Mavic 2 Pro Flyaway

[ChopperLinc]

So I couldn't resist the Mavic 2 Pro. It's my first drone.

For the five days I had it, I was impressed by the incredible piece of technology it was and excited about the new photographic possibilities.

I was flying on 9/11. Took off from the front of my house. When I connected the controller, it said there was mag interference, but the message went away. The drone established a home point and I took off, climbed to 150 feet (100 feet above the highest obstacle for about a half mile radius) for about a minute and a half, directly above my position, and looked at the sunset and lights. Everything seemed fine. At about 1:45, I turned and flew forward about 300 feet, and the drone just disappeared. No intermittent signal. It just totally dropped.

I immediately paused control inputs and waited about a minute, but it may not have been that long. Thinking the RC may still be connected i attempted to ascend to see if I could regain connection, and tried to get input on the map view, but it was not responding. Initiated RTH command, but don't believe it was ever received by the drone. The controller was continuously beeping and displaying "connecting..." Thinking the failsafe would kick in and it would come home, I waited about 5 min. Nothing. Walked directly under the last known point, still attempting to connect. Nothing. Took controller and drove in direction of flight path. Nothing.

Someone waited at the launch point in case it returned, but it did not.

Not being that experienced, it feels like a total in flight power failure, but I was hoping for some feedback.

DJI is reviewing records now. I attached the flight log.

Any advice appreciated.

Lincoln

 

[WilliamG]

Ughhh... that just sucks, especially since it's your first drone. There are some VERY smart minds here who will no doubt be able to read your flight records and give you a very good idea of why the drone dropped, and perhaps even where it is now (assuming someone didn't pick it up).

I'm not that person, but expect help soon. This is how it goes here. Good luck!

 

[ChopperLinc]

I passed out flyers in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, it would have been better if I'd crashed it given I bought the Care Refresh that doesn't cover "loss."

 

[WilliamG]

I passed out flyers in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, it would have been better if I'd crashed it given I bought the Care Refresh that doesn't cover "loss."

Let's hope the drone did in fact experience a catastrophic failure. DJI has been known to replace drones in cases like that. But we'll see.

 

[Chopstix Kid]

Sorry to hear man. When you powered it up for the first time did you recalibrate the IMU and compass? Loss of GPS and an out of whack compass could cause it to fly where it thinks it should be going.

 

[WilliamG]

Sorry to hear man. When you powered it up for the first time did you recalibrate the IMU and compass? Loss of GPS and an out of whack compass could cause it to fly where it thinks it should be going.

That shouldn't really make any difference. I haven't calibrated the IMU/compass since I got my M2 Pro. If it needed calibration it should ask for it, as far as I'm aware.

 

[ChopperLinc]

Sorry to hear man. When you powered it up for the first time did you recalibrate the IMU and compass? Loss of GPS and an out of whack compass could cause it to fly where it thinks it should be going.

I calibrated the compass once when it brought up a message, but not on this flight.

The data show it had a solid GPS signal until it disappeared.

 

[Chopstix Kid]

That shouldn't really make any difference. I haven't calibrated the IMU/compass since I got my M2 Pro. If it needed calibration it should ask for it, as far as I'm aware.

I have always been under the impression that it was good practice to do so since the last place it was done was, well, China. No different than the recommendation if you travel more than approx 50 miles from the last place it was calibrated, you should calibrate the compass it again.

 

[WilliamG]

I have always been under the impression that it was good practice to do so since the last place it was done was, well, China. No different than the recommendation if you travel more than approx 50 miles from the last place it was calibrated, you should calibrate the compass it again.

Maybe that's true, but I never have.

 

[Chopstix Kid]

I calibrated the compass once when it brought up a message, but not on this flight.

The data show it had a solid GPS signal until it disappeared.

When I first got mine, I had IMU and compass warnings.

 

[4wd]

Was this the first flight or did you have a few successful flights before with it.
If it effectively just disappeared there's always a chance of bird strike, or other (human) attack, or perhaps a prop or motor failed.
In some ways a motor failure is more likely in the first hour or two of use.
It is a vanishingly rare occurrence though.

It's highly unlikely to have literally flown away.
The term was coined with early phantoms which only used GPS rather than GPS and GloNass - and would struggle to hold a fix, they would go into atti mode through the flight and drift with the wind - difficult to deal with if you could barely see it and were at the limit of control range.

 

[Lake_Flyer]

It has all the characteristics of a sudden total power failure. But if that's the case you should be able to find the crashed M2P somewhere at the end of the (in phone) recorded flight path.

I passed out flyers in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, it would have been better if I'd crashed it given I bought the Care Refresh that doesn't cover "loss."

Since you haven't, it's a mystery, maybe someone picked it up who knows. No contact details on the drone?
(reminds me I still have to do that on my MP...)

 

[Goof]

What was your signal loss setting set to? If it were set to hover instead of RTH, it could've just been hovering there somewhere beyond its last know location waiting for signal re-aquisition.

 

[Meta4]

I have always been under the impression that it was good practice to do so since the last place it was done was, well, China. No different than the recommendation if you travel more than approx 50 miles from the last place it was calibrated, you should calibrate the compass it again.

The compass is the most misunderstood aspect of flying.
Forums (and even some DJI manuals) are full of myths.
It's completely unnecessary to recalibrate the compass or anything else before flying.
Whether you travel 10 miles or 2000 miles makes no difference at all.

 

[Meta4]

Loss of GPS and an out of whack compass could cause it to fly where it thinks it should be going.

Loss of GPS (something suggested in forums much, much more often than it actually occurs) won't make the drone fly anywhere.
Without GPS, the drone has no way of knowing where it is or how to get to anywhere else.
It would just hover without position holding and drift with the wind.

 

[Lastrexking]

If you follow the instructions and upload your log here then we might be able to help find it, or at least tell you what happened ;

DJI Flight Log Viewer - Phantom Help

 

[djmiked]

I really feel bad for you. Like you, this is also my first drone and yesterday was my maiden voyage. I hope you find it and DJI can figure out what happened and replace it for you.

 

[Meta4]

Took off from the front of my house. When I connected the controller, it said there was mag interference, but the message went away. The drone established a home point and I took off, climbed to 150 feet (100 feet above the highest obstacle for about a half mile radius) for about a minute and a half, directly above my position, and looked at the sunset and lights. Everything seemed fine. At about 1:45, I turned and flew forward about 300 feet, and the drone just disappeared. No intermittent signal. It just totally dropped.

An urban area like this isn't a great flying location, particularly if you are a new flyer.
A large, open area would be a much safer place to learn.

Here's what your flight data looks like:
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
But unfortunately it's not much help as it shows everything normal until you lost the connection.
I've scanned all the data and there's nothing I can pick out that indicates a problem.
That leaves us with two issues, neither of which has an obvious solution.
1. Why did it lose signal?
2. Why did it fail to RTH?

1. Did you have a clear line of sight to the drone?
Were you close to the house and did it block signal?
Did you move out across the street to get a better chance of connecting?

2. You had a good homepoint and GPS.
Unless you changed the Loss of Signal action from the default (no-one ever does) it should have initiated RTH
What was the wind like?
????

 

[MyMateDave]

I wish you all the best in recovering or replacing the Mavic.

This my first drone as well, so i am still in that nervous stage imagining everything that could go wrong when i fly. Thankfully that is slowly decreasing as i become more confident with the machine

Good luck

Dan

 

[CRCs Reality]

When I connected the controller, it said there was mag interference, but the message went away.

What surface did you take off from? When I had my Phantom3 Pro, I "almost" had a flyaway after launching from the roof of a parking garage (yeah, I know).. I had the same "Mag Interference" initially, but then it went away.
Once it was airborne, the compass and GPS disagreed on where north was, and it took off for parts unknown. Luckily I caught what was going on and switched to manual mode to bring it back, but it was a scary few moments.

If you launched from something with metal in it, I could see where it might cause confusion with the guidance system, and once it's in that state even if it tries to RTH, with the compass off it won't find home.