Lost Mavic Pro

huskerkerri · Jul 5, 2018

So my husband used his Mavic Pro last night to record some fireworks. A storm was coming in so he had it return to home but it never came back.

Our flight log is here: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

My question is about the home location - it's not correct in his flight log - it's actually a block over and up a little from us (on the map we are actually on Butler one block to the north and our house is to the west about half a block of the location it's showing).

We did some searching based on the last known location (the block over area)... it would have been right in our back yard if the home location had been right. Just wanted to get some insight on why the home location might have been shown wrong, and if you guys think it would be closer to where the last known point is on the flight log or if we should look closer to the house using the ending point as the distance from the actual starting point?

He's used his drone many other times with nothing like this ever happening. Super sad! (I would have him post but he's not near a computer all day and I wanted to do some ground work so he can do some more searching when he gets home tonight - also posted on our nextdoor app in case someone happens to find it and sees my post on there.)

Thanks everyone,
Kerri

msinger · Jul 5, 2018

huskerkerri said:
My question is about the home location - it's not correct in his flight log - it's actually a block over and up a little from us (on the map we are actually on Butler one block to the north and our house is to the west about half a block of the location it's showing).

The home point is not at the expected location since it was set after the Mavic took off. The Mavic was flying in ATTI mode when it took off, so the home point could not be set at that time. It was set later at 53 seconds into the flight.

FYI for the future, it's always best to wait until the home point has been marked before taking off. Look for the "H" symbol on the map in DJI GO to verify the home point has been set.

Here's the location of the home point (41.29969274, -96.1504778):

The Mavic attempted to land there when it returned to the home point, but the wind was too strong for it to descend straight down. It slowly drifted with the wind in this direction as it was descending:

You should be able to find it if you search in this yellow box:

huskerkerri · Jul 5, 2018

Wow - thanks so much for your help - all very good information that I'll share with him. I think he was in a hurry with the storm approaching. I walked around that area this morning with my dogs, but we'll definitely look a little more later as well. Thanks again for your help!

Yoda007 · Jul 5, 2018

Good luck. Please let us know how the search goes

I’m curious to see if msinger is on the money

huskerkerri · Jul 5, 2018

Thanks! I went and looked over my lunch and no luck yet, but I'm sure my husband will do a more extensive search after work. That line of trees is pretty tall, so I doubt it cleared them, and there's a lot of brush and plants at the base of the tree line, so I told him to take a stick so he can look through all of that later. I'm really hoping he lucks out and finds it!

Are the Mavic Pros made of any metal? He does also have a metal detector he could use.

huskerkerri · Jul 14, 2018

Thought I would just update that the hubs’ Mavic was never found.

He wrote DJI and they’re giving him 15% off of a replacement which I think he will do. Based on the analysis here I had low hopes of a warranty so no surprise, but good to get their feedback on what happened too.

Thanks for the help! Maybe his new one will help find his old one in a tree or something!

Kerri

Former Member · Jul 14, 2018

huskerkerri said:
Are the Mavic Pros made of any metal? He does also have a metal detector he could use

The motor cans, parts of the gimbal, and around 40 screws. Will a metal detector pick those up?

huskerkerri · Jul 14, 2018

So update to the update... the drone has been found! He was out walking the dogs tonight and the person two houses up from the house that was market as “home” was outside so he asked if he saw it that night which he did. He stopped at the house marked home and asked if they had seen it and he pulled it out! The guy said he had been waiting for him. So it’s back home, and even with all the rain that night it works just fine. Whew!

msinger · Jul 15, 2018

Great news! I'm happy to hear you were able to find it.

Former Member · Jul 15, 2018

huskerkerri said:
So update to the update... the drone has been found! He was out walking the dogs tonight and the person two houses up from the house that was market as “home” was outside so he asked if he saw it that night which he did. He stopped at the house marked home and asked if they had seen it and he pulled it out! The guy said he had been waiting for him. So it’s back home, and even with all the rain that night it works just fine. Whew!

Congrats!