Sensors would have shown if it was being bombarded with Wifi/GPS jamming technologies. Its a case of pilot error.
It also helps to know what the limits of your craft are and how it behaves in various scenarios. I myself had an issue where I nearly crashed my drone and I've been flying quite actively for the past 18 months.
I was flying the Mavic 2 as per normal, coming in to land, drone was about 3m above takeoff point and almost within reach. I was at the point where I was ready to pull stick down for it to land as I've done countless times before. Then all of a sudden it started flying forwards and panic ensued (as I fly in tight quarters). As it turns out, the volume on my phone was all the way down so I could not hear any of the messages, I was landing the drone with VLOS and not looking at the screen and the software had initiated Low Battery RTH due to low battery ( I was at 20%). My understanding is RTH only engages >30m or so but turns out there are various modes of RTH and this is only occurs in the "Smart RTH" scenario.
More about RTH behaviors here - How to use DJI’s Return to Home (RTH) Safely - DJI Guides
Low Battery RTH:
As its name suggests, this RTH is triggered when the Intelligent Flight Battery is depleted to the point that it may affect the return of the aircraft. When this happens, a prompt will appear on your screen in the DJI GO/4 app, and the drone will automatically begin to ascend to the set RTH height and return if no action is taken after a 10-second countdown. If the battery power is critically low, then the drone will automatically land itself, and this can’t be canceled by the pilot. This type of RTH is one that is best avoided, just like pilots of airplanes never want to be in a situation where their fuel light starts blinking.
So in my case Low Battery RTH engaged, I had no idea at the time, drone flew forward and then attempted to climb. At which point in the panic I had realised the tone on the RC changed to the RTH tone and I cancelled it by tapping on the RTH button briefly). I was able to bring it back safely and land with the props only nicking some branches. Needless to say that was a heart-pounding moment
Had it not had the top sensor it would have climbed and crashed into trees and fall back to the ground quite hard. I find it a little strange as it was so close to the homepoint (GPS shows it as 7m on logs, but it was literally above its actual takeoff point) that it would attempt to climb to RTH height given how close it was to home. I did not at the time understand how it worked and reading the above explains why it did what it did. I still think perhaps in a low battery RTH scenario, being so close to the home point it may not always be wise to climb to RTH height (mine is set to 90m) as it would potentially waste battery and begin force landing at 10%.Perhaps there are other scenarios where it does make sense *shrug*
The fun started at 17:09
The logs themselves definitely don't lie and tell the story once you unpack it and realise what you (as the pilot) did wrong. Often I find with these DJI aircraft being so easy to fly people (myself included) dont take the time to read and understand how it behaves. Best you can do in these scenarios is review and learn from your mistakes. For me at least, it was a very sobering moment indeed.
It also helps to know what the limits of your craft are and how it behaves in various scenarios. I myself had an issue where I nearly crashed my drone and I've been flying quite actively for the past 18 months.
I was flying the Mavic 2 as per normal, coming in to land, drone was about 3m above takeoff point and almost within reach. I was at the point where I was ready to pull stick down for it to land as I've done countless times before. Then all of a sudden it started flying forwards and panic ensued (as I fly in tight quarters). As it turns out, the volume on my phone was all the way down so I could not hear any of the messages, I was landing the drone with VLOS and not looking at the screen and the software had initiated Low Battery RTH due to low battery ( I was at 20%). My understanding is RTH only engages >30m or so but turns out there are various modes of RTH and this is only occurs in the "Smart RTH" scenario.
More about RTH behaviors here - How to use DJI’s Return to Home (RTH) Safely - DJI Guides
Low Battery RTH:
As its name suggests, this RTH is triggered when the Intelligent Flight Battery is depleted to the point that it may affect the return of the aircraft. When this happens, a prompt will appear on your screen in the DJI GO/4 app, and the drone will automatically begin to ascend to the set RTH height and return if no action is taken after a 10-second countdown. If the battery power is critically low, then the drone will automatically land itself, and this can’t be canceled by the pilot. This type of RTH is one that is best avoided, just like pilots of airplanes never want to be in a situation where their fuel light starts blinking.
So in my case Low Battery RTH engaged, I had no idea at the time, drone flew forward and then attempted to climb. At which point in the panic I had realised the tone on the RC changed to the RTH tone and I cancelled it by tapping on the RTH button briefly). I was able to bring it back safely and land with the props only nicking some branches. Needless to say that was a heart-pounding moment
Had it not had the top sensor it would have climbed and crashed into trees and fall back to the ground quite hard. I find it a little strange as it was so close to the homepoint (GPS shows it as 7m on logs, but it was literally above its actual takeoff point) that it would attempt to climb to RTH height given how close it was to home. I did not at the time understand how it worked and reading the above explains why it did what it did. I still think perhaps in a low battery RTH scenario, being so close to the home point it may not always be wise to climb to RTH height (mine is set to 90m) as it would potentially waste battery and begin force landing at 10%.Perhaps there are other scenarios where it does make sense *shrug*
The fun started at 17:09
The logs themselves definitely don't lie and tell the story once you unpack it and realise what you (as the pilot) did wrong. Often I find with these DJI aircraft being so easy to fly people (myself included) dont take the time to read and understand how it behaves. Best you can do in these scenarios is review and learn from your mistakes. For me at least, it was a very sobering moment indeed.
