lost magic in boracay

[shb]

this morning I decided to try to fly off the third floor of my hotel. the roof is fibreglass so the signal can penetrate it. I got 4 GPS so I took off. I flew to white beach, and everything was going fine. at over 55% battery I did a return to home. it was coming back slow, I guess there was a wind. I went into sport mode and came
back in a minute or so. I couldn't see it because I could only look out one side of the room. I pointed the camera down so I could see where I was, and the video went to mush. my app crashed. so now I had to land with no video feed. the battery was down around 20% now. it tried to autoland. it's kind of hazy everything that happened after that. I wasn't doing a screen record. the last thing on my remote was 500' distance and 10' altitude. this area is very obstructed with houses, hotels
trees some water and all kinds of junk. we've looked for it a couple of hours now but no luck. a couple of people said they saw it flying but didn't see it land. steve

 

[msinger]

Please upload your TXT flight log here and post a link back here. You'll find instructions for locating your TXT flight log at that link.

 

[Hollow Dog]

Thats some risky flying.
"I decided to try to fly off the third floor of my hotel"
"I got 4 GPS so I took off"
"I couldn't see it because I could only look out one side of the room."
Not the best flight plan.
Even seems extremely reckless.
Good luck.

 

[shb]

I wasn't running dgi go 4 when I crashed. I was running a program I wrote myself. I looked in those locations, but it wasn't there since I wasn't running djigo4. but thanks for the help. steve

 

[royster]

As stated above, taking off from a balcony, the fact there were houses,. apartments all around you, even an expierenced pilot would have second thoughts of even trying to fly in such an environment, at least i would.
I;m not a novice, but, still learning, I always try & think ahead of things like- What will i do if i loose contact, or app crashes, should i find another take off spot, you know?

 

[Top Hat]

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[hryzec]

Top Hat LOL ...

 

[shb]

a day later and no mavic I realize I mad some cardinal mistakes. one was taking off from a place that I couldn't land at just by hitting rth. also flying from a place I didn't have visibility of the airspace above me. I'm mad the video went out at a critical time but you have to plan for stuff like that. I guess I learned a painfully and expensive lesson. I hope I can buy a new mavic pro platinum without all the accessories and pay a little less.
that's a video of a previous crash. steve

 

[joeywestside]

Balconies can be tricky because, like you said, you can't RTH. But taking off with only 4 satellites ensured that even further. The drone can't set the RTH location with only 4 satellites, it likely set the RTH location after you had already been flying for a minute and it had the chance to connect to more satellites. When you hit the button, it wasn't going to come all the way back to you.

There are lots of ways to fly and challenge yourself, try sticking to just One risk at a time. I'd say you had 3 different risks simultaneously: the balcony, the low GPS number, and the beta app. Any one of those risks, by itself, could've been fine. Combining 2-3 was really a recipe for disaster.

I really hope you find your drone and keep flying. Thanks for sharing your story so we can all learn from it. Best of luck, friend!

 

[elborak]

You're replying to a post over 3 years old...

 

[shb]

Balconies can be tricky because, like you said, you can't RTH. But taking off with only 4 satellites ensured that even further. The drone can't set the RTH location with only 4 satellites, it likely set the RTH location after you had already been flying for a minute and it had the chance to connect to more satellites. When you hit the button, it wasn't going to come all the way back to you.

There are lots of ways to fly and challenge yourself, try sticking to just One risk at a time. I'd say you had 3 different risks simultaneously: the balcony, the low GPS number, and the beta app. Any one of those risks, by itself, could've been fine. Combining 2-3 was really a recipe for disaster.

I really hope you find your drone and keep flying. Thanks for sharing your story so we can all learn from it. Best of luck, friend!

Thanks for the reply. I think I probably had many satellites, but my app never showed more than 4 for some reason. I should of tried to reset the home point to a viable one, like a roof below me that I could of landed on.
About a month later I bought a platinum. I had it for a year, then I lost it when the swollen battery came off in flight, and it crashed in the ocean. It was retrieved, and it flies now, but the gimbal/camera doesn't work. I bought a replacement, but it didn't work, so I sent it back. I have a post on here about that crash too.
I'm waiting for the mavic 3 before I buy a new one.

 

[shb]

Thanks for the reply. I think I probably had many satellites, but my app never showed more than 4 for some reason. I should of tried to reset the home point to a viable one, like a roof below me that I could of landed on.
About a month later I bought a platinum. I had it for a year, then I lost it when the swollen battery came off in flight, and it crashed in the ocean. It was retrieved, and it flies now, but the gimbal/camera doesn't work. I bought a replacement, but it didn't work, so I sent it back. I have a post on here about that crash too.
I'm waiting for the mavic 3 before I buy a new one.

Here's that post.

Platinum ocean crash.

Platinum crash ocean. On Dec 30th, 2018, I was flying my Mavic Pro Platinum in the vicinity of Catbalogan harbor, Samar Philippines. I flew 15 minutes with no problems.6 minutes of that was in tripod mode, because I was flying around people and boats. I noticed the battery was 30%, so I...

mavicpilots.com

 

[pelagic_one]

How difficult has the process been to obtain a permit to fly in Boracay these days? Just asking because my wife is pre-planning vacations for when they let us travel freely again.

 

[shb]

How difficult has the process been to obtain a permit to fly in Boracay these days? Just asking because my wife is pre-planning vacations for when they let us travel freely again.

In December 2017, I spent a lot of time walking around to get a permit. When I finally got to the place, the guy said you don't need any permit, you just have to follow the normal drone laws. I have no information since then, that you couldn't find on the Internet. Steve