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

[Capt KO]

If Gepa gets a new Mini, how does he link a new bird to the RC? Link button?

 

[Meta4]

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.

There are a lot of things to learn about your drone before you go sending it off into the distance.
One of them is that losing signal for a few seconds initiates RTH

While I did make mistakes as a rookie pilot the drone is suppose to handle the wind that was there
do I have lots to learn yes I do but I would have expected the drone to rth like it was suppose too.

Read the explanation I gave you.
There's a lot of information there that you need to understand.
If you put your drone up high where the wind is too strong for it to hold position or RTH against, your drone is going to go backwards.
And that's what you did and that's what happened.
From 2:51 when you regained signal, you could have cancelled RTH and brought the drone back easily instead of watching it go to 400 feet and watching it get blown away.

If you get another one, do a lot more learning about it and how it works, what it can do and what it can't before you get so adventurous again.

 

[Meta4]

If Gepa gets a new Mini, how does he link a new bird to the RC? Link button?

P29 in the Mavic Mini manual - Linking the Remote Controller

 

[Capt KO]

P29 in the Mavic Mini manual - Linking the Remote Controller

Thanks,
Gonna be a lot of lonely remotes out there. Waiting for a “Fly Away” to fly my way. They’re dropping out of the sky, But if you listen hard you can hear them coming.

 

[Deleted member 109934]

His drone never went higher than 120 metres.

I'm talking about RTH setting, which was changed a few times.

 

[Meta4]

I'm talking about RTH setting, which was changed a few times.

I'm not sure where you saw that, it wasn't in the data I examined.
And since his drone remained at the same height, it made no difference.

 

[Deleted member 109934]

the drone is suppose to handle the wind that was there in the eu

It is not really a drone, on my box says "everyday fly cam"

RTH is a trap, gives or maybe users self imagine a false sense of security. If DJI would run stats RTH button probably made them more money then anything out there.
Everyone who gets a new drone thinks RTH is a lifesaver in situations when humans would not be able to recover the drone, and that's quite opposite.

 

[Meta4]

RTH is a trap, gives or maybe users self imagine a false sense of security.

RTH is a great tool and one of the most important things for new flyers to learn and experiment with and get an understanding of what it does and how it does it.
Not understanding RTH has been the cause of many lost drones.

 

[Deleted member 109934]

I agree not understanding the button is a trap, but having that button there advertised as Return to Home is a trap by DJI.

 

[shorttimer]

You would see a LOT LESS lost drones if people would understand completely how the different scenarios of RTH work. Knowing how RTH works is absolutely necessary in my opinion.

 

[Gepa]

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!

I wish it was only $399 it was the fly more combo which is £459 or at todays exchange rate $611.87

 

[Deleted member 109934]

You would see a LOT LESS lost drones if people would understand completely how the different scenarios of RTH work. Knowing how RTH works is absolutely necessary in my opinion.

If people would first learn how to fly and reverse stick position make their second nature, and have a good feel for the wind/altitude and conditions, the RTH button would not be needed with VLOS requirements. But everyone wants to full send it on the first flight...
It feels so good to fly the drone and have control over it, why would I let it fly by itself?

 

[DanMan32]

I wish it was only $399 it was the fly more combo which is £459 or at todays exchange rate $611.87

If you only lost the AC, all you need is the AC itself and one battery. You don't need two additional batteries, hub, case, charger.
OK maybe prop cage if it was attached.

 

[maverickRKJ]

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

i thought them things if they get out of radio range they return , did you turn remote off and restart ? . i just bought a mavic pro and sure dont want that to happen

 

[maverickRKJ]

There are a lot of things to learn about your drone before you go sending it off into the distance.
One of them is that losing signal for a few seconds initiates RTH

Read the explanation I gave you.
There's a lot of information there that you need to understand.
If you put your drone up high where the wind is too strong for it to hold position or RTH against, your drone is going to go backwards.
And that's what you did and that's what happened.
From 2:51 when you regained signal, you could have cancelled RTH and brought the drone back easily instead of watching it go to 400 feet and watching it get blown away.

If you get another one, do a lot more learning about it and how it works, what it can do and what it can't before you get so adventurous again.

last question was it linked to satellites

 

[netsonic]

last question was it linked to satellites

According to the log, it had lock on 16 satellites. It's too late now for Gepa who lost the drone.

 

[DanMan32]

i thought them things if they get out of radio range they return , did you turn remote off and restart ? . i just bought a mavic pro and sure dont want that to happen

Yes, that is the default response to lost signal for an M1P, and currently only option for MM.
However that only works if:
Home point was set.
On signal loss, AC still has GPS and not dropped into ATTI mode because of flight control malfunction such as compass issues.
Winds are not so strong that AC can't make headway back to HP
There's enough battery power to make it back.

Note that if you're impatient and take off before GPS lock but later you get a lock, your HP might not be at an ideal location. As the lady says, please check it on the map.

 

[mavicoz]

The more I read these types of threads the more I'm thinking the MM can only be flown in weather conditions with little to no wind. After all, the MM's lightweight is something that was designed to help it but in all reality it seems like it's doing more harm than good.

 

[DanMan32]

At least fly with caution in winds approaching 20mph gusts.

 

[Meta4]

I agree not understanding the button is a trap, but having that button there advertised as Return to Home is a trap by DJI.

The RTH feature is not a trap.
Flying a drone or a real plane without understand what can things go wrong and how to make sure they don't is the problem.
Because these things are so easy to fly, it's easy to get too confident too early.