Mavic Pro Found After Being Lost Over 4 Weeks!

[TR Ganey]

A friend of mine lost his MP a month ago in a very rural and heavily wooded area. According to his flight log it traveled about 1500' due North from where he launched it. He had been out and looked for it from the air a few times and on the ground 3 different times. Today we went out again hoping with the amount of rain and wind that we have had that maybe enough leaves had fallen to allow us to locate it. We were expecting to find it hanging from a tree as it had a 100' tether on it when it was lost. To our benefit the tether was white. We took a handheld gps (no cell signal for phones) and made our way to the last coordinates transmitted by the drone. Once there we looked up in the tops of all the trees and on the ground. After searching for a while we again tried to find the exact spot with the gps. This time is indicated about 20' West of the first place. We decided that given the situation and equipment we had an error of 20' one way or the other was probably as close as we were going to get. While we were standing there discussing the best methodology for searching for the missing drone my friend happened to look above and behind me and seen the white tether hanging from a limb high in a tree. We followed the tether straight to the drone that happened to be perched in the top of a bay leave bush at about head height. We had been within 20-25 feet of it on the prior trip out looking. I was amazed by how hard it was to locate. If it had not had the tether on it we may have never found it. On the other hand if it hadn't had the tether it would likely not have ever been lost to begin with.

Lessons learned
1. It's always a good idea to check winds aloft before any flight especially when you know you drone will not be up to it's full maneuverability potential.

2. Making sure you have a good gps lock prior to flight therefore ensuring good flight logs is priceless.

3. Never give up!

As was mentioned above, this was in a very rural area and heavily populated with hardwood trees. The land owner is the only one who hunts there so we felt like the chance of someone walking up on it was slim to none. I am very glad that it wasn't mine that was missing because I couldn't have handled it nearly as well as my friend did!

 

[WWMav]

Just curious: what was the intended purpose of the tether?

 

[TR Ganey]

He was attempting to rescue another drone lodged high up in a tree when straight line winds blew in carrying the drone away. He attempted to fight the wind and lost. Hind sight is always 20/20 but if he had it to do over he could have turned down wind and eventually found a suitable landing area.

 

[PropSpin]

How's the drone? Must have been some kind of wind, or the tether quite the drag!

 

[JDawg]

He was attempting to rescue another drone lodged high up in a tree when straight line winds blew in carrying the drone away. He attempted to fight the wind and lost. Hind sight is always 20/20 but if he had it to do over he could have turned down wind and eventually found a suitable landing area.

100' tether?

 

[RTKD]

What people don't understand is that a quadcopter is heavily reliant on it's center of gravity. Anything dangling creates a pendulum effect which the flight controller is not fit to contend with. That kind of application needs to be programmed for, or you need to run your recovery unit in acro.

 

[draver]

Just for future reference, modern cell phones do not need carrier signal or service for the GPS to function. That is a separate, independent system, and will work perfectly well as a stand alone receiver. You will need some sort of map to navigate however, and I recommend an app called "Pocket Earth Pro" for downloaded maps. You can download only the maps in areas you choose so storage space should not be an issue. They have very good maps for the entire world you may select, the "Pro" edition is only a few bucks, and they also have a lesser featured free version. It works well everywhere in the world I have used it. It even shows offroad trails quite well, and may have been useful in your adventure. It's rated 4.7 out of 5 on the Apple App Store.

 

[TR Ganey]

I could be wrong but I believe the only thing this guy failed to consider was the unexpected straight line winds. He is a "107" holder with hundreds of hours of flight time with drones and other RC aircraft. I've lost count of how many drones he owns but some are for photography and some are for racing. I did not question him on why he chose that particular length tether but my assumption was that if he failed to hook the drone but instead hooked a branch then he would have enough slack to return back to the ground. He might have also been thinking of drooping the tether over the limb so he could get hold of both ends and shake the limb to free the drone.

He said he has plans for drying it out as we have had a lot of rain since it's been out there. The SD card appeared wet when he removed it. The camera lens did not appear to have any moisture on the inside. Hopefully it is all ok.

 

[TR Ganey]

Just for future reference, modern cell phones do not need carrier signal or service for the GPS to function. That is a separate, independent system, and will work perfectly well as a stand alone receiver. You will need some sort of map to navigate however, and I recommend an app called "Pocket Earth Pro" for downloaded maps. You can download only the maps in areas you choose so storage space should not be an issue. They have very good maps for the entire world you may select, the "Pro" edition is only a few bucks, and they also have a lesser featured free version. It works well everywhere in the world I have used it. It even shows offroad trails quite well, and may have been useful in your adventure. It's rated 4.7 out of 5 on the Apple App Store.

Thanks for the reply and info. I was unaware of that info. I'll try to remember it the next time I find myself needing a gps and don't have my handheld.