Mavic 2 Pro shortest flight and crash

[thinglenn40]

So I’ve been flying drones for over six years now without ever crashing one. I’m usually pretty careful when flying. Three weeks ago I was taking some customers striper fishing on a lake here in Georgia. I had my new Mavic 2 Pro with me and I thought I would fly it over the boat to get some pictures.
The boat was moving slowly but I thought I could still do a hand launch off the bow of the boat.

Upon take off the Mavic immediately went backwards clipping my thumb,hitting the top of the boat and into the water!
I’m standing there in shock with my thumb bleeding like crazy and trying not to throw a fit like a two year old because I have two customers with me!

38’ down in the lake! The captain marked it on GPS but I saw no reason to try to retrieve it. I figure a two second flight was all I got out of the mavic!
Clearly my fault and I was an idiot trying to take off with the boat moving!

Three weeks to kinda get over it. I found a deal on a used one to replace it. Have not flown it yet. Looking forward to trying it out.

I have now ended up with more batteries than I need and an extra controller.
I will probably be listing those for sale later.

 

[Simmo]

Post your flight log if you would like to know what happenend, and also educate others....

 

[DanMan32]

More likely the boat moved forward from under the M2 rather than the M2 moving backwards. It's like when you just stopped in parking your car when the car next to you backs out, but you get the feeling you're still moving forward.

If it was possible to turn off GPS, then VPS might have kept it in position.

 

[thinglenn40]

More likely the boat moved forward from under the M2 rather than the M2 moving backwards. It's like when you just stopped in parking your car when the car next to you backs out, but you get the feeling you're still moving forward.

If it was possible to turn off GPS, then VPS might have kept it in position.

Exactly what happened. I was an idiot! Hindsight I should attempted this from the stern of the boat. Or waited until the boat was stopped! A loose nut on the controller was the issue!

 

[PhantomFandom]

More likely the boat moved forward from under the M2 rather than the M2 moving backwards. It's like when you just stopped in parking your car when the car next to you backs out, but you get the feeling you're still moving forward.

If it was possible to turn off GPS, then VPS might have kept it in position.

Absolutely correct. You can search the forums for all sorts of boating incidents of this sort. The drone has GPS lock and does exactly what it's supposed to do, which is stay in one fixed position. The boat however does not stay in one position and thus you have an immediate problem. This happens even with boats that are "not moving" as in the engines are not on. However the boat still drifts and bobs.
Always think about your environment and all of the physical conditions around you before launching.

 

[ZX14-R]

We live and learn......

 

[Mossiback]

Sorry for your injury and loss.

Another common "uncontrolled flight" when flying from a boat deck is it appears to launch itself after the props are started and fly into the boat. When idling and stationary it considers itself in a flying state. The motors do not rev up because it is not needed to maintain position. But if on a boat and the boat drops just a few inches due to a wave the Mavic will detect that it has dropped and the motors will rev up to maintain a hover. Then the moving boat will run into the stationary Mavic. Looking at it from the boat perspective it will appear that the Mavic jumped up and flew into the boat.

We live and learn......

I get forced learning like this myself from time to time. Funny thing is, I don't seem to be getting any smarter.

 

[thinglenn40]

I’m just mad at myself for not thinking it through. It actually clipped the top edge of my thumb off! Not only was I watching my drone go down into the lake but I was bleeding profusely onto the bow of an all white center console boat. It looked like we had speared a tuna and drug it up on the boat!

My pride and my thumb are both just about healed.

Of course one of my buddies upon learning I crashed my Mavic after a 2 second flight suggested instead of the “fly more” kit I should have ordered the “fly less” kit!
You can always count on your buddies to say the right things!