Lost my Mavic 3 today while recording alligators - video

[KLRSKIR]

What do you mean you lost the SD card?

I too am curious about this question. Popped out and lost? Wasn't SanDisk? Very glad you retrieved the aircraft. Never APAS over water.

 

[RangerEd]

That's correct. What I mean is what caused the drift to the right and the fail from APAS + sensors detecting the tree. (really not surprised about this)

The pilot maybe?

 

[Ramar43]

Today while I was kayaking recording wildlife in a private property, trying to do a nice video of my 1000 subscribers celebration, my drone suddenly drifted to the right side and hitting to a tree branch and crashed on the water. I was able to recover the drone thanks to the phantomrain wetsuit bright colors in the shallow water and the Firehouse ARC V blinking light. Sadly I lost the SD card. At least I was I was able to recover the video from the cache of my DJI RC Pro (this video).

I can not explain what happened but here is the video.

Sometimes we get overconfident in our capabilities. This is exactly what happened in this case. You were not visually looking at your drone. Flying below the treetops at distance was a major mistake. You are very lucky to find your drone.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Monster in the water, drone in the sky , looking back and fourth rowing and flying thu the Congo and he just spooked the demon child . Got to give credit to my friend its a lot of negotiating to keep us with VLOS.

In the end its an adventure not many of us would take but having the drone footage to tell of his adventure priceless.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the water and watch death monsters .

 

[koco2202]

Where is this place? It looks nice.

 

[zeusfl]

The alligator splashed water on you at the beginning. Perhaps some drops covered one of the sensors on the drone and caused it to make an error in positional judgement. I could see a drop sliding across one of the sensors creating a momentary issue that could send your Mavic into something.

These sensors I believe are not that weak on that perspective. I guess was the glare over the water with the sun reflection.

 

[zeusfl]

Since you were in a kayak and probably had vlos, If it were me, I would have put my drone in sport mode to turn off the obstacle avoidance system. Sometimes if it sees something on one side, it may push the drone into something it doesn't see on the other side.

I fly above canals and under the trees often. I make sure obstacle avoidance is off unless the trees are really thick and I believe obstacle avoidance is safer than none. But I prefer none most of the time. Especially if I can see the drone.

Do you have care refresh?

APAS has demonstrate me on the past that is pretty effective (not perfect) but effective. This time was not perfect and cost me the drone.

 

[zeusfl]

Where is this place? It looks nice.

Check your PM.

 

[zeusfl]

Sometimes we get overconfident in our capabilities. This is exactly what happened in this case. You were not visually looking at your drone. Flying below the treetops at distance was a major mistake. You are very lucky to find your drone.

@Ramar43 you probably nailed. I was trusting so much in APAS like on tons of my flights that the overconfident on it bite me.

What may occurred was an a delay on the feedback that makes me act base on what I seen on the screen that maybe was delaying for a second or 2. At the same time I was close to the drone VLOS but may be the trees interference.

The true is that I took many chances on that flight relaying on APAS. I have done much difficult situations without problems before. It was just my time and overconfidence as you mentioned.

 

[zeusfl]

I reported the Crash to DJI and they are analyzing the situation and if was a drone failure, they will send me a unit. If not I will need to claim my Refresh. I have 9 months left.

 

[TrabSeyn]

Beautiful place to fly (and kayak). OA doesn't seem to catch all potential obstacles like small tree branches or wires, and is useless in low light. Hoping getting your repair/replacement goes smoothly. Subscribed.....nice work.

 

[maria_kabaguma]

The altitude sensor fail reading or the values were not written on time, and look like the drone overreacted to my inputs.

This was analyzed by JJB.

View attachment 160387

Do you analyze flight logs? I’ve been arguing with dji about my drone misbehave. They told me its the barometer that was offset because I was flying over the water. Thats why drone became a submarine with me pushing stick up in sports mode

 

[zeusfl]

The sensors can be confused because the reflection over the water. In this particular flight my drone gain 35FT altitude without any elevator input in its own. This is not the first time that happens. Normally happens when the water looks like a glass with reflection. APAS can be confuse. This can be seen in the flying log as well.

Check your PM.

 

[DJW43]

sorry about the crash, but great video!
I could not stop watching

 

[zeusfl]

Could you Imaginate have the 5K resolution with color correction and edited.... Ufff that was a big lost for me.

 

[zeusfl]

sorry about the crash, but great video!
I could not stop watching

Also the funny part is that watching the video carefully I count about 5 o 6 gators that I haven't seen on the RC Pro screen. Just looking at the video (low resolution) I seen them. This happens often to me. Between what I can see with my naked eyes and the small screen. At nights using my AceBeam K75 and Acebeam K30GT2 flashing light I can spot over 30 in a nights. I will upload a video with the beams.

 

[Don Testme]

The sensors can be confused because the reflection over the water. In this particular flight my drone gain 35FT altitude without any elevator input in its own. This is not the first time that happens. Normally happens when the water looks like a glass with reflection. APAS can be confuse. This can be seen in the flying log as well.

Check your PM.

LOL, something like that happened to me. My drone kept drifting to the right only after I was flying for about 5 minutes. Luckily I was in a very open area, over the ocean at the beach. I put it in sport mode to turn the sensors off, then I hit return home and looked at the drone.

I saw a spot on the left obstacle sensor. It was an opaque looking film. Then I realized it was from me sweating. A drop of my sweat from my hand landed on the sensor and dried on the sensor after five minutes of flying. The salt made the sensor think there was an object on the left. So it kept drifting right.

I guess that's why we perform pre-flight checks.

 

[zeusfl]

Check my thrower flashing lights video testing my K30GT2 and the K75

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Dont worry Zeus were sending you out a NEW ! Mavic 3 Wet Suit with a nice Tattoo on it to remind you of your adventure, just like we did on the Mini 2 for you. Good things come to those who take risks. lol

Im pretty sure you just threw up a Bat Signal. lol that is a great collection.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain, Task for Rogue Gators

I think you will like it !

 

[zeusfl]

Dont worry Zeus were sending you out a NEW ! Mavic 3 Wet Suit with a nice Tattoo on it to remind you of your adventure, just like we did on the Mini 2 for you. Good things come to those who take risks. lol

I think you will like it ! View attachment 160471

View attachment 160472

Awesome !!! I cant wait to get the M3 replacement. That gator will look sick on it. Thank you buddy !!