Hey guys, for starters, I want to say that I did not believe in flyaways, mostly. I, like many in this community, leaned towards the view that the term was overused by people who crashed their drone due to pilot error. However, after what happened to me last Saturday I stand corrected.
I had a Mavic 2 Zoom which I had been flying since it was released in 2018 so a pretty long time. It was not my first drone either. I always read manuals and never had any safety problems. I used it recreationally only but I logged many hours and flew confidently.
I should mention here that for some weeks prior to the incident I used the Insta360 OneR Aerial Kit on the drone. It's a special mount that lets you fit the Insta360 OneR camera on the Mavic to achieve the so-called "invisible drone" effect. Now, the manufacturer clearly warns buyers that the kit will leave your Mavic 2 without a GPS signal (strangely, GPS on the Mavic Pro / Platinum would be unaffected), so you have a to fly ATTI. No problem for me, I've done it for a while and it's not difficult for me.
The first few tests were encouraging. The drone did lose the GPS fix (strangely though it was not the bulky mount that cut off the GPS signal; the bird lost GPS only after I turned the camera on so interference must have been electronic rather than physical). However, if I had a good fix prior to turning on the camera, the bird stayed in P mode. Technicaly it was showing "ATTI" (or sometimes also "Visual mode", I don't know why) but it held its position against wind (so hover ok) and it did show me airspeed. It didn't show me positioning and no RTH of course. So I guess it was half-GPS flying. Still, not bad.
One very strange thing I noticed though: once paired, the camera can be controlled from an Apple Watch via an Insta360 app. You can start recording at a distance for example. So one day I let my drone hover a few meters above and pressed record on the watch. It did start recording but at the same time... the drone started landing (the app on the controller said: "Landing initiated"). What the fudge?? This did not happen consistently, maybe in 50% of the cases where I used the Apple Watch, but it kept happening and I thought that was worrying.
However, other than that the system worked well, the footage was interesting, if not without its flaws, and I flew more and more confidently.
Fast forward to the incident day: Last Saturday, sunny weathter, a bit of wind, maybe 10-15 kph, I was on the shore of a local lake and decided to fly the drone. I launched it with the camera already recording. The first few seconds were ok. Then I suddenly lost video feed from the drone’s camera and then the drone started turning around and speeding away from me pretty fast. It didn’t react to any stick inputs, anything I did on the joysticks. Nothing. Now, I was a bit panicked but certainly I didn't order it to land. I tried turning it around and come back to me but to no avail. No video feed AND no GPS, well I was blind there. With increasing frustration and anguish I was watching it get smaller and smaller. Then it disappeared against the backdrop of some trees at the other shore of the lake. Friends who were with me and have keener eyesight than I do told me they saw it spin around wildly for a few seconds and then take a dive in the lake.
We did a small search party in the bushes and the treeline on the other shore (the lake is not that big) but to no avail.
Now, I am uploading my controller DAT and txt files. Maybe one of you can read something into this. Seeing as there was no GPS signal, though, I am not hopeful. I for one am completely stumped.
The drone was no longer under warranty so understandably DJI said there's nothing they can do. Insta360, however, told me if it was their camera's fault, they will provide a "reasonable solution", but they need to hear what DJI will say first. Now, I asked DJI to investigate further but just in case they ignore me, I am posting this here in the hope that someone can shed some light on this unfortunate situation (yep, close to $2k down the drain....)
I had a Mavic 2 Zoom which I had been flying since it was released in 2018 so a pretty long time. It was not my first drone either. I always read manuals and never had any safety problems. I used it recreationally only but I logged many hours and flew confidently.
I should mention here that for some weeks prior to the incident I used the Insta360 OneR Aerial Kit on the drone. It's a special mount that lets you fit the Insta360 OneR camera on the Mavic to achieve the so-called "invisible drone" effect. Now, the manufacturer clearly warns buyers that the kit will leave your Mavic 2 without a GPS signal (strangely, GPS on the Mavic Pro / Platinum would be unaffected), so you have a to fly ATTI. No problem for me, I've done it for a while and it's not difficult for me.
The first few tests were encouraging. The drone did lose the GPS fix (strangely though it was not the bulky mount that cut off the GPS signal; the bird lost GPS only after I turned the camera on so interference must have been electronic rather than physical). However, if I had a good fix prior to turning on the camera, the bird stayed in P mode. Technicaly it was showing "ATTI" (or sometimes also "Visual mode", I don't know why) but it held its position against wind (so hover ok) and it did show me airspeed. It didn't show me positioning and no RTH of course. So I guess it was half-GPS flying. Still, not bad.
One very strange thing I noticed though: once paired, the camera can be controlled from an Apple Watch via an Insta360 app. You can start recording at a distance for example. So one day I let my drone hover a few meters above and pressed record on the watch. It did start recording but at the same time... the drone started landing (the app on the controller said: "Landing initiated"). What the fudge?? This did not happen consistently, maybe in 50% of the cases where I used the Apple Watch, but it kept happening and I thought that was worrying.
However, other than that the system worked well, the footage was interesting, if not without its flaws, and I flew more and more confidently.
Fast forward to the incident day: Last Saturday, sunny weathter, a bit of wind, maybe 10-15 kph, I was on the shore of a local lake and decided to fly the drone. I launched it with the camera already recording. The first few seconds were ok. Then I suddenly lost video feed from the drone’s camera and then the drone started turning around and speeding away from me pretty fast. It didn’t react to any stick inputs, anything I did on the joysticks. Nothing. Now, I was a bit panicked but certainly I didn't order it to land. I tried turning it around and come back to me but to no avail. No video feed AND no GPS, well I was blind there. With increasing frustration and anguish I was watching it get smaller and smaller. Then it disappeared against the backdrop of some trees at the other shore of the lake. Friends who were with me and have keener eyesight than I do told me they saw it spin around wildly for a few seconds and then take a dive in the lake.
We did a small search party in the bushes and the treeline on the other shore (the lake is not that big) but to no avail.
Now, I am uploading my controller DAT and txt files. Maybe one of you can read something into this. Seeing as there was no GPS signal, though, I am not hopeful. I for one am completely stumped.
The drone was no longer under warranty so understandably DJI said there's nothing they can do. Insta360, however, told me if it was their camera's fault, they will provide a "reasonable solution", but they need to hear what DJI will say first. Now, I asked DJI to investigate further but just in case they ignore me, I am posting this here in the hope that someone can shed some light on this unfortunate situation (yep, close to $2k down the drain....)
