Mavic Fly-Away

[JordieShapiro]

Hey guys,
I'll spare the details, as I know this topic has been treaded. But I wanted to share my flight log and will update with my progress with DJI.

On my first day of actual flying, while keeping the mavic in line of sight, I lost control. It slowly sailed out of my sight. Initializing the return home feature had no effect. And I spent 20 minutes switching off between return home, and attempting to manually bring it back. The drone just kept sailing further and further from me. In short, I lost the drone. I'm slightly optimistic that DJI will see this as aircraft error and work with me to get a new one. My reasons for posting, is 1. I'm curious how the community will interpret my flight log, and 2. adding my experience to the conversation.

Here's my doomed voyage: Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com


Any insight or questions, shoot! Thanks everybody

 

[Anthony]

Looking at the upload file you started inside a building ?? is that correct ?

Did you take off from a balcony or the carpark ?

Do you have the cached video of the flight from your mobile or tablet that was connected ??

Also looking at the point that it runs out of power at 166 ft in the air traveling at 28 mph you will need to be looking for bits of Mavic on the roof area of the large building with the white roof ??

 

[JordieShapiro]

Take off was from my building's rooftop.

This may not have been a wise decision, but my thinking at the time was that in a neighborhood of low height buildings, being roof level offered as clear a view as if I was in a park...

 

[Anthony]

Take off was from my building's rooftop.

This may not have been a wise decision, but my thinking at the time was that in a neighborhood of low height buildings, being roof level offered as clear a view as if I was in a park...

So what was the wind like on this day ?? and do you have video ?

If you are looking for feedback I would say the first thing you did was Take off way to soon but it is also possible that the roof of your building may have something to do with the interference warning that is in the log as I am assuming you took off maybe 20 feet to the right of where it is on the map ??

 

[Fireboy]

Where does it show aircraft error. Looks like strong winds at 300 feet slowly pulled it away. Did u switch it to sport mode. I didn't look at the whole log. I had a flight very similar to yours. Could only manage 2 mph coming home. If I hovered it was blowing away. I hit sport mode and brought her home.


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[JordieShapiro]

I think wind was around 9 mph if I recall. I do remember checking it. That's an interesting thought though, but my sense was the drone wasn't fighting. It's not as if it aimed it self home, and then paused when the wind picked up. It really didnt feel like a terribly windy day. Additionally, looking at my attempts at control using the sticks, it did not seem like I had control of it in any direction.

I did some recording, but I wasn't recording for the last few minutes of the flight. Does video get cached when the drone isn't recording?

Also, I did get up on two roofs near the final coordinate of the flight, but no luck. The last recorded altitude was 160 ft, so I imagine the drone kept sailing even after it stopped producing gps coordinates. From the larger rooftop I had a view of the nearby rooftops. I'm fairly certain the drone wasn't in the immediate crash area.

(thanks for the feedback so far!)

 

[JordieShapiro]

Just looked it up, wind was between 5-8 mph in my area

 

[bakerboy]

Concrete roof full of steel reinforcing?

 

[Anthony]

at the point you loose data its just a brick as I think it out of power so falling at 28 mph so its going to be in bits anyway I would think.

Also how high is the roof of your building ?

"I did some recording, but I wasn't recording for the last few minutes of the flight. Does video get cached when the drone isn't recording?"

No it does not only when you are recording.

 

[Jeromeo]

Once you hit return home button you shouldn't try to move sticks. It was flying strait to you home point. Yes very slow but was coming back. You Should try to switch to sport if you are high enough. (Obviously you where as you have altitude warning) and wait but not moving sticks.
I don't think it was mavic fault. But hopefully I'm wrong. Good luck.

 

[JordieShapiro]

The roof definitely has metal that can mess with the drone signal. I've experienced this with previous Phantom flights. From what I gleaned from this forum though, I felt it was still safe to launch from an area of the roof where I didn't get an interference error. Would metal interference near my launch site effect the quality of the flight?

The sport mode advice is good advice. I'll remember that. I really was watching closely when I triggered return to home, and I wasn't seeing evidence that it was inching back toward me. I let it do its thing for a few minutes. Looking at the data now, I don't see any evidence it made any efforts to move in my direction either. I'm also scanning for wind warnings (thats a thing, right?). It doesn't seem to indicate it was picking up any resistance.

 

[JordieShapiro]

My building height is approximate 55 ft.

 

[Anthony]

Can I just also ask at the mid point of your flight is when it really starts to go wrong with :

10m 45.3s Go Home 16satellites 392.7ft 5.3mph 2,737.9ft 48% 11.345V 3.782V 3.782V 3.782V 0V Downlink Restored (after 0m 1s)
10m 47.1s Go Home 16satellites 392.7ft 4.6mph 2,750.1ft 48% 11.345V 3.782V 3.782V 3.782V 0V Downlink Restored (after 0m 1.4s)
10m 53.6s Go Home 16satellites 392.4ft 3.3mph 2,786.3ft 47% 11.352V 3.784V 3.784V 3.784V 0V Weak signal. Adjust antenna and avoid signal block.
10m 55.3s Go Home 16satellites 392.7ft 2.4mph 2,792.1ft 47% 11.352V 3.784V 3.784V 3.784V 0V Downlink Restored (after 0m 1.6s)
10m 55.6s Go Home 16satellites 392.7ft 2.2mph 2,793.1ft 47% 11.352V 3.784V 3.784V 3.784V 0V Not Allowed to Switch Aircraft Mode. If needed, enable it in Main Controller Settings.
11m 0.5s Go Home 15satellites 392.4ft 2.3mph 2,809.1ft 47% 11.348V 3.783V 3.783V 3.783V 0V Downlink Restored (after 0m 1.4s)
11m 4s Go Home 16satellites 392.1ft 1.7mph 2,818.2ft 46% 11.317V 3.772V 3.772V 3.772V 0V Not Allowed to Switch Aircraft Mode. If needed, enable it in Main Controller Settings.
11m 6.8s Go Home 16satellites 392.4ft 1.8mph 2,825.0ft 46% 11.343V 3.781V 3.781V 3.781V 0V Not Allowed to Switch Aircraft Mode. If needed, enable it in Main Controller Settings.
12m 7.1s Go Home 16satellites 391.4ft 4.8mph 2,424.0ft 46% 11.343V 3.781V 3.781V 3.781V 0V Downlink Restored (after 0m 57.8s); Strong Interference to Aircraft. Signal interruption may be more likely. Fly with caution.; Weak signal. Adjust antenna and avoid signal block.
12m 8.7s Go Home 16satellites 391.1ft 4.2mph 2,415.1ft 40% 11.358V 3.786V 3.786V 3.786V 0V Strong Interference to Aircraft. Signal interruption may be more likely. Fly with caution.
12m 8.9s Go Home 16satellites 391.1ft 4.4mph 2,413.9ft 40% 11.358V 3.786V 3.786V 3.786V 0V Not Allowed to Switch Aircraft Mode. If needed, enable it in Main Controller Settings.

14m 34.5s P-GPS 17satellites 393.0ft 3.4mph 2,064.0ft 24% 11.322V 3.774V 3.774V 3.774V 0V The remaining battery is only enough for RTH. Return home now.

Why did you not turn for home at this point ??

There are a few more after this but why didn't you just switch to map view and turn the mavic towards the home point and fly the compass line back to the home point ??

Plus you are 455 feet off the ground it is possible that the wind at this height is much stronger than 55 feet.

What version of the firmware are you running and which go app ?

 

[JordieShapiro]

That's a great question. I absolutely tried at various points. I was able to turn Return Home on and off. And I tried at a few instances to get some controller response, but I got none. And eventually turned RH back on. Another commenter suggested I should have left RH on longer and gave it more time to work. In the moment I was desperately trying to balance these two schools of thought. Nothing was working for me


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[JordieShapiro]

That's a good point about the high altitude wind. I don't know the answer. I was using dji go 4. And I loaded the latest firmware the morning of the flight


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[Anthony]

Not sure what DJI will do without the DAT file from your Mavic so I would recommend you keep searching for it as that file will help DJI work out if this is a hardware fault

We have no idea if you have any previous experience with drones or RC flying so just a few pointers for when you get back in the air

Always check your flight location to ensure you can fly were you are planning ( you look quite close to an airport so this may be an issue for future flights )

There are a few basic things to check and understand before getting the Mavic in the air.

If you have not done so already go here Mavic – Specs, FAQ, Tutorials and Downloads and download the latest Full Mavic user guide as the one in the box does not really contain enough information.

The guide contains lots of information on how the Mavic operates and what everything means etc.

So just a few things to help keep you in control and safe ..

The Mavic should be in Beginner Mode and I would suggest keeping in this mode for a few flights until you are happy with how the Mavic responds to your stick inputs.

To familiarise yourself with the controller and the information displayed on your mobile device power the drone up but keep it on the ground and take the time to walk through the Remote screen and then the options in DJI GO4 before you take to the air.

Now the pre flight stuff...

Always check the propellers are seated correctly so they don't come off during flight and that they have no damage.

Once you power on the drone ( in a clear open space ) wait until you here " The Home Point Has Been Updated Check It On The Map" before you take off and of course do check it on the Map to make sure it is set to the position you are launching from.

Try and keep your first few flight within 100 meters just to give yourself time to understand the Mavic's flight characteristics ( I am not sure if you have any RC flight time with other aircraft ).

The Mavic has built in sensors I suggest you make sure these are all enabled during your early flights as these will assist you however they DO have limitations ... the forward collision system is not perfect and will not stop you hitting wires or small tree branches it will however stop you from flying into something big ... Please not IF you put the Drone into SPORTS MODE this will TURN OFF the forward collision system so I would only recommend you use sports mode in a large open are to start with as it will also take longer to stop in this mode.

The Mavic also has ground sensors that work up to a height of 13 meters so below 13 meters the Mavic can detect the ground THIS SYSTEM REQUIRES GOOD LIGHT CONDITIONS TO OPERATE so it is possible that this will not work on a very dull day so just be aware of this.

There are lots of things this drone can do and as you gain flight confidence over time you can play with some of the built in modes ( See the downloaded user guide for more detail )

Make sure you put contact details on your Mavic so if you do loose it someone can call you.

Remember to enjoy your flight time with the Mavic but take your time and fly safe.

If you have more questions then Please do post on the forum not everyone is going to tell you off

And fingers crossed you find the Mavic.

 

[spiderpig]

Did you calibrate the compass on the rooftop?


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[BD0G]

Great postings Anthony!
You may want to post on this forum in the Regional Areas in which you live and reach out to other pilots that may be willing to devote some flight time to flying over the area and doing reconnaissance. There are alot of great members here who are looking for interesting opportunities to fly thier Mavic's and other drones. Why not leverage that?

One of the best and fastest ways to spot a downed drone is with another drone. Or at least disqualify certain areas as searched already.

If you are in my areas of flight I will assist. Bay Area Ca and Lake Tahoe NV.

 

[BD0G]

Just looked at your flight log and see that you are on the East Coast. Looks like I cannot be to much help with a fly over.

Did anyone also notice that things started going south when flying over this big building that looks like some big metal reflective roof?



There were numerous mentions of Aircraft Cannot Change Modes -enable on main controller screen. I am unfamiliar with what this would mean or how it would impact the flight.

 

[raberrio]

Just looked at your flight log and see that you are on the East Coast. Looks like I cannot be to much help with a fly over.

Did anyone also notice that things started going south when flying over this big building that looks like some big metal reflective roof?

View attachment 3937

There were numerous mentions of Aircraft Cannot Change Modes -enable on main controller screen. I am unfamiliar with what this would mean or how it would impact the flight.

that is because if you want to switch to sport mode with the side switch, it has to be allowed by software in the "multiple flight modes". So this warning appears when you try to switch to sport mode and multiple flight modes are not enabled previously from the app