M2Z w SC Lost it's mind and crashed.

saguaro6 · Jan 5, 2020

Because it seems 99% of crashes are pilot error, I sure would like to find out what I did wrong. i've only been flying for a few months and try to be careful.

Questions:
a. Is this enough data to determine what I did wrong (or if the AC went nuts) to make it crash?
b. Is there more data I don't know I can access to get more evidence to troubleshoot?
c. Was the obstacle above it detected actually the ground as it flipped over and dove?
Thank you in advance.

1. Had been flying several times earlier in the day and no problems. 51 F, cloudy but no rain. Little wind. Batteries (all cells) in great condition- whole setup maybe 5 mos old.
2. Went to fly, started Smart controller, then aircraft. Low A/C battery warning came up. Shut down A/C and replaced battery and restarted. Did not shutdown or restart Smart Controller.
3. Took off and hovered a few seconds to acquire takeoff area visuals.
4. Flew out within eyesight to experiment with circle hyper lapse mode for first time.
5. A/C camera showed I was too close to capture entire home I was trying to capture- the one on the right- so I backed out to try and increase field of view. Nothing in the way- no powerlines or anything- clear sky I could see.
6. Hovered as I fiddled with trying to start hyper lapse.
7. I don't think I actually got hyper lapse started- not sure- first time- but A/C crabbed to left and I thought that was weird- it should be hovering- no wind- so corrected manually with stick.
8. It started swaying back and forth and then flipped upside down and dove into a tree below. It wasn't out of my sight until it was diving out of sight while crashing.
9. Not sure if I ever started the intelligent mode circling.
10. Downloaded flight to Airdata. It seems like it lost the sensors- some cloud cover but otherwise clear weather. It seems like it detected obstacle above, but there was nothing. I could see the A/C.

Prismatic · Jan 5, 2020

So sorry that happened to you. I've never heard of anything like what you described.
The experts here will need certain data files to help you. Read and follow the instructions in this post:

Mavic Flight Log Retrieval and Analysis Guide

With the introduction of the Mavic Mini there has been a noticeable uptick in the number of posts requesting help with lost or crashed aircraft. While there is plenty of help and advice available on this forum, and detailed guidance and options on several other websites, I thought that perhaps a...

mavicpilots.com

Best of luck!

sar104 · Jan 5, 2020

No - a couple of screen shots are not sufficient to diagnose what happened. That will require the txt and/or mobile device DAT logs.

new2mavic · Jan 6, 2020

I have once experienced similar thing on my M2P . It was in the city environment with the drone flying between tall buildings. The GPS signal was weak, there were only 8 satellites seen if I remember right. There were also tram overhead cables in the vincinity. The drone was hovering at the beginning and everything looked OK to me but all of a sudden, the drone flew backward by itself. Fortunately it was within visual distance and still responded to controls so I was able to bring it back and land it safely. The flight log indicates that the Lat Long of the drone has jumped a couple of times during the flight so I suspected that poor GPS signal was the cause. It could also be due to magnetic field interference from the tram cable.

jzilla80 · Jan 13, 2020

I'm going to jump out here and say this was NOT user error.

This looks like an AC system fault/overload, but airdata only shows what your mobile flight log logged. So I would suggest, as others have, to retrieve the .DAT file. I would try to figure out more on your own before shipping off to DJI as they like to blame the user, when there is no clear indication.

The 2 noteworthy log points that jump out to me are the upward obstacle detected (in an area that looks to be clear of tree overhang, etc) which is directly followed by ESC current error. Like I said, but cant be sure without more data, I think the processing circuitry on your AC faulted, then likely tried to reset, but it went down before the reset could occur.

These videos are not the same as your situation, but one is dealing with a sub-optimal GPS signal, to start, and the other was in wide open GPS signal area. These situations do happen but its not a very good advertising point... (The first video has a video before it, that i didnt list, but can be found on his channel. Note that he is using a log viewer on phantomhelp.com, which iirc, offers more complete data & visuals, than airdata)