I don't recommend the Mavic as a tree trimmer...

[GarenT24]

So, I had my first real crash this week. Ruled "Excessive pilot stupidity" in the post crash debrief! But I did learn some things which made me go change some settings, at least for now, and wanted to get the groups thoughts on what their settings are.
Ok, here's the crash play by play! (And now that I actually write it down, I feel even dumber than at the time! LOL!)

I've been trying to work on my video work and wanted to practice some "close" flying, like between close trees or above and below branches(Guy I follow on You Tube does it and I love the look)
So, per his tutorial, I turned off my proximity sensors, and switched to tripod mode and was practicing flying real slow between some large branches in my backyard.
I did a couple decent passes and then mid flight I got that dumb "Wheel error" message and the controller was beeping incessantly. Usually if I reboot the controller it fixes the issue, so like an idiot I thought "well, lets reboot in flight, so I can get practice reconnecting if I ever lose connection in the field!" Of course the mavic is hovering about 6' off the ground but right under my huge 60' maple tree!

As soon as the controller lost connection the drone started going straight up in the air, and of course hits a huge branch, which spins it sideways into a group of small twigs, which pushed it out of the tree a foot or so, putting it out of harms way for a second, then it shot straight up again into another large branch which made it flip 90 degrees where it actually was flying sideways and chopping up leaves and bark! Then, amazingly it righted itself before trying to fly up yet again! Another branch got hit and parts of leaves and bark flying everywhere before the mavic finally had finally broken enough props to drop out of the tree. As it lands the only remaining propeller is spinning full throttle as I try to grab the drone without losing a finger! I finally had to remove the battery to end the nightmare!
A bunch of serious scrapes on the arms, and all 4 propellers were broken but the gimbal and camera, and arms are all ok!
When I went into the my settings I saw that Under what happens when you lose connection to the controller the drone does an immediate RTH. SO it was trying to go up and go home. I have no changed it to hover, so if I ever lose connection again, I can try and reconnect without repeating this embarrassing incident!

What are your guys preferred settings? I guess I can see the RTH as the default, but it sure didn't work out for me! Do you have yours set to hover or am I missing something?

Garen

 

[kakao]

RTH settings can be tricky as well as long as there are obstacles around, and it works best when you are in an open space.
The Mavics can not think like humans, they are machines, and require our input to fly and come back to us safe ..

 

[Top Hat]

At least you know now that your RTH work when disconnected from the RC.

 

[Just_nick]

Challenge accepted

 

[inno]

Sorry to hear about your incident. I use varied RTH settings depending on where I am flying. if under and around trees, over small creeks, keeping it VLOS and not to far away, that way I don't have to walk to far to get back, I set RTH to hover. If flying indoors, RTH is set to hover. If open terrain, no vertical obstacles, I set to return home at 100-400'. If vertical obstacles exist and do not plan on flying under them, I will at home point climb to altitude, perform a 360 turn, find the highest point I plan to fly to/over and set RTH height 100' above that to a max of 400'. These preferences I use are not set in stone, I use these as a baseline only. all depends on where I am flying and what I am try to accomplish. All in all, know your skills, aircraft, settings, and surroundings before you fly.

And yes, my P3A help my friend trim a few low hanging very thin branches (less than an 8th of an inch) from under his tree. Worked OK, turned the leading edges of the props green, no damage, just lucky. Was not intentional.

 

[rfc]

What are your guys preferred settings? I guess I can see the RTH as the default, but it sure didn't work out for me! Do you have yours set to hover or am I missing something?

Garen

The setting you might want to consider changing when flying in close quarters is what the A/C does when it loses signal. The other choice besides RTH is simply "hover". Sounds like that would have saved the bacon (and the bird) in this case.