Mavic Pro flew away following erratic flying, loss of control

[msinger]

No. Every case is different, so I'm not sure a tutorial showing how to find one lost drone would be helpful.

 

[droneuser]

ahh ya different variable's. well maybe someone will write a tutorial on the basics on finding a lost drone using last known gps. if the weather ever gets better around here I hope to get some flight time in... then I can study my logs

 

[Jonny_Pain]

I used to hang glide through the winter. Any temperature day can have thermal activity as long as the air mass is unstable and there is a temperature difference in the air mass. Winter thermals were strong, turbulent, and often scary!!!

 

[rfc]

I used to hang glide through the winter. Any temperature day can have thermal activity as long as the air mass is unstable and there is a temperature difference in the air mass. Winter thermals were strong, turbulent, and often scary!!!

Glider rating myself, but must admit, I've never flown in the dead of winter. I bet you might be right. I'm still scratching my head as to why the A/C climbed. I hope the OP posts the dat file from the A/C; I'm confident sar104 et. al. could determine if it was a thermal, just by looking at motor speed and other data.

 

[Mossiback]

Congrats to OP for getting the Mavic back and a big thanks to those that made it possible. It demonstrates the value and professionalism of this forum.

One thing I have not seen mentioned that might have changed the outcome was to switch to Sport mode.

 

[jjchsg]

I had once when flying, there is high wind that basically blowing the Mavic away. Even with max forward input, the Mavic was going backward like OP,s situation. I quickly lowered the altitude and able to regain control. Wind is much stronger up in the mid air. At lower altitude, the wind is typically slower and will allow the Magic to fly back.

 

[whitedesigns]

It's going to be tough to pinpoint the landing spot since the wind speed didn't seem to be too consistent. According to my calculations, I'd recommend you start looking for it in this yellow box.

View attachment 32731

It's pretty amazing this info turned out to be spot on. Congrats and nice job!

 

[cheolk]

marvelous guys here, hope I need not find you. Maybe the insurance companies should employ them or maybe DJI also.

 

[787steve]

UPDATE

Well sar104, I am amazed. I cannot thank you enough for your prediction, as I went to this area this morning and your estimate was absolutley spot on! I walked to the exact area you suggesed at the intersection of the plotted lines and started searching, and found it at the point shown above. Your calculation was entirley correct. Thank you so much!

In terms of the drone, it was upright in the grass, intact and the only visible damage I can see is a small crack to one of the rotors, no other visible damage, just very damp. Memory card and footage also intact, I watched the footage and, as you predicted, it was drifting further and further away in the wind, for a full 15 minutes after the disconnect.

It then descended, with a lot of movement left to right as it got lower down, and completed what looks to be a very hard landing, onto snow covered grass. Was then burried in the snow for 48 hours.

It narowly missed trees and a river, by a matter of a few feet either side. I am not sure how well it was working on avoiding these at the point of critical battery landing or whether this was simply luck, but I was amazed to have found it - was truly like looking for a needle in a haystack.

My next steps now are to dry it out thoroughly and then carefully test it. I will update the thread this week with the outcome.

Really wasn't expecting to find it after 3 days searching, so thanks again for the advice, a great result today.

Sar104, VERY COOL!

 

[Panamawise]

Yesterday I took my Mavic Pro on a routine flight, with a fully charged battery and a normal default RTH height of 98 ft, flying in normal mode (not sport) for the entire flight. It was 0 degrees C at the time...I fear this could be the root of all the problems I then experienced.

4 minutes into the flight, with 81% battery and at a height of 250 ft, I hit return to home.

Something very strange then happened.

The sequence of events that followed immediatley after were:

1. In RTH mode, Mavic started to climb, without any input from me.
2. I tried to counter this by pulling down on the altitude stick briefly, log shows me pulling down on stick 20%-60% for around 2 seconds. This cancelled the RTH.
3. The Mavic didn't respond and rapidly continued to climb and was also now flying away from me, backwards, with no input from me on the remote control.
4. The Mavic climbed to 311 ft on its own, and I again hit RTH, and it went into RTH mode.
5. The Mavic continued to climb with no input from me, and continued to rapidly fly further away in a straght line ascending upwards, and making big distance gains away from me.
6. I again tried to counter this by pushing the forward stick 100% on the RC, for 15 seconds. This did nothing, and the Mavic continued to fly away backwards in a straght line at around 12mph and rapidly climbing without any command, was now up to 370 ft and climbing.
7. I again hit RTH, and it went back into RTH mode.
8. In RTH mode and with no input from me on the RC, it continued to rapidly climb through 400 ft, and continuing to fly away from me backwards, totally out of control and getting further and further away.
9. Climbing through 403 ft, speeding away from me, "Battery:Overcurrent during discharge" warning was displayed. Never experienced this before.
10. Still with no input from me on the RC whatsoever, Mavic continued to fly away in a straght line, climbing, now at 420 ft and distance by this point becoming a real concern (had now reached 7,700 ft away from me, still out of control)
11. This continued a few more seconds and at a height now of 430 ft, I recieved "Motor Current Error" warning, also never experienced before. Battery at this exact moment showed 54% remaining and 4 min 30 sec remaining on the countdown bar.
12. At a height of 440 ft and climbing, and a somewhat terrifying 7900 ft away, it disconnected, and never reconnected.

This all happened over a golf course. It was unoccupied at the time, due to being covered in snow. I immediatley got in the car and drove to the area, and pulled up Find My Drone on my iPhone. On foot, I went to the exact point shown on the map, which was in the middle of a green area. No sign of the mavic anywhere.

I then spent the next 2 hours searching the area, without being able to find it. Today, I went back with two others and we searched the area extensivley again for a further 3 hours, and nothing. We tried to simulate the drone flying further away in a straght line, searching the area but no sign of it. I guess this suggests the flight continued for some time on its own accord following disconnect and went further away. There are woods either side of the area, so likely it could be in there somewhere and that is literally like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

I will try and upload the flight logs, but upon first glance has anybody ever experienced this complete loss of control and does anybody have any idea as to why this may have happened?

I will contact DJI care about this, and will update this thread with their response when I get it. I'm looking at a claim on my home insurance for this, but in the meantime would love to hear if anyone has experienced similar issues as this was pretty scary, and has sadly resulted in a complete loss.

Thanks all in advance
Justin

Sorry for your loss, Justin. I lost my Mavic Pro a week ago, in the Republic of Panama. Msinger, among many others, was very helpful.

 

[Roger Eads]

Sorry you lost your drone. To increase my chances of finding mine in the event of a fly-away I have attached a Marco Polo tracking device to my Mavic. They claim it has a two mile range. Here is a link to a Youtube video on the Marco Polo tracking device...

 

[Alexsf]

Yesterday I took my Mavic Pro on a routine flight, with a fully charged battery and a normal default RTH height of 98 ft, flying in normal mode (not sport) for the entire flight. It was 0 degrees C at the time...I fear this could be the root of all the problems I then experienced.

4 minutes into the flight, with 81% battery and at a height of 250 ft, I hit return to home.

Something very strange then happened.

The sequence of events that followed immediatley after were:

1. In RTH mode, Mavic started to climb, without any input from me.
2. I tried to counter this by pulling down on the altitude stick briefly, log shows me pulling down on stick 20%-60% for around 2 seconds. This cancelled the RTH.
3. The Mavic didn't respond and rapidly continued to climb and was also now flying away from me, backwards, with no input from me on the remote control.
4. The Mavic climbed to 311 ft on its own, and I again hit RTH, and it went into RTH mode.
5. The Mavic continued to climb with no input from me, and continued to rapidly fly further away in a straght line ascending upwards, and making big distance gains away from me.
6. I again tried to counter this by pushing the forward stick 100% on the RC, for 15 seconds. This did nothing, and the Mavic continued to fly away backwards in a straght line at around 12mph and rapidly climbing without any command, was now up to 370 ft and climbing.
7. I again hit RTH, and it went back into RTH mode.
8. In RTH mode and with no input from me on the RC, it continued to rapidly climb through 400 ft, and continuing to fly away from me backwards, totally out of control and getting further and further away.
9. Climbing through 403 ft, speeding away from me, "Battery:Overcurrent during discharge" warning was displayed. Never experienced this before.
10. Still with no input from me on the RC whatsoever, Mavic continued to fly away in a straght line, climbing, now at 420 ft and distance by this point becoming a real concern (had now reached 7,700 ft away from me, still out of control)
11. This continued a few more seconds and at a height now of 430 ft, I recieved "Motor Current Error" warning, also never experienced before. Battery at this exact moment showed 54% remaining and 4 min 30 sec remaining on the countdown bar.
12. At a height of 440 ft and climbing, and a somewhat terrifying 7900 ft away, it disconnected, and never reconnected.

This all happened over a golf course. It was unoccupied at the time, due to being covered in snow. I immediatley got in the car and drove to the area, and pulled up Find My Drone on my iPhone. On foot, I went to the exact point shown on the map, which was in the middle of a green area. No sign of the mavic anywhere.

I then spent the next 2 hours searching the area, without being able to find it. Today, I went back with two others and we searched the area extensivley again for a further 3 hours, and nothing. We tried to simulate the drone flying further away in a straght line, searching the area but no sign of it. I guess this suggests the flight continued for some time on its own accord following disconnect and went further away. There are woods either side of the area, so likely it could be in there somewhere and that is literally like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

I will try and upload the flight logs, but upon first glance has anybody ever experienced this complete loss of control and does anybody have any idea as to why this may have happened?

I will contact DJI care about this, and will update this thread with their response when I get it. I'm looking at a claim on my home insurance for this, but in the meantime would love to hear if anyone has experienced similar issues as this was pretty scary, and has sadly resulted in a complete loss.

Thanks all in advance
Justin

Yesterday I took my Mavic Pro on a routine flight, with a fully charged battery and a normal default RTH height of 98 ft, flying in normal mode (not sport) for the entire flight. It was 0 degrees C at the time...I fear this could be the root of all the problems I then experienced.

4 minutes into the flight, with 81% battery and at a height of 250 ft, I hit return to home.

Something very strange then happened.

The sequence of events that followed immediatley after were:

1. In RTH mode, Mavic started to climb, without any input from me.
2. I tried to counter this by pulling down on the altitude stick briefly, log shows me pulling down on stick 20%-60% for around 2 seconds. This cancelled the RTH.
3. The Mavic didn't respond and rapidly continued to climb and was also now flying away from me, backwards, with no input from me on the remote control.
4. The Mavic climbed to 311 ft on its own, and I again hit RTH, and it went into RTH mode.
5. The Mavic continued to climb with no input from me, and continued to rapidly fly further away in a straght line ascending upwards, and making big distance gains away from me.
6. I again tried to counter this by pushing the forward stick 100% on the RC, for 15 seconds. This did nothing, and the Mavic continued to fly away backwards in a straght line at around 12mph and rapidly climbing without any command, was now up to 370 ft and climbing.
7. I again hit RTH, and it went back into RTH mode.
8. In RTH mode and with no input from me on the RC, it continued to rapidly climb through 400 ft, and continuing to fly away from me backwards, totally out of control and getting further and further away.
9. Climbing through 403 ft, speeding away from me, "Battery:Overcurrent during discharge" warning was displayed. Never experienced this before.
10. Still with no input from me on the RC whatsoever, Mavic continued to fly away in a straght line, climbing, now at 420 ft and distance by this point becoming a real concern (had now reached 7,700 ft away from me, still out of control)
11. This continued a few more seconds and at a height now of 430 ft, I recieved "Motor Current Error" warning, also never experienced before. Battery at this exact moment showed 54% remaining and 4 min 30 sec remaining on the countdown bar.
12. At a height of 440 ft and climbing, and a somewhat terrifying 7900 ft away, it disconnected, and never reconnected.

This all happened over a golf course. It was unoccupied at the time, due to being covered in snow. I immediatley got in the car and drove to the area, and pulled up Find My Drone on my iPhone. On foot, I went to the exact point shown on the map, which was in the middle of a green area. No sign of the mavic anywhere.

I then spent the next 2 hours searching the area, without being able to find it. Today, I went back with two others and we searched the area extensivley again for a further 3 hours, and nothing. We tried to simulate the drone flying further away in a straght line, searching the area but no sign of it. I guess this suggests the flight continued for some time on its own accord following disconnect and went further away. There are woods either side of the area, so likely it could be in there somewhere and that is literally like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

I will try and upload the flight logs, but upon first glance has anybody ever experienced this complete loss of control and does anybody have any idea as to why this may have happened?

I will contact DJI care about this, and will update this thread with their response when I get it. I'm looking at a claim on my home insurance for this, but in the meantime would love to hear if anyone has experienced similar issues as this was pretty scary, and has sadly resulted in a complete loss.

Thanks all in advance
Justin

I had such a similar experience with my mavic platinum. Almost identical in fact.
I had eventually to be led away by my fiancé who tried to console me.
Since then I have bought a magic air however the experience has left trauma and I find I am scared to press return to home
I did contact DJI however they have not really responded. No credit toward new aircraft. Yes they did want me to try and download all records but I was so devastated i still have not done so. I realize for the community it would be a worthy gesture
I think now that 2 months have gone by it may be a little late. I have still not summoned the courage to press return to Home on my air.
Reading this account brought it back. The sudden ascent and inability to correct was so disturbing. For now I will continue to simply land this as I used to do when I flew helicopters

 

[Dizzy1971]

UPDATE

Well sar104, I am amazed. I cannot thank you enough for your prediction, as I went to this area this morning and your estimate was absolutley spot on! I walked to the exact area you suggesed at the intersection of the plotted lines and started searching, and found it at the point shown above. Your calculation was entirley correct. Thank you so much!

In terms of the drone, it was upright in the grass, intact and the only visible damage I can see is a small crack to one of the rotors, no other visible damage, just very damp. Memory card and footage also intact, I watched the footage and, as you predicted, it was drifting further and further away in the wind, for a full 15 minutes after the disconnect.

It then descended, with a lot of movement left to right as it got lower down, and completed what looks to be a very hard landing, onto snow covered grass. Was then burried in the snow for 48 hours.

It narowly missed trees and a river, by a matter of a few feet either side. I am not sure how well it was working on avoiding these at the point of critical battery landing or whether this was simply luck, but I was amazed to have found it - was truly like looking for a needle in a haystack.

My next steps now are to dry it out thoroughly and then carefully test it. I will update the thread this week with the outcome.

Really wasn't expecting to find it after 3 days searching, so thanks again for the advice, a great result today.

Wow! So happy to see you found your mp! It’s great to see people helping out like this. Great job guys!

 

[Dizzy1971]

Sorry you lost your drone. To increase my chances of finding mine in the event of a fly-away I have attached a Marco Polo tracking device to my Mavic. They claim it has a two mile range. Here is a link to a Youtube video on the Marco Polo tracking device...

Yep I too have the Marco and it’s a great tool! I highly recommend it! Especially to those of us who are new to the hobby. It’s not completely fool proof,but it is an added tool that very well could be the positive difference if one loses their precious quad.

 

[Skymax]

45 years of GA and Gliding has taught me you don't really know what's happening up there until you climb in to it.
Quite a few "Blow-aways", I have read about now because the new pilots understand their UAV better than the medium it is flying in and do things like flying Downwind initially on Range Tests.

In common usage, wind gradient, more specifically wind speed gradient or wind velocity gradient, or alternatively shear wind, is the vertical gradient of the mean horizontal wind speed in the lower atmosphere. It is the rate of increase of wind strength with unit increase in height above ground level.

 

[MavicCF]

Stupid question for either @sar104 or @msinger. How do you export graphs like this one from CsvView to Excel so you can extrapolate it? I need that tutorial. Thanks, and hope I'm not a bother with all my questions. -CF

 

[sar104]

Stupid question for either @sar104 or @msinger. How do you export graphs like this one from CsvView to Excel so you can extrapolate it? I need that tutorial. Thanks, and hope I'm not a bother with all my questions. -CFView attachment 33378

That question is probably best asked of @BudWalker, since he wrote the software. Personally I use the .csv files created by DatCon, imported into data analysis software, for extrapolation, integration or any other kind of numerical analysis.

 

[msinger]

How do you export graphs like this one from CsvView to Excel so you can extrapolate it?

All you need to do is use a tool to convert the TXT file to a CSV file. That tool uses this converter.

 

[BudWalker]

Stupid question for either @sar104 or @msinger. How do you export graphs like this one from CsvView to Excel so you can extrapolate it? I need that tutorial. Thanks, and hope I'm not a bother with all my questions. -CFView attachment 33378

That plot was exported from directly CsvView. It didn't go through Excel. Once you have a plot you want to export push the Copy to System Clipboard button


and then do a Ctrl-V in a post you're composing and the plot will appear like your post. It's the copy-and-paste operation. There is a user manual

https://datfile.net/Doc/CsvViewManual.pdf

 

[MavicCF]

Thanks, I did figure that much out, I guess my problem is creating a graph from the info I put into Excel (not that familiar with it). I'm want to extrapolate the line past what is shown on the CsvView page so I can predict how far the AC can fly before auto landing.

All you need to do is use a tool to convert the TXT file to a CSV file. That tool uses this converter.

So can you just import the Csv file, highlight it, and hit the graphing button?(sorry, I have studied little on this subject yet).