Lost my other drone, my Mini 3 Pro

[jwilson]

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]

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]

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.

 

[jwilson]

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

VLOS was impossible in this case.

 

[jwilson]

Watching the video again, it's absurd to say the water came up to the drone. The drone definitely went down to the water.

 

[FLDave]

VLOS was impossible in this case.

That's my point. You couldn't see the drone so you were aware of total surroundings; thus the crash.

 

[Meta4]

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

And you could tell this how ???

Watching the video again, it's absurd to say the water came up to the drone. The drone definitely went down to the water.

OK .. now all you have to explain is how the recorded data says just the opposite ????

 

[Droning on and on...]

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

There's the data from the log, and then there's your subjective impression derived from the camera image.

I'm going with the data.

 

[Meta4]

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

How was it that you could tell this given that the drone was too far away to see and all you had to go by was the view through the wideangle lens?

 

[DoomMeister]

I keep hearing an echo off of a brick wall.

 

[jwilson]

That's my point. You couldn't see the drone so you were aware of total surroundings; thus the crash.

I could see what the drone was seeing on my screen. Duh. When your driving, can you see your car?

 

[jwilson]

And you could tell this how ???


OK .. now all you have to explain is how the recorded data says just the opposite ????

Because the screen capture shows thus. 10 feet in orange.

 

[jwilson]

There's the data from the log, and then there's your subjective impression derived from the camera image.

I'm going with the data.

It's not a subjective opinion if I can see it's height in orange numbers on the screen capture.

 

[jwilson]

VLOS was impossible in this case.

Why are you angry? It's true.

 

[jwilson]

How was it that you could tell this given that the drone was too far away to see and all you had to go by was the view through the wideangle lens?

Because the screen capture clearly shows this in orange numerals.

 

[jwilson]

DJI finally provided me a link to upload the screen capture, so we'll see what they say.

 

[Droning on and on...]

I could see what the drone was seeing on my screen. Duh. When your driving, can you see your car?

I guarantee you that if you put on some wide-angle lens glasses and drove your car, you would have a crash, because you would be mis-judging distances. Have you ever noticed the etched writing in right-side rear-view mirrors, "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear"?

Did you know it is common for people to back into things and crash because of this?

What you judged to be 10 feet through the 24mm camera was without a doubt much less.

You can either be a fool and keep insisting the camera view was a good way to determine close proximity, or you can be smart and learn from this and adjust your behavior and flying practices.

So far it seems you're choosing the former, given how stubbornly you're insisting the camera view was sufficient to accurately judge how far away the waves below you were, and just as importantly, how big and how high.

 

[FLDave]

Because the screen capture shows thus. 10 feet in orange.

Where did you see any distance ranges or references on the screen?

 

[Droning on and on...]

Where did you see any distance ranges or references on the screen?

The VPS distance is displayed in small font on the screen when within 20ft or so. As an aside, the color of the font looks red to me when flying, not orange.

However, as the logs uploaded show, it was changing constantly, as expected when over a dynamic, rising and falling surface. Just because it showed 10ft at one instance means nothing in this case. Again, as the logs show, right before the end the VPS distance was decreasing, getting to single digits. Given how far the drone was from the RC and how much obstruction was between the RC and the drone flying so low, I expect a combination of factors resulted in signal loss shortly before an ocean wave rose up and hit it, so the final VPS data showing 0-4ft is missing from the logs on the RC.

 

[Tower669]

The VPS distance is displayed in small font on the screen when within 20ft or so. As an aside, the color of the font looks red to me when flying, not orange.

However, as the logs uploaded show, it was changing constantly, as expected when over a dynamic, rising and falling surface. Just because it showed 10ft at one instance means nothing in this case. Again, as the logs show, right before the end the VPS distance was decreasing, getting to single digits. Given how far the drone was from the RC and how much obstruction was between the RC and the drone flying so low, I expect a combination of factors resulted in signal loss shortly before an ocean wave rose up and hit it, so the final VPS data showing 0-4ft is missing from the logs on the RC.

I would love to read/hear the actual response from DJI on all of these crashes.