Mavic recovery from forests

[SkyHB]

Hi,

I'm flying often over forests (e.g. the Wienerwald in Austria) frequently.
If something breaks in-flight I'm stuck with two problems:

1.) How to locate the downed mavic in the forest?

I know that part of this has been discussed in other topics. As I'm flying VLOS mostly (the only legal way here) and through the last GPS signal I will have an approximate position, but if a prop breaks in flight I would expect the mavic to crash within a 60 m / 180 ft radius. That is a large area to cover.

I'm aware of some RF tracking beacons (as discussed in the video below).
Do you have any experiences with them in 3D environments like forests?

What about an acoustic alarm circuit which goes of 30 minutes after activation (if not cancelled, e.g. when replacing the battery)? I imagine this would be more reliable, and I could send in my dog too

2.) How to get it from a 20m / 60ft tree?

I'm not a climber myself - I could ask the local fire department, but I guess they will not fancy to climb a tree in the middle of nowhere for me.
I could hire a tree climber or try to shoot it down with a tennis ball.
Any thoughts?

 

[joker1960]

Hi,

I'm flying often over forests (e.g. the Wienerwald in Austria) frequently.
If something breaks in-flight I'm stuck with two problems:

1.) How to locate the downed mavic in the forest?

I know that part of this has been discussed in other topics. As I'm flying VLOS mostly (the only legal way here) and through the last GPS signal I will have an approximate position, but if a prop breaks in flight I would expect the mavic to crash within a 60 m / 180 ft radius. That is a large area to cover.

I'm aware of some RF tracking beacons (as discussed in the video below).
Do you have any experiences with them in 3D environments like forests?

What about an acoustic alarm circuit which goes of 30 minutes after activation (if not cancelled, e.g. when replacing the battery)? I imagine this would be more reliable, and I could send in my dog too

2.) How to get it from a 20m / 60ft tree?

I'm not a climber myself - I could ask the local fire department, but I guess they will not fancy to climb a tree in the middle of nowhere for me.
I could hire a tree climber or try to shoot it down with a tennis ball.
Any thoughts?

 

[joker1960]

I've used three sticks of 1/2 inch PVC and coupled them together the landing feet fit inside the pipe to hold it while it's dangling in the air took 2 people and 12 ft "A" ladder.Thought about a chain saw but it wasn't my tree or my property and I had a lot of spectators by the time I was done.

 

[frostbyte]

After all my research, the most effective tracking devices are RF transmitter / beacon setups. Most include a 433 MHz transmitter with dipole and a receiver with a "yagi" antenna. Yagi are excellent and precise at VERY long range, miles. This is what I purchased back in the day and it is very user friendly and worked for me like a charm even in dense forest from long distances. Heres the marcopolo, its expensive $219 but worth it if you are paranoid and petrified to fly in the forest. Some trackers give real time tracking data but absorb a lot of battery, I needed something I could trust to last for days in case I had to come back later with tools and equipment to retrieve the drone. The marco polo lasts 30 days on a full charge.

BlueTooth: I tried other trackers which failed, range is poor unless you are practically standing on top of the tracker.
SIM card: I also tried the cell phone SIM card trackers but they were heavy and cost monthly fees, some are difficult to set up, like Trackimo.

After all of my research I had 2 conclusions:
1. In most flight circumstances I did not need the extra tracking because the GPS on the DJI products is state of the art and very reliable.
2. The old school RF trackers were the most reliable and fail proof in almost all situations, marco polo was just a brand that was most user friendly.

MarcoPolo: RC Model Tracking and Recovery - Tracking and Recovery Made Easy | Marco Polo the Tracking and Recovery System
Note: I stopped using it when I was confident the GPS was solid and as I grew confidence in my piloting skills.

 

[YngveN]

If you are able to get close enough for the controller to reconnect (provided the Mavic still have battery left) you can make it sound an alarm through the Go4 "Find my Drone" function

 

[Clintsc9]

SkyHB, you are talking about problems in mid-flight, broken prop etc. So in most of those cases the battery would still have a fair charge.
Unless you have a crash while returning home after battery reaches 8%, you will get a good amount of time with the Mavic GPS showing its location to your screen.
Worked for me when it got to less than 8% and auto landed over 500 metres away from me in long grass. By the time I got to it by using the Go4 app, it was still showing its location and the internal fans were running so I could just hear it when I was close enough even though I couldn't see it in the grass. This was before the Find My Drone option became available.
Stuck 20m up in a tree? Yeah, you got problems.