Mavic Mini flyaway

[Davidmito]

Hi all,
I had my recently purchased Mavic mini out for a short flight today (1st drone I've owned). I had it positioned ready to take a photo when it began to drift, it then started to fly around in a circle and then took off and would not respond to stick control, I did manage to regain control and fly it back, but it has knocked my confidence in flying it. There was no wind warning or weak signal. I had 19 satellites locked, full wi-fi signal, 27m high and 37m distance, also batteries were fully charged, firmware etc all up to date....any ideas?

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Well, sorry you nearly lost it, but welcome to the forum.

If you want answers, go here and get the TXT log, while you're in there, see if you can see the DAT, save it if so, it might be needed.

Section 3. Mavic Crash & Flyaway Assistance

Post the link to Phantom Help report (or Airdata) up here.

Crash & Flyaway Assistance

mavicpilots.com

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Angel of the north looks like a great scene to shoot though. HUGE.

 

[Davidmito]

Yes, it is massive, with a great backdrop of the city. I have tried to have a look at the logs, however they only open in notepad and make no sense...am I doing something wrong?

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Yes, it is massive, with a great backdrop of the city. I have tried to have a look at the logs, however they only open in notepad and make no sense...am I doing something wrong?

If you read through that link I posted, there are 2 programmes commonly used (not the only ones though) to read and graph the data.
I'm not game to start down that track, but there are 3 or 4 resident geniuses on the logs, one or two of which should come along for a look.

Try and save that dat, with the mini they have a very common problem where they disappear from the folder, usually after manual or auto sync of logs.

 

[RichR]

Be interesting to know what the wind was doing at that height. Here in North Yorkshire it's been much too windy above 15m for my Mini in the last few days. Not too bad at ground level, but it was getting pushed around a fair bit at 10m by gusts. So I kept it below tree height in my relatively sheltered garden yesterday where it wasn't as bad.

Do you use the UAV Forecast app to give an idea of what's going on higher up? I'd set a limit of 15mph for the Mini to be on the safe side unless you've got some practice at dealing with wind. For my heavier drone 20-25mph is usually fine, but the Mini is so light it doesn't take as much - and when it doesn't have enough power to overcome the wind there have been many instances of it descending rapidly into the ground.

 

[Davidmito]

Thanks, I'll see if I can find it.
I really like the mini as my 1st drone, I have only had it a little over a week. I have flown RC planes and heli's in the past, so I know to make sure all pre flight checks are good. I had done the same with the mini and just don't understand why it behaved the way it did. I have flown it a few times since and it has been ok. I, like anyone don't want to see a couple of hundred pounds just fly off into the sunset never to be seen again.

 

[Davidmito]

Be interesting to know what the wind was doing at that height. Here in North Yorkshire it's been much too windy above 15m for my Mini in the last few days. Not too bad at ground level, but it was getting pushed around a fair bit at 10m by gusts. So I kept it below tree height in my relatively sheltered garden yesterday where it wasn't as bad.

Do you use the UAV Forecast app to give an idea of what's going on higher up? I'd set a limit of 15mph for the Mini to be on the safe side unless you've got some practice at dealing with wind. For my heavier drone 20-25mph is usually fine, but the Mini is so light it doesn't take as much - and when it doesn't have enough power to overcome the wind there have been many instances of it descending rapidly into the ground.

Hi mate, wind was fine that day, next to nothing. Anytime I am flying with wind the mini gives me a strong wind warning etc when i go to high. Did not get anything like that.

 

[RichR]

That's good to know - I see you've flown helis and fixed wing so you know what to check I gave up on helis after rebuilding after each crash just got more and more expensive so went back to fixed wing. One of my planes is really sensitive to any wind from the side, so I'm probably overly cautious. My other drone (Hubsan H501S) is much heavier and has bigger props, but even that has to fight hard some times.

We'll see what the log file analysis reveals, other than some beautiful scenery ?

 

[Davidmito]

Yeah...the heli's were getting expensive and too long to set up...kinda lost interest in them. I def have the drone bug now...so easy to fly (apart from when they have a mind of their own)! Think I will be treating myself to something more expensive later in the year. The mini is ideal to just keep in the car and throw in the air anytime.

 

[RichR]

I started with cheaper - the Mini is my first 'expensive' drone :O Never had anything that records logs before. When I crashed the Hubsan, it was just the same as when I crashed a plane or heli, pick up the pieces and think 'What was I doing to make that happen?'. With the Mavics there's actually recorded information and people who are excellent at interpreting that data to give clues as to why it did what it did. I spent a few weeks reading the crash analysis forum on here to get some idea as to what the usual causes of Mini crashes is. And it seems wind is usually implicated, although flying low over water seems like asking for trouble.

 

[Davidmito]

I like to usually get up to 50-100ft. How far have you pushed you mini distance wise? I managed to get approx 2500ft in an open field before I lost signal and the RTH kicked in. It is great having a feature like this....in the plane or heli's days once it went out of range it was game over.

 

[Meta4]

Yes, it is massive, with a great backdrop of the city. I have tried to have a look at the logs, however they only open in notepad and make no sense...am I doing something wrong?

Post the .txt file here, that's all that's needed.

 

[Davidmito]

Post the .txt file here, that's all that's needed.

Attached...I think this is the one.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Looks like the data is corrupted somehow.

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

Have seen this before, @sar104 did one like this not sure if it could be delat with.

 

[Meta4]

Attached...I think this is the one.

I'm sorry ... there's something wrong with the file.
It's giving crazy data that's very, very wrong, and I can't tell anything about the flight from it.

There's a remote chance the @sar104 might be able to untangle it?? (maybe)

 

[Davidmito]

I'm sorry ... there's something wrong with the file.
It's giving crazy data that's very, very wrong, and I can't tell anything about the flight from it.

There's a remote chance the @sar104 might be able to untangle it?? (maybe)

Any of the files I open all look like this....just lots of random letters etc.

 

[Meta4]

Any of the files I open all look like this....just lots of random letters etc.

That's normal and expected.
The problem is something completely different.

 

[Davidmito]

That's normal and expected.
The problem is something completely different.

Do you want me to put another one up to see if it reads ok?

 

[Meta4]

Do you want me to put another one up to see if it reads ok?

Yes .. that can't hurt but the only one that will be useful to understand the incident will be the very latest.