Lost/Stolen Mavic Air

[benblueshark]

Hi, I’ve had my drone for 3 and a half months. Currently holidaying in Italy. Took the drone out over the sea as have done previously this holiday. Was hovering mid flight due to a person asking me about the drone and distracted me as usually get drone near me for when rth starts.

Anyway Return to home was activated. I disabled and put into sports mode and headed straight back to beach. Soon realised wasn’t going to make it back. The only hard surface was a long service road going out to sea (what I had been checking out) so changed course for this road. Managed to guide it to the side of the road next to the curb. It definitely did not fall into sea.

It took about 45 mins to get to this road and managed to be let into this road by security (turns out a restricted work road). Went to where log showed me but no sign. Looked everywhere till they came and got me and dropped me back in town. Less one Mavic air. Left my number if someone finds it.

However having been there there are few cars popping up and down and would be quite easy to spot. I think it’s been stolen but obviously can’t prove it. I wasn’t recording the footage but remember landing at the curb side so most likely one of the workers has picked it up and taken it home.

Have gone to ‘find my drone’ but just show last location. Will it activate later if turned on does anyone know?

Not sure how to upload flight log here from iPhone. Just tried..

Thanks in advance for any advice. Btw I do have ‘care refresh’ but with it being lost it’s not covered.

Tks

Ben

 

[CanadaDrone]

I obviously can't tell you if it was stolen or not, but just for next time - best practice is to return home around 30% battery - if that is not enough, put in another fresh battery and head out again. Also, the moment you enter sport mode, all bets are off with regard to the drone's battery / return to home estimate. Sport mode depletes the battery much faster. Wind is the other factor this estimate does not take into consideration, which is another reason for the 30% rule - to account for unexpected environmental changes that directly affect drone speed/range. You might fly out with the wind, but have to fight a headwind on the way home without knowing it.

Anyways I am sorry for your loss, that would be very disappointing, especially on vacation I hope you got some nice footage before that and all is not lost.

This should help you upload the flight log so more light can be shed on your situation:

DJI Flight Log Viewer - Phantom Help

 

[benblueshark]

thanks for the reply CanadaDrone. Well the next drones middle name will be 30%!

I obviously didn't know how far out i was. never thought i'd manage to do this but just have. awful feeling. i did manage to get it down on land so pretty sure it's been taken by one of the workers there.

do you know if the find my drone will activate on my dji go app if it's turned on somewhere?

tks

 

[CanadaDrone]

thanks for the reply CanadaDrone. Well the next drones middle name will be 30%!

I obviously didn't know how far out i was. never thought i'd manage to do this but just have. awful feeling. i did manage to get it down on land so pretty sure it's been taken by one of the workers there.

do you know if the find my drone will activate on my dji go app if it's turned on somewhere?

tks

You're welcome. You can set the battery notification in the app, so it will beep at you incessantly when it hits 30% haha.

I'm sorry I don't know much about Find My Drone but I am sure others here do I believe the feature only works if the drone is still in the last known location as recorded in the flight log. You use the App. If it was stolen I don't think it will help you, but others can confirm.

 

[benblueshark]

thanks again. the more i think about it - the drone was stolen. it landed on the side of the road - which is big enough for large lorries to get down with a wide sidewalk. the worst that should have happened is it would have been run over and i found it in pieces.

 

[benblueshark]

i got the logs. i turned back at 28% battery although too far to get back (obviously). battery lasted 2 mins till it's forced decent. not very long. wind was minimal. this is more for my catharsis than anything else if anybody else is reading this!

 

[Meta4]

i got the logs. i turned back at 28% battery although too far to get back (obviously). battery lasted 2 mins till it's forced decent. not very long. wind was minimal. this is more for my catharsis than anything else if anybody else is reading this!

If you really want to look into the actual flight data rather than a brief summary, go to DJI Flight Log Viewer - Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.

 

[Mike4884]

I obviously can't tell you if it was stolen or not, but just for next time - best practice is to return home around 30% battery - if that is not enough, put in another fresh battery and head out again. Also, the moment you enter sport mode, all bets are off with regard to the drone's battery / return to home estimate. Sport mode depletes the battery much faster. Wind is the other factor this estimate does not take into consideration, which is another reason for the 30% rule - to account for unexpected environmental changes that directly affect drone speed/range. You might fly out with the wind, but have to fight a headwind on the way home without knowing it.

Anyways I am sorry for your loss, that would be very disappointing, especially on vacation I hope you got some nice footage before that and all is not lost.

This should help you upload the flight log so more light can be shed on your situation:

DJI Flight Log Viewer - Phantom Help

I would return home before 30% just saying.....

 

[Rurre]

Hi.
I´m not really sure if someone else could fly with your drone cause it´s activated with your account.
You are very brave for two reasons:
1. With 30% battery you are flying further
2. Italian law sets a 650 feet distance limit where you were near 6500...

Anyway I´m sorry for your drone and hopefully you could find it somehow.

 

[Meta4]

I´m not really sure if someone else could fly with your drone cause it´s activated with your account.

You can link a Mavic with a new controller and fly on anyone's account.

 

[FLPilotshark]

thanks for the reply CanadaDrone. Well the next drones middle name will be 30%!
I obviously didn't know how far out i was. never thought i'd manage to do this but just have. awful feeling. i did manage to get it down on land so pretty sure it's been taken by one of the workers there. do you know if the find my drone will activate on my dji go app if it's turned on somewhere?
tks

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry for your loss mate! I am little confused on why were you so far out when you knew you only had 30% battery left for your trip back- YIKEs. What happened you got distracted which has happens to all of us when flying these drones so I CAN understand that part! What i can't understand is what the hell where you thinking heading out the far when you had less then 30% battery?

I believe there is a setting in your GO PRO APP where you can set your alarm to come on or have the drone come back automatically. I myself my Mavic Pro ALARM's me automatically me when I am at 50% battery life, just to be on the safe side! Like [B]CanadaDrone[/B] says, you can set the alert in the app to fly home when your batter is at 50% or 40% or how every you want to set it at. I have been very lucky b/c when I fly, first i have a Spotter Person that can have a VLOS at all times with the Aircraft and he uses a Vortex Viper 6.5- Scope so there is always eyes on my unmanned aircraft at all times. I think the longest distance I have ever recored has been @ 10,000 feet in distance and my battery @ around 65% and I returned home with no problems what so ever!

I would HIGHLY recommend for your next Drone, WOULD be buying yourself a tiny Trackimo GPS mini Tracker device which you may have been able to get your drone back! I do most of my flying over the Inter-coastal water ways & all over the Gulf Of Mexico in FL, so that's why I have bought the Trackimo and a special custom 3d bracket that I had a friend make for me.
The bracket in the pix below has no issues with my compass. Trackimos only weight 48 grams. tHE GPS tracker also has a sim card inside of it so you can call it or it can send you a text messages to your phone for the exact location your drone went down. You can even call it and use it as a 2 Way Communication device.


How To Never Lose Your Drone
Click here for Trackimo GPS Video.

 

[basophil]

Sorry to hear of your loss Ben. Slightly off topic, I am about to travel to Italy, taking my Mavic Air along. I’ve had a look on the drone regs and it states that an electronic ID device needs to be fitted to the aircraft if it is transmitting data in real time. Did you bother with this? I think it can be argued that the camera is saving to storage, rather than transmitting. There is real time transmission of an image to the controller but it is ephemeral and is not stored. Any thoughts?

 

[Rurre]

Sorry to hear of your loss Ben. Slightly off topic, I am about to travel to Italy, taking my Mavic Air along. I’ve had a look on the drone regs and it states that an electronic ID device needs to be fitted to the aircraft if it is transmitting data in real time. Did you bother with this? I think it can be argued that the camera is saving to storage, rather than transmitting. There is real time transmission of an image to the controller but it is ephemeral and is not stored. Any thoughts?

Hi Basophil.
I´m flying to Italy as well. I looked for anything wrong to fly my Mavic Air there and I didn´t find anything about fitting any ID device.
Could you please write where did you find that?
I only found: not to fly in crowded places, 200 meters far away and 70 meters high and never fly at night, and 5 km far away from any airport.

 

[benblueshark]

thanks for the replies. i will certainly look into a mini gps tracker pilotshark.

with regards to Italy - i had a brief look for Italian laws before i left england and found the usual rules one finds in the uk, but nothing particularly official looking. i obviously flaunted the distance rule massively. One thing i did notice is the reactions from strangers here. in the uk there seems to be a lot of suspicion and dislike of them. something which i had no idea about before i got the drone. people here have taken absolutely no notice, a couple of comments from youngsters of 'oh drone' and walk off not particularly interested. i've had people talking to me in the uk but can sense of an undertone of suspicion and basically trying to find why on earth i want a drone for. my footage is 50% landscapes and 50% of my family. it's for me a camcorder on steroids and have made some great mini videos of trips out with the family.

barring the fact that i made some schoolboy errors and this incident was a result of my bad judgements (not looking a screen to see distance travelled being one) I can see some reasons how I managed to do this, especially as I have never been anywhere close to losing battery far away from home. Having been out to the beach again and looked at the flight log I can see a number of factors which contributed to what happened.

- The sea gives no clue on distance. there are no landmarks to judge distance travelled. the distance is a good 2000 feet further than i have ever been before. on those previous trips I have come back in good time and with battery to spare and was very conscious of how far out i was.

- The service road looks a lot closer to the beach than it actually is. when i was landing i thought it was a narrow walkway, not a wide road. the scale of structure makes it feel a lot closer. it's still almost unbelievable knowing how far i got out when standing on the beach - it seems very close.

anyway lesson learnt the hard way.

 

[basophil]

Thanks for the info on Italy. Apologies for de-railing the thread.

Rurre, if you google ‘UAV coach Italy’ you’ll find the thing about electronic ID device. I’m not sure what to make of it. But from what Ben says, they seem pretty relaxed about things.

I’m currently in Croatia and in Dubrovnik I got busted by a nun, of all people, who told me I needed a license. I think she was wrong but I wasn’t about to argue with a local - especially as I already had the shots I wanted.

 

[Rurre]

Hi mate.
I didn´t find anything about identity plate but here: https://www.enac.gov.it/repository/...8541283/Regulation_RPAS_Issue_2_Rev_3_eng.pdf
(Art. 8)

I guess it could be S/N in battery place...

 

[red_baron]

Wouldn't a Mavic or the Dji Go prompt to return home when it knows the battery level will just be enough based on the distance from the controller, even if the battery level is above 30%?

I would return home before 30% just saying.....

 

[CanadaDrone]

I would return home before 30% just saying.....

Yup.... that is exactly what I recommended

 

[Mike4884]

Wouldn't a Mavic or the Dji Go prompt to return home when it knows the battery level will just be enough based on the distance from the controller, even if the battery level is above 30%?

Yes....if u have "smart return to home" on should be under battery tab/icon in go 4 app....mavic air will have to be on to check this...and to be quite honest i dont remember if the air has that setting baked in...pretty sure it does...but even with it on its still not fool proof.... u might be out a ways and it says it has just enough pwer to get u home but u end up coming back and having 42% left .....this was just an example, basically u the operator have to be diligent and be cautious of the wind, especially higher up....in the end it dies do tge job and gets u home safely, u just have to pay attention and either "cancel" or "rth" u make the decisions....its kind of like the whole obstacle avoidance feauture to, cool that we have it. Does work. But i dont ever depend on it