Lost my Mini 3 Pro

[Kradk]

I live in Hawaii, and often times I'm at the beach filming a friend surfing, its a good way to work on flight chops as well. What makes this interesting is that I launched from a spot about 10ft (3m) above the water. I was out 500 ft from shore hovering waiting for a set of waves to come. I took my eyes off my drone for 10-15 seconds to check my immediate surroundings and looked up and there was no drone, no waves and the RC said Aircraft disconnected. I hit the return home thinking that it could have flown away and nothing. I had my Mavic 2 Pro there as back up but as the timing was my friends were heading back in. I got home and reviewed the Flight log and see the last spot it registered and it was hovering then nothing. So I made a case with DJI, uploaded the logs to the engineers and received a phone call 2 days later. We chatted about it and could not find any fault but they offered me another Mini 3 Pro and Plus Battery. I received it 2 days ago and haven't had a chance to take it out yet but I will as soon as I can. I am happy with the Customer Service.

 

[GFields]

Glad you got is sorted out with DJI.
I moved your thread from Pilot Check-In to Crash & Flyaway Assistance in case you wanted help knowing what happened.

 

[old man mavic]

@Kradk sorry to hear about the loss of your drone
just from the description of the incident i can reasonably come up with an explanation,as to what happened
at the height and distance that the drone was from you then the actual height displayed on the screen device would probably have been relative to the take off point,not necessarily the drones actual height above the water where it was when you lost sight of it the downwards facing sensors have real trouble over water ,also its quite possible that an incoming wave swamped the drone which would cause it to crash
this is just my opinion based on other similar events i have heard about

 

[YVRGUY]

Kradk, sorry you lost your drone, but happy to hear DJI Service came through in good time with a new replacement and battery plus

 

[GGehret]

@Kradk sorry to hear about the loss of your drone
just from the description of the incident i can reasonably come up with an explanation,as to what happened
at the height and distance that the drone was from you then the actual height displayed on the screen device would probably have been relative to the take off point,not necessarily the drones actual height above the water where it was when you lost sight of it the downwards facing sensors have real trouble over water ,also its quite possible that an incoming wave swamped the drone which would cause it to crash
this is just my opinion based on other similar events i have heard about

These are my thoughts regarding the crash too. The manual clearly states our drones are challenged flying, hovering over water, and being THAT close to the water's surface...it doesn't surprise me at all that it may certainly have crashed.

 

[Meta4]

These are my thoughts regarding the crash too. The manual clearly states our drones are challenged flying, hovering over water, and being THAT close to the water's surface...it doesn't surprise me at all that it may certainly have crashed.

The drone isn't challenged flying close to water, despite DJI's poor wording in their manual.
It could have trouble holding horizontal position, not height.

I took my eyes off my drone for 10-15 seconds to check my immediate surroundings and looked up and there was no drone, no waves and the RC said Aircraft disconnected.

It's good that you got a replacement, but if you want a better analysis than DJI gave you, post your flight data here.
It could help you to avoid a repeat of the incident.

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 detailed report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.
Or .. just post the txt file here.

 

[skycam509]

Shark!

 

[Hermey]

I have noticed, among the posts I've read over about drones that have been lost or crashed, a good number were flying over water at the time. My takeaway is that I'm feeling more wary about flying over water. Or at least, more than a short distance out over water, and keep elevation up when over water.

I did once do a very low altitude flight over a pond. A small pond, drone about 6-8 ft off water surface, and the drone was never more than about 100 ft from me. Other than that I'm avoiding water....

 

[Meta4]

I have noticed, among the posts I've read over about drones that have been lost or crashed, a good number were flying over water at the time. My takeaway is that I'm feeling more wary about flying over water.

Water is no more risky than flying over dry land.
In fact it's safer because there are no trees, cables, buildings or other obstacles to run into.
95% of my flying over the last 8 years has been over water.
I just clocked up another 41 km of over water flight today.

Flying close to obstacles is very risky and associated with the majority of drone crashes.
It's hard to get into trouble when there's nothing to hit,

 

[Hermey]

Water is no more risky than flying over dry land.
In fact it's safer because there are no trees, cables, buildings or other obstacles to run into.
95% of my flying over the last 8 years has been over water.
I just clocked up another 41 km of over water flight today.

Flying close to obstacles is very risky and associated with the majority of drone crashes.
It's hard to get into trouble when there's nothing to hit,

Thanks for the encouragement...maybe my concern is misplaced? I seem to recall reading that reflections and the shiny surface of water can lead to drone not "reading" correctly...

 

[Meta4]

Thanks for the encouragement...maybe my concern is misplaced? I seem to recall reading that reflections and the shiny surface of water can lead to drone not "reading" correctly...

That only affects the drone's ability to hold position horizontally and only when close to the water under certain conditions.
It doesn't "suck" the drone downwards.

 

[Frank071]

Thanks for the encouragement...maybe my concern is misplaced? I seem to recall reading that reflections and the shiny surface of water can lead to drone not "reading" correctly...

This is not OT, but you should calculate in that, when something happens over water, most of the time the pilot is left with a lot of questions (since there are no obstacles and there is a good chance that is was outside VLOS, so: what has happened) and is definitely sour (since the drone is practically always lost). So I expect this to be overrepresented in the number of questions. If you fly your drone into a tree, there is not much reason to ask why that happened ;-)