I thought I had plenty of reserve to return...and the forced landing warning was inducing panic

[boone]

I don't have any fancy math for you, but just some personal experience I'll share. I live by the ocean, and I fly primarily over water. I can tell you that I personally learned early on to not only take into consideration the wind speed, but also its direction when flying out over the ocean. And I don't just trust my wet finger in the air. I use weather apps that provide air speed and direction. Over my ocean (maybe yours is different), the wind direction and intensity directly on the coast might vary wildly from when I'm out over the water a few hundred yards. As you intimated, the altitude can certainly affect the wind speed, but those swings get wilder when you approach or exit the shoreline. Again, I'm only speaking from my own humble experiences, so take it with a grain of salt. When I fly to a distance over water, fighting the wind, I won't go more than 20% drain on a battery. And I absolutely don't fly out to see with the wind at my back. Ever. You might say that's overly conservative and that I'm not taking full advantage of my mavic's capabilities, and maybe you're right. To me though it's like a car. Just because it will go a 100mph doesn't mean it should always go that fast. Having the power is awesome, of course. I just don't push my bird much. To each their own of course. Just sharing my two cents.

 

[albatross911]

Thank you Albatross for sharing this learning experience and all the data. As a relatively novice flyer, I appreciate the points to keep in mind when flying in risky areas where drone recovery is near impossible.

I recently lost my Mavic into the pacific while filming some sea cliffs in Hawaii. Due to intense sunlight washing out my usual display, I flew with my VR goggles. With camera pointed towards the cliffs, I flew sideways, in a slider type shot. I didn't notice that my path had me inching closer and closer to the rocks, and my spotter had wandered off. Instead of stopping to check clearance on my path, I kept filming this dramatic footage of waves crashing on the rocks. Next thing I know, the Mavic ran into an escarpment and tumbled into the ocean, where it rests to this day (since 2/21/18). Sure could have used some side OA!! I can give GPS coordinates for anyone in the Kona / Kailua area of Hawaii that may want to go snorkeling for a Mavic. I would have gone after it myself, but our flight home was leaving 2hrs later, and we couldn't miss it.

So, in spirit of this post, many lessons learned that day!

Sorry for your loss. I have a friend who lost his (and recovered 6 months later!) into a forest flying sideway as well. Without 4 way sensor like the P4P it's always risky going sideway, but we are often distracted by our subjects in the front! Hope the Mavic 2 will have all around sensors to keep us safe.

 

[bikestevehk]

I've been flying around the corner from here on South Lantau coast recently and can definitely echo what boone mentions about the wind conditions just offshore. Notice it when I'm kayaking round the coast as well one minute just a light flutter then significantly stronger for seemingly no reason. Guess it's the wind blowing over the rapidly rising mountains just inland, wind sheer has been an issue at the nearby airport as well.
Ambitious flight though and great footage of the controversial island and its wandering foundations!

 

[jpbluzharp]

The other day I was flying out to the sea going to a man-made island about 3.5km away, which has been on the local news lately. I flew with sports mode on and reached it with 78% battery left which means the distance used up just above 20%. I spent about 5 minutes filming there thinking of returning before reaching 50%, which should give me double the battery required to return in case of emergency. At about 58% it gave me a warning that I only have enough battery to return home. I thought for a few seconds and took the advice to start returning with sports mode on. I realized that I must be against wind as the battery kept dropping quicker than the way over, and I descended to about 20m over the water hoping to catch weaker wind...50%...40%...30%...20% and I was still 1km away...15% and 600m away, knowing that it will start forced landing at 10% I ascend to 35m to give me more time to pick a landing spot just in case...10% and 400m to go and reached land I kept it just above some rocks on the coast in case it drop out from the sky, but the forced landing warning is so rapid that my heart was pounding and palms sweating...

Finally it reached home point with 5% left. After turning off everything my hands were shaking...I have lost a Phantom 2 into the ocean before and been flying the Mavic for over 200 flights so I won't consider myself a novice, but that forced landing warning sound was really making me nervous. Also my girl friend heard it and kept asking me what's happening which further induced the stress. In less experienced hands a pilot can easily panic under the pressure and make the wrong decision.

Can DJI make the warning to sound just a few seconds and then go silent? I'm sure we can hear the warning when it goes off and attend to it. Keep it going for the entire duration from 10% onward really does not help the pilot handle it calmly.

Also when we go long distance always leave more reserve than you estimate to be enough. I looked at the log and on the way out the speed under full throttle in sports mode was 60km/h while on the way back was 45-50km/h. Another flight and another lesson for me.

Ever hear the term, “glutton for punishment”? Just a thought.

 

[jedburgh01]

The other day I was flying out to the sea going to a man-made island about 3.5km away, which has been on the local news lately. I flew with sports mode on and reached it with 78% battery left which means the distance used up just above 20%. I spent about 5 minutes filming there thinking of returning before reaching 50%, which should give me double the battery required to return in case of emergency. At about 58% it gave me a warning that I only have enough battery to return home. I thought for a few seconds and took the advice to start returning with sports mode on. I realized that I must be against wind as the battery kept dropping quicker than the way over, and I descended to about 20m over the water hoping to catch weaker wind...50%...40%...30%...20% and I was still 1km away...15% and 600m away, knowing that it will start forced landing at 10% I ascend to 35m to give me more time to pick a landing spot just in case...10% and 400m to go and reached land I kept it just above some rocks on the coast in case it drop out from the sky, but the forced landing warning is so rapid that my heart was pounding and palms sweating...

Finally it reached home point with 5% left. After turning off everything my hands were shaking...I have lost a Phantom 2 into the ocean before and been flying the Mavic for over 200 flights so I won't consider myself a novice, but that forced landing warning sound was really making me nervous. Also my girl friend heard it and kept asking me what's happening which further induced the stress. In less experienced hands a pilot can easily panic under the pressure and make the wrong decision.

Can DJI make the warning to sound just a few seconds and then go silent? I'm sure we can hear the warning when it goes off and attend to it. Keep it going for the entire duration from 10% onward really does not help the pilot handle it calmly.

Also when we go long distance always leave more reserve than you estimate to be enough. I looked at the log and on the way out the speed under full throttle in sports mode was 60km/h while on the way back was 45-50km/h. Another flight and another lesson for me.

I can imagine your horror. I think if you're on a distance flight always ere on the side of caution

 

[Zorrobazz]

This is going into more technical in a direction that I did not expect but it's good discussion anyway. For me I never intended to range test my Mavic for this flight nor any flight in the future. If I couldn't reach the island by 30% battery I would have given up and returned home. There are just too much variables for stretching the range limit and the results could be catastrophic, at least for my wallet.

I was really hoping to say that the forced landing warning is really heart wrenching and would suggest DJI to change it to silent after maybe 10 seconds. It's driving me into panic mode and attract unnecessary attention around. So far no one seems to pick up on this issue. Maybe not many has gone down to 10% and experienced it first hand?

just heat up a needle and force it into the pizo noice maker on the hand controll and it vill be silenced like 90% NOrWAY VIKING Hardware hacks

 

[audioguy]

But the real issue here, I think, is being more mindful of wind conditions. I live in the south and at this time of year there is always a wind. So I simply don't fly. And if it is that breezy on the ground, no telling what it might be 400 feet up. I have too much invested in this and all of the accessories to bet against nature. Nature always wins ! (or winds )

 

[netfolks2000]

Folks, I really appreciate all the detailed analysis, which only you engineer types understand fully, but I will think of the wind as my main consideration, especially the wind direction. Any time the drone speed toward my destination is exceptionally high, I know I am going WITH the wind and will automatically assume that I need to leave for my return trip much earlier than I would if I were flying against the wind. It is always risky over water with the possibility of being forced into a landing. Battery characteristics with different drones vary, too. Even with the little Tello I find it wants to force land on its own when the same percentage left on the Mavic battery would let me fly further. Flying my Spark, when I get the low battery warning I know I need to be close to home. So it appears that smaller batteries exhaust themselves sooner, even with smaller machines to power. I imagine the large battery in the Phantom 3 that I had would allow me to go further than the Mavic battery allows. In other words, I am thinking that 10% battery left in a large battery will allow further travel than 10% in a small battery. (Go ahead, you engineer types, and comment.)

 

[jimlips]

Albatross911: Of all the replies, only one has commented on the annoying "return to home" beeping. I'm with you on this one. It does get your adrenaline pumping, and (I think) only makes things worse. I realize the software wants you to do something, but like you, I have difficulty concentrating when something is beeping at me. How about this for a software change: Beep for 5 seconds, then mute the beep. Exceptions: if the pilot ignores the warning, then beep for another 5 seconds. But to continually beep only wears down the RC battery and is annoying.

You were smart to lower your altitude on the return trip, since there is generally less wind the lower you are, although I'm not sure if that applies over the ocean. However, when you increased your altitude when you were nearing the home point to "avoid" the water, you were using valuable battery life that could have been used to keep traveling horizontally. Not sure if I would have done that. But it worked out, and you got your aircraft safely back! Now I'm off to watch your footage.

 

[The Kid]

News about the island and a photo I took.

I didn't see a report...where is that?

 

[FMR]

The other day I was flying out to the sea going to a man-made island about 3.5km away, which has been on the local news lately. I flew with sports mode on and reached it with 78% battery left which means the distance used up just above 20%. I spent about 5 minutes filming there thinking of returning before reaching 50%, which should give me double the battery required to return in case of emergency. At about 58% it gave me a warning that I only have enough battery to return home. I thought for a few seconds and took the advice to start returning with sports mode on. I realized that I must be against wind as the battery kept dropping quicker than the way over, and I descended to about 20m over the water hoping to catch weaker wind...50%...40%...30%...20% and I was still 1km away...15% and 600m away, knowing that it will start forced landing at 10% I ascend to 35m to give me more time to pick a landing spot just in case...10% and 400m to go and reached land I kept it just above some rocks on the coast in case it drop out from the sky, but the forced landing warning is so rapid that my heart was pounding and palms sweating...

Finally it reached home point with 5% left. After turning off everything my hands were shaking...I have lost a Phantom 2 into the ocean before and been flying the Mavic for over 200 flights so I won't consider myself a novice, but that forced landing warning sound was really making me nervous. Also my girl friend heard it and kept asking me what's happening which further induced the stress. In less experienced hands a pilot can easily panic under the pressure and make the wrong decision.

Can DJI make the warning to sound just a few seconds and then go silent? I'm sure we can hear the warning when it goes off and attend to it. Keep it going for the entire duration from 10% onward really does not help the pilot handle it calmly.

Also when we go long distance always leave more reserve than you estimate to be enough. I looked at the log and on the way out the speed under full throttle in sports mode was 60km/h while on the way back was 45-50km/h. Another flight and another lesson for me.

Good sound advice take wind into account .keep more juice in reserve than you consider necessary.
Yep totally agree that battery warning way too loud way too constant ...gives me the 'heeby jeebies' flip and % seems to drop so so rapidly like the noise is draining the flipn battery.

 

[Heshamp]

Important..if you have head wind 30 km or above
The sport mode is like p mode
The only defrance between two modes is the speed limet not peach angle
in p mode the drone will increase peach angle to max angel -28 or -30 degrees trying to exist speed 31 or 32 km but will not able to exist and the speed will be 28 or 29 with maximum peach angle
So if you change to sport mode the drone already at maximum peach angle and speed will not increase
But in tail wind and p mode the drone will fly with peach angle near to 0 peach angle and the speed will be 30 km ( p mode limet )this is a ground speed ..but realy the air speed related to the air is 0 km
In this case the sport mode will let you to increase speed to 60 km (ground speed) and peach angle will be about 15 degrees
Battery consumpion depends on the peach angle not the speed or mode ...thank you

 

[Heshamp]

I wouldn't recommend using Sport mode for long distance flight. You pretty much half your air time in sports mode flying full throttle. You would be better of with P-Mode and OA off. Unless you are fighting strong wind.
Battery Consumption Experiment

Important..if you have head wind 30 km or above
The sport mode is like p mode
The only defrance between two modes is the speed limet not peach angle
in p mode the drone will increase peach angle to max angel -28 or -30 degrees trying to exist speed 31 or 32 km but will not able to exist and the speed will be 28 or 29 with maximum peach angle
So if you change to sport mode the drone already at maximum peach angle and speed will not increase
But in tail wind and p mode the drone will fly with peach angle near to 0 peach angle and the speed will be 30 km ( p mode limet )this is a ground speed ..but realy the air speed related to the air is 0 km
In this case the sport mode will let you to increase speed to 60 km (ground speed) and peach angle will be about 15 degrees
Battery consumpion depends on the peach angle not the speed or mode ...thank you

 

[Fallguy]

I had something simular happen to me . I was about 3 miles out at night and could still see my strobe that I had on the back of my mavic . It said I had 16 min of flight time left , so I turned around and started heading back home. The flight time dropped to 6 min instantly and I am 3 miles out . To make a long story short , it started to auto land a mile away and I guided as best I could into a industrial park parking lot along the railroad tracks I was following . Broke 1 motor arm off , which was easily replaced for $25 . Lesson learned.

 

[MaxHam]

I realized that I must be against wind as the battery kept dropping quicker than the way over

There are several websites and apps you can look into to determine current wind speed and direction at your location.
I personal like WINDY. It not only gives you wind at ground level but at higher elevations as well.
On top of checking the app I fly the drone to intended height and switch to Atti to see which way it is drifting.
(Oops - I have a P4P. The MP doesn't have Atti I just realized. I think the Sports Mode can be configured into an Atti mode though.)
When my intended destination is downwind I give it extra leeway for the trip home.
Windy as forecasted
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.windyty.android

 

[aljackie]

The other day I was flying out to the sea going to a man-made island about 3.5km away, which has been on the local news lately. I flew with sports mode on and reached it with 78% battery left which means the distance used up just above 20%. I spent about 5 minutes filming there thinking of returning before reaching 50%, which should give me double the battery required to return in case of emergency. At about 58% it gave me a warning that I only have enough battery to return home. I thought for a few seconds and took the advice to start returning with sports mode on. I realized that I must be against wind as the battery kept dropping quicker than the way over, and I descended to about 20m over the water hoping to catch weaker wind...50%...40%...30%...20% and I was still 1km away...15% and 600m away, knowing that it will start forced landing at 10% I ascend to 35m to give me more time to pick a landing spot just in case...10% and 400m to go and reached land I kept it just above some rocks on the coast in case it drop out from the sky, but the forced landing warning is so rapid that my heart was pounding and palms sweating...

Finally it reached home point with 5% left. After turning off everything my hands were shaking...I have lost a Phantom 2 into the ocean before and been flying the Mavic for over 200 flights so I won't consider myself a novice, but that forced landing warning sound was really making me nervous. Also my girl friend heard it and kept asking me what's happening which further induced the stress. In less experienced hands a pilot can easily panic under the pressure and make the wrong decision.

Can DJI make the warning to sound just a few seconds and then go silent? I'm sure we can hear the warning when it goes off and attend to it. Keep it going for the entire duration from 10% onward really does not help the pilot handle it calmly.

Also when we go long distance always leave more reserve than you estimate to be enough. I looked at the log and on the way out the speed under full throttle in sports mode was 60km/h while on the way back was 45-50km/h. Another flight and another lesson for me.

Wow, that was a close one... sounds like you didn't factor in head/tail winds. Your return flight was definitely into a head wind which slowed you down significantly. Good save!

 

[orbayburak]

Lesson learned. When Mavic gives you “only enough battery left to return home” warning you turn around.

Looks like Mavics calculations were on point

 

[Rudiger]

I was really hoping to say that the forced landing warning is really heart wrenching and would suggest DJI to change it to silent after maybe 10 seconds. It's driving me into panic mode and attract unnecessary attention around. So far no one seems to pick up on this issue. Maybe not many has gone down to 10% and experienced it first hand?

I completely agree with you on this! Most of us don't get into a forced landing situation on purpose, so the constant beeping is just adding stress to a situation we didn't want to be in anyway. I really wish there was a way to mute the controller.

 

[Rogat19]

The other day I was flying out to the sea going to a man-made island about 3.5km away, which has been on the local news lately. I flew with sports mode on and reached it with 78% battery left which means the distance used up just above 20%. I spent about 5 minutes filming there thinking of returning before reaching 50%, which should give me double the battery required to return in case of emergency. At about 58% it gave me a warning that I only have enough battery to return home. I thought for a few seconds and took the advice to start returning with sports mode on. I realized that I must be against wind as the battery kept dropping quicker than the way over, and I descended to about 20m over the water hoping to catch weaker wind...50%...40%...30%...20% and I was still 1km away...15% and 600m away, knowing that it will start forced landing at 10% I ascend to 35m to give me more time to pick a landing spot just in case...10% and 400m to go and reached land I kept it just above some rocks on the coast in case it drop out from the sky, but the forced landing warning is so rapid that my heart was pounding and palms sweating...

Finally it reached home point with 5% left. After turning off everything my hands were shaking...I have lost a Phantom 2 into the ocean before and been flying the Mavic for over 200 flights so I won't consider myself a novice, but that forced landing warning sound was really making me nervous. Also my girl friend heard it and kept asking me what's happening which further induced the stress. In less experienced hands a pilot can easily panic under the pressure and make the wrong decision.

Can DJI make the warning to sound just a few seconds and then go silent? I'm sure we can hear the warning when it goes off and attend to it. Keep it going for the entire duration from 10% onward really does not help the pilot handle it calmly.

Also when we go long distance always leave more reserve than you estimate to be enough. I looked at the log and on the way out the speed under full throttle in sports mode was 60km/h while on the way back was 45-50km/h. Another flight and another lesson for me.

I agree with you 100% so yeah DJI make the warning go off to tell you batt is low then every min or so maybe but to make it a constant sound can really rattle a person and then you get distracted you panic you rush to set it down you make mistakes it is far more a hindrance than a help believe me, it takes real inner calm to sty focused and do what you have to do with that noise, thats why they have a mute button on aircraft after the master caution goes off its common sense and basic human nature

 

[Balko]

The other day I was flying out to the sea going to a man-made island about 3.5km away, which has been on the local news lately. I flew with sports mode on and reached it with 78% battery left which means the distance used up just above 20%. I spent about 5 minutes filming there thinking of returning before reaching 50%, which should give me double the battery required to return in case of emergency. At about 58% it gave me a warning that I only have enough battery to return home. I thought for a few seconds and took the advice to start returning with sports mode on. I realized that I must be against wind as the battery kept dropping quicker than the way over, and I descended to about 20m over the water hoping to catch weaker wind...50%...40%...30%...20% and I was still 1km away...15% and 600m away, knowing that it will start forced landing at 10% I ascend to 35m to give me more time to pick a landing spot just in case...10% and 400m to go and reached land I kept it just above some rocks on the coast in case it drop out from the sky, but the forced landing warning is so rapid that my heart was pounding and palms sweating...

Finally it reached home point with 5% left. After turning off everything my hands were shaking...I have lost a Phantom 2 into the ocean before and been flying the Mavic for over 200 flights so I won't consider myself a novice, but that forced landing warning sound was really making me nervous. Also my girl friend heard it and kept asking me what's happening which further induced the stress. In less experienced hands a pilot can easily panic under the pressure and make the wrong decision.

Can DJI make the warning to sound just a few seconds and then go silent? I'm sure we can hear the warning when it goes off and attend to it. Keep it going for the entire duration from 10% onward really does not help the pilot handle it calmly.

Also when we go long distance always leave more reserve than you estimate to be enough. I looked at the log and on the way out the speed under full throttle in sports mode was 60km/h while on the way back was 45-50km/h. Another flight and another lesson for me.

What was the battery level of the Mavic before you took-off and how long ago has the battery been charged?