battery Life and Range
Because of the high winds, the Mavic had to the fight headwinds that effected my RTH feature. I had taken it to almost its max range on my controller which was 4k km or 2.5miles. because of these headwinds it took longer for the craft to return home which ate up battery. I tried to negotiate diff head winds by changing my altitude and also my changing my flight heading. because of the range i was at or maybe interference, i began having navigational instrument FAIL - my altimeter was coming up with an error giving me negative altitude and so I was not too trustworthy of those indicators. i did also get Heavy Wind warnings even though footage looked great and i never lost signal completely - it did freeze up and break up at one point. thats when i hit RTH and it started to turn around but bc the altimeter was not working properly - i did not trust it and so I cancelled and did a manual RTH. at this point due to headwinds the Mavic may have been going at half speed and at this time i am seeing how much battery i had left to stay in stable flight. i did not panic and set my course heading to RTH and tried to work with the wind. knowing wind is like water and knowing that fighting a rip current is useless sometimes its easier to alter my route and going less at a head wind and more of a angle - i also changed my altitude from 400ft to 300ft to 200ft and vice versa to allow for diff gusts and such.
eventually i shortened the distance to about 1500ft from Home yet i did not have visual confirmation of where the drone was in the sky. i began to see my altitude falling and kept pulling up - and i realized that my battery had been drained - i still had power but not enough to maintain my current altitude - i was now in a controlled descent. i saw there was a spot of open grass in front of me but had not visual as of yet so instead of letting the aircraft run out of power altogether and possibly damage the aircraft I found a decent spot and kept giving it altitude to compensate for its drop and set it down just as it died.
at this point i believe i lose image and brought up the Find my Drone setting on the DJI4 app and started running toward the fallen drone. eventually after a half mile in and a lot of turns I found the drone sitting in grass next to a bush! no damage to the craft, propellers look good, and gimbal looked fine.
bc of the crash i reinstalled the DJI app, calibrated everything back up to speed, and actually flew again later that day - but thank God nothing had happened.
the next time - I have to be aware of my range, my battery power, and my wind speed and direction when plotting my course. its always better to go into a head wind but return on a tailwind as well as not go too far out before returning home. also to be sure you get what you need, and return home ASAP - i.e. keep your flight plan shorter than you'd expect to allow time to return home safe and sound!
love to hear your stories, and advice, council, and notes....thank you!
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