Lost Mavic

[pburton46]

Please help me recover my lost drone. I lost my Mavic 2 weeks ago and have searched high low, I used the "lost my drone" feature in the DJI Go app and looked at the flight data / video but I believe these details may be incorrect as I recently uploaded my flight record and it shows that my drone was nowhere the location as my DJI Go app. I truly believe my DJI Go app gps coordinates are very wrong as it never flew that far away. I've written to DJI but they have really not helped, can anyone confirm what details would be more accurate, the DGI Go app or the flight log downloaded from the app?

 

[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.

 

[pburton46]

msinger, thanks for the prompt response, this shows a completely different location from my DJI Go app. What happened was that my app closed down (which happens frequently), but when I tried to reconnect it couldn't, so I pressed the RTH on the controller, but then that lost connectivity as well
Is there any way to bring up longitude and latitude coordinates from this flight log as it shows it only 9ft from my house?

 

[msinger]

Are you sure that's the correct flight log? The flight path does not match your DJI GO screenshots above.

 

[pburton46]

your right that was the wrong flight log, this is the correct one. I knocked on this house to ask if they'd seen it within mins of losing it and looked around the area. But no joy

 

[msinger]

Yes, this flight log matches your screenshots:
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

What do you remember about the end of your flight? Why do you believe your Mavic wasn't that far away? Could you see it with your eyes for the entire flight?

 

[pburton46]

I couldn't see it, the app was closed for at least 9 min while I'd pressed RTH, I just didn't believe that it had flown so off course!

 

[msinger]

Why did you close the app?

 

[pburton46]

The app closed itself and when I tried to reopen it and reconnect it couldn't...

 

[msinger]

Do you recall if your remote controller was still connected when the app closed?

 

[pburton46]

It was but only for a short time after I'd told it to RTH, the last picture I'd taken with it, it was positioned just over the section of trees from my house, which isn't far. That's why I can't believe it veered so far off course when I'd told it to RTH, it's like it didn't know where home was.

 

[Jessesre]

I lost my spark last month and the log shown in the dji app showed the spark landed in a driveway approx 2000ft from where I took off. It was not there, then I loaded my flight record into Airdata and it showed the last location approx 200 yard away from the driveway in a cornfield. I dropped a pin on iPhone map and walked to it in 6' corn stalks and there it was. Only spent overnight in the corn field. You are correct the dji go app is not accurate but Airdata.com was correct. The reason it landed was compass error.

 

[pburton46]

Thanks for the info Jessesre, I'll take a look on Airdata and see, appreciate the help!

 

[pburton46]

I tried Airdata , it has shown very similar coordinates, however it has been able to show footage of the drones decent which I had not been able to recover before. This footage confirms to me it had wondered way off course. So it very helpful, I very much doubt I'll be able to recover it, but fingers crossed. I'll let you know...

 

[Jessesre]

I lost my spark last month and the log shown in the dji app showed the spark landed in a driveway approx 2000ft from where I took off. It was not there, then I loaded my flight record into Airdata and it showed the last location approx 200 yard away from the driveway in a cornfield. I dropped a pin on iPhone map and walked to it in 6' corn stalks and there it was. Only spent overnight in the corn field. You are correct the dji go app is not accurate but Airdata.com was correct. The reason it landed was compass error.

Here is my map from dji go app and the one from Airdata you can see the end point is different. If I was to trust the go app I would not have found it.

 

[msinger]

There was a point in your flight log where you activated RTH and then later cancelled it. During that time, your Mavic was moving away from the home point at about 8 feet per second (while the sticks were in the center position). That tells me your Mavic was flying into a strong headwind.

After your remote controller disconnected, your Mavic would have tried to return to the home point (assuming you didn't change the signal lost setting to hover/land). Since it would have been making negative progress (due to the strong headwind), I'm estimating it landed around here:



If you don't find it in that location, start from the top of the red rectangle and work your way back to the green line.

 

[pburton46]

msinger thank you for taking the time to review my flight log and come up with an idea of where it may be located, I guess I'll need to find some decent walking shoes . I'll let you know how the trek goes. I really appreciate the help!!

 

[01grander]

Does anyone add a sticker or hand write your information on your Mavic? Obviously some people would try to keep it but occasionally there are decent people still around.

 

[pburton46]

No information as yet no, I've seen a couple of threads where you can ask DJI if your stolen drone has been flown and I believe they can tell you. I'm not sure if they'd share where, but at least you'd know if it's been found, if not you just have to keep looking. I'm going to buy a refurbished mavic body from Thunderones to help with my search.

 

[sar104]

Just as an exercise to try to narrow down the likely location, you can extrapolate distance and battery life to predict where it may have auto landed due to low battery. The graph below shows the calculation for 20% battery autoland, assuming a constant drift rate and around 85 seconds to descend from 560 ft (last known altitude).



That predicts a final distance from takeoff of 13,600 ft. Overlaying that on Google Earth gives the following, which is close to, but a little SE of @msinger's estimate.