Litchi Mission Gone Bad

[Gtarman52]

My Phantom 4 Pro crash. 91% battery left, broken prop, frame, gimbal & cable. The reason for my Mavic Pro 2 purchase.

 

[FoxhallGH]

Oops! Those trees just grew up in the flight-path! Sorry to see that happen (& nice scenery and filming up to that point!).

 

[parkgt]

And what did you learn to keep that from happening to your M2?

 

[Gtarman52]

And what did you learn to keep that from happening to your M2?[/QUOTE

That is a very good question my friend and here is the answer. I have flown Litchi missions countless times with no problems what so ever, but this time after reviewing my files and mission data, the crash was caused by the pilot !! Never setup your missions up hurriedly. I had a POI hidden behind one of the other POI's that was set to 98 ft which was supposed to be at 390 ft. As a result you see the gradual decent into the trees with the drone doing exactly what it was programmed to do. No one to blame but me..... sigh.....

 

[parkgt]

A miss set POI I wouldn't have thought would do that. Did you mean a WP.

I have yet to screw up with Litchi, but I had some close calls with Mission Planner on previous drones.

Have you tried Virtual Litchi Missions yet to review you flight paths? It won't really help if you setup missions in the field.

 

[ViperPilot]

Been there, done that. Totally pilot error. I flew a similar Litchi mission but forgot when doing the programming just how high the hill rose up at the far end of the mission. Fortunately the bird got stuck in the top of one of those trees and after a lot of work I was able to get it down with out any damage. Litchi has a feature that allows it to take into account elevation features when flying around hills. But really, it was just stupid pilot error on my part. Hopefully a lesson learned and never to do it again!

 

[Gtarman52]

A miss set POI I wouldn't have thought would do that. Did you mean a WP.

I have yet to screw up with Litchi, but I had some close calls with Mission Planner on previous drones.

Have you tried Virtual Litchi Missions yet to review you flight paths? It won't really help if you setup missions in the field.

Yes sorry , WP is correct.

 

[Spy_Corfu]

In theory the sensors should have stopped the Mavic 2 from crashing into the trees if they detected it.
The obstacle avoidance system still works during litchi missions from they have told me.

 

[FoxhallGH]

It does look like the sensors did stop the collision, but then, the drone went down, not up!

 

[Jackcutrone]

It does look like the sensors did stop the collision, but then, the drone went down, not up!

To me it looked like it stopped then flew closer to the trees and then flew backwards before descending.

Gateman - were you controlling it at that point or was it still autonomous? Is that the way Litchi, which I don’t have yet, operates normally?

 

[Jackcutrone]

Oops autocorrect got me again meant Gtarman

 

[Chasing Light & Shadows]

Abort abort abort! A good lesson for us all, thanks for sharing.

 

[Gtarman52]

I lost the connection when the drone descended. I could not do anything, but it did appear the drone was trying to complete the Litchi mission

 

[Roamer105]

In theory the sensors should have stopped the Mavic 2 from crashing into the trees if they detected it.
The obstacle avoidance system still works during litchi missions from they have told me.

Not sure if Litchi enables the collision avoidance during a programmed waypoint mission. That would be a good question to ask Litchi.

 

[ViperPilot]

In my case, yes, Litchi will try to fly the total mission even with LOS. And the collision avoidance sensors were working perfectly . Viewing the video recorded shows the MP2 stopped when it encountered the trees. It then slightly backed up and tried to go around the trees but in doing so the props hit some thin branches on a side tree that had lost all it's leaves. That's all it took for the MP2 to stop flying and get hun up in the branches. Everything worked properly except for the dummy who planned the mission without considering the hill it encountered!

 

[SteelFlyer]

I have gotten in the habit of always downloading the KML files and looking at them in Google Earth prior to flying the mission to make sure I'm not missing anything. Not foolproof but it helps.

 

[Spike151]

When you lost signal the drone would have gone into rth. If you had you rth set at a decent alititude the drone should have just flown straight upwards then returned to home. Good lesson in why you should always set your RTH altitude at the legal maximum.

 

[ViperPilot]

Not when your flying Litchi waypoint missions. When LOS occurs the Mavic will continue to fly the pre-programmed mission that was loaded into the aircraft. The altitude it flys at will be the altitude (AGL) that was set for each waypoint.

 

[Teleman]

Been there, done that. Totally pilot error. I flew a similar Litchi mission but forgot when doing the programming just how high the hill rose up at the far end of the mission. Fortunately the bird got stuck in the top of one of those trees and after a lot of work I was able to get it down with out any damage. Litchi has a feature that allows it to take into account elevation features when flying around hills. But really, it was just stupid pilot error on my part. Hopefully a lesson learned and never to do it again!

I had a similar experience but I had checked the box for same elevation at all waypoints BUT one waypoint did not get checked and thanks to the collision avoidance sensors, the Air 2 stopped before hitting the tree. I'll check everything more closely next time before running the mission.