Lost M2P. Please help me decipher log?

[Maviculous]

Hi,
Long time listener, first time caller.
I was doing a night videography flight and I think I may have experienced a “flyaway”?

Background and situation:
I’m a recreational flyer only.
VERY familiar location flying from the home where I grew up in a semi-rural area.

Had flown for days, many times from the same spot before the Final Fated Flight.

In the days prior, I’d had to re-calibrate my compass more than “normal” and two days prior to losing the drone, I’d had to re-callibrate my visual sensors. (don’t ask…THAT was an experience…what with the DJI Assistant 2. Good training but a pain and invaluable help found here on the forums!)

The night of the flight I lost signal, the RTH kicked in and the drone started GAINING altitude and flying AWAY from home. Granted I was pushing the envelope on range when I lost the signal, but I’d successfully flown this flightpath before a number of times day and night. Improving upon other videos taken before…

Trying to regain signal and take over from the erroneous info on RTH, I tried to throttle towards me with opposite results, I tried changing altitude with inconsistent results.
I also got an “Airport” warning during the takeoff…the closest airport is a small regional airport (read: not a busy airfield) 10mi from the Home/Takeoff location and our house is not in a common flight path.
Numerous unexpected warnings occurred not consistent with the location.

Can someone please help me decipher this?
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

I've attached the .txt and the .dat files too if that helps?

Thanks MUCH for any help.

Btw…Of course this flight was the night before I returned to MY home. I did look near the last known location but when you see the flight logs you’ll understand why I didn’t spend too much time. Odds are extremely high it’s in a tree as the area is about 60-70% trees. Also lots of open fields grown very tall with natural vegetation.
I also tried AirData to explore wind conditions (it was pretty calm and the clouds were still as well) but I don’t have a premium account.

 

[Prismatic]

I believe you'd find that going up a step or two in your Airdata account is worth the money. The battery info alone has probably saved my arse already, a couple of months into my subscription.

 

[Maviculous]

I believe you'd find that going up a step or two in your Airdata account is worth the money. The battery info alone has probably saved my arse already, a couple of months into my subscription.

Thanks Prismatic...yeah, I think I'm gonna pull the trigger on the low-end upgrade. 'Specially now with you reinforcing the actual usefulness about something I really had not thought about; the battery conditions.

Do you use an independent GPS "puck" on your drones? I was thinking it would've really helped me locate my drone (after the fact of course!).

 

[DanMan32]

The response to signal loss for M2 is that for 60 seconds it will retrace it's previous flight path. That's probably why it seemed to fly away from you rather than toward you. If signal is not regained by that time, it will then perform the usual RTH process. It will also try to climb over obstacles it encounters, up to the max altitude setting.

 

[Maviculous]

aHA! That does explain why it seemed to fly away from me. It DID lose signal for a long time prior to the appearance of what I was thinking was a "flyaway".
This was a very good, expensive lesson. LOL!
I'm shopping now for my replacement drone...

 

[BudWalker]

aHA! That does explain why it seemed to fly away from me. It DID lose signal for a long time prior to the appearance of what I was thinking was a "flyaway".
This was a very good, expensive lesson. LOL!
I'm shopping now for my replacement drone...

Wind was determined to be cause in the analysis done over on

Mavic 2 Pro Lost; Newbie Asking for Help!

Hi, Long time listener, first time caller. I was doing a night videography flight and I think I may have experienced a “flyaway”? Background and situation: I’m a recreational flyer only. VERY familiar location flying from the home where I grew up in a semi-rural area. Had flown for days...

forum.phantomhelp.com

It was a blow away not a fly away.

Looking at AirData the winds were in excess of 50 mph. The MA had been trying to hover in Sport mode beginning around 370 secs but was being blown away. Then the downlink was lost briefly at 385 secs and the M2P switched to GoHome. After that the downlink was re-established but there were several more intervals where the downlink was lost and regained. It doesn't appear the M2 tried to retrace it's path.

 

[Meta4]

I was doing a night videography flight and I think I may have experienced a “flyaway”?

You think you had a flyaway?
The recorded flight data tells a different story.

The night of the flight I lost signal, the RTH kicked in and the drone started GAINING altitude and flying AWAY from home.
Trying to regain signal and take over from the erroneous info on RTH, I tried to throttle towards me with opposite results, I tried changing altitude with inconsistent results.

You had RTH set at 100 feet but were flying above that level so RTH never climbed at all.
The drone was up at 1500 feet, entirely because someone pushed your left stick forward form 0:04.1 - 0:16.9 and again from 1:47.2 - 4:34.5.
I'm unsure what erroneous info you think RTH gave you, everything seems to be quite normal except for the lack of pilot awareness.

You put the drone 1500 feet up and if you look at the recorded flight data, it shows that from about 4:34 (2670 ft from home) you just left the drone up there and rotated it

The drone could not hold position against the high winds up there.
Just trying to hover, it was being blown away at around 5 mph.
At around 5:40 you attempted to fly in the direction of home, still 1500 feet up but now 9150 feet away.
You tried Sport Mode and RTH with the right stick full forward but the drone still kept being blown further away.
It wasn't until about 8:20 (now 10,150 ft away) that you thought to bring the drone down lower.
Signal was lost at 10:25.5 with the battery at 25% and the drone still 1120 feet up , 10,487 feet away and still being blown further.

I also tried AirData to explore wind conditions (it was pretty calm and the clouds were still as well) but I don’t have a premium account.

It's a pretty safe assumption that the wind 1500 feet up will be significantly higher than down on the ground.
When the drone can't hold position without drifting, that's shouting to you that you have put the drone in a strong wind situation and need to be smart about how you handle it.
Your drone did not fly away.
It's going to have been blown even further away before the low battery level forced it to autoland.

 

[Maviculous]

You think you had a flyaway?
The recorded flight data tells a different story.

You had RTH set at 100 feet but were flying above that level so RTH never climbed at all.
The drone was up at 1500 feet, entirely because someone pushed your left stick forward form 0:04.1 - 0:16.9 and again from 1:47.2 - 4:34.5.
I'm unsure what erroneous info you think RTH gave you, everything seems to be quite normal except for the lack of pilot awareness.

You put the drone 1500 feet up and if you look at the recorded flight data, it shows that from about 4:34 (2670 ft from home) you just left the drone up there and rotated it

The drone could not hold position against the high winds up there.
Just trying to hover, it was being blown away at around 5 mph.
At around 5:40 you attempted to fly in the direction of home, still 1500 feet up but now 9150 feet away.
You tried Sport Mode and RTH with the right stick full forward but the drone still kept being blown further away.
It wasn't until about 8:20 (now 10,150 ft away) that you thought to bring the drone down lower.
Signal was lost at 10:25.5 with the battery at 25% and the drone still 1120 feet up , 10,487 feet away and still being blown further.

It's a pretty safe assumption that the wind 1500 feet up will be significantly higher than down on the ground.
When the drone can't hold position without drifting, that's shouting to you that you have put the drone in a strong wind situation and need to be smart about how you handle it.
Your drone did not fly away.
It's going to have been blown even further away before the low battery level forced it to autoland.

Thank you SO MUCH for the very detailed breakdown and unnecessary editorial additions. Hope you enjoyed letting me know how much you know.
In spite of your critique of my personal drone flying experience, I do actually appreciate the snippets of useful info you sent along.
Have a great day!

 

[Meta4]

Thank you SO MUCH for the very detailed breakdown and unnecessary editorial additions. Hope you enjoyed letting me know how much you know.
In spite of your critique of my personal drone flying experience, I do actually appreciate the snippets of useful info you sent along.

There were no unnecessary editorial additions.
I just presented the facts.
Losing a drone can be a painful lesson.

 

[Maviculous]

Wind was determined to be cause in the analysis done over on

Mavic 2 Pro Lost; Newbie Asking for Help!

Hi, Long time listener, first time caller. I was doing a night videography flight and I think I may have experienced a “flyaway”? Background and situation: I’m a recreational flyer only. VERY familiar location flying from the home where I grew up in a semi-rural area. Had flown for days...

forum.phantomhelp.com

It was a blow away not a fly away.

Looking at AirData the winds were in excess of 50 mph. The MA had been trying to hover in Sport mode beginning around 370 secs but was being blown away. Then the downlink was lost briefly at 385 secs and the M2P switched to GoHome. After that the downlink was re-established but there were several more intervals where the downlink was lost and regained. It doesn't appear the M2 tried to retrace it's path.

Thanks BudWalker! Yeah...I was definitely flying in the wind. I saw it too in the graphs of the data...it explains the reason it was flying backwards! lol!
Like I wrote before...this was a really good, expensive teaching moment.
Thanks again for helping break down the log!

 

[Prismatic]

Thank you SO MUCH for the very detailed breakdown and unnecessary editorial additions. Hope you enjoyed letting me know how much you know.
In spite of your critique of my personal drone flying experience, I do actually appreciate the snippets of useful info you sent along.
Have a great day!

Whether one likes it or not, sometimes the facts alone are an indictment; we see a lot of that these days.

 

[kidroc]

I thought you said it was pretty calm out!!! Hate to see what it looks like out when it's bad LOL..

 

[AMann]

There were no unnecessary editorial additions.
I just presented the facts.
Losing a drone can be a painful lesson.

That was a very detailed and educational analysis for many others as well. If you ever provide me with such an analysis for a “fly away” of my M2P, please feel free to include lots of editorial additions, including jokes, suggestions and many stern warnings for the way I was flying. I’d deserve it and would welcome the lesson...

 

[JAW]

Fly away or flew it away?

 

[Maviculous]

I thought you said it was pretty calm out!!! Hate to see what it looks like out when it's bad LOL..

I know, right!?
All those jokes I grew up with about Louisiana weather; unpredictability...changing minute to minute...
I'd checked the weather...it was dead calm on the ground and the clouds were still. My luck...I found the only place in the sky with high winds. More even, I had to find this spot at the limits of my signal.
Common Murphy's Laws entry for drone piloting?
Like a wrote before, an expensive lesson...Don't only rely only on RTH; pushing the envelope with higher-risk maneuvers where I have non-nominal signal unless losing the drone is a realistic part of the flight plan. sigh.
New replacement arrives today.

 

[Maviculous]

Fly away or flew it away?

Yeah...In hindsight, with everyone's help here on my log? I definitely flew it away. D*mn I hate losing that drone. Most likely would've been the keeper video I wanted too! It was a 4th repeat flight of that plan improving upon lesser videos I'd taken prior.