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How to properly arm tackle a runaway Mavic.....

NetStalker

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I will cut right to the chase....there is not a proper way. ;)

Here is the dealio. Was working on my drone inside, drone was sitting on coffee table and I was setting up a new tablet to replace my phone as the primary device when I got the announcement that a new DJI 4.0 was available. Cool, decided to uninstall the old DJI go app and downloaded the new app. Fired it up and checked to make sure all the firmware was up to speed.

Then the mental fatal flaw kicked in. I decided to test the new software from my couch.

At this point let me break the story and explain my living room. Its a home theater setup with a 4K projector, 120" wall mounted screen and all the things you would expect in electronics all of them being very expensive....did I mention my mental fatal flaw???

So I fired up the drone, manually of course because auto take off has screwed me in the past with getting sucked into the ceiling, (first prop replacement) drone hovered nicely and was checking a few things when I decided to spin it around and see how good the resolution was thru the camera looking at my 4K movie playing on the big screen.

Its at this point things start to go horribly wrong. Thumbswayup

As the drone slowly starts to turn towards the screen the auto avoidance kicks in. since it was closer than 4 feet it decided to avoid the obstacle by going sideways. Although this was towards the kitchen in that moment I had no idea what it was doing and all I could see was 4 hyper speed propellers shredding my video gear.

I jumped up off the couch and attempted to grab the drone from the top. Remember its at a 4 foot altitude and I am 6'2" so the maneuver put the drone right about arm pit level. Well guess what, the collision avoidance saw me coming and freaked the (bleep) out. It did what it thought it needed to do and accelerated.....towards my exposed rib cage.

Instinct (bad ones I admit) took over and I folded my arm over the drone pinning it between my rib-cage and my arm under my armpit. Well this pissed the drone right off and it decided to go to full power.

Let me tell you, If you ever decide to grab a pissed off honey badger and give it a hug, you will probably not have the same body damage as that drone did to me.

Lacerated thumb, Lacerated forearm, Lacerated rib cage (along with shredded t-shirt), Lacerated elbow in 4 places...no idea how that happened,

Its about that time when the wife walks into the room and sees me just randomly bleeding from parts of my body and just shakes her head and walks into the laundry room. (I AM smart enough to not say anything at this point). I place the drone on the ground walked to the bedroom and began to clean myself up. To my wife's credit she never said anything but just smirked. To my credit, I apparently have large reserves of blood in my body.

On the good side, no equipment was damaged, Mavic was not damaged and I discovered some type of auto shutoff when all four propellers are not able to move. So that is a good thing right?

Yep it was dumb, no reason to beat me up over that in your comments, But as Doug Marcaida on Forged with Fire will always say after testing a blade, "Your Mavic will cut"

All future testing will be done in the garage wearing chain mail.

Happy flying! :cool: (outside!)
 
Last edited:
Lol. I did a similar thing indoors 'Just testing' the software! but our Xmas tree and decorations took the full force and the Mavic is a great tool to create instant confetti bomb. Took me about 3 hours to clean the mess!
 
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Maiden flight, simple hover, indoors, of course. "See how steady it is, Honey?" Try to move it to show it bounce back to were it was, before letting go it went to full power so now I can't let go. Smartest (only smart) thing I did was to previously teach my wife how to CSC. No damage to me or the Mavic. Stink eye from wife.
 
That will be a good story to tell the kids when they ask about the scars:)
 
Throw a blanket over the thing. Sacrifice a drone not an arm lol
 
I will cut right to the chase....there is not a proper way. ;)

Here is the dealio. Was working on my drone inside, drone was sitting on coffee table and I was setting up a new tablet to replace my phone as the primary device when I got the announcement that a new DJI 4.0 was available. Cool, decided to uninstall the old DJI go app and downloaded the new app. Fired it up and checked to make sure all the firmware was up to speed.

Then the metal fatal flaw kicked in. I decided to test the new software from my couch.

At this point let me break the story and explain my living room. Its a home theater setup with a 4K projector, 120" wall mounted screen and all the things you would expect in electronics all of them being very expensive....did I mention my mental fatal flaw???

So I fired up the drone, manually of course because auto take off has screwed me in the past with getting sucked into the ceiling, (first prop replacement) drone hovered nicely and was checking a few things when I decided to spin it around and see how good the resolution was thru the camera looking at my 4K movie playing on the big screen.

Its at this point things start to go horribly wrong. Thumbswayup

As the drone slowly starts to turn towards the screen the auto avoidance kicks in. since it was closer than 4 feet it decided to avoid the obstacle by going sideways. Although this was towards the kitchen in that moment I had no idea what it was doing and all I could see was 4 hyper speed propellers shredding my video gear.

I jumped up off the couch and attempted to grab the drone from the top. Remember its at a 4 foot altitude and I am 6'2" so the maneuver put the drone right about arm pit level. Well guess what, the collision avoidance saw me coming and freaked the (bleep) out. It did what it thought it needed to do and accelerated.....towards my exposed rib cage.

Instinct (bad ones I admit) took over and I folded my arm over the drone pinning it between my rib-cage and my arm under my armpit. Well this pissed the drone right off and it decided to go to full power.

Let me tell you, If you ever decide to grab a pissed off honey badger and give it a hug, you will probably not have the same body damage as that drone did to me.

Lacerated thumb, Lacerated forearm, Lacerated rib cage (along with shredded t-shirt), Lacerated elbow in 4 places...no idea how that happened,

Its about that time when the wife walks into the room and sees me just randomly bleeding from parts of my body and just shakes her head and walks into the laundry room. (I AM smart enough to not say anything at this point). I place the drone on the ground walked to the bedroom and began to clean myself up. To my wife's credit she never said anything but just smirked. To my credit, I apparently have large reserves of blood in my body.

On the good side, no equipment was damaged, Mavic was not damaged and I discovered some type of auto shutoff when all four propellers are not able to move. So that is a good thing right?

Yep it was dumb, no reason to beat me up over that in your comments, But as Doug Marcaida on Forged with Fire will always say after testing a blade, "Your Mavic will cut"

All future testing will be done in the garage wearing chain mail.

Happy flying! :cool: (outside!)
I feel bad for you but that was a great read to start my Monday morning! Thankyou!
 
Great story, I really enjoyed it (sorry to say) and will probably share it with friends. I am just glad I read about it, not experienced it myself. Thanks for the story, reminds the rest of us to be careful.
 
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You ought to do script writing for comedy sketches, people that can laugh at their own self-inflicted misfortune are the salt of the earth. Some people would have written that as 'I did nothing wrong and the drone went berserk, it's a firmware/Mavic/DJI Go fault'
 
You ought to do script writing for comedy sketches, people that can laugh at their own self-inflicted misfortune are the salt of the earth. Some people would have written that as 'I did nothing wrong and the drone went berserk, it's a firmware/Mavic/DJI Go fault'

Well, I never felt the desire to tackle the drone when i was on the previous version of the DJI Go, so I am pretty sure its the fault of 4.0......Also does anyone think I need to hire a priest? after all that blood I am worried about a drone possession. I keep it in a locked closet at night...I may name my drone Chucky or Carrie....For some reason my dogs bark at it now.....hmmmm.....
 
I just HATE to laugh at someone's misfortune but that was a funny read, good that you have a sense of humor about it, sure wish there was a video, I am sure that would be epic!
 
It has a gimbal....do i need to say pics/video or it didnt happen...we need proof for???... yrah science. ...LOL!!!
So I was flying with video, as I wanted video of my big screen, stupid I know but what isn't in this story. However the video just shows ceiling, then floor, then armpit, then it's a Freddy Krueger horror show.
 
Here's a trick I use. The mavic will shut down its motors if you flip it upside down. Try it without any propellers on. Just hold it by the underbelly and flip upside down. Just something to know.
 
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