Lost My Mavic Air

[Bmaximus]

Hey Everyone,

This is one of those situations I hoped i'd never be in. I lost my DJI Mavic Air yesterday.
In essence it is completely my fault. I got some strong wind warnings which I ignored but thought it would be fine as I was on top of a hill with no visual obstructions between me and the drone.
My drone lost signal, but when i tried getting it to return home, I accidentally was pushing it further away from me.
Also, the battery died in only 12 minutes! I think this may have had to do with the drone trying to stabilize within the strong winds.

Either way, I tried looking for my drone where it landed, but cant seem to find it.
It auto landed in a field with high bushes and doesn't seem to be accurately where both Google maps/DJIGO APP says it would be.

Any tips on finding my drone? I'm starting to freak out thinking that I lost my new Drone of only a few weeks.

Thank you!

 

[Lonniex]

All you can do is walk constant straight lines in a perimeter, three feet apart very slowly. You probably already know this but on your flight record it should give you longitude and latitude of its last whereabouts that you can enter into Google maps then go from there. It's happened to me twice and now I am very hesitant to let it out of my sight. I prayed alot too, prayers were answered (YES!!). Hope you find it.

Lonz

 

[Lonniex]

You would play the flight log to the very end and in the bottom left you can see the longitude and latitude I just used this photo as an example but this one landed at home of course. Then enter the longitude and latitude into your Google maps. Like I said you may already know this.

Lonz

 

[Keule]

According to the log, your aircraft had lost contact at approximately 5m above ground at
17.888992° -77.718928°

You have look at that spot and a few meters around.

Here a visual from Google Earth:


Closeup:

 

[Lonniex]

Nice.... I need to learn that view of flight log!

 

[Lonniex]

How can I get the view (graph) that you displayed?

 

[Keule]

I need to learn that view of flight log!

The way i do it:

- Upload the log to Airdata.com
- Extract from that site the .KML
- Import the .KML to Google Earth on your computer
- you now see the flight path in GE, go into the properties of the flight path and in altitude tab click 'extend path to ground'

done.

 

[Lonniex]

Wow, thank you!!!

 

[Meta4]

This is one of those situations I hoped i'd never be in. I lost my DJI Mavic Air yesterday.
In essence it is completely my fault. I got some strong wind warnings which I ignored but thought it would be fine as I was on top of a hill with no visual obstructions between me and the drone.
My drone lost signal, but when i tried getting it to return home, I accidentally was pushing it further away from me.
Also, the battery died in only 12 minutes! I think this may have had to do with the drone trying to stabilize within the strong winds.

Either way, I tried looking for my drone where it landed, but cant seem to find it.
It auto landed in a field with high bushes and doesn't seem to be accurately where both Google maps/DJIGO APP says it would be.

Any tips on finding my drone? I'm starting to freak out thinking that I lost my new Drone of only a few weeks.

The landing site is at 17.88899 -77.71893.
Use a handheld GPS or a GPS app on your phone to locate the spot.
It appears to be close to the boundary of two fields but Google Earth has poor detail in that area.

Here's what the flight data looks like: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

You made the big mistake of flying away downwind which meant that you would have had to fight a headwind coming home.
It's always much easier doing that the other way around.
You also stayed high where the wind is stronger.
The drone was being blown backwards at 0-2 metres/sec while trying to RTH.

To make matters worse, it looks like that battery wasn't very healthy.
I noted the battery level dropping alarmingly at several points in the flight.
At 8:22 it dropped from 46-43%
AT 9:30 it dropped from 37-31%
At 11:02 it dropped from 24-16%

 

[Bmaximus]

You would play the flight log to the very end and in the bottom left you can see the longitude and latitude I just used this photo as an example but this one landed at home of course. Then enter the longitude and latitude into your Google maps. Like I said you may already know this.

LonzView attachment 57331

I tried looking around the area but couldn't find it! About to head out to check again though.

 

[Bmaximus]

According to the log, your aircraft had lost contact at approximately 5m above ground at
17.888992° -77.718928°

You have look at that spot and a few meters around.

Here a visual from Google Earth:
View attachment 57329

Closeup:
View attachment 57330

Thank you for the visual!! You guys are so helpful!

 

[Bmaximus]

The landing site is at 17.88899 -77.71893.
Use a handheld GPS or a GPS app on your phone to locate the spot.
It appears to be close to the boundary of two fields but Google Earth has poor detail in that area.

Here's what the flight data looks like: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

You made the big mistake of flying away downwind which meant that you would have had to fight a headwind coming home.
It's always much easier doing that the other way around.
You also stayed high where the wind is stronger.
The drone was being blown backwards at 0-2 metres/sec while trying to RTH.

To make matters worse, it looks like that battery wasn't very healthy.
I noted the battery level dropping alarmingly at several points in the flight.
At 8:22 it dropped from 46-43%
AT 9:30 it dropped from 37-31%
At 11:02 it dropped from 24-16%

I found it alarming too! Thats why it was very scary for me because my battery levels depleted so fast!

 

[swings16]

How about using a metal detector in the area ?

I would not give up ... i hope that you find it

it is my greatest fear...but i am more concerned about a fly away and it falling and injuring someone (more specific to me living in an area that is wall to wall PEOPLE)

 

[sar104]

I found it alarming too! Thats why it was very scary for me because my battery levels depleted so fast!

There was not much wrong with the battery - it was just working hard. If you plot mAh expended, calculated by integrating the instantaneous current with respect to time, against reported battery percentage, you get the following:



That indicates an available 2227 mAh, compared to the MA battery specification of 2375 mAh - i.e 94% of nominal. Notice that the depletion rate is also linear with current.

 

[Bmaximus]

GUYS!!! I FOUND IT!!!!!!
My drone was a little north from where the GPS coordinates were. Roughly 10 feet from the point it recorded. Took about 5 hours to find because it was in a field of tall grass but i persevered. Thank you everyone for your help and support. I honestly appreciate it so much, you don't even understand

 

[Jblah]

GUYS!!! I FOUND IT!!!!!!
My drone was a little north from where the GPS coordinates were. Roughly 10 feet from the point it recorded. Took about 5 hours to find because it was in a field of tall grass but i persevered. Thank you everyone for your help and support. I honestly appreciate it so much, you don't even understand

NICE!! Glad you were able to get your drone. I'm brand new to this so I'm glad you all post stuff like this. It helps me learn what NOT to do once I get my Mavic Air next week

 

[JDawg]

"
You made the big mistake of flying away downwind which meant that you would have had to fight a headwind coming home.
It's always much easier doing that the other way around.
You also stayed high where the wind is stronger. "

I think this is 6 drones lost from wind over the last few weeks. People seem to underestimate how fast things go wrong when they get into 20+ mph winds.

 

[RCdancer]

I'm nervous with just 10mph winds ... I can't imagine trying to navigate winds over 25mph.

 

[Pac]

My question is ... if you get wind warnings, how do you know how fast wind is?

I think there are two different warnings for high wind, do they refer to a certain wind speed which is calculated by the drone itself?

Really nice that another drone has been found with the help of such expert forum members. Amazing!

 

[JDawg]

My question is ... if you get wind warnings, how do you know how fast wind is?

I think there are two different warnings for high wind, do they refer to a certain wind speed which is calculated by the drone itself?

Really nice that another drone has been found with the help of such expert forum members. Amazing!

What page of the manual did you read this on?