Lost my Bird!! I am a crap pilot :(

[13ringinheat]

Hello guys,

I wanted to post this sequence of events and my flight record on here to get a better understanding of what went wrong. This incident occurred July 3rd 2018. I am leaning towards this being my stupidity, more than the mavics, and my inexperience in dealing with really bad interference.

A lil back story.........the mavic pro was my first drone, I purchased my mavic pro as soon as it was released and got it around January 2017 time frame. Since then i have flown it all over my home city as well as out of the country. Never once did i have any issues with this drone and it has always been rock solid for me. I have also flown it a handful of times at night so i was fairly confident in my abilities to fly my mavic, when this incident took place.

As i mentioned before, it was July 3rd around 8pm, I decided to fly my mavic from a near by gas station to check out the fireworks show that was taking place across the way. The area is really isolated and i am surrounded by open fields and golf courses so the thought of interference did not even occur to me. As soon as i flew my drone, i started encountering massive interference and i kept having my mavic disconnect from the go app and the phone. The darkness of the night, coupled with the small camera sensor and lack of any real landmark or street lights did not aid me in trying to figure out where i was, and each time i would locate something that seemed like a landmark, i would lose connection. I hit return to home in the hopes that the drone would come back but it did not. Then i think i made the biggest blunder by updating the home point to the drone's location........panic moment and not thinking straight. Realizing what i did i also tried to change it back to the remote controller location but that did not register. While this is going on, i am desperately trying to get my drone to connect to the go app and my phone but to no avail. I saw that the RTH was activated and it was landing and i was praying that it landed in a golf field but instead it landed smack dab in the middle of the woods.

The next morning i tried to retrieve my drone since the go app tells you where the drone might be if you lose it. Given i am in Florida, the woods was a marsh land with knee deep water and the fear of alligators and water moccasins.......nevertheless i braved it and i was in the middle for an hour and a half looking for the darn thing. The GPS signal started bouncing around (i was not aware that thick trees mess up GPS like that) and i just had to take this L and walk away.

I am good with being ridiculed....it was my dumbness and bravado that got me in this situation. I want to learn from my mistake and get a better understanding of what to do if i encounter this situation next time and also try to figure out what could have caused this drone to go haywire like that.

A thing to note is that there was a helicopter that showed up minutes after i took flight which is when i started to bring my drone back. The helicopter might have been a local news heli cuz it kept on circling around. I was wondering whether that might have led to the interference i was getting.........

Flight record:

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[Simmo]

It should be right here? In the trees.?

 

[Meta4]

each time i would locate something that seemed like a landmark, i would lose connection. I hit return to home in the hopes that the drone would come back but it did not.

There's no indication in the log that you initiated RTH before resetting the home point.
QUOTE="13ringinheat, post: 537580, member: 26105"]Then i think i made the biggest blunder by updating the home point to the drone's location........panic moment and not thinking straight. Realizing what i did i also tried to change it back to the remote controller location but that did not register.
I saw that the RTH was activated and it was landing and i was praying that it landed in a golf field but instead it landed smack dab in the middle of the woods.[/QUOTE]

I want to learn from my mistake and get a better understanding of what to do if i encounter this situation next time and also try to figure out what could have caused this drone to go haywire like that.

The two main issues are:
You became disoriented and didn't know where your drone was or how to fly it back.
You reset home (not a very helpful move) and didn't correct that by resetting to the location of the controller
I'm not sure what makes you think the drone "went haywire".
It seems to have done just what you directed it to.

what to do if i encounter this situation next time

One would hope you learn enough from the experience to avoid ever being in a similar situation.
It would be more useful to learn how to prevent getting into this situation.
1. If you fly out of sight, you must maintain situational awareness.
You have to know where the drone is and how to get it back as well as what potential obstacles may be in the area.
You need to learn to use the radar display or the map display to fly back home even if you can't see the drone.
Those tools would have been a big help.

2. You could have used RTH to bring it home once you were disoriented.
... if you had paused to work out why RTH wasn't working and initiated it again.
Have you practised using RTH to know how to activate it?

3. Once you had accidentally reset the home point, you needed to set it back to the controller's location.
If that didn't work at first, you needed to work out why.
Was the GPS receiver in your phone or tablet enabled?
And you needed to work on resetting that until you had fixed it.

4. If you could not reset home again, you could have used the map display to fly back.

5. Did RTH initiate because signal was lost?
You should have cancelled that immediately and sorted out your homepoint.

6. You had plenty of battery power so there was no need to rush.
The drone would have just hovered and waited while you fixed things.

A thing to note is that there was a helicopter that showed up minutes after i took flight which is when i started to bring my drone back.

At worst, interference might make you lose the connection, but it doesn't make the drone fly anywhere.

 

[sar104]

Not much to add to the comments above except to say that it is on the ground, or in a tree, at the location shown below:



That location should be good to 10 - 20 ft, although you may have some issues getting a good GPS lock among those trees when you go there.

 

[13ringinheat]

It should be right here? In the trees.?
View attachment 45102

Yes i tried to look for it but the woods are super thick and it landed smack dab in the middle of the woods.

 

[13ringinheat]

There's no indication in the log that you initiated RTH before resetting the home point.
QUOTE="13ringinheat, post: 537580, member: 26105"]Then i think i made the biggest blunder by updating the home point to the drone's location........panic moment and not thinking straight. Realizing what i did i also tried to change it back to the remote controller location but that did not register.
I saw that the RTH was activated and it was landing and i was praying that it landed in a golf field but instead it landed smack dab in the middle of the woods.

The two main issues are:
You became disoriented and didn't know where your drone was or how to fly it back.
You reset home (not a very helpful move) and didn't correct that by resetting to the location of the controller
I'm not sure what makes you think the drone "went haywire".
It seems to have done just what you directed it to.

Agreed. I appreciate your reply and feedback and i definitely have alot to learn. I made some critical errors for sure.

One would hope you learn enough from the experience to avoid ever being in a similar situation.
It would be more useful to learn how to prevent getting into this situation.
1. If you fly out of sight, you must maintain situational awareness.
You have to know where the drone is and how to get it back as well as what potential obstacles may be in the area.
You need to learn to use the radar display or the map display to fly back home even if you can't see the drone.
Those tools would have been a big help.

2. You could have used RTH to bring it home once you were disoriented.
... if you had paused to work out why RTH wasn't working and initiated it again.
Have you practised using RTH to know how to activate it?

3. Once you had accidentally reset the home point, you needed to set it back to the controller's location.
If that didn't work at first, you needed to work out why.
Was the GPS receiver in your phone or tablet enabled?
And you needed to work on resetting that until you had fixed it.

4. If you could not reset home again, you could have used the map display to fly back.

5. Did RTH initiate because signal was lost?
You should have cancelled that immediately and sorted out your homepoint.

6. You had plenty of battery power so there was no need to rush.
The drone would have just hovered and waited while you fixed things.

I think what caused the panic even more was the helicopter that appeared shortly after.

 

[13ringinheat]

Not much to add to the comments above except to say that it is on the ground, or in a tree, at the location shown below:

View attachment 45117

That location should be good to 10 - 20 ft, although you may have some issues getting a good GPS lock among those trees when you go there.

I appreciate the information........yea the GPS lock is definitely the issue. The woods are very thick and its like a marsh land when i went there. Plus this is FL so there are snakes and alligators in our swamps etc, despite this i was was in the woods for an hour and half but wasnt able to make much progress due to the terrain.

Below is the pic of what the woods look like from the ground when i tried to retrieve it the next morning....what it doesnt show is the amount of water as soon as you enter in there....Knee deep murky water.

 

[InvisibleName]

Now, let me think.... go back in and risk being eaten by an alligator or bitten by a deadly snake, orrrrr give up on the lost drone and live to fly another day?

That’s a tough one!

 

[13ringinheat]

Now, let me think.... go back in and risk being eaten by an alligator or bitten by a deadly snake, orrrrr give up on the lost drone and live to fly another day?

That’s a tough one!

Hahahah decisions decisions............i have a mavic 2 pro now so this story is ultimately a happy ending.

 

[InvisibleName]

Hahahah decisions decisions............i have a mavic 2 pro now so this story is ultimately a happy ending.

Great news! Now, what don’t we do?????

 

[Anthony]

Also if you are going to fly in low light install some of these STROBON Cree® Standalone - Flytron

They will help you a lot with locating your drone in the air ..... also on the ground at night they are extremely bright.

Good luck the the M2P ..... my next drone as soon as DJI pull there fingers out of there butts and update the Crystalsky. ........

 

[charliesRig]

Can't you hire a local tracker to go in there and get Mavic.?
Put up a bounty.!