Mavic Pro Lost over dam

Muppet With A Chopper · Nov 6, 2017

sar104 said:
If it was prop loss due to incorrect installation, which is the most common cause of these incidents, why would you expect DJI to meet the full cost (or even any of the cost), and why would that make it not a "proper camera platform"? Are you suggesting that they should always simply provide a free replacement if the cause of the event cannot be definitively determined? That would be nice, of course, but probably not a great business model.

It wasn't 'Prop loss', the craft turned over mid flight and did not recover.
(Also something I inspect every flight before start up)
Two members of the public watched it, no contact with anything, no bird attack, no falling props, it just flipped and fell into the dam.
DJI were unable to tell me what happened, and as the craft was lost, I was not able to recover it to find out either.
That is the reason for the 50:50 offer.

My comment regarding it not being a proper camera platform was in regards to not being able to to rely on the craft flying over places it can't be recovered from.

I trusted the Mavic for 7 months, but on a simple flight (approx 70 away and 46m up, forget for a moment it was over water) it fell from the sky. If it were over field, I'd be picking up scrap.
The whole point of having a drone is to get shots you can't get standing in one spot.
If you can't fly more than 70m away without loosing the craft to some mysterious failure, then it's not a great platform.

Ive ordered the replacement, but I can't use it for its intended purpose.... That being action shots of dirt bikes, rally cars and family holidays as I can't risk another total loss. This is my frustration!!

sar104 · Nov 6, 2017

Muppet With A Chopper said:
It wasn't 'Prop loss', the craft turned over mid flight and did not recover.
(Also something I inspect every flight before start up)
Two members of the public watched it, no contact with anything, no bird attack, no falling props, it just flipped and fell into the dam.
DJI were unable to tell me what happened, and as the craft was lost, I was not able to recover it to find out either.
That is the reason for the 50:50 offer.

My comment regarding it not being a proper camera platform was in regards to not being able to to rely on the craft flying over places it can't be recovered from.

I trusted the Mavic for 7 months, but on a simple flight (approx 70 away and 46m up, forget for a moment it was over water) it fell from the sky. If it were over field, I'd be picking up scrap.
The whole point of having a drone is to get shots you can't get standing in one spot.
If you can't fly more than 70m away without loosing the craft to some mysterious failure, then it's not a great platform.

Ive ordered the replacement, but I can't use it for its intended purpose.... That being action shots of dirt bikes, rally cars and family holidays as I can't risk another total loss. This is my frustration!!

That would certainly be a quite unusual event if it were not prop loss, but it certainly could have been ESC failure or similar. And even if it were a hardware fault, I'm not clear why you regard a single, very uncommon failure of a complex piece of equipment that for most people is totally failure-free to mean that the design is bad. Have you never had anything fail before? Appliances, cars, electronics etc.?

And yes - you can, and no doubt have, flown more than 70 m away without mysterious failures occurring. You just cannot guarantee that you will never see a mysterious failure. Those two cases are not equivalent at all, as I'm sure you are aware.

HWCM · Nov 7, 2017

sar104 said:
That would certainly be a quite unusual event if it were not prop loss, but it certainly could have been ESC failure or similar. And even if it were a hardware fault, I'm not clear why you regard a single, very uncommon failure of a complex piece of equipment that for most people is totally failure-free to mean that the design is bad. Have you never had anything fail before? Appliances, cars, electronics etc.?

And yes - you can, and no doubt have, flown more than 70 m away without mysterious failures occurring. You just cannot guarantee that you will never see a mysterious failure. Those two cases are not equivalent at all, as I'm sure you are aware.

It is not uncommon for the mavic to shut down and fall during flight. It is a known issue. There are youtube videos showing tests of them dropping to the ground.

nz_mavic_boyo · Nov 7, 2017

Fook....puts a little caution in my next flight for sure, I just trust it 100% without a thought...unlike my old phantom 2!

Cut.Aussie · Nov 7, 2017

The is not a 747 with triple redundant systems. A single system failure is most certainly going to result in a crash of some kind.

Too me, I have a very simple rule. If I can’t afford to loose it then I don’t fly it, it’s really that simple.

Same with the $150,000 light sport aircraft I fly which only has one dual redundant system (mags), which if why I don’t fly over “tiger” country where I may have only limited options for a forced landing if the engine failed. It’s all about risk management.

Wintrymix · Nov 7, 2017

Well, by your standard, you will never find a "proper camera platform"... at least not a flying one. I challenge you to find a mass produced drone in existence that doesn't have 100's of forum posts from folks with a story very much like yours. Your comment is akin to saying the Ford Explorer isn't a proper vehicle because yours blew an engine at 20,000 miles for some unknown reason. Anomalies happen. It is unfortunate that your drone crashed and died. I and I would guess most people here are truly sympathetic. You are, however, saying some decidedly false things.

Wintrymix

sar104 · Nov 7, 2017

HWCM said:
It is not uncommon for the mavic to shut down and fall during flight. It is a known issue. There are youtube videos showing tests of them dropping to the ground.

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Did you mean "there is a YouTube video of one disconnecting and dropping to the ground"? That makes it not uncommon? Neither the discussion of that particular Mavic here or on the DJI forum led to any other reports of similar behavior surfacing.

cderoche · Nov 7, 2017

SprayingMango said:
Is it safe to store and transport the Mavic with the propellers on all the time? I thought if you put it in a carry case you are supposed to remove them?

That's why the Mavic's props fold in half. Portability vs. the Phantom and others' straight props.

cderoche · Nov 7, 2017

HWCM said:
It is not uncommon for the mavic to shut down and fall during flight. It is a known issue. There are youtube videos showing tests of them dropping to the ground.

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Right before the Mavic dropped it had a strong interference warning. Could this be a hoax video and someone used a type of signal jamming device? I've had signal disconnects many times when at long distance and it never once dropped from the sky. Unless that guy had some type on weird failure. Normally three things will happen on signal disconnect (and not the instant you lose signal), hover, land slowly, or RTH. I'm highly suspect of that guys' video without more info is all I'm getting at.

To say that this is not uncommon AND a known issue, I doubt that entirely. I've never once heard of it and never heard mention of it here or elsewhere. I even searched for that sorta thing before buying the Mavic because I heard of that going on with the Karma. The Karma's problem was real and made lots of headlines. I'd think a big drone maker like DJI putting out a drone that dropped from the sky quite often would make even more headlines.

sar104 · Nov 7, 2017

cderoche said:
Right before the Mavic dropped it had a strong interference warning. Could this be a hoax video and someone used a type of signal jamming device? I've had signal disconnects many times when at long distance and it never once dropped from the sky. Unless that guy had some type on weird failure. Normally three things will happen on signal disconnect (and not the instant you lose signal), hover, land slowly, or RTH. I'm highly suspect of that guys' video without more info is all I'm getting at.

Note that the DAT file for that event showed very unusual behavior before shutdown - the FC stopped receiving sensor data. It was clearly a major hardware fault. It was also quite different from the event reported in this thread.

cderoche · Nov 7, 2017

sar104 said:
Note that the DAT file for that event showed very unusual behavior before shutdown - the FC stopped receiving sensor data. It was clearly a major hardware fault. It was also quite different from the event reported in this thread.

Gotcha. First time I've seen that video. Like any electronic device - one will fail here and there. The part I didn't believe was that this is a common issue.

Matt · Nov 7, 2017

Bergumbira said:
Sad....
It's why I never flew above water until I get my float.
Then since I use them each time I wanna fly directly above water or when is water in the neighborhood even I not plan to hovering there... And only if I also have the way to reach it by walking in shallow water or swim or canoe...
I'm motorcyclist, while crossing crossroads at green light I always look left and right as a red light will not stop a car even they are supposed to stop.
Mavic not floating... So ? Set float on your bird while flying above water. Price around 35 usd... How much your lost?
...

Ball's are only good for emergency soft landing yes. Crash no way. Just orange markers to mark its sinking.
At the 3:51 mark you will notice the one crash impact bust one of the rear legs off

Porto · Nov 8, 2017

Muppet With A Chopper said:
It wasn't 'Prop loss', the craft turned over mid flight and did not recover.
(Also something I inspect every flight before start up)
Two members of the public watched it, no contact with anything, no bird attack, no falling props, it just flipped and fell into the dam.
DJI were unable to tell me what happened, and as the craft was lost, I was not able to recover it to find out either.
That is the reason for the 50:50 offer.

My comment regarding it not being a proper camera platform was in regards to not being able to to rely on the craft flying over places it can't be recovered from.

I trusted the Mavic for 7 months, but on a simple flight (approx 70 away and 46m up, forget for a moment it was over water) it fell from the sky. If it were over field, I'd be picking up scrap.
The whole point of having a drone is to get shots you can't get standing in one spot.
If you can't fly more than 70m away without loosing the craft to some mysterious failure, then it's not a great platform.

Ive ordered the replacement, but I can't use it for its intended purpose.... That being action shots of dirt bikes, rally cars and family holidays as I can't risk another total loss. This is my frustration!!

Hi Muppet, could you tell us what FW your Mavic was? Thanks.

Muppet With A Chopper · Nov 9, 2017

HWCM said:
It is not uncommon for the mavic to shut down and fall during flight. It is a known issue. There are youtube videos showing tests of them dropping to the ground.

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This is why I'll be having trust issues with the new unit....

Muppet With A Chopper · Nov 9, 2017

Porto said:
Hi Muppet, could you tell us what FW your Mavic was? Thanks.

Two versions old.... I forget the actual update number, but I did not go ahead with the updates as the one that I did do put me out of the air for several days while I got the junk GO-4 app and the firmware to play nice again....
I watched the threads of other's troubles and stuck with what I had.
Most of the App updates have been more bloatware, Spark compatibility, editor updates etc.

I imagine the new unit will be more up to date.... With all that entails.

Porto · Nov 9, 2017

Muppet With A Chopper said:
Two versions old.... I forget the actual update number, but I did not go ahead with the updates as the one that I did do put me out of the air for several days while I got the junk GO-4 app and the firmware to play nice again....
I watched the threads of other's troubles and stuck with what I had.
Most of the App updates have been more bloatware, Spark compatibility, editor updates etc.

I imagine the new unit will be more up to date.... With all that entails.

Thanks for the info. I am guessing you are on .900