Lost Mavic Mini

[Chetrari]

Hi,
Was flying today with my mavic mini and due to strong wind it got blown away and all I've got is a 7 seconds video and flight log.
Can you help me with some clues or where to search for it, I mean exact location, could it be in trees or on the roof since I don't really believe in the exact location that Dji App is showing me.
I've tried to check a few roofs but nothing on there.

https://imgur.com/UuHyy8P

 

[Meta4]

Can you help me with some clues or where to search for it, I mean exact location, could it be in trees or on the roof since I don't really believe in the exact location that Dji App is showing me.

Your flight data looks like this:

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

The app can only show where the Mini was last in contact.
But it was 98 metres up, in RTH and being blown backwards at approx 4 metres/sec at the time..

It's going to be hard to come up with a good search area.
The battery was at 73% and the drone will have continued trying to RTH but being blown further away to the NNE until it reached critical low battery level and autolanded.
It's probably 4-5 kilometres away from the last location in the flight data.

 

[Chetrari]

Your flight data looks like this:

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

The app can only show where the Mini was last in contact.
But it was 98 metres up, in RTH and being blown backwards at approx 4 metres/sec at the time..

It's going to be hard to come up with a good search area.
The battery was at 73% and the drone will have continued trying to RTH but being blown further away to the NNE until it reached critical low battery level and autolanded.
It's probably 4-5 kilometres away from the last location in the flight data.

Hi Meta4,
Thanks for prompt response, how accurate is your information regarding being blown away 4-5 kilometers ? Since the wind was not the strongest and the area was not really suitable for flying that low around. I was in the city center and the church was behind me when the connection was lost.
Also I'm interested in the data from the POINT G where I've lost the connection and the point where it shows that it landed.

 

[Meta4]

how accurate is your information regarding being blown away 4-5 kilometers ?

I just looked a little deeper at your data.
The drone will be further away but I can't estimate how far.
Your RTH height was set to 434 metres (bad mistake) and when data ended it was still going higher.
The wind up high iwas much stronger than on the ground and the higher the drone went, the faster it would have been blown away.

I was unable to be more precise because the data only shows the drone in RTH for a short time.
I could not get a good number for the rate it was burning the battery.

Also I'm interested in the data from the POINT G where I've lost the connection and the point where it shows that it landed.

There is no landing shown in the data.
You lost contact with the drone after 2.5 minutes and it will have been blown backwards for another 20 minutes or more, to who knows where.

 

[Chetrari]

I just looked a little deeper at your data.
The drone will be further away but I can't estimate how far.
Your RTH height was set to 434 metres (bad mistake) and when data ended it was still going higher.
The wind up high iwas much stronger than on the ground and the higher the drone went, the faster it would have been blown away.

I was unable to be more precise because the data only shows the drone in RTH for a short time.
I could not get a good number for the rate it was burning the battery.

There is no landing shown in the data.
You lost contact with the drone after 2.5 minutes and it will have been blown backwards for another 20 minutes or more, to who knows where.

So you're saying that she never landed there where I was searching for?

 

[Meta4]

So you're saying that she never landed there where I was searching for?

You were kilometres away.
Once you lose signal, the app can only show where the drone was when you last had signal.
But at the time the drone was 98 metres up, in RTH and being blown backwards at approx 4 metres/sec.
It was still climbing toward the RTH height where it will have been blown away at a much faster speed.
There is no way to tell how long the battery will have lasted.
There is no way to tell how fast and how far the drone will have blown away.

 

[Chetrari]

You were kilometres away.
Once you lose signal, the app can only show where the drone was when you last had signal.
But at the time the drone was 98 metres up, in RTH and being blown backwards at approx 4 metres/sec.
It was still climbing toward the RTH height where it will have been blown away at a much faster speed.
There is no way to tell how long the battery will have lasted.
There is no way to tell how fast and how far the drone will have blown away.

Got you, well I've requested from DJI an investigation and as far as I've read online the chances that they will replace it are very low, right?

 

[Meta4]

Got you, well I've requested from DJI an investigation and as far as I've read online the chances that they will replace it are very low, right?

No chance.
The cause of the loss had nothing to do with DJI and everything to do with how it was operated.

 

[Thomas B]

If you get another drone remember 2 things:
Winds are usually high as altitude increases and by specs the mini has a max forward speed that can’t defeat winds above 12 mph or so. Best to fly out against the wind and fly back with it... important in flight planning.

 

[Chetrari]

If you get another drone remember 2 things:
Winds are usually high as altitude increases and by specs the mini has a max forward speed that can’t defeat winds above 12 mph or so. Best to fly out against the wind and fly back with it... important in flight planning.

Thank you so much, btw already looking to replace it with a used Mavic Pro for like 450euros.
The feels that I have about my drone being somewhere in my city are destroying me, didn't eat whole day, lol.

 

[maelstrom]

Winds are usually high as altitude increases and by specs the mini has a max forward speed that can’t defeat winds above 12 mph or so.

The max speed of the Mini (according to the user manual) is 29 mph, so 12+ mph winds should be no problem at all.

 

[skunky1]

Sorry for your loss.

Does the mini have no feature of “find my drone”?

 

[slup]

Yeah ... nothing else than a blow away as already stated.

It's a couple things with this that looks really odd ... nothing of this will change the outcome though, just state them as a thing for thoughts.

As seen below in the sat image (along the yellow arrow) the Mini lost connection just after passing the church (the bigger white background without any graphs show the disconnect in the chart) ... then just outside the park, above the house roofs the connection is established again for a short moment & the log could record a couple seconds just in the very end before the Mini sailed away for good.

Reading off the data there tells us that the failsafe action was Hover ... not RTH. But as the Mini was in a blow away situation & with position hold as priority it was most probably going full to keep position. Strangely the pitch there was only 13 degrees ... it should have been 20 according to spec. Then we also see a bigger height change between it lost the connection & reappeared, the Mini have ascended from 43m to 98m. If Hover is chosen for failsafe action it shouldn't ascend to RTH height (which was set to chocking 434m!)

Wonder if the height increase here was due to the wind or if the OP was applying positive throttle & unknowingly had the uplink reestablished for a while? And also that the Mini had started to be affected by under performing rear props as the pitch only was 13 degrees... which could have developed to a uncommanded descent later on making it touch down closer than the prediction in the ends of this post.





Well ... neither the bad pitch or a failsafe action set to Hover changed the fact that your Mini was blown away. The last measured data in the log showed a drift speed of 3,6m/s with a direction of 5 degrees from north. As it was hard to interpolate any battery consumption there in the end I've instead used the data field Smart_Battery: usefulTime from the log ... it's a prediction from the AC firmware that gives us a clue of how long the battery might last.

All these data gives this as a theoretical last path for your Mini ... the distance to the end is just over 2,5km away. Kind of looking for a needle in a haystack unfortunately.

 

[maelstrom]

The feels that I have about my drone being somewhere in my city are destroying me, didn't eat whole day, lol.

Late to ask now, but did you have your contact details marked on it?

 

[Chetrari]

Yeah ... nothing else than a blow away as already stated.

It's a couple things with this that looks really odd ... nothing of this will change the outcome though, just state them as a thing for thoughts.

As seen below in the sat image (along the yellow arrow) the Mini lost connection just after passing the church (the bigger white background without any graphs show the disconnect in the chart) ... then just outside the park, above the house roofs the connection is established again for a short moment & the log could record a couple seconds just in the very end before the Mini sailed away for good.

Reading off the data there tells us that the failsafe action was Hover ... not RTH. But as the Mini was in a blow away situation & with position hold as priority it was most probably going full to keep position. Strangely the pitch there was only 13 degrees ... it should have been 20 according to spec. Then we also see a bigger height change between it lost the connection & reappeared, the Mini have ascended from 43m to 98m. If Hover is chosen for failsafe action it shouldn't ascend to RTH height (which was set to chocking 434m!)

Wonder if the height increase here was due to the wind or if the OP was applying positive throttle & unknowingly had the uplink reestablished for a while? And also that the Mini had started to be affected by under performing rear props as the pitch only was 13 degrees... which could have developed to a uncommanded descent later on making it touch down closer than the prediction in the ends of this post.

View attachment 115562

View attachment 115558

Well ... neither the bad pitch or a failsafe action set to Hover changed the fact that your Mini was blown away. The last measured data in the log showed a drift speed of 3,6m/s with a direction of 5 degrees from north. As it was hard to interpolate any battery consumption there in the end I've instead used the data field Smart_Battery: usefulTime from the log ... it's a prediction from the AC firmware that gives us a clue of how long the battery might last.

All these data gives this as a theoretical last path for your Mini ... the distance to the end is just over 2,5km away. Kind of looking for a needle in a haystack unfortunately.

View attachment 115561

Now that mister was some kind of Sherlock Holmes stuff ?
If at least 80% of what you analyzed is true then the drone ironically went straight to our local graveyard, lol (the approximate location).

Thank you so much for all the investigation, have a great day, stay safe.

 

[Chetrari]

Late to ask now, but did you have your contact details marked on it?

That's the funny part, actually no, I did not. The only thing I had on it was a sticker with Rick and Morty. It's like went to some other dimensions from the cartoon.
P.S I bought it as a monthly payment (in credit) and just payed the last transaction 3 days ago, sad...

 

[DanMan32]

It's possible that if the AC is still powered and you got close enough to it to regain signal, then you'll get an accurate reading of where it is. However radio range while on the ground is quite limited.

 

[Chetrari]

It's possible that if the AC is still powered and you got close enough to it to regain signal, then you'll get an accurate reading of where it is. However radio range while on the ground is quite limited.

Too limited, I mean you get up 50m in the air and the signal is already a potato, I guess I shouldn't buy it for the city, the Mavic Pro would be a very good replace.

 

[Meta4]

The max speed of the Mini (according to the user manual) is 29 mph, so 12+ mph winds should be no problem at all.

It was a typo.
He meant 12 metres/sec

Does the mini have no feature of “find my drone”?

Find my drone can only show where the last recorded position was.
But as has been explained already, the drone continued flying for a long time after the last recorded position.

 

[Meta4]

Reading off the data there tells us that the failsafe action was Hover ... not RTH.

Despite this the drone was in RTH after initially losing signal.
This is confirmed by OSD.flycState = GoHome.