Lost Drone in the Jungle.

[Akoztha]

He also said in order for the drone to go up, I need to command it to go up. In other words he won't "climb up the hill."

 

[Akoztha]

So I just came out of the jungle; 2 snakes, monkeys and toucans were my companions on my quest to find the drone.
I'm almost giving up....
Last option it's flying another drone to survey the heights of the trees...
I did learn by all the mistakes I made.
I guess it's true.... " Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn"
I miss flying everyday, I used to wake up at 5am to catch the early morning light...
Going back to my guitar now.

 

[Huge Bama Fan]

Yes... I lost my drone. Sucks !!
So I got a few questions, any kind of help is greatly appreciated!
Questions:
* It had %27 battery, but the RC got disconnected. I lost signal of the device and the video only shows that moment, when there was no communication.
- At that point; does it continues to Return Home? I called DJI and the lady didn't knew much. She said as soon as the Drone loses signal with the RC, it will stop. Meaning that the %27 left was used just hovering at the point where I lost contact.
The reason why I am trying to find about this, it's because the tab "Find My Drone" gave me coordinates that are basically, near or right at the spot where my video stopped recording.
I spend all day at that spot, but couldn't find it; so I was puzzled.
- If it continued Returning Home. Is there a way to retrieve the last cordinates?

Thanks in advance for your responses!!!

It should have went to the last home point, assuming the set elevation was achievable in that environment

 

[MavicCF]

So I just came out of the jungle; 2 snakes, monkeys and toucans were my companions on my quest to find the drone.
I'm almost giving up....
Last option it's flying another drone to survey the heights of the trees...
I did learn by all the mistakes I made.
I guess it's true.... " Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn"
I miss flying everyday, I used to wake up at 5am to catch the early morning light...
Going back to my guitar now.

Sorry to hear of your loss. It seems to me that if the Mavic entered RTH due to signal loss that it should have climbed to the preset RTH altitude ABOVE the take off point, the fact that it couldn't make it up the cliff to you makes no sence as it should rise to at least 30-40 meters above it before going home. Maybe low battery has something to do with that? Good luck and I hope you find it, I've been in a few jungles and can't imagine... -CF

 

[mav09]

Yes... I lost my drone. Sucks !!
So I got a few questions, any kind of help is greatly appreciated!
Questions:
* It had %27 battery, but the RC got disconnected. I lost signal of the device and the video only shows that moment, when there was no communication.
- At that point; does it continues to Return Home? I called DJI and the lady didn't knew much. She said as soon as the Drone loses signal with the RC, it will stop. Meaning that the %27 left was used just hovering at the point where I lost contact.
The reason why I am trying to find about this, it's because the tab "Find My Drone" gave me coordinates that are basically, near or right at the spot where my video stopped recording.
I spend all day at that spot, but couldn't find it; so I was puzzled.
- If it continued Returning Home. Is there a way to retrieve the last cordinates?

Thanks in advance for your responses!!!

If it's in the jungle as your title says, it most likely would be stuck 40ft above in a tree. Start climbing is my best guess

 

[Akoztha]

If it's in the jungle as your title says, it most likely would be stuck 40ft above in a tree. Start climbing is my best guess

Yes, that's our guess since we looked all day on the ground and nothing.

 

[Akoztha]

For your claimed case CAS-1493804-C3H4B7, we have already finished the analysis, and the result is as follows:
1. The aircraft worked in Sport mode, and responded to the pilot's command well. The aircraft was under the interference of wind during the flight;
2. At flight time 04'40'', H=-332.6 m, D=3617.9 m, battery capacity: 72%, the aircraft entered go-home mode due to the low battery, but the pilot canceled the RTH at flight time 04'46'';
3. At flight time 09'24'', H=-155.3 m, D=913.0 m, battery capacity: 25%, the flight record ended.

According to the analysis, the incident was caused by improper flight environment. Please do not fly in high-wind condition.

We greatly appreciate your support for DJI, and especially applied a 15% off discount for Mavic Pro (Refurbished Unit) without charger and remote.

 

[Akoztha]

"Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn"

 

[Photo Booth]

I've been following your thread and the question in my mind (which I probably should have voiced) was whether your Mavic automatically entered Return to Home due to low battery. DJI has obviously answered that question.

When your Mavic is flying it is constantly evaluating the wind conditions and distance from home. When the Mavic told you it had "low battery" at 72% it was based on its calculations of the winds and distance. You are most definitely not the first pilot that looked at 70+% battery (and less than 5 minutes of total flight time) and decided the Mavic was out of its mind to suggest low battery. But its calculations are important and need to be respected. A lot of drones get lost due to pilots canceling automatic return to home and continuing to fly.

I've learned that I will NEVER cancel automatic return to home except to take control of the aircraft myself and bring it home immediately. While it's in the air the Mavic knows more about the wind conditions than I do.

Sorry for your loss and thanks for posting. Perhaps future pilots will learn from your experience.

Mark

 

[Akoztha]

I've been following your thread and the question in my mind (which I probably should have voiced) was whether your Mavic automatically entered Return to Home due to low battery. DJI has obviously answered that question.

When your Mavic is flying it is constantly evaluating the wind conditions and distance from home. When the Mavic told you it had "low battery" at 72% it was based on its calculations of the winds and distance. You are most definitely not the first pilot that looked at 70+% battery (and less than 5 minutes of total flight time) and decided the Mavic was out of its mind to suggest low battery. But its calculations are important and need to be respected. A lot of drones get lost due to pilots canceling automatic return to home and continuing to fly.

I've learned that I will NEVER cancel automatic return to home except to take control of the aircraft myself and bring it home immediately. While it's in the air the Mavic knows more about the wind conditions than I do.

Sorry for your loss and thanks for posting. Perhaps future pilots will learn from your experience.

Mark

Thanks Mark.
I'm actually posting this as a lesson in some ways... so all new pilots can get an idea of what NOT to do.
Hopefully, it will keep anyone who read this, away from mistakes which can definitely be avoided.
A drone should be handled within sight, otherwise it will be exposed to any kind of danger.
Playing fool and pushing limits on distance won't give you much skills. It will give for sure a broken heart when you wait there like a twat waiting for your drone to show up....
A HUGE recomendation to anyone reading this:
** IF YOU ARE POSITIVE, you won't make it for any given reason, land the aircraft even if it's a mile away. Land it on a roof, land it on a plain, land it anywhere you can.
By doing this you will know where the aircraft is. Just drive there and hopefully no one will steal it but at least chances are higher on locating the artifact.
Try to find a "hidden place" that you can reach quick.
That way you won't be guessing on a huge radius where to look, specially if you're recording video. It will be a no brainer getting there.
Thanks everyone for any kind of help provided. I wish all the best.
[emoji41]

 

[Akoztha]

Oh and I cancel the Return Home mode due to the side winds pushing the Mavic dead right. I tried to cancel Return Home to takeover on S mode since the drone was flying sideways. I was trying to line it up with home since the drifting was pretty hard. Probably one more mistake of mine, had to many thoughts on my mind.

 

[kubais]

Sorry for your loss

I am canceling RTH very often when trying to push limits, but always with confidence I know about the wind direction and strength. But I can say that I never had strong side wind. Best option is always to fly into the wind, cancel RTH (calculation is in this case always wrong since on the way back your speed will be much higher) and not to forget watch carefully your speed against the wind compared to your average speed without the wind to estimate how oe much you can still fly.
When trying to fight high wind it's also good idea to rather descend as low as possible instead of using sport mode that is just too power hungry.

 

[wavedancer]

when i Iost my drone I used the map finder and it showed its position and my position gps so I followed the line and recovered the drone

 

[diver227]

An app crash will not cause the Mavic to land, it just means you loose the video feed, the bird continues unfazed, responding to controller stick input as expected.

In fact, if the app crashes, and I lose video feed, I just let the Mavic hover in place while I reboot and get the video back. Scared me the first time it happened, but now it's no big deal.

 

[Akoztha]

when i Iost my drone I used the map finder and it showed its position and my position gps so I followed the line and recovered the drone

Lucky you, we search the entire area, and a radius of 200 meters with no positive results.
Being a jungle, it probably got stock on top of the trees. We were going to fly a drone to check the heights... but it rain.
So that was the end of the quest.

 

[Akoztha]

RIP [emoji26]

 

[Dabrain]

Thanks Mark.
I'm actually posting this as a lesson in some ways... so all new pilots can get an idea of what NOT to do.
Hopefully, it will keep anyone who read this, away from mistakes which can definitely be avoided.
A drone should be handled within sight, otherwise it will be exposed to any kind of danger.
Playing fool and pushing limits on distance won't give you much skills. It will give for sure a broken heart when you wait there like a twat waiting for your drone to show up....
A HUGE recomendation to anyone reading this:
** IF YOU ARE POSITIVE, you won't make it for any given reason, land the aircraft even if it's a mile away. Land it on a roof, land it on a plain, land it anywhere you can.
By doing this you will know where the aircraft is. Just drive there and hopefully no one will steal it but at least chances are higher on locating the artifact.
Try to find a "hidden place" that you can reach quick.
That way you won't be guessing on a huge radius where to look, specially if you're recording video. It will be a no brainer getting there.
Thanks everyone for any kind of help provided. I wish all the best.
[emoji41]

Be careful when you find a place to land, if there is a obstruction between you and the MP you will lose contact with the RC and RTH will be initiated and your back where you started in doodo. So before finding that place to land change the properties of your RTH to land or hover. Just an idea, I actually have done this and when I got to the landing zone the MP was still hovering, only a few minutes up the hill.

 

[Akoztha]

Be careful when you find a place to land, if there is a obstruction between you and the MP you will lose contact with the RC and RTH will be initiated and your back where you started in doodo. So before finding that place to land change the properties of your RTH to land or hover. Just an idea, I actually have done this and when I got to the landing zone the MP was still hovering, only a few minutes up the hill.

Great thanks, I didn't think about the MP and the RC losing signal; good to know.
Guy from DJI said it hovers 5 seconds and the lands... is that true?

 

[Dabrain]

Not i

Great thanks, I didn't think about the MP and the RC losing signal; good to know.
Guy from DJI said it hovers 5 seconds and the lands... is that true?

Great thanks, I didn't think about the MP and the RC losing signal; good to know.
Guy from DJI said it hovers 5 seconds and the lands... is that true?

Not if RTH is set to return to home or hover which is set to happen after 3 seconds of LOS.

 

[Randy]

Without the data I dont think knowing the RTH settings are going to help much. Whatever it was set at, it either hovered, landed, or started towards home.

If you lost it in the jungle I’d be looking in the trees