Lost my other drone, my Mini 3 Pro

[jwilson]

Shakes head...

If a drone is struck by a falling tree and destroyed, it's not pilot error. This is what DJI is saying. Same if taken out by a wave.

My last post in this thread. I tried explaining this to a wrought-iron chair in my backyard, and it understood the difference between data from the barometric sensor and the VPS cameras and IR sensor better than @jwilson seems able to.

It wasn't taken out by a wave which anyone can clearly see.

 

[Meta4]

I guess DJI disagrees with you because they say there was no pilot error.

DJI didn't want to be as blunt as I'm forced to be with someone so obtuse.

It wasn't taken out by a wave which anyone can clearly see.

No-one could clearly see the drone, but the data is there for anyone to check.
You see the water coming up and thing that the drone is going down.
We can all see something pretty clearly, but it's not what you want to see.

 

[Chip]

Ha ha! As usual, jwilson was right again! Here's the full text of the email i got from DJI today.

You have a positive attitude and see the silver lining which I admire.

The key line is, "According to the analysis, the incident was not caused by the pilot's error."

That is ironic and humorous because you may be the only one here who saw that coming! DJI has cleared you of all charges. But...

DJI's just being polite to you and avoiding saying that you are their least competent customer.

I think Meta4 may be correct that DJI is just being polite becasue you likey clipped the top of the wave while flying BVLOS. However, the DJI lettter would likely convince your spouse and non forum members that you did nothing wrong on the trip and is therefore worth keeping. Also, Mini 3s are relatively inexpensive now and at 15% off you may as well stock up with 3 or 4 to get through Spring. Unless thats a wrap on drone surfing for now.

 

[jwilson]

Here's the latest exchange I had with DJI about this:

Hi Wayne. So if you found that it did not crash do to user error, do you have any theories as to why it did crash? My only theory is that spray coming off the waves hit it, and maybe shorted something out, like the motors. Seems like that would generate an error message, like low voltage, which never did appear. Another member of the Mavic Pilots forum noticed that it seemed to be making a controlled landing, rather than dropping like a rock. Do you test the motors by pouring saline water, same salinity as the ocean, into the motors while it's hovering, to see what happens? Steve


Their reply:

Dear Steve,

Thanks for getting back to us.

For the price, may I know if you are locating in Philippine. I will infrom our local service center to send the quotation to you after sharing the address with us.

Regarding the specific reason of the accident, we suspect that it was carshed by the sea wave finally but the aircraft did not responed very well. Therefore, we thoght it was not pilot's error.

Should you have more questions, please feel free to let me know.

So I'm assuming they meant it was caused by the drone not responding well to being flown over big waves. So it was the drone's performance over big waves, and not me, that caused the crash.

 

[PAW]

Please, in the interest of all humanity... can we discuss an easier subject, like the pros and cons of a Palestinian state, ICE enforcement, or the best of all time (Jordan/LeBron)...

 

[Meta4]

Here's the latest exchange I had with DJI about this:

Hi Wayne. So if you found that it did not crash do to user error, do you have any theories as to why it did crash? My only theory is that spray coming off the waves hit it, and maybe shorted something out, like the motors. Seems like that would generate an error message, like low voltage, which never did appear. Another member of the Mavic Pilots forum noticed that it seemed to be making a controlled landing, rather than dropping like a rock. Do you test the motors by pouring saline water, same salinity as the ocean, into the motors while it's hovering, to see what happens? Steve


Their reply:

Dear Steve,

Thanks for getting back to us.

For the price, may I know if you are locating in Philippine. I will infrom our local service center to send the quotation to you after sharing the address with us.

Regarding the specific reason of the accident, we suspect that it was carshed by the sea wave finally but the aircraft did not responed very well. Therefore, we thoght it was not pilot's error.

Should you have more questions, please feel free to let me know.

So I'm assuming they meant it was caused by the drone not responding well to being flown over big waves. So it was the drone's performance over big waves, and not me, that caused the crash.

Drones always respond poorly when you fly into waves.
If you paid any attention to the data or the people who have tried to explain the data, you'd know that there was nothing wrong with your drone's response to your controls.
The operator was just too far away and too obtuse to realise that his drone was about to be engulfed by the wave he was hovering in front of.

How is it not your fault when you were the one that flew your drone into the danger zone and left it for the wave to take?
Are you really that thick or just trolling?

 

[MS Coast]

My only theory is that spray coming off the waves hit it, and maybe shorted something out, like the motors.

Your theory: The drone was flown well out of sight over the ocean. It was commanded to descend so low over the surf that spray from waves shorted the motors.

That agrees with what you said in post #1.
"... it looked really neat with the top of the wave being blown back in white mist. So I flew out to record it. Unfortunately, this great looking white mist, hit my drone, and IMO, caused the motors to lose power."

You flew the drone into spray from the wave tops. That's not pilot error? Then who might be to blame?

 

[DoomMeister]

Being a moderator I cannot use the “IGNORE” button. If I could the OP of this thread would have been on the IGNORE list long ago.

The only good in his threads is that they are a fine example of WHAT NOT TO DO to be a safe, conscientious, and responsible drone pilot.

DJI’s profit margin must be huge when they offer replacement drones at a 15% discounted price in cases such as this.

 

[Droning on and on...]

The only good in his threads is that they are a fine example of WHAT NOT TO DO to be a safe, conscientious, and responsible drone pilot.

^This.

Despite the hopelessness of getting through to him, I will give him props for doing the work to bring the actual fight data to the discussion so everyone can see how easy it is to get nailed by a wave. The flight data was very interesting.

So, everyone but the OP: Don't fly low over waves. If you must, be standing on the beach well within VLOS, able to judge the spatial interaction directly with your own eyes so you can react in a splt second, not some top-down camera view.

So as annoying as the OP's refusal to take responsibility for what was clearly his fault, the entire incident is very instructive for newer pilots.

This is an example of doing this the right way... I was walking right behind the drone with the controller, on the beach, at the water's edge:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies