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Mavic 2 Pro Drops Into the Ocean at Takeoff

Tim3459575

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Aug 11, 2019
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I’ve flown my M2P several times off the boat but this time, upon letting it go from hand launch, it immediately dropped into the ocean. When I activated launch with the slider on GO4 app, it was tilting aggressively in my hand before I let it go. My boat was traveling about 3 mph at the time. I would like to know what went wrong to avoid a repeat when I replace it. I have two theories. 1/ I held onto it too long during the launch sequence and it was trying to get to the gps coordinates from when I activated launch. This caused aggressive tilting when it had not established sufficient lift and therefore when I let it got it dropped into the ocean. 2/ equipment malfunction.
Any input from other Mavic pilots as to probable cause of this would be greatly appreciated !

Thank you
Tim
 
1/ I held onto it too long during the launch sequence and it was trying to get to the gps coordinates from when I activated launch. This caused aggressive tilting when it had not established sufficient lift and therefore when I let it got it dropped into the ocean.
Your drone would have been trying to hold position, but the boat was moving,
You needed to let it go and not fight it.
For boat launching, it would have helped if you had reassigned tripod mode to give you atti mode so the drone wouldn't fight to hold position.
If you post the recorded flight data, it will probably have enough information to confirm if this was the case, or if something else was involved.
 
Its possible that your swipe never really took effect and you let go with just the motors spinning and the tilt was caused by the boat moving.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain and Land on the Water.
 
If the motors are running and the drone senses it is moving the drone will, in normal circumstances, attempt to hold itself steady by rev'ing the appropriate motors.
I use this to hand launch at times i.e. start the motors with the CSC position them waggle the hand holding the drone enough to cause the motors to respond and then I lower my hand, the drone 'hovers out of my hand'.
 
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1/ I held onto it too long during the launch sequence and it was trying to get to the gps coordinates from when I activated launch. This caused aggressive tilting when it had not established sufficient lift and therefore when I let it got it dropped into the ocean. 2/ equipment malfunction.
Any input from other Mavic pilots as to probable cause of this would be greatly appreciated !
or
3/ launching or landing on a moving platform is an accident waiting to happen (and it finally did).
 
Once the motors are running the drone is in flight mode and will do whatever it can to stay in position. There are many threads on this forum that detail what happens when you try to take off from a moving platform. Most of them contain the words lost or damaged.
 
When you not post logs, we can just look into crystall ball. Problem can be accidentally stick input, compass error (metal), etc.
 
Once the motors are running the drone is in flight mode and will do whatever it can to stay in position. There are many threads on this forum that detail what happens when you try to take off from a moving platform. Most of them contain the words lost or damaged.
Taking off from a moving boat or ship does take practice, but it is safely doable and pretty commonplace. In these forums there are more posts about loss than success. Sorry for your lost drone, Tim.
 
And Earth is still?
When you launch from solid ground, your drone is equipped to hold position over the solid ground you launched from.
When you launch from a vehicle or vessel moving across the face of the earth, the drone still tries to hold position ... but the position is where it was when it got good GPS location data .... not where you are 15 seconds later.
 
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Thanks all for the excellent input ! I’d like to post the flight log. Can someone direct me to instructions for posting the flight record ?
 
Thanks all for the excellent input ! I’d like to post the flight log. Can someone direct me to instructions for posting the flight record ?
Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.
Or .. just post the txt file here.
 
Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.
Or .. just post the txt file here.

I’m on an iPhone and have a windows PC. I see “export cslv file) on the Go4 phone app, which confirms export but cannot find the file on the iPhone. Perhaps I need to find it with iTunes on the PC ?
 
I’m on an iPhone and have a windows PC. I see “export cslv file) on the Go4 phone app, which confirms export but cannot find the file on the iPhone. Perhaps I need to find it with iTunes on the PC ?
On the PhantomHelp page linked to earlier, on the first page you have an instruction on how to retrieve the logs from a Apple device ... But here you have it directly, click here --> HOW TO: Retrieve DJI Phantom Flight Logs from an Apple Device | Phantom Help
 
And Earth is still?

It has nothing at all to do with whether or not the earth is moving. It has everything to do with whether the drone is moving relative to where the GPS satellites know they are.
 
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