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MAVIC MINI Fly Away... really windy conditions?

bravodronec

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I see that this topic has already been posted frequently however each case could be a new opportunity to learn from others’ experience. On January 3rd this year, on standard weather conditions, sky clear, temperature over 5°C, having flew the area many times with several types of drones, mainly MINI, MAVIC 2 PRO, INSPIRE and others, I was just testing my less than 1 year old MINI, in Point of interest mode, 15m high, 25m radius... no significant winds, by experience and according to UAV Forecast App. Suddenly the MINI, went away, RTH didn’t work, I tried to bring it home on manual, manoeuvring to counter eventually some unbalanced engines behaviour... no way, the little aircraft flew away from 25m to 395m in a glance. The Fly report showed strong winds (no way) but technology could sometimes take its own decisions based on sensors inputs (correctly or not) the fact is that the drone disappeared, GPS crash point indications showed a place where nothing was found... Not considered covered by warranty... conclusion: “Lost in the wind”
 
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I see that this topic has already been posted frequently however each case could be a new opportunity to learn from others’ experience. On January 3rd this year, on standard weather conditions, sky clear, temperature over 5°C, having flew the area many times with several types of drones, mainly MINI, MAVIC 2 PRO, INSPIRE and others, I was just testing my less than 1 year old MINI, in Point of interest mode, 15m high, 25m radius... no significant winds, by experience and according to UAV Forecast App. Suddenly the MINI, went away, RTH didn’t work, I tried to bring it home on manual, manoeuvring to counter eventually some unbalanced engines behaviour... no way, the little aircraft flew away from 25m to 395m in a glance. The Fly report showed strong winds (no way) but technology could sometimes take its own decisions based on sensors inputs (correctly or not) the fact is that the drone disappeared, GPS crash point indications showed a place where nothing was found... Not considered covered by warranty... conclusion: “Lost in the wind”
Nothing but speculations is possible out from that YT clip with the log viewer in the FLY app ... if you want a second opinion you need to share the flight log ending with .TXT from the flight ... it's stored in the mobile device you flew with.

Go here and read up on how to retrieve it from the mobile device --> Mavic Flight Log Retrieval and Analysis Guide (scroll down & read under section 3.) Attach it then in a new post here.

And a disclaimer ... if you're on a higher version than v1.2.1 for the DJI FLY app it can be hard to analyze anything ... this as DJI from v1.2.2 have changed the log encryption.
 
The Fly report showed strong winds (no way) but technology could sometimes take its own decisions based on sensors inputs (correctly or not) the fact is that the drone disappeared, GPS crash point indications showed a place where nothing was found...
Sorry but your post and video don't do anything to help understand what happened to your drone.
It's just another case of I-lost-my-drone-and don't-understand-why.
Flight data is the way to find out what really happened.
 
Sorry but your post and video don't do anything to help understand what happened to your drone.
It's just another case of I-lost-my-drone-and don't-understand-why.
Flight data is the way to find out what really happened.
Thanks for your reaction @Meta4 . In fact flight data full file was sent for the attention of the DJI Service. They analysed it and offered me a discount for a new drone (obviously just the drone body and the battery). That’s it. But even taking into account that discount (I did appreciate the good intention) which tells me enough on the results of their analysis. But companies do have their policy. I didn’t accept that offer, as I got a better price for a new drone in a home appliance store. That’s the end of the story and the beginning of a new one. Regards
 
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...They analysed it and offered me a discount...That’s it. But even taking into account that discount... which tells me enough on the results of their analysis... That’s the end of the story and the beginning of a new one.

Sounds like you still not quite understand the reasons for your incident & not agreeing with the outcome from DJI ... but have put this behind you & walked on ...

But if your intention with this post was ...

...each case could be a new opportunity to learn from others’ experience...

and not only a rant over the outcome from DJI... we need to look into the actual .TXT flight log, you should still have it in the mobile device you flew with.
 
Sounds like you still not quite understand the reasons for your incident & not agreeing with the outcome from DJI ... but have put this behind you & walked on ...

But if your intention with this post was ...



and not only a rant over the outcome from DJI... we need to look into the actual .TXT flight log, you should still have it in the mobile device you flew with.

In fact, after a couple of weeks exchanging messages with the DJI guys (as I said, always kind and professional), I decided to turn the page, to erase the former drone data and to replace the missed MINI by the new one, with the intention to avoid mixing old and new drones data. The little video I made, should in fact remind me that with the little brother in my DJI family of birds, some weather or environmental factors are affecting much more radically than in the case of the other heavier ones. And by the way, it could help some other MINI-aircraft owners, to prevent such type of situations. Since it happened to me, I’ve been watching several clips on YouTube on that subject. I’ll take my own and others experience very much into account when flying my brand new DJI MINI. I bought exactly the same model, to use all accessories (batteries charger...) and because, in my case, the differences between MINI and MINI 2 would not justify the change, when having on the shelf a MAVIC PRO 2.
 
And by the way, it could help some other MINI-aircraft owners, to prevent such type of situations.
I'm afraid that the video isn't much help as it doesn't show any details of what happened or how.
Your thread title suggests that the drone flew away but from your subsequent posts it turns out that you flew it away in a wind that it could not return against.
 
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.....The Fly report showed strong winds (no way) but technology could sometimes take its own decisions based on sensors inputs (correctly or not) ...
So you are convinced now that it was caused by stong wind that you did not feel and UAV app did not show ? If you dont believe it the reason is still unknown so there is not much the others can learn from this thread.
 
......to erase the former drone data and to replace the missed MINI by the new one, with the intention to avoid mixing old and new drones data. T......
Just as a point of interest, even if you had the flight records of two IDENTICALLY named MM's on your phone, the App can distinguish between them.
For the purposes of this post I have just tried that. I have several phones that I use and recently bought a 2nd MM. I just renamed the second MM to the same name as the first MM and then flew the 2nd MM using a phone that had not previously been used with the 2nd MM. The App sees and separates the flight records of both MM's. It appears to use a serial number to do this.
It is easy enough to separate any copies of the logs stored on a computer by either
a) comparing the names/date_stamps of those copies with separated entries in the App, or
b) looking at the flight logs with CsvView. A serial number, unique to any given drone, is listed on the summary page presented after the flight log has been processed.
I have done this for my Phantoms, it's a bit tedious but by no means difficult.

You might also like to read A heads up for MM pilots, C & P mode flight speeds vs gimbal angle
 
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Just as a point of interest, even if you had the flight records of two IDENTICALLY named MM's on your phone, the App can distinguish between them.
For the purposes of this post I have just tried that. I have several phones that I use and recently bought a 2nd MM, I just renamed the second MM to the same name as the first and then flew the 2nd MM using a phone that had not previously been used with the 2nd MM, the App sees and separates the flight records of both MM's. It appears to use a serial number to do this.
It is easy enough to separate any copies of the logs stored on a computer by either
a) comparing the names/date_stamps of those copies with separated entries in the App, or
b) looking at the flight logs with CsvView. A serial number, unique to any given drone, is listed on the summary page presented after the flight log has been processed.
I have done this for my Phantoms, it's a bit tedious but by no means difficult.

You might also like to read A heads up for MM pilots, C & P mode flight speeds vs gimbal angle

Thanks for your message and practical advice
 

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