Mini 3 Pro lost at sea...
- Thread starter jmrmavic2
- Start date
Despite my Mavic Air 2 drone being very reliable since new, 2 years ago, I don’t have enough faith in it to fly it out over open water like many here do with their drones, let alone launch it off a boat. Even when I am on board a boat myself, my Nikon DSLR and Sony video cameras stay well attached around my neck or wrist with their carry straps! 
I guess if the drone fell to earth it would likely still need burying, too, but at least I could give it some “last rites“ and not just wave goodbye as it disappeared beneath the waves ……. 
Sorry for your loss. Nice drone, too.
I guess if the drone fell to earth it would likely still need burying, too, but at least I could give it some “last rites“ and not just wave goodbye as it disappeared beneath the waves ……. Sorry for your loss. Nice drone, too.In the 107 area there is a thing called Risk Management. You need to ask yourself is this flight really worth it and what precautions am I taking, Have been flying for just over a year now and there are all kinds of drones in trees, hit the chimney on the house, ran into the fence and many in the ocean and lake that I have seen.
globetrotterdrone
Well-Known Member
There's an "issue" where the Mini 3 Pro seems to switch off the motors when lifting. Not sure if this intended behaviour, but it has been reported - not only here.
Launching from a moving object and especially catching on a boat in 3 dimensions with narrow space is extremely tricky.
Dji analysis conclusion as in Manual, Flight Limits, DO NOT take off from moving objects such as cars and boats..
So Pilot error.
1. The aircraft worked under GPS mode in this flight. There was a horizontal speed of 2.9 m/s when the aircraft took off, which indicated that the aircraft was launched from a moving platform;
2. Flight Time T=00:02, Relative Height H=0 m, Distance to Home Point D=3.9 m, Infrared Height H=0 m, the aircraft crashed;
3. The incident coordinate: 51.1508128 2.5936257.
As a conclusion, according to the analysis, the incident was caused due to an improper flight environment. We kindly ask you to please do not launch the aircraft from a moving platform.
So Pilot error.
1. The aircraft worked under GPS mode in this flight. There was a horizontal speed of 2.9 m/s when the aircraft took off, which indicated that the aircraft was launched from a moving platform;
2. Flight Time T=00:02, Relative Height H=0 m, Distance to Home Point D=3.9 m, Infrared Height H=0 m, the aircraft crashed;
3. The incident coordinate: 51.1508128 2.5936257.
As a conclusion, according to the analysis, the incident was caused due to an improper flight environment. We kindly ask you to please do not launch the aircraft from a moving platform.
As a matter of fact, yes, from a moving boat. The controller complained that the boat was moving, so we slowed down just a bit and I launched it just fine.
Since I knew from the start that a lot of my flights would be over water I invested in a set of floats for the Air 2S. Flew with the once, then not again. It's not that they were a problem to fly with, other than the occasional bob into the camera's shot, they just were not necessary. I still have them in case I ever feel that a water flight might be risky enough to warrant floats, but so far, I make sure I get back to home with battery to spare, don't fly in sketchy air or generally unfavorable weather. But since my days of flying hang gliders I've learned it's better to scrub a flying day than risk a problem. It was harder with hang gliders, though, because you had to commit to a significant drive to the flight area, take time to set-up and pre-flight the glider (took a bit longer than with a drone), and yet be prepared to give the whole thing up if conditions were even slightly off. Knowing, full well, you might not get in another flying day for a month or more. Most hang glider accidents are the result of the pilot deciding to fly when he should have packed up and gone home. The same is true with flying drones, only home isn't 100 miles away and pack-up takes a minute or two.Despite my Mavic Air 2 drone being very reliable since new, 2 years ago, I don’t have enough faith in it to fly it out over open water like many here do with their drones, let alone launch it off a boat. Even when I am on board a boat myself, my Nikon DSLR and Sony video cameras stay well attached around my neck or wrist with their carry straps!
As to taking off from a moving boat, look, it's all about moderation. I'd never launch from a boat moving at 20mph or more, for example. But from one putting along a no-wake, it seems to just not be an issue other than your RTH point is meaningless. So, don't RTH, and fly smart. If the water is all chopped up, perhaps it's not smart to launch at all.
And I took several hours to do nothing but practice spot-landings until I got good at it. Just repeated launch, turn around, and land a few dozen times. To count, the landing had to be within a couple inches of dead-nuts-on-target. If you can do that well, repeatedly, without fail, hand-catching landings from a slightly moving platform is no big deal.
Captain Stavros
Member
I totally get it. You want to recover the drone if it falls out of the air because of something that goes wrong outside your control. Yeah, me too. But, it actually is psychological. When people say it's not, they're essentially denying being human, and even that is psychological.
Mid-flight drone failures are actually fairly rare. Most crashes are pilot-induced. It's my ability, or lack of it, that scares me, not the possibly failure of the drone. That's why I find open water easy and trees more white-knuckle. But there again, tree-skimming looks VERY cool on video, so that's what I'm working on now. That, and how low to the water I can get without an issue. Because a full speed sport-mode flight at a few feet over the surface looks spectacular when inter-cut with tree-skimming slow speed shots. I've even started to fly between branches on bigger trees, where the branches are like 15' apart. Next is navigating the forest. These are the skills that make for great footage, and that's my goal, so that's the drill. It's about skill, and getting confidence, which is the inverse of surmounting fear.
When I took the Air 2S out for the first time, the stress was incredible. But my first flight was a drill, I had a set of 15 moves to work through, squares, circles, slow moves, spot landings, etc. Very little just "fun" flying, it was training. The next few flights were less stressful. And now I'm hand-launching from boats, skimming the water, etc. You build up to it with air time, lots and lots of air time.
Also, the Care-Refresh thing makes it easy to learn without fear of crashing or loss for a year or two. How would you fly if losing or crashing the drone just wasn't an issue? If the biggest fear is gone, you push harder to learn the skills and build trust in the equipment. I know everyone crashes at some point, it's just a matter of when and how bad. When I do crash it will be my fault, I'm pretty sure.
The other thing is we all hear about or see vidoe of fly-aways because they're a big deal. "MY drone flew out to sea!" Yeah, scary. But the reality is, it's "news", just like watching broadcast news. You only see the bad stuff. You see coverage of a plane crash, you don't see coverage of the 1M+ successful flights, and that skews our perception. People won't fly because the see planes crash on the news. But they drive every day, and every day people die in car crashes that don't make the news. Drone crashes are big "news" in our world, but the really don't happen all that often, certainly not the ones that are equipment failures.
I'm staying with it being psychology.
Captain Stavros
Member
Hi everybody, I am following most mini 3 Pro threads for a while now and I had an issue with mine yesterday when launching from back of sailing boat.
I have some experience with several bigger Dji drones in the past years without any issue, but this was my first mini.
Hand launching from the back deck it took off but lost power and lift almost immediately and it fell in the water without any chance of recuperation.
The wind was 3-4 Beaufort,...I had checked all safety settings before launch and had plenty of satellites.
There was no home point set yet because RC screen showed that ac was moving(sailing), I was expecting a home point setting once airborne.
Although home point at sea is to be reset from time to time.
Wondering if I made a pilot error or this could be hardware fault?
Thanks anyone for any advice, hope you can open the file.
Greetings JM
Dropbox
www.dropbox.com
Nearly lost mine too recently at sea shooting footage of The Red Sand Forts. I've owned the mini 1/2 with no crashes/launch issues. Not only could I not hand launch via upwards thrust on land but at sea when hand launching via joystick the drone took off properly but like you've stated dropped out of the sky lurching but caught itself unsteadily it was gut twisting to watch. The boat was anchored and homepoint set 14 satellites. Although the mission went successfully landing was even worse than launching. Wouldn't land on the deck, completely unsteady decent and hand grab wasn't an option as the 3 wouldn't lower itself. Had to get a net on a pole from below deck, hover over and then cut the props to safely return. I've noticed that hand landings, or any really work best when landing backwards, I.E. Front sensors point away from yourself. Fingers crossed DJI will help you out.Hi everybody, I am following most mini 3 Pro threads for a while now and I had an issue with mine yesterday when launching from back of sailing boat.
I have some experience with several bigger Dji drones in the past years without any issue, but this was my first mini.
Hand launching from the back deck it took off but lost power and lift almost immediately and it fell in the water without any chance of recuperation.
The wind was 3-4 Beaufort,...I had checked all safety settings before launch and had plenty of satellites.
There was no home point set yet because RC screen showed that ac was moving(sailing), I was expecting a home point setting once airborne.
Although home point at sea is to be reset from time to time.
Wondering if I made a pilot error or this could be hardware fault?
Thanks anyone for any advice, hope you can open the file.
Greetings JM
Dropbox
Saw it. That's not a launch technique I knew about.
What I did, because I had never hand-launced a Mini anything before, was check YouTube for videos on how to do it correctly. Found one or two, the techniques were a little different than I expected, certainly not yours, but I did them, and no hand-launch issues.
dirkclod
Well-Known Member
Guys thread has been cleaned some as it had strayed off topic.
Please stay on the Original Topic.
Thanks.
Please stay on the Original Topic.
Thanks.
I hand-launch my M3P regularly as I seem to always be in fields of long grass! I have the RC version (not that this matters). Holding the body in my finger tips, I positiogn my left hand on the controller to depress both levers down starting the props. Then I use the left one to fire the drone high in the sky. Never faltered. I have never used the auto-launch button (or to land for that matter). I also catch the drone by hovering it at just above head height, bringing my hand in from below and behind until I have a firm grip on the underside(where the battery clips are located I guess) and then left lever down until the props stop. If you come from underneath it rises due to the sensors. I'm sure you all know this but just in case.
Instead of sneaking up and grabbing it. Present your open palm underneath it (it may rise a little if too close). Once stable it will assume a safe landing area and not rise on you and then you can just pull down on the throttle.
I just saw a young kid at the park this morning try to grab his Mini 3 just as you stated and left with some bloody fingers and forearm.
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