Mavic 3 Cine Chicago Gone!

[wco81]

So are TV and film productions hiring drone pilots more often now?

Guess a lot cheaper than helicopters.

You see more and more aerial shots, especially at night, on TV shows, including sitcoms.

 

[sar104]

To all those questioning the working environment the OP was in.

So here you will all find a DJI official tutorial for camera options.

The guy demonstrating the tutorial is doing so in pretty much the same densely populated city environment that the OP was working in. That strongly suggests that this is a perfectly suitable place for the Mavic 3 to be flown in no? (with appropriate permissions within the law of course)

260

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Just because you see someone else do it successfully doesn't mean that it is trivial or easy. It doesn't matter what that video suggests - the environment is not impossible, but it is challenging. You need to know the limitations of the GNSS positioning, and you need to be aware of the unusual wind conditions that occur around closely packed tall structures. The OP is not a careful or professional pilot. He has a YouTube channel though, where stupidity is very popular.

 

[ianwood]

So are TV and film productions hiring drone pilots more often now?

Guess a lot cheaper than helicopters.

You see more and more aerial shots, especially at night, on TV shows, including sitcoms.

Yes. Cheaper. More efficient. More capabilities. Safer. The list is long.

Just because you see someone else do it successfully doesn't mean that it is trivial or easy. It doesn't matter what that video suggests - the environment is not impossible, but it is challenging. You need to know the limitations of the GNSS positioning, and you need to be aware of the unusual wind conditions that occur around closely packed tall structures.

This x 1,000. Well said.

 

[Point Zero]

Just because you see someone else do it successfully doesn't mean that it is trivial or easy. It doesn't matter what that video suggests - the environment is not impossible, but it is challenging. You need to know the limitations of the GNSS positioning, and you need to be aware of the unusual wind conditions that occur around closely packed tall structures. The OP is not a careful or professional pilot. He has a YouTube channel though, where stupidity is very popular.

You are of course entirely correct. I kind of assumed that the OP was a professional that had done some form of due diligence. I can again only assume the lack of any flight logs and the such paint a different picture.

Still a terrible loss of equipment if that's what actually happened.

 

[timinator]

What's the over/under spread on whether the Cine ended up in the river or into a building?

 

[dirkclod]

Well guys the OP logged on today but for whatever reason did
not reply to any of these 6 pages of post.
@AtortPhotography when you get back on please post your logs
so we can see what happened or I really see no need in this continuing .
Thanks

 

[CactusJackSlade]

OK, this guy is a total idiot. I commented on his YouTube channel and this was his response about posting the flight logs. I love his answer! I no longer believe a word he says and I think that there is a very high probability it was 100% pilot error.

 

[Meta4]

OK, this guy is a total idiot. I commented on his YouTube channel and this was his response about posting the flight logs. I love his answer! I no longer believe a word he says and I think that there is a very high probability it was 100% pilot error.

He's just posted a 15 second Youtube video to say:
Mavic 3 Cine f’d up & DJI saying I crashed which I didn’t so guess what..selling everything DJI!

It's hard to understand the thought process.
If it was a DJI issue, flight data could help prove his case.
He's very confident for not having seen what's in the flight data.

Watching his video is painful and shows very little understanding of drone flying basics.
He has no idea what happened to his drone, except that he couldn't possibly have made a mistake.
Nothing in his video gives me any confidence in his assessment.

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[Perceivedshift]

It's not like this was a beginner was flying. @AtortPhotography is a pretty accomplished flying and film maker and has flown a lot in the city. I'm just surprised he hasn't responded to this thread.

He is only accomplished at crashing and flying illegally. He may not be a beginner but he sure hasn't learned anything.

 

[Paradigm]

At this point I think he may be refusing to post the logs on purpose, perhaps thinking it may harm his DJI Care claim?
That doesn't make sense either, as his only recourse is a Fly Away Claim via his added warranty. Maybe he's trying to get around that some how.


I'd be shocked if he hasn't been reading this thread the whole time.

 

[Paradigm]

I just watched his latest live stream where he plays the flight.

His transmission is starting to go and the drone is not flying backwards, as he's intending it to do. He then switches to sport mode and soon after he completely loses transmission.

I think sport mode turns off the sensors and at this point I think the drone attempts to RTH. If he didn't have the correct RTH settings or the correct home point, the drone very likely could have crashed itself.

I think that's more likely than a hardware or software error.

The log files could help, but I think his angle with them is the one I mentioned in my previous post

 

[EasyV]

I just watched his latest live stream where he plays the flight.

His transmission is starting to go and the drone is not flying backwards, as he's intending it to do. He then switches to sport mode and soon after he completely loses transmission.

I think sport mode turns off the sensors and at this point I think the drone attempts to RTH. If he didn't have the correct RTH settings or the correct home point, the drone very likely could have crashed itself.

I think that's more likely than a hardware or software error.

The log files could help, but I think his angle with them is the one I mentioned in my previous post

Interesting video-

He gets the APAS/aircraft nearby warning
Its showing that he needs increase altitude (never saw that warning before)
And then he loses signal

I wonder if - as radio signals bounce - and he is in a canyon of highly reflective glass -
- stray signal bounced from a (distant? nearby?) aircraft(?) could have been some sort of signal from one of the buildings (alarm? microwave comms? that the drone interpreted as nearyby aircraft) kicking off the warning
- he continued to descend and by descending he entered the zone where the strongest RFI was and completely loses control at that point (drone was passing over a band of strong RFI - and when he descended - aircraft was then blinded/lost signal.


Now-
- He clearly lost LOS - as he has no idea where it went
- He mentions he tried to descend (and specifically did not try to ascend)
- Source of RFI unknown but it seems he descended into a focused band of RFI from one of the surrounding buildings

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

I think sport mode turns off the sensors and at this point I think the drone attempts to RTH. If he didn't have the correct RTH settings or the correct home point, the drone very likely could have crashed itself.

Failsafe RTH on a signal loss or with a RTH triggered manually would have seen the sensors working still for that function, if it kicked in ok.

Unfortunately , there have been numerous posts on the forum here about the sensors being somewhat erratic so it might have ended up just hovering somewhere surrounded by buildings not being able to find a path.

Don’t think we’re ever going to see logs so some good folk can dig into them to help the OP find out what really happened.

 

[Paradigm]

Failsafe RTH on a signal loss or with a RTH triggered manually would have seen the sensors working still for that function, if it kicked in ok.

Unfortunately , there have been numerous posts on the forum here about the sensors being somewhat erratic so it might have ended up just hovering somewhere surrounded by buildings not being able to find a path.

Don’t think we’re ever going to see logs so some good folk can dig into them to help the OP find out what really happened.

So you're saying he did not set his RTH height higher than the tallest building he was around?

Isn't that common protocol when flying in such an environment. Theoretically, that should have saved him, I think.

 

[Point Zero]

Here is his report. The OP claims that DJI have told him not to share his flight logs until the matter is resolved. I hate to cast doubt on another human being that I do not know, but that sounds a little unbelievable, I mean the logs would make this an open and shut case literally?

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

So you're saying he did not set his RTH height higher than the tallest building he was around?

Isn't that common protocol when flying in such an environment. Theoretically, that should have saved him, I think.

I imagine the RTH on the M3 sees it rise above an obstacle if necessary during RTH.
Hard to imagine anything fine enough in the urban environment the OA wouldn't pick up.
Maybe wires supporting antenna on buildings etc ?

No one can tell without the flight logs, it could have crashed into something fine like wires, could have been blinded by the sun during RTH, been set to hover if signal lost, it could have been a wind issue (especially around buildings), or loss of good GPS signal near buildings.

The OP claims that DJI have told him not to share his flight logs until the matter is resolved.

If DJI literally told the OP not to share flight logs, logs that anyone (even the pilot) can see / read on airdata or phantomhelp, there is really only one reason . . . DJI may want to keep it quiet.

From what is understood by reading all the M3 problem flight logs posted here, we know only the txt log can be analysed, the dat files on the device and aircraft are encrypted so only DJI can read those.
I feel DJI made a bit of a nefarious move keeping those dat files from being able to be read by others.

 

[Meta4]

There's no point making any assumptions about what happened in this guy's flight without seeing the flight data.
What he's said in his videos suggests that he has no idea what happened and a dubious understanding of potential issues in his flying environment.
The flight data is the only way to find out what happened and whether or not it was a DJI issue.
He seems to have no real interest in finding out and refused to share flight data early on.
His only interest is in asserting that the incident was not his fault.

DJI have seen his flight data and their data analysis is usually pretty good, but they don't explain it very well to customers.
Occasionally they make mistakes and sharing the flight data would help his case if that has happened.

 

[wco81]

I imagine the RTH on the M3 sees it rise above an obstacle if necessary during RTH.
Hard to imagine anything fine enough in the urban environment the OA wouldn't pick up.
Maybe wires supporting antenna on buildings etc ?

No one can tell without the flight logs, it could have crashed into something fine like wires, could have been blinded by the sun during RTH, been set to hover if signal lost, it could have been a wind issue (especially around buildings), or loss of good GPS signal near buildings.



If DJI literally told the OP not to share flight logs, logs that anyone (even the pilot) can see / read on airdata or phantomhelp, there is really only one reason . . . DJI may want to keep it quiet.

From what is understood by reading all the M3 problem flight logs posted here, we know only the txt log can be analysed, the dat files on the device and aircraft are encrypted so only DJI can read those.
I feel DJI made a bit of a nefarious move keeping those dat files from being able to be read by others.

it’s so people won’t be able to tell when they send the data to Chinese intelligence and military.

 

[Point Zero]

The weirdest part for me is that he explains where the drone was, where he was and shows it on google maps and yet when the RC lost connection he should have been easily able to see the drone and what it was doing and what it did next. Some in his YT chat mentioned that even when the RC loses connection that the stick inputs are still active and that whilst it was showing a black screen the RC was still flying the drone.

Anyways its literally nothing but conjecture without flight logs.

I have a feeling they might actually appear on here at some point in the future.

 

[zlek131]

He found it.