Lost My Mavic Air

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When I get high wind warnings from the drone I immediately bring it down to less than 100 feet (30 meters) and lower if necessary.

Smart!

Mark

 

[Pac]

Thanks for all that useful informations.

However, one thing remains unanswered (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?) but I think this might be worth its own thread.

 

[TJCPACO]

When in heavy wind conditions, can't you flip to Sport mode to overcome the wind? I thought the MP could fly around 40 mph in Sport mode. Seems plenty of power to overcome a 20 knot wind.

 

[Chris_Neth]

Hi I'm new here. Have my mavic air now for a couple of weeks. Learned already so much by just reading the forum. Very nice to see that so many people help with problems!

 

[JDawg]

When in heavy wind conditions, can't you flip to Sport mode to overcome the wind? I thought the MP could fly around 40 mph in Sport mode. Seems plenty of power to overcome a 20 knot wind.

"Seems plenty of power to overcome a 20 knot wind. "

Yes and you will be consuming a lot of juice so you don't want to be too far from your home point.

 

[aokusman]

When in heavy wind conditions, can't you flip to Sport mode to overcome the wind? I thought the MP could fly around 40 mph in Sport mode. Seems plenty of power to overcome a 20 knot wind.

Why even bother flying in 40km winds? Seems risky.

 

[Mavhawk]

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

Here's where I feel a need to chime in and first of all say, congratulations. I'm also so pleased that these knowledgeable pilots help out so much by reading and deciphering the logs. I always want to recommend some kind of tracking device. I use the Marco Polo, which is pretty robust and works on it's own frequency, not the cell phones frequency. There's plenty of posts about it on Mavic Pilots, but again. I'm so glad you found it. Marc.

 

[Meta4]

When in heavy wind conditions, can't you flip to Sport mode to overcome the wind? I thought the MP could fly around 40 mph in Sport mode. Seems plenty of power to overcome a 20 knot wind.

Try it some time and see how it goes.
I find that it only helps a little if I have to push into a strong wind, but nowhere near what you'd like.
Factor in the fast burn rate and it's not the magic solution.
In strong wind situations, you have to make sure you don't end up too far downwind to get home.

 

[Dingo]

I flew in high wind recently , got repeated warnings on screen the little brown box which i closed a few times , then the top of the screen where its usually green ( good to fly) went yellow with a waring high wind. I was filming directly above myself and only approx 30 metres up( filimg a lighthouse) and the mavic pro was staying in one spot although it was a bit wobbly. This may be the second wind warning?? I finished filming but wasnt able to get the higher altitude distance shots i wanted because I did not want to go any higher than 30 M as it would have blown away at say 60-100M up .. I would estimate the wind was 40km/hr at 30M

 

[Drgnfli]

"
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.

Download UAV Forecast app on your tablet or phone. It isn't super accurate but it is handy for inputting settings for you to be careful with. Example - put in 15 MPH for the maximum wind (with gusts) & it will indicate that it is NOT A GOOD TIME TO FLY if the wind is more than that. Also, you can tell the app what altitude you want to see the winds. Heck! It is also a good weather watcher as it will show you precipitation for the next 24 hours. It is just a great app IMHO!

 

[Earthman]

I'm glad that you found your lost Mavic Pro. I'm also glad that folks here were able to help. I've installed the Airdata app on my iPhone and created an account as a result of the advice given here - thanks, everyone!!!

Keep in mind that the consumer-grade GPS receiver included in most drones, including the Mavic Pro, is not infallible and is subject to various errors that are inherent to the GPS system. The coordinates recorded may be hundreds of feet off from the actual location of the drone, which is why I take the additional precautions indicated in the following post that I've shared on other forums and may be of interest here ...

I've lost and spent hours looking for two RC aircraft (not my Mavic Pro) and know it's no fun searching through deep weeds and thorn bushes on steep hillsides here in southwestern Pennsylvania. Fortunately, I was able to find both aircraft.

A good practice I can recommend for finding lost sUASs is to put small pieces of reflective tape on parts of the airframe that are visible from every angle - before losing the aircraft! This adds almost no weight but the reflective tape shines like a beacon when illuminated with a flashlight at twilight or after dark.

I know this works because I put a beeper and reflective tape on a new Blade Torrent, which is a very small quadcopter, the day before losing it on a heavily-wooded hillside with dense, thorny underbrush late in the day. The battery was ejected from the airframe as it tumbled through the tree branches, so the beeper was no help at all. After searching for about an hour on foot without finding the lost quad, darkness fell. Rather than giving up the search, I went home and returned with an LED spotlight. I found the quad within a few minutes in an area that I had previously searched multiple times. I must have walked within 5 or 10-ft of the quad at least twice without seeing it. With the spotlight, I was able to see the 1/4-inch wide pieces of reflective tape from the edge of the woods through about 100-ft of really dense weeds. I recovered the quad undamaged, but never found the battery.

Silver or white-colored reflective tape seems to reflect the most light and is easiest to see when illuminated with a spotlight, but I've also used red and yellow reflective tape. Usually, I try to put 1/4-inch wide pieces of reflective tape on the model, making sure that a piece of reflective tape is visible from all angles.

I have also experimented with cheap Bluetooth tags and smartphone apps for smaller aircraft, and I own and use a Marco Polo radio tracker (Drone Tracking And Recovery Solutions | Marco Polo | Tracking and Recovery Solutions) on larger fixed-wing RC aircraft, as well as on the expensive, multi-rotor aircraft that I use for commercial flights (including my Mavic Pro). Based on my experiments and practice searches, I assume that these tracking devices will get me to the vicinity of a lost RC aircraft, but reflective tape and a spotlight may be the difference between finding it or not finding it at all - especially in tall grass/weeds and trees. Therefore, I have put reflective tape on all of my fixed-wing and multi-rotor RC aircraft regardless of size or value. On my Mavic Pro, I've wrapped all four arms with 1/4-inch wide reflective tape.

 

[InvisibleName]

I got caught out by strong winds in my early days of flying my MA. Took the well published advice of flipping into sports mode, diving to lower altitude, and heading straight back towards me until it was no longer fighting the wind - sorted!

 

[DanMan32]

You think those wind warnings are scary.

How about seeing these two warnings at the same time!
Motor idle, check for lose props
Motor obstruction

This was on my Phantom 3 Advanced in moderately high winds, over water.
My heart sank for a few seconds until I realized my FPV feed was perfectly OK.

Must have been an up or down draft that "helped" a pair of props, and hindered the other, yet still had lift.

The red box warning might also be for sudden gusts, while the yellow banner warning for general wind.
I wish it could tell you what it thinks the wind is doing.

As for sport mode vs P mode, P mode speed limitation is based on ground speed calculated by GPS and IMU vs motor output. If more thrust power is needed, you'll still get it in P mode, even if you wouldn't get that power on a calm day.
However pitch angle is limited in P mode compared to S mode, and that's why you get some benefit in sport. You not only need power, but also attack angle.

I used to see people report about warnings about pitch angle causing forward OA issues when in high wind, but I haven't seen anyone report that lately. That probably would be a good one to decide to pack it in.

 

[Pac]

What page of the manual did you read this on?

Didnt read that in the manual. But I often had the „strong wind be careful“ warning (which I ignore most times) and a few times i had one telling me „high wind land in safe place ASAP“ which made me come back (as I wasnt flying very high so lowering altidude wasnt an option).
The „land now“ and „ASAP“ convinced me that the wind must be really strong

 

[sar104]

Didnt read that in the manual. But I often had the „strong wind be careful“ warning (which I ignore most times) and a few times i had one telling me „high wind land in safe place ASAP“ which made me come back (as I wasnt flying very high so lowering altidude wasnt an option).
The „land now“ and „ASAP“ convinced me that the wind must be really strong

High wind velocity. Fly with caution.​

High wind velocity. Fly with caution and land in a safe place ASAP.​

Those messages are the same - I think that they have simply been reworded in later DJI GO app versions. They are both indicated by the same flag in the flight log: "HOME.isBigGaleWarning: TRUE".

​

 

[Pac]

Oh reall? Didnt recognize that! I always thought it is two messages.

One more question re strong wind: what could happen if you keep flying, will the drone flip over and crash? Or is it all about being able to fly back home against the wind (before battery goes down)?

 

[sar104]

Oh reall? Didnt recognize that! I always thought it is two messages.

One more question re strong wind: what could happen if you keep flying, will the drone flip over and crash? Or is it all about being able to fly back home against the wind (before battery goes down)?

It won't flip. But it has a tilt maximum limit and thus a maximum airspeed. If the wind speed exceeds that maximum airspeed then it cannot hold position or fly upwind.

 

[Sarge201]

I use a great app from the Google play store called UAV forcast. It shows current and future weather for the area you are flying including the wind speeds at different altitudes. If any boxes are red I simply don't fly. I'm glad you got you Air back.

 

[timinator]

The reflective tape idea is a great one, Earthman. I am so doing this.