lost mavic in Leiwen, Mosel, Germany

[MB72]

Hello,

I am new to this forum and I apologize for this first post. You only look for forums when something happened. But I promise to be more around in the future.

On Saturday I lost my Mavic. It was a sunny day with only a very small amount of wind. I started with a fully loaded battery, but before I could start that day the Mavic forced me to do an update. I did that and everything seemed to be normal.

I flew one round before coming back and started the second fly with the same battery.
I flew only near my standpoint and not at big height.

During the first flight I noticed 2 times that the Mavic noticed an obstacle, but there was nothing around.

At some point (after about 3,5 minutes) things got strange. I got the obstacle messages again and after the second one I initiated a landing. But the transmission got interrupted and I got no notification about the landing at all. I went to the landing point but there was no mavic :-(
I had no contact to the drone so I wasn't able to do anything (including starting again).
My wife and me looked for about two hours without success. Frustrated I went to my appartment (I was on holiday) and looked for other possibilities.

I found that DJI had a "Find my drone" function and was more than surprised seeing the last contact at totally different coordinates.

I uploaded the log:

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

The last position from "Find my drone": N 49°49.01543 E 006°52.638

Needless to say that I looked at that position as well for an hour or so but no drone around.

Can someone look at my log and possibly point out what may happened?

Thanks for reading (and hopefully for help)

Maik

 

[roadkill443]

The obstacle sensors will treat the sun as an object when it is bright. So i imagine when your were flying towards the sun it was picking this up. In this case switching to sport would have been the best option as this turns off the crash sensors.
Unlucky with your loss, hope you find it.

 

[MB72]

Thanks for your reply. Wouldn't there normally be some entries hich document the successful landing? That would indicate that something happened before the landing was successful, or am I wrong.
And I can't explain why the last contact (Find my drone) was at a position where I never flight before.
I hope that someone finds my drone (I am back at home many hundred kilometers from that point) as I have a label on the drone...

 

[LarryB]

Just looking at the flight log vs. the coordinates on google maps there looks to be difference of almost 3200 ft. I don't claim to know much about these things but I'm sure that sar could help on this..

 

[MB72]

Yes, this difference is just what I do not understand. My only explanation so far is that the the mavic somehow went crazy after disconnection from the controller at the last point of the flight log and was flying in totally wrong direction. And at that point 3200ft away the controller got one last contact. But that would make it impossible to have a cue where the mavic is.

 

[sar104]

I can't see any ambiguity in the log here. The Mavic did not "go crazy" or, in fact, do anything other than it was commanded to do. The aircraft flight mode was switched by the pilot to autoland at 869 seconds, after breaking to avoid an obstacle, probably a tree since it was only about 10 m above the the ground at that point. It immediately descended and most likely landed at 49.811432°N, 6.888356°E, shown below. The log record stops around 7 m AGL, and whether it is on the ground or in a tree is hard to say.



The only other possibility, since the RC disconnected as it was landing, is that it returned to the registered home point at 49.811382°N, 6.890212°E:

 

[MB72]

Hi sar104,

thanks very much for your comment. I appreciate it.

At that time I was standing at the registered home point and it didn't come back, so your other suggestion seems more valid to me Because I searched at that point for over 2 hours together with 2 more people, I think I have to face the fact that the copter is lost .-(

Do you have a explanation for the fact that "find my drone" is giving me a complete other position over 3000ft away?

Thanks again

Maik

 

[sar104]

Hi sar104,

thanks very much for your comment. I appreciate it.

At that time I was standing at the registered home point and it didn't come back, so your other suggestion seems more valid to me Because I searched at that point for over 2 hours together with 2 more people, I think I have to face the fact that the copter is lost .-(

Do you have a explanation for the fact that "find my drone" is giving me a complete other position over 3000ft away?

Thanks again

Maik

Unless you quit the GO app, relaunched it, and then actively flew the aircraft again, there is no way that it went anywhere else. There was virtually no wind during that flight and what little there was shows as out of the north. When did you use the "Find my Drone" function and see the other location - immediately, later etc., and where were you at that point?

My guess is it got caught up in a tree coming down and you just can't see it. Why did you tell it to land, rather than to RTH?

 

[MB72]

Unless you quit the GO app, relaunched it, and then actively flew the aircraft again, there is no way that it went anywhere else. There was virtually no wind during that flight and what little there was shows as out of the north. When did you use the "Find my Drone" function and see the other location - immediately, later etc., and where were you at that point?

My guess is it got caught up in a tree coming down and you just can't see it. Why did you tell it to land, rather than to RTH?

I never was able to fly again as I had no connection to the drone. I used the "find my drone" function about 2,5 hours after the drone disappears (and was very surprised about the position). At that time I was back at my hotel room.

Why I didn't use RTH? I Don't know, maybe because I never used the function before. As I flew above that road I didn't think about something can happen.

 

[beanbubba]

I never was able to fly again as I had no connection to the drone. I used the "find my drone" function about 2,5 hours after the drone disappears (and was very surprised about the position). At that time I was back at my hotel room.

Why I didn't use RTH? I Don't know, maybe because I never used the function before. As I flew above that road I didn't think about something can happen.

Can you do an airdata share (and enable allow KML download)?

 

[MB72]

Can you do an airdata share (and enable allow KML download)?

Hi,

sorry I was out a few days. What do you mean with airdata share?

 

[beanbubba]

Hi,

sorry I was out a few days. What do you mean with airdata share?

Setup a free account here and share the flight and it will create a URL you can post back here in this thread:

Drone Data Management and Flight Analysis | Airdata UAV

 

[sar104]

Setup a free account here and share the flight and it will create a URL you can post back here in this thread:

Drone Data Management and Flight Analysis | Airdata UAV

View attachment 46873

What are you trying to achieve with this request? The original txt log is already available from the PhantomHelp link in post #1, and you can upload that yourself to AirData if you want to see their analysis.

 

[MB72]

I created that link:

But I see no other information than the first time. I hoped to get some more information about the situation that the drone had some contact after but over 1,5km away from that route.

 

[beanbubba]

I created that link:

But I see no other information than the first time. I hoped to get some more information about the situation that the drone had some contact after but over 1,5km away from that route.

Google Earth output shows it most likely that you landed in a tree 14 feet up. Looks like you were on the side of a big hill. From experience, google data is not quite as accurate when the data points are on the side of a slope (but usually within 50 feet).

 

[beanbubba]

What are you trying to achieve with this request? The original txt log is already available from the PhantomHelp link in post #1, and you can upload that yourself to AirData if you want to see their analysis.

Sorry, I missed the phantom link. Could have used that.

 

[beanbubba]

Hi sar104,

thanks very much for your comment. I appreciate it.

At that time I was standing at the registered home point and it didn't come back, so your other suggestion seems more valid to me Because I searched at that point for over 2 hours together with 2 more people, I think I have to face the fact that the copter is lost .-(

Do you have a explanation for the fact that "find my drone" is giving me a complete other position over 3000ft away?

Thanks again

Maik

Don't give up, sometimes it can be almost impossible to see a bird stuck in a thick tree from the ground. I revisited a site a week later and recovered one lost in a tree top. I did however have a replacement drone by then and used it to find the lost one.