Mavic Pro Platinum Goes Haywire and Heads for China

[Conservative Nihilist]

There was copious wailing and gnashing of teeth yesterday as I watched in stunned disbelief the spectacle of my beloved Mavic Pro Platinum defying all my pilot controller inputs and making a beeline for the distant horizon with a good 30 minutes of flight time left on the Ali Express oversized battery I installed in the drone to make it capable of completing 13-mile round trip Litchi waypoint missions. Just the day prior, the same MPP had completed a 12.7-mile round-trip waypoint mission out over a tropical rainforest, so it was bewildering to see the drone depart at full speed without any control inputs from me.

I lost RC signal connectivity within seconds of liftoff on the fateful day this drone went AWOL, so my frantic flailing at the controls to bring it back down for a landing had no effect. The drone developed a mind of its own and I suspect the recent solar storms had something to do with the utterly bizarre behavior I witnessed that fateful day. I will buy another Mavic Pro Platinum to replace the lost one because they are consistently reliable old workhorse drones that are not finicky about SD card speeds, as is the case with both my Mavic 2 Pros.

So, fellow armchair aviators, join me in observing ten seconds of silence to mourn the departure of my late and lamented Mavic Pro Platinum to China where it will join its ancestors in the great beyond

 

[Meta4]

The drone developed a mind of its own and I suspect the recent solar storms had something to do with the utterly bizarre behavior I witnessed that fateful day.

If it was that simple, hundreds of other drone flyers would have lost their drones too ... but they didn't.
Your incident had nothing to do with solar storm activity.
I have a suspicion about what the actual cause was, but without flight data it's not possible to confirm or find an alternative explanation that would help you to avoid repeating the incident in future.

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

If it was that simple, hundreds of other drone flyers would have lost their drones too ... but they didn't.
Your incident had nothing to do with solar storm activity.
I have a suspicion about what the actual cause was, but without flight data it's not possible to confirm or find an alternative explanation that would help you to avoid repeating the incident in future.

The bizarre thing was that the video feed cut off almost instantly once the drone ascended from its takeoff point to 150 feet AGL. Green horizontal bars replaced the camera view, as the drone sped off into the gathering dusk. There is absolutely nothing on the Find My Drone map, and it is almost as though the flight never occurred. I regret the loss of my $200 extra range Ali Express battery almost as much as I regret the loss of the MPP.

There had been a warning about the compass needing calibration, but I had done all calibrations that are possible for that drone just weeks earlier and had not taken it anywhere else to launch besides my front yard. When I restarted the drone, the compass warning went away so I assumed that all was well, until the moment I saw that all was not well.

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

This is one of two long-range Litchi waypoint missions the drone flew just the day before the unlucky 13th of May when the MPP departed for the last time. This mission covered a (55,025 feet) 10.42-mile round trip out over the eastbound course of a river, and the MPP made the trip without a hitch, as it had done many times in the past, this time landing with 22% battery.

 

[RangerEd]

Wow not only do they call home, they can also fly home. Brilliant!

 

[RodPad]

Looks like a screen shot there is no data, for these guys to help.

Have you seen this thread?

Mavic Flight Log Retrieval and Analysis Guide

With the introduction of the Mavic Mini there has been a noticeable uptick in the number of posts requesting help with lost or crashed aircraft. While there is plenty of help and advice available on this forum, and detailed guidance and options on several other websites, I thought that perhaps a...

mavicpilots.com

Rod ..

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

I have some reading to do from this link you've kindly provided Rod. I suspect there might turn out to be no flight log recorded because the drone disconnected from the smart device and the controller within seconds following takeoff and its initial ascent, after which there was no video image and no response to control inputs or to switching to sport mode in a last-ditch effort to regain control while I still had the drone in sight

 

[RodPad]

Never know tell you share the data, these guys are good!
BTW, you post were your stuck you will get help.

Been here a while. I bet there is at least 5+ members waiting for your next post.

Rod ..

 

[RodPad]

The screen shot a made a remark about.on #4

I think you can down the flight data and then share that.

Rod ..

 

[Shuttersky597]

When you say Ali Express battery. Do you mean a DJI battery purchased from Ali Express or a non DJI battery?

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

When you say Ali Express battery. Do you mean a DJI battery purchased from Ali Express or a non DJI battery?

I am referring to non-DJI after-market batteries that make possible flight times far greater than the flight duration possible with stock DJI batteries, many of which are no longer available for older drones like the Mavic 1 Pro.

This link shows an example costing nearly $200 for an 8000nAh battery to fit the Mavic 1 Pro, to make possible 32-minute flights. That extended range of up to 13 miles flown at 27 mph is a God-send for drone owners like me who reside where fully autonomous long-range waypoint flights are permitted.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806648383881.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.5.485bBwwdBwwdA2&algo_pvid=d7d18397-2d4f-405c-b331-d102a6c4a795&algo_exp_id=d7d18397-2d4f-405c-b331-d102a6c4a795-2&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21USD%21362.70%21181.35%21%21%212613.09%211306.54%21%40211b615317163930663456527eba84%2112000038453707468%21sea%21US%210%21AB&curPageLogUid=mMcRYDd7VWj0&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

Flags are flying at half-mast today, as my KIA Mavic Pro Platinum made its final trip home in a hunter's shoulder bag. Turns out the drone went AWOL in a linearly descending trajectory that ended in a tall tree beside a jungle clearing where preparations were underway for this year's new corn crop. The drone fell into tall grass where it sat through several torrential downpours until a rented tractor showed up to plow the land. My prized extra capacity battery was regrettably a write-off, along with the Firehouse strobe I hoped to recycle for later use.

The tractor driver didn't see the drone and thus ran the plow over it. pulverizing the drone beyond any hope of repair. The farmer saw my phone number on the drone and called me to claim his reward in a local currency amount equivalent to one US dollar. Here is the carnage for the viewing pleasure of gore fans in the house. I will certainly buy a replacement MPP before long, and it is good to see the prices of this old workhorse dropping as it becomes a timeless classic that now only appeals to the discerning few misers like me who refuse to follow trends by upgrading to anything newer than the Mavic 2 Pro.

 

[RodPad]

Not to be ?

You never uploaded any flight data or did I miss that part?
This thread started 3 weeks ago?

Sorry if I'm missing something.

Rod ..