Mavic Pro Flyaway

[ChasD]

For what it is worth - I made a mistake in life.....as a matter of fact I make many each day. I really appreciate the effort and fellowship that is poured into this forum and I have learned much more than I could on my own. Thanks to droneguy91 for sharing his painful experience with us. I hate to see anyone lose their drone but in this case, as in many I learned valuable lessons through the discussion.

Thanks to msinger for his expertise and his willingness to share his knowledge. I especially appreciated his analysis with the flight log matching up to the photo's and the link for the last known drone position. I'm going to start digging into the flight record retrieval process to get a better appreciation of the engineering and coding that went into making the Mavic fly. In the past, several lost drones have been located through the same process which is way cool. I wish this story could have ended that way.

 

[kaankorkmaz]

RIP MP

 

[Landmix]

**** some of ya'll are d1cks... its crazy...

Don’t waste a comment. You sound young with no experience. Some people on here are on their way to earning money from doing what they enjoy. Maybe your comment is displaying what you enjoy playing with.
PS - Learn how to talk - ya’ll

 

[TerryJ]

Lost my Mavic Pro this evening in the Berkeley, California Hills.

I successfully started up the Mavic, locked on to 20+ Satelites and had a fully charged battery and ensured home point was properly set.

It was a little windy, but I got about 11 minutes of flying before it wanted to return home. After 12 minutes, it auto returned home but never made it close to me. I flew about 12,500 feet out and when it auto returned it only made it about 1500 feet before switching to critical low battery and then it landed in a residential neighborhood Quite far from my home point.

I attempted to use “find my drone” but could not see it. I imagine it got stuck in some trees or landed on someone’s roof.

You flew how far out? You deserve to loose you drone!

 

[kejoal11]

We've all been there in one way or another with our close call flights but most of us got our Mavic home safely often by the skin of our teeth. My heart goes out to him. It was a brave post subjecting oneself to hindsight ridicule and some of you were pretty harsh - shame on you.. The reason I read these is to educate myself to prevent a similar accident. I would strongly recommend the State Farm Insurance for only $60 to all Mavic Pro fliers. I have the DJI Care Plan but it's not as good as the State Farm Insurance and considerably more expensive (you must have a home or auto polity to get it). I've been flying my Mavic Pro for a year and knock on wood have had no major incidents but many close calls.

Unless something has changed recently State farm will not provide that type of insurance in the state of California. I just tried getting it and it doesn't apply in California or the agent I called didn't know what it was.

 

[royster]

State farm insurance seems to be sporatic, for instance, here in Ontario, Canada the local agent said- A drone, You mean like a plane? We don't insure planes

 

[drakkor]

Lost my Mavic Pro this evening in the Berkeley, California Hills.

I successfully started up the Mavic, locked on to 20+ Satelites and had a fully charged battery and ensured home point was properly set.

It was a little windy, but I got about 11 minutes of flying before it wanted to return home. After 12 minutes, it auto returned home but never made it close to me. I flew about 12,500 feet out and when it auto returned it only made it about 1500 feet before switching to critical low battery and then it landed in a residential neighborhood Quite far from my home point.

I attempted to use “find my drone” but could not see it. I imagine it got stuck in some trees or landed on someone’s roof.

Sorry to hear about the loss of your drone. I am near you btw, since I am in Fremont CA. If you find your drone on a roof somewhere and need a drone to drone rescue, just let me know. Me and my RC club friends will be glad to help.

 

[ChasD]

If you find your drone on a roof somewhere and need a drone to drone rescue, just let me know. Me and my RC club friends will be glad to help.

Atta Boy drakkor....that’s what I’m talking about. People helping people.

 

[scubaeric]

Atta Boy drakkor....that’s what I’m talking about. People helping people.

I agree. It's nice to see people sharing solutions and offering to help. I think one RTFM is enough. Don't worry if you need to Google "RTFM" I won't bash you.

 

[wytnyt]

what should be most concerning is that it dropped nearly 1200 feet,,a likely reason of many as to why mandatory registration was put back in effect,3x the legal height limit,sorry no pity here.

 

[wytnyt]

Sorry to hear about the loss of your drone. I am near you btw, since I am in Fremont CA. If you find your drone on a roof somewhere and need a drone to drone rescue, just let me know. Me and my RC club friends will be glad to help.

at 1200 it wont be on the roof but in the house.

 

[dbyantis]

Lost my Mavic Pro this evening in the Berkeley, California Hills.

I successfully started up the Mavic, locked on to 20+ Satelites and had a fully charged battery and ensured home point was properly set.

It was a little windy, but I got about 11 minutes of flying before it wanted to return home. After 12 minutes, it auto returned home but never made it close to me. I flew about 12,500 feet out and when it auto returned it only made it about 1500 feet before switching to critical low battery and then it landed in a residential neighborhood Quite far from my home point.

I attempted to use “find my drone” but could not see it. I imagine it got stuck in some trees or landed on someone’s roof.

NOT a fly away, lost but not a fly away. Hope you can track it down.

 

[Dabrain]

what should be most concerning is that it dropped nearly 1200 feet,,a likely reason of many as to why mandatory registration was put back in effect,3x the legal height limit,sorry no pity here.

That's what I was pondering. Grew up in that area, he's lucky he didn't kill someone. I don't know, if it didn't hit a tree, I think it would be in many pieces.

 

[okw]

1200 feet ... 3x the legal height limit

Just to clarify, there is no altitude limit for recreational pilots in the US flying under Section 336.

at 1200 it wont be on the roof but in the house.

Elsewhere on this forum, someone calculated that the Mavic will reach its terminal velocity in the first 200 feet of free fall. So dropping from 1200 feet wouldn't be any worse than from 200 feet.

 

[787steve]

The GO app offers so much support when flying out of sight, the video stream, display of distance, speed, altitude and battery levels, map, radar. So it's no real problem for a pilot with some experience flying this way, I do it all time.
But I would NEVER fly long distance until automatic RTH will kick in because of low battery. And I would NEVER rely on RTH for flying back as long as I am capable doing it by myself. And I would NEVER do a long distance flight with strong wind conditons.
And if he would have kept the golden rule in mind, landing at about 30% battery capacity, this wouldn't have happened.

It does offer great support for flying out of sight. Except for looking out for aircraft. If that bothers you.

 

[787steve]

A few people seem to be missing my point I’m not really suggesting to buy a spark instead of a mavic I’m saying for those people that think you shouldn’t fly out of sight why the **** would you buy a drone with a 4 mile range then?

Think about it. I know you can figure that one out. I have a car that will top 150 mph. But I don't go there. I do get from 0-60 pretty swiftly, though.

 

[787steve]

Atta Boy drakkor....that’s what I’m talking about. People helping people.

It might be "helpful" to tell someone that flying at 1200' and out of sight, is irresponsible and unwise.

 

[ChasD]

It might be "helpful" to tell someone that flying at 1200' and out of sight, is irresponsible and unwise.

Agreed and I think the message was well stated in 4 pages of threads until it started to look like this:

Mavic Mistake Penalty.mp4

 

[BamaRider]

Franz said-

But don’t fly out of sight? Just buy a $20 toy drone and fly around your living room

"


LMAO

 

[787steve]

Just to clarify, there is no altitude limit for recreational pilots in the US flying under Section 336.

Elsewhere on this forum, someone calculated that the Mavic will reach its terminal velocity in the first 200 feet of free fall. So dropping from 1200 feet wouldn't be any worse than from 200 feet.

NO ALTITUDE limit under Section 336? I am a newbie, but I thought the limit was 400' as set by a "nationwide community based organization," blah, blah, etc. With the only such organization in the US being the AMA. Can I get a little clarity here? I found the FAA reference to the generic organization, but it is vague at best. Is it to be accepted that for practical (legal) purposes in the US that the AMA is in fact that body, and therefore the max legal altitude for hobby ops is 400'? References would be appreciated if anyone knows where to find the details.

I have worn my little googling digits out searching and reading on this, and I sure think this is the intention of the FAA regs. I can't find any other "community-based set of safety guidelines and within the programming of a nationwide community-based organization." Seems clear cut to me. Am I missing something?