Lost my other drone, my Mini 3 Pro

jwilson · 2026-01-14T21:46:57-0500

Meta4 said:
That's not what the barometric height data shows.
I explained back in post #27 ...
although the barometric height continues to show around numbers around 30 ft, the VPS height shows changing height above the water from 20 ft to 10 ft, 14 ft, 19 ft ... then 17, 14, 9, 8, 7, 5 .... kerplunk.

Your drone was maintaining height, but the water was coming up from below it.
You were flying too close to the water's surface to be safe from the wave action.
You were too far away to see how close your drone was to the water/waves.
The incident was caused by careless flying in the wave danger zone.

Maybe you are right but I'm not convinced yet. Yea I can see at the end I was definitely too low.

jwilson · 2026-01-14T21:48:41-0500

Meta4 said:
While 10 feet might be ok over flat calm water, it's definitely not ok when over big surf.
You were blissfully unaware when you were flying and still are when the cause of your most recent incidents are pointed out.
Flying close to obstacles is risky.
Flying close to an obstacle that rises and falls is very risky.
You cannot judge the drone's height above the water by relying on a wideangle lens that makes things appear further away than they actually are.
Flying close to waves when you are too far away to see how close the drone is to the waves is asking for trouble.
Not learning from multiple drone losses dooms your drones to more losses.

I was 10 feet over the peak of the waves. Not the ocean in general.

FLDave · 2026-01-14T21:53:03-0500

jwilson said:
I wasn't looking at it with my unaided eyes. I don't look at my drone when I'm flying, except takeoff and landing. The mini could not have been seen from that distance anyway.

That seems to be the best explanation as to why you allowed the crash. I think VLOS would have prevented the problem.