Mavic 3 auto forced landed and lost my drone!

[Yorkshire_Pud]

OK, let's imagine for a moment that your argument is valid and implemented.
Would you suggest that people be allowed to continue to fly up to the point that the battery is so exhausted it can not longer sustain flight and the descent becomes uncontrollable or free fall?
If not then, at what charge level would you suggest that the drone commence a forced landing?

I would suggest that whatever procedure was implemented, there would be people who run foul of it and then seek to divert the blame from themselves to someone else, since they. the pilot, are, of course, blameless.

It has been pointed out that the manual states there is a charge level at which the drone will commence a forced landing that can not be cancelled. True, the manual dos not say that a forced landing will also commence at 10% or thereabouts, but it does say that throttle can be used to hold, or if necessary, gain height.
If the pilot has failed to read the manual or missed a section, or forgotten it then that is the pilot's fault, not DJI.

Better yet if you know you are going to make flights that push the battery's limits make experimental flights in a safe place BEFORE you fly the real flight so that you know how the drone will behave. I would suggest this is an essential practise were ever RTH behaviour is concerned and a low battery RTH experiment might have revealed the 10%? threshold.

I make no bones about it, sections of the DJI manuals could be better written, but if there is something that the pilot does not understand or questions then they should ask questions about that section, or conduct suitable experiments in a safe place to check whether their understanding of the manual is correct.
When I got my first Mavic style drone I was unhappy with my understanding of how the CSC would work to stop the drone's motors in mid air, I both experimented and googled........ to find out that with the default setting a CSC position causes the drone to descend under perfect control, whereas the alternative setting stops the motors after 1.7 seconds.
Neither is to my liking but at least I know what to suspect.

 

[Suren]

Because I had never experienced a forced landing before, and didn't know how to deal with it. I had trouble flying because everytime I stopped pushing up, it went down. I wasn't used to that. Some panic too. If I had to do it again I would make it home.

It going down when you leave the stick is normal as the drone wants to land, it's understandable if this was your first time. I have flown many flights and most landed quite into the 0% battery

 

[Meta4]

But what it says isn't true. It says it will auto land when there is only enough battery to land. But in fact, it does this at 9 or 10 percent battery, way more than you need to land, even from 400 feet.

What's so hard to understand about having a comfortable safety margin to allow for unexpected difficulties?
When you drive your car, do you only fill the tank when there's only a cupful left?

Obviously not everyone will know about the override, and some people, like the OP, will lose their drones. As I said before, if the operator is still controlling the drone, there's no need for a forced landing.

When flyers ignore warnings about returning due to low battery levels, have no awareness of how far away their drones are and what effect the wind will have on their return flight, there will always be some who lose their drones.
And if you think you know better and keep pushing up against a forced landing, you can easily get to the point where pushing up no longer works and the drone falls where it is.
DJI employed the critical low voltage forced landing to prevent that.

 

[MS Coast]

Obviously not everyone will know about the override, and some people, like the OP, will lose their drones. As I said before, if the operator is still controlling the drone, there's no need for a forced landing. Now if the drone is disconnected, fine, do the forced landing. I think one reason DJI may have put this in, is their lawyers told them to, in case someone gets hurt. Then, in court they can say they wanted to land, but the pilot kept pushing up the stick. Again, if you're in control, why shouldn't you be able to abort a forced landing. And I think the word forced is more accurate than saying automatic.

The low battery landing feature is "automatic" because it happens without input from the operator. It's not "forced" because the operator can override it.

It only becomes "forced" when the battery no longer has enough voltage to spin the motors and gravity assumes control.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Auto landing can, indeed, be turned off in the parameter settings. I now have it off on mine. Makes landing at below 10% remaining battery far less stressful, without having to constantly fight the descent with full left stick.

To preclude the danger to people and property of a two-pound object free falling after a total power loss DJI very wisely and prudently included a fail-safe landing feature.

It has been pointed out that the manual states there is a charge level at which the drone will commence a forced landing that can not be cancelled.

DJI employed the critical low voltage forced landing to prevent that.

But you can turn it off.
I'm still not convinced it is turning off that failsafe auto landing, why would DJI allow disabling of such a safety feature.

I land at around 20% usually, have very rarely going down to around 10% if really needed for something I want to get to.
As far as I'm aware, you can't disable critical failsafe type auto landing on Go4, has this changed on Fly ?

Ok, I just recalled you CAN alter the setting % for warnings for low and critical battery level, but assume GadgetGuy knows this and his post above is stating the failsafe can be turned off.

 

[Meta4]

But you can turn it off.
I'm still not convinced it is turning off that failsafe auto landing, why would DJI allow disabling of such a safety feature.

As far as I'm aware, you can't disable critical failsafe type auto landing on Go4, has this changed on Fly ?

You can't make those changes in the app.
You can only do it by tinkering under the hood (hacking).
It's not something DJI have given access to.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

You can't make those changes in the app.
You can only do it by tinkering under the hood (hacking).
It's not something DJI have given access to.

That's good, and thought as much.
Maybe GadgetGuy did this hack, or maybe he was talking about the 2 levels of mere battery warning DJI normally allow settings to be adjusted.

 

[Wreckhunter]

Frylikebird I totally agree with all your posts. It is DJI's fault that you lost your drone.

#1. Who reads owners manuals? How many people read the full owners manual of everything they buy? That's why they have quick start guides. When I got my mavic pro in 2017, I just watched a few YouTube videos to learn how to fly it. I certainly did not read the owners manual. I don't even think my Mavic 3 came with an owners manual.
I had a similar incident a few months ago. I wanted to complete a mission. It had enough battery to fully complete the mission and do a RTH and safely land at the home point. But when the battery got to 10% it started a forced landing. I was in shock! I did push the stick up so I could land on a street, but I still almost crashed. I could of gotten run over by a car, or hit wires, and crashed. As it turned out, I landed on the next street over from my house. I also had never used find my drone, so I just had to look. It turns out passersbys found it, and took it, so by the time I got there, it was gone. Fortunately, they saw me walking with the remote, so I got my drone back.
But there's no reason to initiate a forced landing, when you are CONNECTED, and in control. And DJI can tell if the drone is connected to the RC. Also, there should be a way to abort a forced landing, so you don't have to keep pushing up on the stick, which makes it hard to fly.
Some here have said that it only does a forced landing when it just has enough battery to land. That's not true at all. I had 5 times enough battery to land when it did a forced landing.
Frylikebird I'm sorry you've gotten such bad treatment from this board. I agree they they seem like they work for DJI.

lol ,what

 

[shb]

Obviously you guys are making valid points, so I'm not saying it's my way or the highway. I'm just suggesting things that I think would be improvements given my own experience, of almost losing my drone.
One improvement i would suggest that DJI put the fact of the automatic landing in big red letters at the beginning of the manual. BTW, does a printed manual even come with the Mavic 3?
The mavic 3 has 45 minute flight time. Let's say for saie of argument, it's really 30. So 10% is 3 minutes. That's a significant time in the drone world. 3 minutes at 20 mph is a mile. So I don't think the average drone pilot would think it's an emergency situation when he's only a thousand feet from the home point. That's why I didn't expect this automatic landing to begin. I instinctively pushed up on the stick, but it was still hard to fly and not panic. Plus the stupid alarm is going off.
So it the people who wrote the software know you're only 1,000 feet from the home point, and have connection, shouldn't they take that into account too?
I found two more cases of guys losing their drones. And in each case, like me, they knew they had enough battery to land safely.
Isn't it logical that if that is the case, the person should not lose his drone.
As to what battery level automatic landing should kick in, maybe 2%. I don't think too many people are going to take their battery down to 2%. But 10 percent can happen occasionally.

DJI forced landing and push the responsibility

I lost my mavic pro very recently too. I have been flying many times with 20% battery before and have no issue. This time, it forced land by itself. I pressed stop many times and it fails to cancel landing. At the end, I have to find a bush and crash land. I cannot retrieve my aircraft too...

forum.dji.com

My drone lost automatic landing over water

I want to share with you my experience so you can avoid losing your drone. Afer 62 flights testing my mavic air in all sort of conditions and situations and havng 0 accidents or risk incidents,I felt really comfortable and secure with it. So I made a trip crossing a river to see the other coast...

forum.dji.com

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

BTW, does a printed manual even come with the Mavic 3?

No, only a quick start type guide with very basics.
DJI haven't ever provided a full printed manual at least since the Mavic series was released.
The Mavic 3 manual link might have been posted earlier, but it is located on their downloads page like all their full manuals.

https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/DJI_Mavic_3/DJI_Mavic_3_User_Manual_v1.0_en.pdf

Failsafe RTH and auto landing is on pages 17 / 18.

There are probably 20 or more things as vital to know as the failsafe auto landing feature, if they specifically put various very important notes highlighted up front of any info, they would probably have a mess of a manual.

The manual and quick guides that come with all DJI drones usually have the warnings to read the complete manual, and watch the many model specific video tutorials, there are QR codes in the manual link above to the videos.

 

[Wreckhunter]

Obviously you guys are making valid points, so I'm not saying it's my way or the highway. I'm just suggesting things that I think would be improvements given my own experience, of almost losing my drone.
One improvement i would suggest that DJI put the fact of the automatic landing in big red letters at the beginning of the manual. BTW, does a printed manual even come with the Mavic 3?
The mavic 3 has 45 minute flight time. Let's say for saie of argument, it's really 30. So 10% is 3 minutes. That's a significant time in the drone world. 3 minutes at 20 mph is a mile. So I don't think the average drone pilot would think it's an emergency situation when he's only a thousand feet from the home point. That's why I didn't expect this automatic landing to begin. I instinctively pushed up on the stick, but it was still hard to fly and not panic. Plus the stupid alarm is going off.
So it the people who wrote the software know you're only 1,000 feet from the home point, and have connection, shouldn't they take that into account too?
I found two more cases of guys losing their drones. And in each case, like me, they knew they had enough battery to land safely.
Isn't it logical that if that is the case, the person should not lose his drone.
As to what battery level automatic landing should kick in, maybe 2%. I don't think too many people are going to take their battery down to 2%. But 10 percent can happen occasionally.

DJI forced landing and push the responsibility

I lost my mavic pro very recently too. I have been flying many times with 20% battery before and have no issue. This time, it forced land by itself. I pressed stop many times and it fails to cancel landing. At the end, I have to find a bush and crash land. I cannot retrieve my aircraft too...

forum.dji.com

My drone lost automatic landing over water

I want to share with you my experience so you can avoid losing your drone. Afer 62 flights testing my mavic air in all sort of conditions and situations and havng 0 accidents or risk incidents,I felt really comfortable and secure with it. So I made a trip crossing a river to see the other coast...

forum.dji.com

Owners manuals are made for a reason,to read.This is not DJI's fault or the people who make up the owners manuals
and quick start guides.Its common sense to read the manual,considering how costly the mavic 3 is.
General rule when the drone has 25% battery remaining bring it back in for a battery swap.Then their will be no issues.
But I know this will not be good enough.

 

[shb]

Owners manuals are made for a reason,to read.This is not DJI's fault or the people who make up the owners manuals
and quick start guides.Its common sense to read the manual,considering how costly the mavic 3 is.
General rule when the drone has 25% battery remaining bring it back in for a battery swap.Then their will be no issues.
But I know this will not be good enough.

I learned my lesson. Never let it get below 15%

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I learned my lesson. Never let it get below 15%

Whilst that's probably not a bad idea I would suggest it is not the best lesson to be learnt. Which is, IMO, have it overhead or over a safe landing spot by the time the forced landing kicks in and ALSO be aware that you have some control, albeit limited control, for a while even when in forced landing.

 

[Wreckhunter]

I learned my lesson. Never let it get below 15%

I would keep it at 25% left not even 15%

 

[3rdof5]

When I see the low battery warning come on at 30% I come home. Always. I have never had a critical battery landing except when I was purposely testing absolute flight times on a questionable battery with the aircraft hovering directly in front of me and in no danger to anyone. It's just not worth the risk.

 

[Robert Prior]

I have never had a critical battery landing

I had one. I was shooting a hyperlapse close to me (on a Mini 3 not a Mavic 3) and didn't realize that the aircraft would just hover and not let me fly it until it had finished processing the hyperlapse. Really glad I was close, because that extra time made a huge difference. Also glad I had plenty of safe landing locations, so I wasn't really worried.

Still, immobilizing the aircraft while it processes a video strikes me as a profoundly stupid software choice. If there isn't enough processing power to fly and process a video, then give the pilot the option of not processing the video.

To add insult to injury, I don't use the DJI videos, preferring to make my own timelapse videos from the still frames that I save.