Lost Mini 2 failed RTH - Help with analysis and GPS

[Steve.bridges]

Thank you Paint Rock Drones, once again I'll definitely take on board what you said because I appreciate being talked to in a civilised fashion.

To the comment above.. I'm not sure if you people just want to be your own little club and discourage everyone else from sharing your hobby or? It doesn't hurt to say things in a respectful way (as clearly demonstrated by one commenter in this thread). Imagine I was say a soccer coach, and there was a kid who was very hesitant to play but gained the courage to do so finally. In his first couple of games, of course he doesn't really know the rules and unfortunately to defend his face, puts up his hands and gives away a penalty. If you want that kid to keep learning to play soccer, if you want to encourage him to seek help when he needs, would talking down to him and trying to prove a point about how much I know as a coach and how little he knows be beneficial?

Being a caring and respectful person isn't actually that hard to do, and some of you might find it goes on long way in having positive, mutually beneficial interactions with a range of people

Considering the discouraging comments seem to be coming from people twice my age, it's hard to believe you haven't learnt this in your extra 25/30 years

 

[LDizz]

Thank you to everyone who took the time to share your knowledge and advice, which is greatly appreciated.

What I do find disappointing, however, is the very de haut en bas responses from some.

While constructive criticism is valid and beneficial, contemptuous attitudes and demeaning comments towards people asking for help are not only tactless, they undermine the entire purpose of a forum for users to seek assistance from a community.

This forum may be focused around intellectual knowledge for operating machines, but user comments are directed at human beings.

Humans make mistakes at times when they step out of their comfort zone to try new things, and then they improve on their skills through life experience.

With that in mind, exercising a little emotional intelligence is equally important to advising newbies.

Otherwise a valuable platform becomes just another pissing contest, which would be a real shame imo.

 

[MARK (LI)]

When I tell you "you may be better off calming down...re reading what he told you....absorb it and learn something that could really help you going forward" ...it contradicts your claim that there is an attempt to exclude you or discourage you....you were addressed in a civilized manner by everyone...you just don't like the message ......what you did was selfish and could negatively effect all people in this hobby....there are a lot of Youtubes that you can view to get the rules of the road for flying drones...I watched hours of them before buying a drone...you really have to make yourself more informed regarding the rules and laws that govern this hobby...there are reasons for the laws ...if you had been aware of the height restriction...and observed it...you most likely would not have exhausted your battery ...I am not being condescending or nasty here...but since you don't seem to be aware of the regulations I have to ask ....do you know about controlled airspace?..that 400 foot restriction can be even less, even 0 feet in certain controlled airspace...watch videos...ask questions...learn what is expected of you as a drone operator...it is a privilege....it isn't a right

 

[slup]

... i was returning home when my phone died. I was only 600m away from home, 15% battery left and 80m in the air so would have 100% made it home easily.
... a thorough search of last recorded location have been unsuccessful.

When your phone died your Mini was 1985,8ft from the HP ... and it had continued to fly home in a straight course & on present height of 262,5ft if you didn't touched the sticks. This means that it's no use to search around the last known location.

There in the end of the log your Mini was only making a progress of 140,3ft/battery % noticeably affected by the headwind. As the force land battery % is height dependent it was there in the end of the log defined to 8%. All this together would mean that after your phone died your Mini continued it's RTH for a further 842ft until it stopped & started to land.



And the land position was here ... but due to variances in speed it could have made it somewhat shorter or longer. The GPS position marked on the map ... time to make up some excuses & knocking some doors.

Make this a lesson ... don't fly as you did over a build up area, respect the regulations & add in some consequence thinking ... what can happen if thing's go wrong & your Mini comes crashing down & from that behave accordingly.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

@Steve.bridges
Steve welcome to the forum, if you're still around.

Some people are lucky and find this forum before they start flying their Mavics, others end up here after losing theirs, or crashing etc.
So much you can learn here for sure, so stick around if you have thick enough skin to get through this thread ok.

Yes, the flight was awful, in terms of aircraft operation and CASA rules, but live and learn, you didn't hurt anyone / anything this time (we hope !).

If you find your drone, or continue with the hobby with a replacement, read up, there are threads here that could easily show you how to totally mitigate the risks you took on all counts.

Go read up on the Casa site (drone regs), download one of the apps that tell you it's ok to fly somewhere or not, and enjoy the hobby without risk to others, be they on the ground or in the air.

BTW, go and search where @slup recommends, and around there . . . do a quick leaflet about the lost drone, info, photo, contact details, letterbox drop all the homes around where you're looking.
With info on the drone, you'd hope someone does the right thing, but some extra info might be worth doing while pounding the pavement.

 

[PistonPete]

Jeepers came here for a bit of help... drone people are mean! Yes it's labelled so fingers crossed. But wowza, some of you sound like you'd be real fun at a party.

Steve. I don’t reply often, but, these people are not mean, just really peed off when the existing rules of flight are blatantly broken. This will lead to further unnecessary regulation and costs, because you couldn’t follow the UAV rules of the air. It is a right royal pain in the arse that you have to stay line of sight when flying, but it’s necessary. Your out of control drone could have fallen out of the sky onto someone, maybe a baby, and killed them. Please have a rethink.

 

[IronSky1]

I have lost two Mini's in the past 2 years. Mini 1 caught in wind just kept flying east with video feed at 60 ft never found. Mini 2 had a Trackimo on it found on top of chimney was recovered in tack. The old Trackimo's works well and are very light.
(it was designed for dogs not sure if it is made anymore.) Weighs 20g I dont take off without it. The first Mini may have been available if I had it on however, I was lazy.

Good luck.

 

[maelstrom]

Mini 2 had a Trackimo on it found on top of chimney was recovered in tack. The old Trackimo's works well and are very light.

Worth remembering that this would increase the weight to over 250g and, in many countries, impose more restrictive regulations on your Mini/Mini 2. Bearing in mind that the vast majority of lost drones are as a result of pilot error, good planning and sensible flying would avoid the need for a locator and would keep the weight below 250g.

 

[tlswift58]

Obviously the wind was affecting your flight too much for the drone to be able to get home.
You made a classic newbie mistake of flying off downwind in conditions that ensured the drone would fight against a headwind for the return flight.
You added to the issues by burning too much battery and not attempting to come home until the battery reached 49% and then leaving it to fight a headwind, in auto RTH 100 metres up.

Looking at what that search area looks like, your only hope is that you properly labelled the drone and someone returns it to you.
If you didn't label it, you didn't really want it back.

Great point on labeling. Would take a WAG and say if they did not register the drone; they most likely did not 'label" it either. Exceeding altitude and distance limits seems to be a big reason for loss of drone as well.

Tough way to learn, yet we do see it quite often here.

 

[tlswift58]

Why did you fly so high 1640ft/500m and so far 6283ft?

Drone rules

Australia’s recreational drone rules are designed to keep you and others safe, on the ground and in the air. Here are the rules you need to know now, before you take-off.

www.casa.gov.au

To be honest the more you say about this flight the worse it becomes.

It seems
1) you imply you regularily fly beyond your visual range "I can usually see it coming home from about 500m away" which also suggests your have some experience of drone flying.
2) you flew to a grossly illegal height ( more than 4 times the legal limit?)
3) FAR beyond your own stated range of VLOS which is 500m /1640ft
4) in adverse wind conditions, Flying outbound downwind to the low battery RTH is stupid.
5) over a built up area (thereby endangering people and property)
6) with an insufficiently charged phone and therefore not even able to use the screen device as a guide to flying albeit a not legal guide.

In some respects I think it would be better if you did not find your drone

On target in all aspects. Tough lesson to learn for sure.

Someone also mentioned it not being registered as well. Don't know all the rules for AU, but that may hurt the pocketbook even more should it be found out by the authorities.

 

[eEridani]

@Steve.bridges @LDizz

Point of fact: you were flying illegally, and a bit reckless, too. PF pointed this out and linked your local laws.

A drone is a flying bandsaw. If it landed and someone on the ground was under it and not paying attention to the noise of a drone - which they aren't used to hearing - they can be seriously hurt. This is why flying over people or crowds is usually forbidden unless the drone is a certain class, has full propeller guards and flown by a licensed pilot.

It's surprising drones can be sold without some notification of the laws in the place it is sold. But the manual does mention CHECK YOUR LOCAL REGULATIONS BEFORE FLYING. Page 39.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

No registration required for hobbyist drone pilots / aircraft yet.
Very soon though.

Most drones sold now in Australia, DJI included, do get a yellow pamphlet included outlining information on CASA drone regulations.
Put out with input from the MAAA.

This may or may not have been included with the pilots drone in this case, but many don’t take a few basic steps to investigate the requirements and responsibilities.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Slup, any chance of posting the height 'map' for either the entire flight or the section around the RTH start? I am curious to see the ground clearance in that area, I tried to have a look in Airdata but I do not have a suitable account, thanks

 

[slup]

..any chance of posting the height 'map' ...

Sorry but I'm not following you ... what is this height map you're talking about?

 

[Deleted member 103366]

The second of your images in post 25. Is the black area not the projection of the drone's height?

 

[slup]

The second of your images in post 25. Is the black area not the projection of the drone's height?

That's from Google Earth ... just go to post #3 where he shares the Airdata link or your own post #2 into PhantomHelp & download their .KML file & open it in Google Earth. Right click on the path in the left pane, properties & the Altitude tab, and there check mark "Extend path to ground" ... & if you want you can proceed to the Style, Color tab & mod how the extension to ground should look.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

I already checked OK2FLY and it is there, within other CASA drone rules (VLOS, 120m / 400').
The area is ok, but then our interpretations of urban built up / traffic / people would have also applied there with such a long flight over the major road there.

ok2fly

The drone app from AvSoft Australia. Fly your drone safely and with confidence.

ok2fly.com.au

EDIT - The altitude over 400' DEFINATELY put it into the Moorabin controlled airport approach / departure airspace.

 

[Capt KO]

Properly marked includes your Ph #. Worked for me when I stupidly flew in poor but legal conditions. Got it back next day after a fruitless search. Even offered reward with ph # but it was turned down. Nice folks out there.

 

[7amanian]

Hello- I would advise you to obey the rules unless you go the permission on the other hand, after reading your flight data, seems like you got MULTIPLE wind warnings which if I am in your place will take it down and assess. I would always recommend that check the weather and winds at different rights, I use UAV Forecast, Drone buddy, and Windy to plan my flights. also, any warning you see while you fly, RTH is your best buddy as it saves you from the hassle. Also, I would recommend flying in an open area and avoiding any obstacles like buildings as it's always happened to me when I fly between buildings as I lose signals and in terms of the antennas, direct the RC to the drone.

hope you found your drone

 

[Steve.bridges]

When your phone died your Mini was 1985,8ft from the HP ... and it had continued to fly home in a straight course & on present height of 262,5ft if you didn't touched the sticks. This means that it's no use to search around the last known location.

There in the end of the log your Mini was only making a progress of 140,3ft/battery % noticeably affected by the headwind. As the force land battery % is height dependent it was there in the end of the log defined to 8%. All this together would mean that after your phone died your Mini continued it's RTH for a further 842ft until it stopped & started to land.

View attachment 137492

And the land position was here ... but due to variances in speed it could have made it somewhat shorter or longer. The GPS position marked on the map ... time to make up some excuses & knocking some doors.

Make this a lesson ... don't fly as you did over a build up area, respect the regulations & add in some consequence thinking ... what can happen if thing's go wrong & your Mini comes crashing down & from that behave accordingly.

View attachment 137493

View attachment 137494

Thank you so much for this, you've restored my faith in droners. I have a friend with a mavic 2 that he's flown the route multiple times and recorded for me so I'll start to sift through the footage now.

Once again thanks for putting in the effort to help instead of shaming me for the errors I obviously made an have not denied. People like you make the world continue to go round <3