Lost mavic mini on first flight with it flying away and not responding

[Gepa]

Took delivery of my mini last week after waiting a month for the fly more combo. My first ever drone and this was my first flight outdoors.

First day of good weather today when I had free time took it out to an local area with good open spaces. it was 9 Degrees C with winds of 9 mph and gusts of up to 22 mph on weather app predicted.

As this was my first drone & flight took off in C mode for the slower speeds good connection to satellites has around 16 i recall. took off hovered perfectly in front of me at 1.4m 9m away after a couple of minute and setting the rth height of 100m (this was was to high I know now) i should have probably set for 15-20m max but there was some tall trees behind me and off to the side so wanted to avoid them worst case scenario. flew into the wind as all videos advise

started moving forward hand the antennas at right angles to the signal was going to drone it got 25m away and gave a signal interference for a couple of seconds that cleared up ( i should have come back at this point) moved forward again at a height of 10m aprox got to 35m high wind warning and signal lost drone stopped at 42m and initiated the RTH feature as total signal loss and no amount of moving the controller was working (starting to panic )

This is where it all went wrong the drone went up to 100m (which I thought I had set it too but I think it may have been 120m) and started coming back to me directly slowly though this was great it started to hover above me and then after 5 seconds just kept on going away over the embankment behind me and flew over the village that was on the other side of that. after moving around and adjusting the antennas it was not getting signal back and could still hear it so I went after it and never saw it again I got a brief signal when I was wondering the streets of the village looking for it and managed to change it got a weak signal and it was at 119m and moving at 3.4 m/s and 597m away from starting point at this point it had 82% battery & 11 min 40 left looking at the data feed changed it too p mode thinking i can get it back to myself or even a field to land it. oh no this was the wrong moved and this dropped to 25% and a flight time of 4m 51secs and then after a total of less than 40 seconds connect to the drone with it starting to turn signal dropped out again and the drone never to be seen again.

i searched the best i could int he wooded area and no connection to the drone and cant find it.

I am now at the mercy of amazon & DJI customer services. as I do not believe that the drone should have dropped connect that distance from me in an wide open area no power lines or tress between myself and the drone.


not a great first experience into the world of drones

 

[msinger]

Check out your TXT flight log to see if it explains what happened. You can upload and view it online here. If you'd like other people to review and comment on your flight log, then please post a link back here after you upload it.

 

[Rattydude77]

Sorry for your lose if the mavic mini has flight records post them here and the people here who can read them will help. Other than that good luck and keep us posted

 

[grahamjohnson10]

Please upload the flight log and share the link in here.

 

[Gepa]

I think this is it sorry totally new to all this.

I found from another post airdata and synced that. and what I through I had it set at is totally different to the logs.

 

[DanMan32]

I assume by your description you had the antennas pointed up. Antennas should be pointed out only if the AC is right above you.

Sounds like your biggest problem was wind, especially 100m up.

 

[Gepa]

I assume by your description you had the antennas pointed up. Antennas should be pointed out only if the AC is right above you.

Sounds like your biggest problem was wind, especially 100m up.

no they were not pointed out as I saw some youtube videos talking about that. They were pointed out when it was overhead I tried pointing them out and it did not connect.

looking at the airdata when i got the brief reconnection i must have been over 400m away as the street i was on when looking I was no where near the location of the craft looking at the map i see

 

[DanMan32]

Most of the time the antennas should be up so that the flat part that radiates the signal is facing the AC. Even overhead, you're not likely to be there long unless you're very high up where less than 100m out still seems like right above.
The problem with setting antennas for overhead, there's a signal polarity problem in relationship to the AC's antennas.

So, use pointed up. If when overhead you appear to have poor signal, try out and see if that's better. If worse, go back to up.

 

[Gepa]

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

hopefully this is the flight log you are on about

 

[grahamjohnson10]

Sorry to see this again, but you had a blow away.

You where flying in to strong a wind.

 

[Deleted member 109934]

Maybe the rear car door blocked your signal

your initial RTH was 30m
then you changed it to 102m
then 163m
then 133 m

After losing connection for 9 min while at 120m you set new max Alt to 390m, and MM probably said to himself "that's enough I'm flying away from him before he sends me to the moon " 2min and 51 sec of fun.

21km/h wind with gusts 47km/h (at 12-15m) Those winds are not enough for MM to fly away, you could switch to S mode and bring him down, hitting RTH from all the posts I see here is kinda deadly.

Those logs look strange at the very beginning there are few "GPS Position NoMatch" errors. MM was at 140ft when you lost signal and MM went home, but I have the impression it had no clue where the home was, despite the fact it updated the home point. it should come back easily from where it was and where you were, the wind was blowing towards you, MM had a tailwind on the way back.
The door could block the signal, but MM should land in front of you. There were probably much higher winds at 100m and MM just got taken away.

 

[Meta4]

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

hopefully this is the flight log you are on about

Sorry you lost the drone but what you've done was a classic rookie mistake.
You flew around for a while and after a few minutes with the drone at an altitude of 47 feet and 139 feet from home, you initiated RTH.
Your RTH height was set at an inappropriate 400 feet and the drone ascended to that height.
By the time it was at 195 feet, it was having trouble holding position because of the wind strength at that level.
At 400 feet the drone was trying to return home but being blown backwards at 1-7 mph by gusty winds.
Signal was lost at 12:33 with the drone 2154 feet away and being flown further.

You could have easily recovered the drone but left it battling high winds 400 feet up.
The drone was responding perfectly but you put it up in winds stronger than RTH could manage.

You were too adventurous much too early.
There are many things that can go wrong when you are drone flying and you need to be aware of them and how to make sure they don't cause problems for you.

Wind is an obvious potential problem.
Wind speed is always significantly higher at altitude than ground level. There are ways to get a feel for this to avoid losing your drone.
RTH is a slow driver. It cruises at 22 mph but you can drive at 36 mph (still air speeds) for other DJI drones and will be similar for the Mini.
If the drone is trying to push against a wind stronger than 22 mph, it's going to be blown backwards until battery level triggers autolanding

It's very important to be aware of wind strength and direction.
Note how much the wind slows your drone if you try to fly directly into it.
Never fly away downwind in a strong wind situation - you will have a tough headwind to fight to get back home.
Never leave your drone up high fighting a headwind. Bring it down where the wind is less.

 

[Meta4]

your initial RTH was 30m
then you changed it to 102m
then 163m
then 133 m
After losing connection for 9 min while at 120m you set new max Alt to 390m

His drone never went higher than 120 metres.

 

[unionglzr]

Sorry you lost the drone but what you've done was a classic rookie mistake.
You flew around for a while and after a few minutes with the drone at an altitude of 47 feet and 139 feet from home, you initiated RTH.
Your RTH height was set at an inappropriate 400 feet and the drone ascended to that height.
By the time it was at 195 feet, it was having trouble holding position because of the wind strength at that level.
At 400 feet the drone was trying to return home but being blown backwards at 1-7 mph by gusty winds.
Signal was lost at 12:33 with the drone 2154 feet away and being flown further.

You could have easily recovered the drone but left it battling high winds 400 feet up.
The drone was responding perfectly but you put it up in winds stronger than RTH could manage.

You were too adventurous much too early.
There are many things that can go wrong when you are drone flying and you need to be aware of them and how to make sure they don't cause problems for you.

Wind is an obvious potential problem.
Wind speed is always significantly higher at altitude than ground level. There are ways to get a feel for this to avoid losing your drone.
RTH is a slow driver. It cruises at 22 mph but you can drive at 36 mph (still air speeds).
If the Phantom is trying to push against a wind stronger than 22 mph, it's going to be blown backwards until battery level triggers autolanding

It's very important to be aware of wind strength and direction.
Note how much the wind slows your Phantom if you try to fly directly into it.
Never fly away downwind in a strong wind situation - you will have a tough headwind to fight to get back home.
Never leave your Phantom up high fighting a headwind. Bring it down where the wind is less.

It was a mini not a phantom

 

[Meta4]

It was a mini not a phantom

Thanks ... fixed now

 

[unionglzr]

Thanks ... fixed now

YW

 

[Capt KO]

You can disengage return to home. You could’ve easily landed when it was directly overhead. Sorry for your loss they always hurt.

 

[Gepa]

Once it started flying away from the car i moved from the rear of the car and was standing facing the drone as it went away and the car was 1-2 m to my left when flying the drone.

I did try adjusting the rth and it went all over the place the slider was sensitive however i was under the impression it was not as high as it ended up going.

when it re connection i had about 10 seconds to try and recover it without knowing where it was or what direction and was in full panic mode i got the flight mode changed and tried to see where it was before being lost again.

DJI have asked for the logs and i have sent them as much info as i can.

Sorry you lost the drone but what you've done was a classic rookie mistake.
You flew around for a while and after a few minutes with the drone at an altitude of 47 feet and 139 feet from home, you initiated RTH.
Your RTH height was set at an inappropriate 400 feet and the drone ascended to that height.
By the time it was at 195 feet, it was having trouble holding position because of the wind strength at that level.
At 400 feet the drone was trying to return home but being blown backwards at 1-7 mph by gusty winds.
Signal was lost at 12:33 with the drone 2154 feet away and being flown further.

You could have easily recovered the drone but left it battling high winds 400 feet up.
The drone was responding perfectly but you put it up in winds stronger than RTH could manage.

You were too adventurous much too early.
There are many things that can go wrong when you are drone flying and you need to be aware of them and how to make sure they don't cause problems for you.

Wind is an obvious potential problem.
Wind speed is always significantly higher at altitude than ground level. There are ways to get a feel for this to avoid losing your drone.
RTH is a slow driver. It cruises at 22 mph but you can drive at 36 mph (still air speeds) for other DJI drones and will be similar for the Mini.
If the drone is trying to push against a wind stronger than 22 mph, it's going to be blown backwards until battery level triggers autolanding

It's very important to be aware of wind strength and direction.
Note how much the wind slows your drone if you try to fly directly into it.
Never fly away downwind in a strong wind situation - you will have a tough headwind to fight to get back home.
Never leave your drone up high fighting a headwind. Bring it down where the wind is less.

I did not initiate rth the drone lost its signal and no amount Of moving towards it or away from my vehicle and pointing the controller directly at it did it reconnect if it had I could have lowered the height and manually flown it back.

While I did make mistakes as a rookie pilot the drone is suppose to handle the wind that was there in the eu it is advertised at 2km range I got 35m before a full signal loss for around 9 minutes before Getting briefly connected before it lost signal again. I was within 400m when it connected briefly with no idea where it was by the time could see aprox where it was in what felt like 10secs turns out log shows was 31sec it dropped full signal again and never reconnected

do I have lots to learn yes I do but I would have expected the drone to rth like it was suppose too.

dji have asked for the logs and all my info and I have submitted it to them awaiting the analysis

I appreciate all the input

 

[Gepa]

You can disengage return to home. You could’ve easily landed when it was directly overhead. Sorry for your loss they always hurt.

the mini would not reconnect when it was overhead in my case or I would have trying to force a landing

 

[Paulf10]

Sorry you lost your MM. However don’t let this discourage you. Many of us have learned lessons the hard way.
When I was flying RC planes I lost/crashed a lot of planes. Once I took a plane up till it was a speck in the sky. I got distracted for a split second and lost sight of it. With no RTH it was never to be seen again.

I made a lot of costly, dumb, and silly mistakes with RC planes. However I was able to learn from them.
So far you maybe out $399. Actually not too bad considering how much knowledge and experience you’ve gained.

Best of luck!