MavicPro disconnected mid flight for the first time ever (any wisdom as to why?)

[Earthman]

Radio waves cannot go through trees, hillsides and buildings. Signals in the frequency range allotted for drone operations are included in this limitation of the Physics of radiated electromagnetic energy.

Frequently the video downlink will drop off first, still allowing you to control the drone without receiving the video downlink. Without the uplink control signals, theRTH command will not be received by the drone, and work.

Not likely the cause of your apparent loss of control, but you should be aware that the kind of antennas used on the controllers typically have a “dead zone” off the ends of the antennas. In general, they radiate and receive best in directions perpendicular to the antennas and hardly at all off the ends. Therefore, avoid pointing the ends of the antennas at the drone, especially in open areas where there is little to reflect the radio waves to create other than direct pathways between the controller and drone.

 

[Andyh77777]

I flew my MP1 for over a year without this sort of incident occurring, but then it started happening with increasing regularity. In my case the dji controller never lost contact with the aircraft. In every case the phone screen device lost connection with the controller. Rebooting the phone mid flight never helped. Rebooting the controller mid flight always restored the connection between the phone and the controller, and thus normal controlled flight reestablished. The phone I used was the Samsung Galaxy S5. This old phone was originally listed as compatible with the MP1 but was removed from the compatibility list a couple of years ago. I had the same experience with a second S5 as well as changing the usb cable and port. In the end I changed the screen device to an iPad 8th Gen and the problem has so far not reappeared. Could the OP say what screen device they are using?

 

[SXB1]

I also have had this happen numerous times in varied situations, last was on an open beach far away from any people/buildings/etc but lost controller signal 10m away from me while it was about 5 seconds into a Helix shot. This resulted in drone stopping shortly after and went into RTH mode, which fine you may think, apart from the numerous rock pools dotted around me. Luckily after a controller restart I regained control 5' above the ground as it was about to land.
The idea of staying calm seems fine, till you have no control haha, hence a very good reason to make sure Home is marked once you've taken off.