Lost my Air 2S...Annapolis MD

[Meta4]

(I will now anyway), but remain curious why I could ascend and continue to fly forward as close as 284 ft. from my home point, only to watch it fly backwards to a distance of 1,281 ft. before I left it alone to auto-land.

That doesn't sound normal but explanation is likely to be found in your recorded flight data.
In a serious flight incident, flyers might not aware of all the details of what happened and why.
If you want to find out, post the data from your flight and someone might be able to crack the mystery which will help to prevent a similar situation.

 

[GDadd]

That doesn't sound normal but explanation is likely to be found in your recorded flight data.
In a serious flight incident, flyers might not aware of all the details of what happened and why.
If you want to find out, post the data from your flight and someone might be able to crack the mystery which will help to prevent a similar situation.

DJI has the unit and the logs, so I'll see what they find.

The digest for anyone to take away:

• It appears auto-land initiates at 11% battery on the Air 2S.
• RTH kicks in with more than enough time to get home.
• Even though I cancelled all RTH warnings on previous flights and flew awhile longer, this particular flight I pushed it more, expecting it to perform like the M2P. That was a mistake.
• Trying to navigate once it began to auto-land was somewhat possible, but I couldn't get it home.
• Regardless, during auto-land, when the sticks were left alone it descended at its current point.

"Heed the warning." - Captain Obvious

 

[Meta4]

DJI has the unit and the logs, so I'll see what they find.

The digest for anyone to take away:

• It appears auto-land initiates at 11% battery on the Air 2S.
• RTH kicks in with more than enough time to get home.
• Even though I cancelled all RTH warnings on previous flights and flew awhile longer, this particular flight I pushed it more, expecting it to perform like the M2P. That was a mistake.
• Trying to navigate once it began to auto-land was somewhat possible, but I couldn't get it home.
• Regardless, during auto-land, when the sticks were left alone it descended at its current point.

"Heed the warning." - Captain Obvious

The data is on your phone or tablet.
It contains much more information than the brief summary above.

 

[Meta4]

DJI has the unit and the logs, so I'll see what they find.

Although DJI's drones are great, they don't do a very good job of communicating the outcomes of their incident investigations and it could take a while.
What they'll tell you might only be one or two sentences with no explanation.
If you want details, you'll get better and faster interpretation here.

Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a report of the flight, (but it will look empty).
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.
Or .. just post the txt file here.

 

[Roberto Smera]

DJI has the unit and the logs, so I'll see what they find.

The digest for anyone to take away:

• It appears auto-land initiates at 11% battery on the Air 2S.
• RTH kicks in with more than enough time to get home.
• Even though I cancelled all RTH warnings on previous flights and flew awhile longer, this particular flight I pushed it more, expecting it to perform like the M2P. That was a mistake.
• Trying to navigate once it began to auto-land was somewhat possible, but I couldn't get it home.
• Regardless, during auto-land, when the sticks were left alone it descended at its current point.

"Heed the warning." - Captain Obvious

As per my close call due the strong wind over the seashore, my Air 2S initiated auto-landing at 9% battery.

 

[Meta4]

As per my close call due the strong wind over the seashore, my Air 2S initiated auto-landing at 9% battery.

The screenshot from the app doesn't tell much, but if you want any help with data analysis to see how things could be done better, post flight data.

 

[projectarjun]

Wait...doesn't the new Care package cover fly aways, drones falling down at sea, etc?

 

[Moving Zen]

I dunno man, coming from a dude who's put his drone in the drink, sometimes you gotta accept responsibility and pay to play.

 

[bkushner]

originalfoto: DJI states that you need to return the drone to claim refresh unless they detect a problem on their end. You would need to supply them with the logs from your controller/phone.

You may want to check out this video to see if your situation was similar. DJI Support inquired about the incident on the YouTube page:

It is queued at the point where things begin to go south:

I crashed an air2s.....Once it says AUTOLANDING it does not move forward very fast. It drops down to like 8 mph forward and is a mess...Before when autolanding you could easily cruise on in and land.. Not anymore the power drops considerably once it enters auto landing. Here's part of my log where it states it cuts power.

 

[Macinfo]

IMHO if you fly to low battery warnings and your not within a few hundred feet of home or a safe landing spot, you're taking chances of losing your potentially very expensive AC.

 

[bkushner]

IMHO if you fly to low battery warnings and your not within a few hundred feet of home or a safe landing spot, you're taking chances of losing your potentially very expensive AC.

You are correct.

 

[macoman]

I believe when DJI looked at your logs it would indicate RTH cancelled, drone under pilot control and define this as pilot error. Not seeing how it could be deemed fly away.

Totally agree... I did a range test and went as far as 2.7 miles and returned back. I always worry about the battery when it hit almost 3 miles. People needs to be conservative with the battery if you want to keep your aircraft.

 

[originalfoto]

Update: DJI offered to replace it under the fly-away provision for the DJI Care Refresh...which carries a $499 deductible. I guess it's better than nothing.

 

[evtide]

Not relative to originalfoto's original question (will DJI cover) but definitely appropriate to the incident, I do most of my flying by the water and avoid venturing offshore if the wind is at my back. Semi-newbie pilot here who's seen plenty of YouTube vids with a high clench-factor on the return leg.

 

[bkushner]

I dunno man, coming from a dude who's put his drone in the drink, sometimes you gotta accept responsibility and pay to play.

I've lost 3 in the river over the years

 

[Eaglesky77]

Long story short... I was 3 miles out over the Bay, doing some mastershots over a cargo ship. I got the battery warning to return home. I canceled it and flew for another couple of minutes before trying to manually returning home. Battery starts to drain rapidly (flying against the wind). I turned off recording to try to conserve energy. At about 1500 ft. out the drone landed (in the Bay) :-(

I do have DJI Care.. will they cover this as a fly away or tell me to kick rocks because I was negligent?

Yeah I can tell you now you are going to be disappointed. I have coverage Refresh coverage on mine and it landed automatically on auto home land program instead of landing on the orange LZ it landed in a bush nearby. literally flew straight into the shrub. Not only did the sensor not see it and stop it it also with that gentle landing in the shrubbery, broke the gimbal. Even though I have coverage, they’re not fixing it they refuse it. I’d be amazed if they fixed yours especially if it’s in the bay. I lost one it still sits tie up in a tree. They refused to honor that under the flyaway policy because it’s in a tree somehow that makes sense to them but not me. I’m done with them I suggest everyone find someone else maybe ALLTEL

 

[Eaglesky77]

Sure - but I've seen several reports of pilot error losses being replaced under that program, so it is being honored.

Well at least somebody can say there’s is being honored, I know they have denied me twice. I have one drone sitting atop a tree that was blown off course. It’s still there but they refuse to cover it as a flyaway. Recently my air to *** last week it was on auto return home when instead of returning on the landing pad it came boss then flew forward into a shrub. The shrub damage the gimbal somehow and now the gimbal and camera vibrate it doesn’t work. They don’t honor that under the refresh nor do they under that another warranty. I’m sick of this and I’m done with them they don’t care about us

 

[sar104]

Well at least somebody can say there’s is being honored, I know they have denied me twice. I have one drone sitting atop a tree that was blown off course. It’s still there but they refuse to cover it as a flyaway. Recently my air to *** last week it was on auto return home when instead of returning on the landing pad it came boss then flew forward into a shrub. The shrub damage the gimbal somehow and now the gimbal and camera vibrate it doesn’t work. They don’t honor that under the refresh nor do they under that another warranty. I’m sick of this and I’m done with them they don’t care about us

What reason did they give?

 

[Eaglesky77]

Well if I get a response at al, ( it literally to two weeks to hear anything until in finally started submitting help request twice daily. Anyhow, their reasoning was that the forward and upward sensors aren’t always able to detect tree limbs and such. I sent a picture of the large solid shrub. It’s not like a tree. It’s solid green and about the size of a large beachball. Still, they wouldn’t repair it as under warranty bc if that.

 

[sar104]

Well if I get a response at al, ( it literally to two weeks to hear anything until in finally started submitting help request twice daily. Anyhow, their reasoning was that the forward and upward sensors aren’t always able to detect tree limbs and such. I sent a picture of the large solid shrub. It’s not like a tree. It’s solid green and about the size of a large beachball. Still, they wouldn’t repair it as under warranty bc if that.

Sure - if it was pilot error then it's not going to be a warranty repair. But why did refresh not cover it?