Lost another drone

[jwilson]

My first day in Siargao, the surfing capital on the Philippines. I was trying to video a boggie boarder, with my Mavic 3 Pro. I got too low, and a big wave hit my drone. Lost connection. I knew what that meant. A sick feeling in my stomach. And on the first day of my trip, just like Puerto Galara in April. I couldn't believe it. After 10 minutes, I had recovered enough to try flying my Mini 3 Pro. It was very windy, I would say 20 to 30 mph. So once I lifted off, I could tell it was fairly stable. So I flew for about 30 minutes. Stayed well above the water. So I contacted DJI, and I'm hoping they could send me a replacement at my hotel here. I will be here for 3 weeks. The mini is OK, but the Mavic is way better. Couldn't find it in a million years in this surf. Not that it would be repairable anyway. Before the wave hit it, I was getting some orange and red obstacle avoidance warnings. I tried to go up, but it was too late. Oh well, another $1,300 dollars down the drain, not counting shipping.

 

[Paul Iddon]

Lessons to be learned sadly my friend....

 

[GadgetGuy]

My first day in Siargao, the surfing capital on the Philippines. I was trying to video a boggie boarder, with my Mavic 3 Pro. I got too low, and a big wave hit my drone. Lost connection. I knew what that meant. A sick feeling in my stomach. And on the first day of my trip, just like Puerto Galara in April. I couldn't believe it. After 10 minutes, I had recovered enough to try flying my Mini 3 Pro. It was very windy, I would say 20 to 30 mph. So once I lifted off, I could tell it was fairly stable. So I flew for about 30 minutes. Stayed well above the water. So I contacted DJI, and I'm hoping they could send me a replacement at my hotel here. I will be here for 3 weeks. The mini is OK, but the Mavic is way better. Couldn't find it in a million years in this surf. Not that it would be repairable anyway. Before the wave hit it, I was getting some orange and red obstacle avoidance warnings. I tried to go up, but it was too late. Oh well, another $1,300 dollars down the drain, not counting shipping.

Bummer! Been there! Drowned my Mavic 2 Pro in the surf at night in the dark trying to video bioluminescence using only VLOS with the screen turned off so I wouldn’t be night blinded. Bad idea! That telemetry is essential. Visually gauging elevation over the water in the dark based upon the drone lights from 100 feet above and 400 feet away is deceptive!

Is $1300 the Care Refresh "Fly Away" deductible for the Mavic 3 Pro, or the cost of a replacement drone without Refresh and FlyAway?

One of the advantages of the Mavic 3 Pro is using one of telephoto lenses to stay farther above the surf, or a hybrid zoom of up to 2x digital on top of one of the 3x or 7x telephoto lenses.