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Lost at sea from moving boat

johnnyl1948

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Joined
Nov 23, 2021
Messages
7
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2
Age
76
Location
ireland
I launched from my new M2S air from a 42 ft boat successfuly. Flew for 5 min and recovered manually by grabbing. Ten minutes later moving at 3 m/s I relaunched and it flew sideways and dived into the sea at full UP stick. Lost for ever.
DJI have recovered the flight log after giving them the lat/long and time.
1 Where do they get this from? Amazing.
2/ they told me I was moving at 3 m/s and that makes the guarantee null and void. It's not allowed - I didn't know that. Is it obvious from the manual?
3/,they are being helpfu and offering a new M2s air for $499. They say that's the best they can do given pilot error.
John in dublin Ireland
 
Did you or do you sync your logs with DJI by any chance? If they got them by any other means I would be a bit worried.
What currency is that 499 in?
There should be at least a ,txt log on your phone, you might like to have a read of DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help which gives instructions on how to retrieve them and then upload the .txt flight log to that site and then post the link to the resulting web page here.
 
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I launched from my new M2S air from a 42 ft boat successfuly. Flew for 5 min and recovered manually by grabbing. Ten minutes later moving at 3 m/s I relaunched and it flew sideways and dived into the sea at full UP stick. Lost for ever.
DJI have recovered the flight log after giving them the lat/long and time.
1 Where do they get this from? Amazing.
2/ they told me I was moving at 3 m/s and that makes the guarantee null and void. It's not allowed - I didn't know that. Is it obvious from the manual?
3/,they are being helpfu and offering a new M2s air for $499. They say that's the best they can do given pilot error.
John in dublin Ireland
You don't say what kind of launch you did.
I start motors with stick command, and through it upwards, behind the boat.
It will always be risky. I start sometimes from my small foilboard, but the I don't move that much.

I don't recommend auto takeoff, neither the manual:
1637969904008.png

It's the hovering 1.2m above the ground that messes everything up. When you start with stick command it starts flying state straight away.
 
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Sorry for your loss but even seasoned pilots can have that happen on a hand launch with the wrong tilt or timing of the wind. When i was flying from the Jet Ski i launched from the water because the winds were swirling.

I recommend the Air 2S Rescue Jacket and I sent you a PM .

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Air 2S in the Rain and Land on the Water.
 
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That’s a bit a bad luck, you see so many videos of drones being launched from boats. Hope you can get up and running again, and welcome to the forum from the land of Oz.
Regards
 
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Sorry for your loss but even seasoned pilots can have that happen on a hand launch with the wrong tilt or timing of the wind. When i was flying from the Jet Ski i launched from the water because the winds were swirling.

I recommend the Air 2S Rescue Jacket and I sent you a PM .

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Air 2S in the Rain and Land on the Water.
Sheesh! The guy just lost his drone and you are trying to make a sale off of it! Shocking!!!
 
Sheesh! The guy just lost his drone and you are trying to make a sale off of it! Shocking!!!
He is likely to keep his boat, and it would extremely painful to have it happen again, letting him know there is something that many of the members have and use is just being respectful. Thanks Chris.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the water,
 
I launched from my new M2S air from a 42 ft boat successfuly. Flew for 5 min and recovered manually by grabbing. Ten minutes later moving at 3 m/s I relaunched and it flew sideways and dived into the sea at full UP stick. Lost for ever.
DJI have recovered the flight log after giving them the lat/long and time.
1 Where do they get this from? Amazing.
The flight data is recorded by the app on your phone or tablet.
If you synch your flight data set your app preferences to automatically synch to DJI's servers, they have a copy of your flight data.

If you post your flight data here, someone might be able to analyse it and help understand what went wrong.
Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.
Or .. just post the txt file here.
 
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One thing I like about Phantomrain is that Coal never places blame, but if possible offers a solution. I use too purchase the cheap floats and I cannot tell you how many times my Mavic pro tipped over into the water. That rescue jacket is my #1 tool in my bag of tricks to land on the River and the Lily pads and fly from the air boat. That Rescue jacket allows you to reach out with one hand and just grab it safely onto the boat. Just superior to anything else out there.

Sage
 
He is likely to keep his boat, and it would extremely painful to have it happen again, letting him know there is something that many of the members have and use is just being respectful. Thanks Chris.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the water,
Loosing an expensive drone is one thing. Having someone you don’t know try to sell you an expensive product immediately after, before you haven’t even figured out what happened or whether you are going to replace it seems to me less like being respectful and more like someone just trying to make some $$$.
 
Something tells me if there's internet available, flight logs are automatically sent to DJI! At least that was inferred when my went down.
 
Something tells me if there's internet available, flight logs are automatically sent to DJI! At least that was inferred when my went down.
They are synchronized to the DJI servers if you have that set in your preferences.
 
Loosing an expensive drone is one thing. Having someone you don’t know try to sell you an expensive product immediately after, before you haven’t even figured out what happened or whether you are going to replace it seems to me less like being respectful and more like someone just trying to make some $$$.
What is wrong with making $$$ in a respectful manner, and offering a solution to the new member if they continue with drones.
 
somehow this thread has become a like /hate @Phantomrain.org discussion please lets get it back on track
 
That’s a bit a bad luck, you see so many videos of drones being launched from boats. Hope you can get up and running again, and welcome to the forum from the land of Oz.
Regards
Hi folks
Latest
DJI Amsterdam offering a replacement for 499 euro
They claim it's forbidden to launch from a moving platform
I responded that there are hundreds of Utubes showing easy launching. Seems to
Not be a problem
They say they got my info because I'm synched?
They say 3m/s launch speed too high. 6 mph.
More to come.
Johnn
 
I launched from my new M2S air from a 42 ft boat successfuly. Flew for 5 min and recovered manually by grabbing. Ten minutes later moving at 3 m/s I relaunched and it flew sideways and dived into the sea at full UP stick. Lost for ever.
DJI have recovered the flight log after giving them the lat/long and time.
1 Where do they get this from? Amazing.
2/ they told me I was moving at 3 m/s and that makes the guarantee null and void. It's not allowed - I didn't know that. Is it obvious from the manual?
3/,they are being helpfu and offering a new M2s air for $499. They say that's the best they can do given pilot error.
John in dublin Ireland
If you did not have enough GPS satellites and "Bitchin Betty" did not state your homepoint was set - then you probably were in ATTI Mode. I've seen my Air2 do some wonky flight stuff without stick movement on it's own while in ATTI - as no GPS stabilization / etc. Just the air movement from the boat "may" have sucked / forced the drone down - hard to say for sure.

If DJI has the log files, you were synching with them - so there should be something of a file still on your screen device to post here for review. May be kind of hidden, but there are posts on the forum on how to find those files - hidden or not.

Also sounds like you had basic Refresh and not the overall Fly Away coverage, which fly away is supposed to cover nearly any scenario; whereas basic will not cover pilot error. The log file will tell us and you if indeed it was pilot error or not.

Here in the US, I advise not to pay for the DJI coverage and go with a 3rd Party Insurance Coverage plan. Typically cheaper (here) and covers A-Z usually - including theft. Then you don't have to deal with DJI and go thru that typical hassle. Not sure what Ireland / UK has in that realm, but would look into it if you get the new drone.
 
Sheesh! The guy just lost his drone and you are trying to make a sale off of it! Shocking!!!
Why? He's just stating that flying from water is very hazardous - i.e. - he lost his drone. For future flights from water / boat - taking proper precautions and using some type of flotation device makes sense.
 
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