Lost Mavic Air 2 - Issues with RTH

[boblui]

I have less than a year experience flying my MA2. When I read these threads, I try to imagine what steps to take in a similar situation. Honestly, RTH would’ve been my first choice if the App crashed and I was low on battery while losing VLOS. Next, I would’ve probably tried Sport mode upon discovering the drone exceeding 400 ft once the App rebooted hoping to override whatever caused the drone to ascend.

My thought is a controlled decent in Sport mode, no matter where it might land, is almost always a better option than having the drone fall from 400+ feet from the sky.

Does that seem reasonable?

If the drone is in go-home mode, I am not sure if switching to sport mode will disable the obstacle avoiodance sensor. In this case, the drone seemed to be seeing obstacles at the front all the time :



The same is not seen for the sensor at the back :


Seems that there is some problem with the sensor at the front ?

Anyway, despite the fact that the front sensors have been detecting obstacles, braking was triggered only during RTH but not when flying :



Seems that the obstacle avoidance mechanism is more sensitive during RTH ?

Anyway, One possible solution in such situation is to cancel RTH, switch to sport mode to disable OA and bring the drone back manually.

 

[BossBob]

Nothing was wrong with object avoidance. It’s just that the object happened to be the most powerful emitter in our solar system and it’s output overwhelmed the sensors!

 

[Phantomrain.org]

I have less than a year experience flying my MA2. When I read these threads, I try to imagine what steps to take in a similar situation. Honestly, RTH would’ve been my first choice if the App crashed and I was low on battery while losing VLOS. Next, I would’ve probably tried Sport mode upon discovering the drone exceeding 400 ft once the App rebooted hoping to override whatever caused the drone to ascend.

My thought is a controlled decent in Sport mode, no matter where it might land, is almost always a better option than having the drone fall from 400+ feet from the sky.

Does that seem reasonable?

RTH is always the best option if you loose signal or the app crashes , and Sport mode as a second choice is another good move , followed by preparing for the drone to go into atti mode.


Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic in the Rain / Snow

 

[Meta4]

followed by preparing for the drone to go into atti mode.

Why would you prepare for the drone to go into atti mode?
Why might the drone go into atti mode?
What would you do to prepare?

 

[Meta4]

I try to imagine what steps to take in a similar situation. ...
My thought is a controlled decent in Sport mode, no matter where it might land, is almost always a better option than having the drone fall from 400+ feet from the sky.

Normally RTH would be the easy way home when all else fails.
But with this snow/OA issue on the heading that RTH followed,that wasn't going to be much help.
There was no worry about low battery in this incident.
The benefit of seeing the flight data after the event, helps work out what would have been a good strategy.
RTH already tried to come home and was heading the right way (but slowly) as it climbed.
As RTH climbed too high and kept climbing, it could have been cancelled and the drone flown home manually.

RTH was left climbing until the altitude was 1240 ft and then cancelled.
The drone was brought down 230 ft and 340 ft closer before the phone shut down.
But the drone was still connected to the controller, flying toward the home point and well above the ground.
By just pushing the right stick forward and gently pulling the left stick downwards, the drone could have been brought back towards the homepoint.
With a little luck, the drone might have been heard as it approached and the flyer could have brought it home.

 

[muchuckwagon]

To clarify, if the drone was gaining altitude above the 400 ft limit then I would assume it is an obstacle avoidance issue. I thought (maybe I’m wrong) that sports mode disabled obstacle avoidance on my MA2.

At some point, to me it no longer becomes about getting my drone back but landing or getting as close to the ground as possible to limit the potential to injure someone or damage property.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

One thing I have noticed on the Air 2 is that switching to Sport mode no longer turns off the beeping of the drone from the sensors when near landing. That last update was not so good for the Air 2.

Phanomrain.org
Gear to fly your Air 2 in the Rain / Snow

 

[dipnit]

Being a relative newbie to a "real" drone this scenario being more than just a one off incedent is rather unnerving. I live on the gulf coast of Florida and there are some houses on stilts about a mile off shore. I invision a shot of the sun setting so it is below the stilt house. I am nowhere close to being skilled enough to attempt that yet. But it sounds like it would be a risky manuever seeing as the sun would be reflecting off the water as well a shining full on to the camera/sensors. Am i wrong thinking those parameters are condusive to issues giving the situations described here?

 

[Meta4]

Being a relative newbie to a "real" drone this scenario being more than just a one off incedent is rather unnerving. I live on the gulf coast of Florida and there are some houses on stilts about a mile off shore. I invision a shot of the sun setting so it is below the stilt house. I am nowhere close to being skilled enough to attempt that yet. But it sounds like it would be a risky manuever seeing as the sun would be reflecting off the water as well a shining full on to the camera/sensors. Am i wrong thinking those parameters are condusive to issues giving the situations described here?

It shouldn't be a big deal for the flight you describe.
RTH would be going away from the sun and not affected at all.
If obstacle avoidance objected to flying towards your subject if that meant flying straight towards the sun, it would be a simple matter to aim a little off so that OA wasn't a problem and then aim back to the target when further out.

One aspect that might be tricky is that you might have difficulty spotting a house-sized target on the screen from a mile away, particularly if looking into the glare of the sun.

Also, the shot you describe would have too much contrast between the bright setting sun and the shaded side of the house.
It would probably mean that the house would just be very dark silhouette with no detail visible.

 

[dipnit]

I was seeing the issue as either the reflection off a shiney surface or sun directly affecting the avoidance sensors to cause the drone to suddenly increase withe alttitude and keep increasing until pilot interaction.
And expereince will get me to the point of changing mode as instinctive to shut off the sensors.

 

[kidroc]

Being a relative newbie to a "real" drone this scenario being more than just a one off incedent is rather unnerving. I live on the gulf coast of Florida and there are some houses on stilts about a mile off shore. I invision a shot of the sun setting so it is below the stilt house. I am nowhere close to being skilled enough to attempt that yet. But it sounds like it would be a risky manuever seeing as the sun would be reflecting off the water as well a shining full on to the camera/sensors. Am i wrong thinking those parameters are condusive to issues giving the situations described here?

I’m gonna fly beyond visual line of sight I always turn obstacle avoidance off just in case of a failsafe situation you do not want this kind of scenario especially when you’re new and don’t understand how all the different features work in different circumstances and in different situations just keep it off and you don’t have to worry about it

 

[Ditchdoc]

Over a mile away in adverse conditions. I'd be too scared to even try that.