Mavic 3 Flyaway - Gone

[Skwirl]

And I worry about losing my mini 2, lol.

 

[dirkclod]

Heading down there to look in the tree right now! I figured that it would see the tree as an obstacle and not land in it, but, cross your fingers for me. And thank you for the reply.

I have lost drones and with the find my drone Locater it took me right under it. Had to look for hours before I saw one in the top
of a ceder tree. Other one was in plan site but couldn’t see it till I took another drone up to find it and did.
Point is don't give up .

 

[Yaros]

And I worry about losing my mini 2, lol.

Everyone worries about losing their drone, don't they?
I also worry about my Mavic Air 2, I have lost it when it auto-landed out of battery 2 times already, now I'm more careful.

 

[Skwirl]

Bsmall, heres a link to the full manuel on the m3. You can download it, print it if you want. I got the manuel for my mini 2 after it was suggested here. Good idea to read it to. These drones are not that easy/simple to operate as the advertising would have you believe.
Hopefully you have the flyaway or insurance for it.

DJI Mavic 3 - Download Center - DJI

At DJI Download Center, Learn aboutDJI Mavic 3

www.dji.com

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Doesn't matter that you aren't an expert. I'm grateful that you even took the time to reply. Your response seems spot on. I just can't fathom why it didn't establish a home point when it initially took off and hovered for roughly two minutes, like it has done the few times before. Worked like a charm each and every time. Why this time? Baffling.

I do find this interesting and very applicable: DJI Mavic 3 GPS Problems Fixed "within The Next Two Months"

Welcome to the forum, shame it's under these circumstances.

When I read / saw the HP etc on the posts, I thought surely this must be due to the loooonnnnngg wait for GPS lock ?
Ok, a pilot should only take off / move off after the drone goes into GPS mode, but this is a DJI problems of sorts.

You obviously had a flight or three where you did get GPS lock fine before take off, this time however it didn't.
Maybe you're getting quicker at going through the start up and get flying, and beat it this time.

I would log the loss with DJI, you never know, they might feel generous and give you the benefit of the doubt, warranty.
They might just say the obvious, pilot error, don't fly off without GPS lock / home point etc, but maybe they will at least offer an aircraft & battery only discount.

Assume no DJI Refresh ?

And I wouldn't give up on those tree tops either, that should be reasonably accurate.
Access to another drone for an aerial view ?

Good luck.

 

[Meta4]

I would log the loss with DJI, you never know, they might feel generous and give you the benefit of the doubt, warranty.
They might just say the obvious, pilot error, don't fly off without GPS lock / home point etc, but maybe they will at least offer an aircraft & battery only discount.

The drone didn't fly away.
It did nothing wrong.
It returned to the homepoint just as it is programmed to.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

The drone didn't fly away.
It did nothing wrong.
It returned to the homepoint just as it is programmed to.

I actually didn't say there was a fly away . . . don't fly off without GPS lock / home point = wait for this to be established at least before moving laterally.

Yes, the pilot took off too soon, before GPS lock and home point established.
It is pilot error in reality, as I stated.

This is because the M3 GPS lock takes waaay too long, an easy error for a relatively new pilot to fall into.

Heck, I'm fast at getting airborne, either the M1P or Spark, and usually right about the time I'm ready to take off I hear the HP message etc.

The M3 GPS problem is still an issue ? Not following it as often as necessary to know if that's been fixed.

 

[crlmjohnson]

Beautiful Easter Sunday here in Dallas/Fort Worth. Perfect conditions for my brand new Mavic 3 to disappear.

Flight Log Here.

Devastated, to say the least. Does the "H" represent home? If so, WHY?! Right in the middle of a busy street? Does the altitude give you the impression that it landed on top of something (a tree, a roof, etc.)?

Combed the area for hours. Only thing I can assume is that it hovered over the street and someone grabbed it as they drove up on it.

I have no idea what to do next and would greatly appreciate any guidance you experts here can provide me.

Thank you all.

bsmall

I am very sorry to read about your experience with your drone.

it makes me sad to read about your experience. I am holding on hope that DJI will fix this GPS issues with this Drone. I have own several of DJI drones in the past, and I have always had outstanding experiences with all of my past drones. That is why I went ahead and forked up the dollars for this one. and hanging on for hope for a fix. In the meantime, I always hover this drone for a about a minute of two, to make sure that the home point is located and I can see it in the displayed before I take off on my planned mission. This is too much money to be losing while flying, and it can be unhealthy to my body "stress", because of a hardware failure.

 

[IronSky1]

I always attach a tracker on exspensive drones just in case: two locators are better then one. I tend to be more liberal with my older low value drones. I is really a disappointment to loose one however, it happens.

Good luck hope it is a tree not long gone. You should report the serial nubers to DJI so some cannot resell.

 

[maggior]

You obviously had a flight or three where you did get GPS lock fine before take off, this time however it didn't.
Maybe you're getting quicker at going through the start up and get flying, and beat it this time.

Another possibility that occurs to me is that the other flights did not initiate a RTH so the lack of a home point or an incorrect home point wouldn't have mattered.

 

[Faster]

Another possibility that occurs to me is that the other flights did not initiate a RTH so the lack of a home point or an incorrect home point wouldn't have mattered.

That's a possibility but the only way to really known is seeing the logs

 

[MS Coast]

I actually didn't say there was a fly away . . . don't fly off without GPS lock / home point = wait for this to be established at least before moving laterally.

Yes, the pilot took off too soon, before GPS lock and home point established.
It is pilot error in reality, as I stated.

This is because the M3 GPS lock takes waaay too long, an easy error for a relatively new pilot to fall into.

Heck, I'm fast at getting airborne, either the M1P or Spark, and usually right about the time I'm ready to take off I hear the HP message etc.

The M3 GPS problem is still an issue ? Not following it as often as necessary to know if that's been fixed.

"This is because the M3 GPS lock takes waaay too long, an easy error for a relatively new pilot to fall into."

I hate to be blunt, but...

The fundamental problem is that the pilot did not have the knowledge to safely operate the drone and undertook a risky flight of nearly a mile over a densely populated urban area. He didn't even understand the home point and why it's important. Poor signal strength warnings were issued early in the flight and apparently ignored.

 

[maggior]

"This is because the M3 GPS lock takes waaay too long, an easy error for a relatively new pilot to fall into."

I hate to be blunt, but...

The fundamental problem is that the pilot did not have the knowledge to safely operate the drone and undertook a risky flight of nearly a mile over a densely populated urban area. He didn't even understand the home point and why it's important. Poor signal strength warnings were issued early in the flight and apparently ignored.

The pilot should have also known that they could take control of the drone over once it came back in range during the RTH. If they were paying attention to where the drone was going, they would have known something was amiss and could have taken over and flown it back.

Some pretty expensive lessons unfortunately.

 

[Lets Fly]

The drone was connected to my DJI account, yes. Will that benefit me in any way?

I believe the question is, was your phone number and FAA registration on the drone?

 

[Dave P]

Sorry for your expensive lost. Would dji care help in this situation? Also, just my opinion but a $3k drone should be able to deal much better when people make an honest mistake...perhaps just a simple warning by the nice dji lady saying something like, " you can take off but will not be able to return to home". That would be a helpful option and cost dji nothing.

I would be devastated...my condolences.

 

[MS Coast]

Sorry for your expensive lost. Would dji care help in this situation? Also, just my opinion but a $3k drone should be able to deal much better when people make an honest mistake...perhaps just a simple warning by the nice dji lady saying something like, " you can take off but will not be able to return to home". That would be a helpful option and cost dji nothing.

I would be devastated...my condolences.

I'd prefer to read, or at least skim, the instructions beforehand than have a nanny-drone audibly warm me of all the possible problems every time I fly it.

"Set the home point. Don't fly further than you can see. Don't fly too high. Don't fly at controlled airports. Don't touch the propellers while they're rotating. Have you checked the weather? Don't fly inside clouds. Don't fly if it's too windy. If you fly downwind you'll have more difficulty returning than if you fly upwind. Keep an eye on the battery levels. Do you have your TRUST certificate? Have you checked the compass readings?"

 

[Dale D]

Beautiful Easter Sunday here in Dallas/Fort Worth. Perfect conditions for my brand new Mavic 3 to disappear.

Flight Log Here.

Devastated, to say the least. Does the "H" represent home? If so, WHY?! Right in the middle of a busy street? Does the altitude give you the impression that it landed on top of something (a tree, a roof, etc.)?

Combed the area for hours. Only thing I can assume is that it hovered over the street and someone grabbed it as they drove up on it.

I have no idea what to do next and would greatly appreciate any guidance you experts here can provide me.

Thank you all.

bsmall

Sorry for your loss. I have absolutely ZERO experience with logs, but looked your log and anyway and it showed that only by 1:17 minutes did you acquire more than 6 satellites. I never take off until I acquire a minimum of 8 satellites and usually will hover at about 20 feet until I get about 10-12 satellites. I watch the satellites throughout the flights.

Dale

 

[peterc4]

DJI care is a must cant believe people dont get it, lcrashed my air 2s last month in water gone for ever on a sunday afternoon new one came wennesday morning for £300, used it so many times over the years

 

[rickfmdj]

Heading down there to look in the tree right now! I figured that it would see the tree as an obstacle and not land in it, but, cross your fingers for me. And thank you for the reply.

Wishing you good luck finding in or near those trees

 

[dirkclod]

Well yawl saw the picture in post 22 .I knew it was up there as I found the camera and gimbal on the ground under it. Still couldn’t see it and being white in those trees you would think it would be easy. Well it wasn’t and used a M1 to finally see it. So a dark drone
that high up would be really hard to spot. That particular bird did come down after I shot it down with a hand loaded 12Q rubber slug. Yeah I shot that sucker Hit it in the back of the battery.