Lost Mavic Help!! I am terrified!

bvogel · Mar 5, 2017

Hello All,
I lost my Mavic after 12 minutes of using it, everything was going smoothly, I started getting strong wind signals, I was flying over a farm with little interference, I got a lost signal initial then it cameback and I immediately hit the return button and suddenly it lost signal for good, while the controller kept beeping return home.. I got in my car and ran to the point it had last GPS signal and it wasnt there. I spent approx. 2 hours looking for it. Can anyone please help me with this. I live in Nicaragua & I had just brought that drone about a week ago.I added a link to the flight log.

PLEASE HELP!!!

Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Strafe1 · Mar 5, 2017

I hope someone helps you. Seems like you were trying to lose it!

daithi23 · Mar 5, 2017

Did you interrupt the RTH and go back into Sports mode? looks like you were in RTH mode from 6m 3s to 7m 12.9s then sports mode again until 7m 50s where RTH was reinitiated.
It wasn't even heading back to home when it was supposed to be so, just heading further away. Not sure what DJI's policy is regards this kind of thing but personally it looks more like a Mavic problem than operator error...
If the default set-up is to land when battery reaches 10% and it continued in a straight line after the last signal at 39% then maybe you can roughly calculate how far it travelled and the distance from the home point. Might be able to at least figure out the general area it went down.

bvogel · Mar 5, 2017

How can I calculate that if it was note heading in the RTH direction?

borislip · Mar 5, 2017

Shouldn't matter if he has canceled the RTH or not, it should have reengaged RTH after the last controller disconnect. Unless this setting has been reconfigured as well.

It should have landed at the last set home point, here. As simple as that.

daithi23 · Mar 5, 2017

You can see the direction it was heading from Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com The last two points show the battery, distance from home, speed. Wouldn't be the most accurate and presumes it didn't change direction in the meantime but I'd be trying it.

bvogel · Mar 5, 2017

borislip said:
Shouldn't matter if he has canceled the RTH or not, it should have reengaged RTH after the last controller disconnect. Unless this setting has been reconfigured as well.

It should have landed at the last set home point, here. As simple as that.

Shouldnt it have regained signal connection as it got closer? I have looked but its dark.

borislip · Mar 5, 2017

Did you hit return to home button momentarily, or did you press and hold it? Pressing it momentarily does NOT cancel return to home. Your log shows it returning to home till the very last log entry, inclusive. You home point set here. Why not go there and check? Don't count on the blinking lights, though. I seriously doubt Mavic can survive on it's near-empty batter for 2 hours even just sitting there, so bring a flashlight.

borislip · Mar 5, 2017

Also, mind it, GPS precision isn't high, while it couldn't use visual landing in the dark, so look around. It may have landed 10 meters away from those coordinates after all.

Kilrah · Mar 5, 2017

Too much wind and impossible to fly home?

bvogel · Mar 5, 2017

I checked already for a goodwhile. It is not there. Unless it landed in my neighbors. Shouldnt it have regained connectiona at some point if it was returning home, as it got closer?

borislip · Mar 5, 2017

To be honest, your RTH point looks pretty much the worst you could set, with all the trees there and the building right at it. Look in the trees, look at the building roof too, etc.

borislip · Mar 5, 2017

bvogel said:
I checked already for a goodwhile. It is not there. Unless it landed in my neighbors. Shouldnt it have regained connectiona at some point if it was returning home, as it got closer?

Yes, it should. But the question is why did it suddenly lost it while in your line of sight. It may have not regained it for the same reason.

Anyway, good luck finding it.

daithi23 · Mar 5, 2017

borislip said:
Shouldn't matter if he has canceled the RTH or not, it should have reengaged RTH after the last controller disconnect. Unless this setting has been reconfigured as well.

It should have landed at the last set home point, here. As simple as that.

Not suggesting he or she did anything wrong, just trying to get a clearer picture of what was going on. It should have landed at the last set home point but it obviously didn't and actually flew away from it. As it was their first flight I presume it was still on default settings.

bvogel · Mar 5, 2017

its a spot where I can hop on the roof of my house for better signal. Although it is confined. I usually return it manually. Never had this happen.

borislip · Mar 5, 2017

daithi23 said:
Not suggesting he or she did anything wrong, just trying to get a clearer picture of what was going on. It should have landed at the last set home point but it obviously didn't and actually flew away from it. As it was their first flight I presume it was still on default settings.

He has never mentioned it was his first flight, and the log shows sports mode, so probably not, and definitely already a non-default setting.

bvogel · Mar 5, 2017

daithi23 said:
Not suggesting he or she did anything wrong, just trying to get a clearer picture of what was going on. It should have landed at the last set home point but it obviously didn't and actually flew away from it. As it was their first flight I presume it was still on default settings.

it was my first week with the Mavic but I have owned other DJI's in the past and used the mavic every other day for farm revisions.

rt60 · Mar 5, 2017

Looks like you flew out with a good tail wind. Speed out is > 40mph but back in direction of home is < 6mph. At a distance of 7700feet/2.3km at 1000 feet/300m altitude and with high wind warning, it may not have been able to get home. Draw a straight line on a map from last known position to home point and search along that. Also home point being around a building and trees may have caused loss of signal.

borislip · Mar 5, 2017

Well... if it's not home, yet has been in RTH mode when you lost it's signal, it should have tried to return home. Draw a line from last know location to the home, and start exploring :-(