Mavic Air 2 crash. Dang.

[HowsTheAirUpThere]

Hi all. Today I crashed my MA2 into powerlines. So much room below, so much room above, but I slammed right into them. I'll share some quick details and hopefully someone can give me some guidance. Pictures and video included for the horror of it.

When I started up the MA2 the horizon line looked a little crooked. I recentered the gimbal. Then when hovering in a field, the drone moved up and down +/- a foot or two on its own. Then I flew fine for awhile, but 20 mins later I used the right stick to try to move right, then left, but it wouldn't go sideways either way. And then ten minutes later I flew straight into the powerlines. Should it have given me a collision warning? I was in normal mode.

I read on another MA2 gimbal replacement thread that some people here do gimbal replacements, and if any you could replace mine and get it working again I'd like to pay you rather than DJI. Please PM me if you're interested.

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

 

[boblui]

.... I used the right stick to try to move right, then left, but it wouldn't go sideways either way. .....

May be you have turned on the forbid-sideway-flying switch in the FLY APP ?

 

[A.O.]

May be you have turned on the forbid-sideway-flying switch in the FLY APP ?

There is a forbid flying sideways switch??

 

[Tufargon]

There is a forbid flying sideways switch??

It seems to happen when you update the app.

 

[Thomas B]

Hi all. Today I crashed my MA2 into powerlines. So much room below, so much room above, but I slammed right into them. I'll share some quick details and hopefully someone can give me some guidance. Pictures and video included for the horror of it.

When I started up the MA2 the horizon line looked a little crooked. I recentered the gimbal. Then when hovering in a field, the drone moved up and down +/- a foot or two on its own. Then I flew fine for awhile, but 20 mins later I used the right stick to try to move right, then left, but it wouldn't go sideways either way. And then ten minutes later I flew straight into the powerlines. Should it have given me a collision warning? I was in normal mode.

I read on another MA2 gimbal replacement thread that some people here do gimbal replacements, and if any you could replace mine and get it working again I'd like to pay you rather than DJI. Please PM me if you're interested.

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

You video is not viewable due to you not making it public.

 

[A.O.]

It seems to happen when you update the app.

I hate to update the app again last time I did I lost my orientation indicator

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

If I remember correctly (never a guarantee of that) replacing a gimbal on the MA2 requires specialized software that only DJI or authorized repair shops have. Why that is, I have no idea but I recall reading it on the forum at some point. Whether that's still the case or not, I'm not sure.

 

[HowsTheAirUpThere]

If I remember correctly (never a guarantee of that) replacing a gimbal on the MA2 requires specialized software that only DJI or authorized repair shops have. Why that is, I have no idea but I recall reading it on the forum at some point. Whether that's still the case or not, I'm not sure.

Turns out I did have the Disable Sideways Flight toggled due to the update. Thanks for suggesting that as being the culprit because I'm not sure I would have figured it out otherwise.

I've been reading about repairing it outside of official DJI channels, and it looks like a gimbal error will perpetually show up unless DJI fixes it. And DJI's repair prices don't look horrible, and they'll offer me the refresh program after the fix which I will definitely take them up on this time, so that seems like the way to go. Thanks you guys.

 

[JADOT]

Hi all. Today I crashed my MA2 into powerlines. So much room below, so much room above, but I slammed right into them. I'll share some quick details and hopefully someone can give me some guidance. Pictures and video included for the horror of it.

When I started up the MA2 the horizon line looked a little crooked. I recentered the gimbal. Then when hovering in a field, the drone moved up and down +/- a foot or two on its own. Then I flew fine for awhile, but 20 mins later I used the right stick to try to move right, then left, but it wouldn't go sideways either way. And then ten minutes later I flew straight into the powerlines. Should it have given me a collision warning? I was in normal mode.

I read on another MA2 gimbal replacement thread that some people here do gimbal replacements, and if any you could replace mine and get it working again I'd like to pay you rather than DJI. Please PM me if you're interested.

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

I just crashed my MA2 today. DJI very unhelpful, with the only route to send it back to the Netherlands for repair. Of course the gimbal is broken this time (it's not the first 'obstacle crash') and I daren't think what the repair cost will be.

1/ Did you find out how much the repair is going to be?
2/ Yes, I will, like you, take out the refresh insurance from DJI.
3/ Does anyone know why the MA2 has such s**t obstacle avoidance? I'm sure - absolutely positive - that both of my crashes (one fatal) could have been avoided (excuse the pun).

Not happy/probably a bit too angry right now.

 

[elborak]

90+% of obstacle avoidance is up to the pilot, not the sensors. Without knowing the particulars of your crash, it's impossible to know whether your claim of being "absolutely positive" that obstacle avoidance should have saved you has any merit.

 

[HowsTheAirUpThere]

I just crashed my MA2 today. DJI very unhelpful, with the only route to send it back to the Netherlands for repair. Of course the gimbal is broken this time (it's not the first 'obstacle crash') and I daren't think what the repair cost will be.

1/ Did you find out how much the repair is going to be?
2/ Yes, I will, like you, take out the refresh insurance from DJI.
3/ Does anyone know why the MA2 has such s**t obstacle avoidance? I'm sure - absolutely positive - that both of my crashes (one fatal) could have been avoided (excuse the pun).

Not happy/probably a bit too angry right now.

Sorry you crashed your MA2. I'm right there with you about how bad it feels. I was wondering why mine didn't give an alert about obstacle avoidance either, but in my case the powerlines weren't enough to trigger it (and the manual, upon close reading, unfortunately says that will be the case with powerlines).

I got an email back from DJI with a breakdown of how much repairs are. Here's the link to all the repair costs.

DJI

DJI 大çèªå©æå¡ä¸å¿ 为æ¨æä¾èªä¸»çä¸ä½åçç»´ä¿®æå¡ï¼èªä¸»éä¿®ï¼é¢çº¦å¿«ä¿®å¿«æ¢ï¼ç»´ä¿®éæ¢è´§è¿åº¦æ¥è¯¢ï¼éä»¶ä»·æ ¼æ¥è¯¢ççï¼æ¨å¯ä»¥éæ¶ç»å½ä¸ªäººä¸å¿å¨âæçæ¡ä¾âä¸è¿½æº¯æ¨çå项æå¡è¿åº¦ï¼è¿å¯ä»¥æ¥è¯¢è·ç¦»ä½ æè¿ç线ä¸ç»´ä¿®ä¸å¿ã

repair.dji.com

There's also a place in Crescent City, CA that specifically does drone repair (Fast Bay Area Drone Repair), and they seem really nice and capable over email, and they charge $350 for the gimbal. The only drag is that the gimbal error code will never go away, and they can't offer Refresh after the repair.

 

[eaglesurfing]

I just crashed my MA2 today. DJI very unhelpful, with the only route to send it back to the Netherlands for repair. Of course the gimbal is broken this time (it's not the first 'obstacle crash') and I daren't think what the repair cost will be.

1/ Did you find out how much the repair is going to be?
2/ Yes, I will, like you, take out the refresh insurance from DJI.
3/ Does anyone know why the MA2 has such s**t obstacle avoidance? I'm sure - absolutely positive - that both of my crashes (one fatal) could have been avoided (excuse the pun).

Not happy/probably a bit too angry right now.

Welcome to the forum and enjoy.

Nothing to enjoy right now until you get it fix or replace.

I am hoping that my guard will give me some protection.

 

[JADOT]

Sorry you crashed your MA2. I'm right there with you about how bad it feels. I was wondering why mine didn't give an alert about obstacle avoidance either, but in my case the powerlines weren't enough to trigger it (and the manual, upon close reading, unfortunately says that will be the case with powerlines).

I got an email back from DJI with a breakdown of how much repairs are. Here's the link to all the repair costs.

DJI

DJI 大çèªå©æå¡ä¸å¿ 为æ¨æä¾èªä¸»çä¸ä½åçç»´ä¿®æå¡ï¼èªä¸»éä¿®ï¼é¢çº¦å¿«ä¿®å¿«æ¢ï¼ç»´ä¿®éæ¢è´§è¿åº¦æ¥è¯¢ï¼éä»¶ä»·æ ¼æ¥è¯¢ççï¼æ¨å¯ä»¥éæ¶ç»å½ä¸ªäººä¸å¿å¨âæçæ¡ä¾âä¸è¿½æº¯æ¨çå项æå¡è¿åº¦ï¼è¿å¯ä»¥æ¥è¯¢è·ç¦»ä½ æè¿ç线ä¸ç»´ä¿®ä¸å¿ã

repair.dji.com

There's also a place in Crescent City, CA that specifically does drone repair (Fast Bay Area Drone Repair), and they seem really nice and capable over email, and they charge $350 for the gimbal. The only drag is that the gimbal error code will never go away, and they can't offer Refresh after the repair.

hi - thanks for the heads-up.

Looks like I'm facing repair costs of up to £200 (GBP) which is around your $350 Canadian I think!

That's OK - if it were more than that I'd probably just get it done and then sell the MA2 and get an MINI instead which would probably be enough for what I need it for.

Either way, I'm clearly going to have to brush up on my skills somewhat!

 

[HowsTheAirUpThere]

Wanted to write a quick followup about getting my MA2 repaired through mailing it in to DJI in Texas. My gimbal was broken, and the gimbal part was $35 to replace, plus $65 for labor, with free shipping both ways. I agreed to all charges, I got a notification that they'd fixed it, then they sent me a tracking number and I waited. When the drone arrived a day earlier than expected, I opened it to discover a brand new drone inside. Definitely wasn't my original drone, and didn't look refurbished. So for a hundred bucks I got a brand new drone. I don't expect this would be the case with all repairs, but maybe easier and cheaper for them to just replace? And I was offered DJI Refresh, which I've taken them up on. Cross fingers no more crashes for me! But it was nice to have such an easy, positive experience with DJI after reading a bunch of bad reports.

 

[kidroc]

I own several DJI drones never needed any repairs until my brand new Mavic air two came with a bad gimbal during Covid and I still had a pleasant experience