So on April 16th I made a trip to Puerto Galara, Philippines, with my Mavic 3 Pro. It's a great place to fly a drone because there are no airports around so you can go up to 1,000 meters. It's a peninsula that has a lot of hills and coastline. I had flown my Mavic Pro Platinum there in 2018. But I was excited about the Mavic 3 Pro's better capabilities. So first I flew up to 1,000 meters. Then I flew two out of signal range waypoint missions. So it was getting dark, around 6, and I made the mistake of making another flight. This was around Sabang Beach, the major tourist destination there. What follows is what I emailed to DJI.
Last night I was flying at dusk. It came up with a message saying because of the dim light, obstacle avoidance wouldn't work. So somehow I got too close to a palm tree and hit it. I looked for it for thirty minutes, but couldn't find it, the terrain was extremely steep, and I kept falling down. I used find my drone and heard beeps, but didn't see any lights. When I was leaving I fell down and rolled 30 of 40 feet, my shoulder hit something and was extremely painful. Now I had to get back to the road with only one arm.
So today I got a bunch of guys to help me look for it. They found my bag, my remote control, but they couldn't find the drone. I think it stuck in a tree. So we will need another drone to look for it.
I got my shoulder X-rayed, and their are no broken bones, but it hurts like hell when I move it.
So DJI got me the coordinates.
Yes. I am Chloe. We used the information of the DJI RC N1 to find out that the final coordinates of your drone are 13°31'05.4"N 120°58'36.2"E.
Here's the picture they send me of where it should be.
We apologize for the inconvenience. Because, according to your drone serial number query, you are bound to the DJI RC. We used the information from the DJI RC query.
Can you help me find it? I know the general area. So DJI sent my the last known coordinates. But it still had a 30 meter area where it could of been.
So the fact that I could hear the beeps means I couldn't of been too far away. How do I upload the flight logs. Can I find out what it's last GPS coordinates were, since it was connected. Thanks in advance.
I got this email from DJI today.
Dear Customer,
Thanks for your patience.
This is Leo from the data analysis team, and I will be assisting you on this case from now on for related inquiries about data analysis.
1. The aircraft worked under GPS mode;
2. Flight Time T=10:31, Relative Height H=0.0 m, Distance to Home Point D=289.2 m, the pilot pushed the pitch stick up, but the aircraft flipped over;
3. Home point: 13.5206892, 120.9767030, and the incident point: 13.5180889, 120.9767543.
Conclusion: Unable to figure out the cause of the accident based only on the flight record.
If the aircraft cannot be recovered, we would like to offer you a replacement, a DJI Mavic 3 Pro aircraft (without the remote controller and battery charger). There is one Battery included.
Please kindly send us the following information:
Shipping address(PHILIPPINES):
Contact name:
Phone number:
----------If the model is incorrect, please let us know.
Please also follow the instructions in this link in order to complete the flyaway report: https://dji.ink/t3iPjA. After you complete the flyaway report, please let us know.
Should you have more questions about the result of the data analysis, please reply to this email directly. Then we will contact you via email in 1-2 working days.
Thanks for your support. Have a nice day!
Best Regards,
Leo
DJI Technical Support
So anyway, they've offered to replace my drone and battery for free, even though the loss was my fault.
They said I pushed left stick up, which I don't remember doing. Because I thought I could go forward a lot more without hitting anything. So maybe that caused the crash. My wife paid guys to climb up 7 coconut trees to look for it but they couldn't find it.
Last night I was flying at dusk. It came up with a message saying because of the dim light, obstacle avoidance wouldn't work. So somehow I got too close to a palm tree and hit it. I looked for it for thirty minutes, but couldn't find it, the terrain was extremely steep, and I kept falling down. I used find my drone and heard beeps, but didn't see any lights. When I was leaving I fell down and rolled 30 of 40 feet, my shoulder hit something and was extremely painful. Now I had to get back to the road with only one arm.
So today I got a bunch of guys to help me look for it. They found my bag, my remote control, but they couldn't find the drone. I think it stuck in a tree. So we will need another drone to look for it.
I got my shoulder X-rayed, and their are no broken bones, but it hurts like hell when I move it.
So DJI got me the coordinates.
Yes. I am Chloe. We used the information of the DJI RC N1 to find out that the final coordinates of your drone are 13°31'05.4"N 120°58'36.2"E.
Here's the picture they send me of where it should be.
We apologize for the inconvenience. Because, according to your drone serial number query, you are bound to the DJI RC. We used the information from the DJI RC query.
Can you help me find it? I know the general area. So DJI sent my the last known coordinates. But it still had a 30 meter area where it could of been.
So the fact that I could hear the beeps means I couldn't of been too far away. How do I upload the flight logs. Can I find out what it's last GPS coordinates were, since it was connected. Thanks in advance.
I got this email from DJI today.
Dear Customer,
Thanks for your patience.
This is Leo from the data analysis team, and I will be assisting you on this case from now on for related inquiries about data analysis.
1. The aircraft worked under GPS mode;
2. Flight Time T=10:31, Relative Height H=0.0 m, Distance to Home Point D=289.2 m, the pilot pushed the pitch stick up, but the aircraft flipped over;
3. Home point: 13.5206892, 120.9767030, and the incident point: 13.5180889, 120.9767543.
Conclusion: Unable to figure out the cause of the accident based only on the flight record.
If the aircraft cannot be recovered, we would like to offer you a replacement, a DJI Mavic 3 Pro aircraft (without the remote controller and battery charger). There is one Battery included.
Please kindly send us the following information:
Shipping address(PHILIPPINES):
Contact name:
Phone number:
----------If the model is incorrect, please let us know.
Please also follow the instructions in this link in order to complete the flyaway report: https://dji.ink/t3iPjA. After you complete the flyaway report, please let us know.
Should you have more questions about the result of the data analysis, please reply to this email directly. Then we will contact you via email in 1-2 working days.
Thanks for your support. Have a nice day!
Best Regards,
Leo
DJI Technical Support
So anyway, they've offered to replace my drone and battery for free, even though the loss was my fault.
They said I pushed left stick up, which I don't remember doing. Because I thought I could go forward a lot more without hitting anything. So maybe that caused the crash. My wife paid guys to climb up 7 coconut trees to look for it but they couldn't find it.
