Mavic lost in the sea due to auto landing.

[E92Vancouver]

 

[Gary cato]

this was not a forced auto land, he hit wind could not get back hit critical battery and the drone descended.

which it is supposed to do, granted if the power he had was used to continue he may have just made it home but the Mavic has to decide at some point to land or it will drop from the sky like a brick when battery fails completely. The drone did exactly what it should. The pilot failed to keep winds factored in when he went out.

 

[sosmaverick]

If he didn't stop and turn around right at the end, he could have got the drone back or at least closer. He should have zig zagged back as well, a little silly he didn't test the wind the other way but it's interesting to see it still has some juice available at 0%

 

[Spanishcop]

None the less sad. Sorry to see that happen.

Yes nature can be vigorous at times and make a change for the worst unexpectedly. It seems many try to push the Mavic to its max and well this is the end result sometimes. A risk we take every time we go in the air to get some neat footage... something CAN go wrong. Wind, bird attacks, mechanical failure, etc. It's a risk everytime and chances we take.

Sorry about your loss.

 

[CaveDrone]

Looked like he gained quite a bit of ground speed near the end when he finally went down to about 20' altitude. However, It's easy to judge after the fact when you are sitting in your armchair relaxed.

 

[Cyberpower678]

Clearly pilot error there. He should have known winds would slow down the drone on the way back.

 

[Cerberus]

Sorry for your lost...

 

[Spy_Corfu]

No sport mode???

 

[Gary cato]

yea now bird strikes worry me i never ever had a problem until recently. is it nesting season for seagulls. first i had one day where 6 attacked me. no problems just landed it i was in the garden anyway.

The next one i was in miles of wide open space so went for a little fly out, saw a few birds during flight but nothing untoward.

When i got home had a quick scan through the footage and saw a seagull eye staring in the camera at me.

Looked like he gained quite a bit of ground speed near the end when he finally went down to about 20' altitude. However, It's easy to judge after the fact when you are sitting in your armchair relaxed.

very true, at least now he can buy an inspire

 

[Gary cato]

No sport mode???

sport mode would likely have just taken the battery out faster. catch 22 in this situation. either way i think it was going to turn into a duck.

i am always in favour of a long run, i like flying out, although i never make more than 2300 meters before i lose all signal, then battery power to get home is not my problem lol

 

[Dragonfly]

Its always hard to guage those sea breezes and offshore winds when on the beach. Always plan to have 30% or more in reserve regardless when flying over water and fly across wind when encounter it not directly into it.
Very sorry to see Delores drown. Its always a sad day to see something like this. Feel your loss.

 

[jpbecker2112]

The speed out to sea close to 40mph should have been a warning. Whenever I get over 30mph that means tailwind. Just about every time it is windy I fly into the wind on my way out so this doesn't happen. As stated before you should have gotten as close to water as possible on return to limit the wind like down to 10 feet. Sorry for your loss but know that this will help others learn from this.

 

[GerdS]

The golden rule when flying over open water is: NEVER do it with offshore wind!
And be aware, as more far you will go out there as stronger the wind will get.
Also make sure that Sports mode is enabled. Maybe Sports mode might have saved this Mavic.

 

[Cerberus]

The golden rule when flying over open water is: NEVER do it with offshore wind!
And be aware, as more far you will go out there as stronger the wind will get.
Also make sure that Sports mode is enabled. Maybe Sports mode might have saved this Mavic.

Or start flying back when your battery hits 50%.. I know I would if I fly out to sea

 

[Grey Wolf]

The app UAV forecast is very good in determining wind conditions.
It also shows no fly zones too!

 

[jpbecker2112]

One more thing I'll add that I've learned - is to watch the RPMs of the blades - that can tell you a lot. In general seems like if you are full throttle and RPMs are 5000-6000, that is normal and will provide normal battery drain and groundspeed performance. If you notice on the way out, RPMs are low but you are getting good speed, than that means the wind is carrying you. It also can tell you if the limiters on the mavic are in place. For example, I can't seem to get more than 40mph, downwind no matter what. The RPMs will prevent it from going much faster than 40. If the RPMs would go up to 10,000RPM and I was travelling downwind, the mavic could really fly probably closer to 60mph.

So bottom line is I really try to interpret the math. I have read about too many people on this forum that don't pay attention to that and end up losing their bird because they didn't know about wind.

I bet when you were in sport-mode into the crazy headwind, your RPMs were really high and hence the rapid battery drain

 

[mlaczek]

Clearly pilot error there. He should have known winds would slow down the drone on the way back.

be a little more patient please. he lost his lovely Dolores just now.

 

[AdventureCity]

How sad. I see that you thought you safe when you started your return at 71%. I also see that you have quite a few flights under your belt. Yesterday I was in a panic when mine went into RTH, and I learned some things through comments.

First, you can cancel RTH. There are 2 ways that come to mind: the phone's touch screen left edge shows a red X for cancel after it has started RTH, and the Flight Mode button (Sport button) on the right side of the controller can be toggled once, or twice if you need to return to the prior mode.

I fly over trees, not open sea so I don't know if this applies in your environment, but I have learned that the higher I go, the stronger the wind. For me wind is much calmer below 60 feet even in areas with no trees. So if RTH is taking you up, you definitely want to cancel it and keep the drone low -- lower the better if you are in a headwind. This may be explain why your rate of speed towards the shore was much better at the end when the drone was closer to the surface. In fact after reviewing your video, I noted that when your elevation was around -10 ft, you were cruising at 15 mph or better. For all of the rest of your flight, it seemed that you rarely if ever went below 50 ft, which may explain the strong headwinds. Also note that cancelling RTH will allow you full control instead of making you "fight it" as you mentioned.

One last thought about RTH. I am not sure if RTH will drop out of Sport mode, into P mode, but I suspect it does. This could be disastrous in your case (maybe one of your biggest factors). Also if you check the GO 4 App setting "Visual Navigation Settings / Advanced Settings / RTH Obstacle Check", this setting implies that with RTH it will be enabling sensors which in my understanding requires P mode. This is one more reason that RTH should have been canceled in your instance.

My lesson learned yesterday is that if RTH has been initiated, yet I can control the drone, that I will be better at protecting and flying my Mavic than RTH will ever be. From now on, I will allow RTH to be initiated (setting: enable RTH), but if it is I will always cancel it as soon as I can.

 

[Cyberpower678]

be a little more patient please. he lost his lovely Dolores just now.

My comment was in response to the YouTube video someone posted, not the OP. I believe the OP hasn't posted his flight log yet for us to look at. Besides, the video shows the wind was being misread and that an extra reserve wasn't factored in for the return trip, where as the OP says his did a forced auto landing.

 

[AdventureCity]

One additional tip: Casey in one of his videos, ended up with his Mavic in NY harbor. His contact with DJI engineers revealed that as long as the battery has any power, it will transmit a GPS coordinate to your controller, even underwater! This is the image in the lower left of your screen. Thus until it stopped transmitting, you might have been able to identify controller position vs drone position from the kayak even if current was moving it.