My dumb mistake...and risking my life and limb

[btonetbone]

Just curious, if stuck in a tree can you manually start the motors and quickly try and knock it loose by throttling up or anything?

Obviously it'd be bad for a motor that is jammed but.... Will the motors start and rev maually?

If it gets knocked loose, there is a likelihood that at least one of the propellers could be chipped, something could be tangled, or one of the motors might not be free enough to fully start. You could very easily end up accidentally causing your drone to drop like a brick from the tree.

 

[Skewif]

If it gets knocked loose, there is a likelihood that at least one of the propellers could be chipped, something could be tangled, or one of the motors might not be free enough to fully start. You could very easily end up accidentally causing your drone to drop like a brick from the tree.

I’d be under to catch it.. no matter what the injuries.

 

[Lake_Flyer]

I had to find a safe place to land.

I always determine a safe place to land BEFORE I start to fly. Or hand catch it.

 

[Devster]

I always determine a safe place to land BEFORE I start to fly. Or hand catch it.

This case he didn't have that option...

 

[GerdS]

That's just one more example for the reason to disable automatic RTH on low battery. Maybe a good function for newbies, but I prefer monitoring battery levels on my own and to usually touch down at around 30% remaining capacity.
The early battery warning at 30% is sufficient to me.

 

[Tripner]

Thanks for sharing your tree climbing adventure. Most of us have made dumb mistakes and maybe this forum should have a section (applicable to all DJI copters) called “Read here so you can avoid the sad and regrettable mistakes we have all made.”

The Mavic Air hand catches rather well and, as mentioned by someone else, is a good way to get around tricky landings like those rocks you were dealing with.

 

[SpyderSkeets]

I always determine a safe place to land BEFORE I start to fly. Or hand catch it.

Although there were a lot of rocks, I had already predetermined a small rock-free area to land (same place I took off from) and that is where I was navigating to.

As far as hand catching, I do hand catch my Yuneec Typhoon H, but that has tall landing gear to grab onto. I am pretty apprehensive trying to hand catch the Air as your hands are pretty close to the props and you're just hoping that the Air goes straight down onto your hand...unless there is a different way to do it that I'm not aware of.

 

[sberfield]

A few years ago, my first home built quad went wonky and ended up about 40' up a fir tree. My wife still doesn't know that I climbed up and got it down - at 55 years old.

 

[Memphis3]

Point of no Return (PONR) Software

DJI software simple calculation of battery life and flight time ground speed then flash a PONR warning when your beyond safe return.
Ok
Battery life could be calculated from the last flight.
Assuming you can tag a old battery from a 2nd newer battery.

Wind or air speed relative to ground speed per GPS/DJI Sensors

DJI should be able to provide software via a update to flash a PONR warning

 

[RayOZ]

What’s your battery settings? 38% to 30% to 10% doesn’t take a few seconds unless you’ve got a faulty battery. Some details are missing?
Your MA would be over 20m away for the RTH to kick in to go up to RTH height. I think less than 20m, it’ll return at current altitude. <5m, it’ll just land. (That from MP manual, not sure if MA is the same).

 

[SpyderSkeets]

What’s your battery settings? 38% to 30% to 10% doesn’t take a few seconds unless you’ve got a faulty battery. Some details are missing?
Your MA would be over 20m away for the RTH to kick in to go up to RTH height. I think less than 20m, it’ll return at current altitude. <5m, it’ll just land. (That from MP manual, not sure if MA is the same).

Yes, the manual says that if it is less than 5m from the home point, it should land immediately. Now that your post made me think about it more and i am sure that i was not at the original take off point as part of the flight flight consisted of me walking around testing the active track. So even though it was pretty low to the ground, when the RTH kicked in, it wanted to RTH to the original take off point and that is why it started to climb to the RTH altitude.

 

[ReadyKilowatt]

I learned the hard way to always follow the pre-flight checklist and to plan plan plan your flight. Free flying is fun within boundaries but you should still have a plan for takeoff and landing, know when you're going to come home, etc. Include setting a RTH altitude that is consistent with your flight plan. Back when I started flying I did some free flying around some rock formations that were higher than my RTH altitude. At one point I flew my Inspire 1 behind a rock, which caused loss of signal. Because I hadn't checked/verified/set LOS reaction it was set to the default RTH, with altitude lower than the hillside. So it basically crashed itself into the ground about 350' above the takeoff altitude. I recovered the drone but the camera was gone.

An Inspire 1 pro with $600 worth of damage and a lost Zenmuse X5 camera is a pretty harsh way to learn a lesson. Be glad you got yours back. And use the experience to correct your mistakes.

 

[baddog]

Too funny but I admire your determination. I would have done the same... I hate the RTH I am confident in myself to check my battery and when I get to 20%, I come back. I abide by the FAA rules of my license and always stay within visual line of sight of my drone. The Mavic Pro's low profile and my old eyes will keep the drone well within range to get back with 20% left

 

[RayOZ]

I learned the hard way to always follow the pre-flight checklist and to plan plan plan your flight. Free flying is fun within boundaries but you should still have a plan for takeoff and landing, know when you're going to come home, etc. Include setting a RTH altitude that is consistent with your flight plan. Back when I started flying I did some free flying around some rock formations that were higher than my RTH altitude. At one point I flew my Inspire 1 behind a rock, which caused loss of signal. Because I hadn't checked/verified/set LOS reaction it was set to the default RTH, with altitude lower than the hillside. So it basically crashed itself into the ground about 350' above the takeoff altitude. I recovered the drone but the camera was gone.

An Inspire 1 pro with $600 worth of damage and a lost Zenmuse X5 camera is a pretty harsh way to learn a lesson. Be glad you got yours back. And use the experience to correct your mistakes.

Sounds like how I crashed my Mavic (altitude says 20m, above takeoff point, so the ground must have came up and hit it). A new rule for myself, scout the area and fly from the highest point around. Avoid walking away from home location, unless dynamic home point is enabled (for active track), or manually trigger new home point if you've decided to move to a new spot.

 

[shb]

yea that's why I don't like the go4 app. I've written my own app, and when I want to do something, I just hit one button, and it does it.

 

[tlfromva]

Too funny but I admire your determination. I would have done the same.

+1. Got my MP as a Christmas gift. Starting out, I flew it around on our property (10 rolling acres, with about 6 wooded) just to get a feel for it. Came home one day with a little sunlight left and rushed to get in a few minutes of practice. Lost my (heading) orientation and backed into the top of a small tree (when I meant to pull away) , the base of which were in some brambles. Couldn't shake or jar it out, so out came the saw.... When the tree fell, I'll be darned if it didn't lean into another tree with the MP still beyond reach. Twilight now. Got my tractor out and a chain. Pulled the tree out slowly, bringing my MP back within reach by the light of my headlights. Happy to have the Mavic back, but chagrined by how my rushing "to get a few minutes in" led to the whole thing being played out in full view of my wife.

 

[SpyderSkeets]

Too funny but I admire your determination. I would have done the same... I hate the RTH I am confident in myself to check my battery and when I get to 20%, I come back. I abide by the FAA rules of my license and always stay within visual line of sight of my drone. The Mavic Pro's low profile and my old eyes will keep the drone well within range to get back with 20% left

What makes my determination even more funny is i put the Air on my State Farm policy the day before and prob could have just filed a claim on the loss.

 

[Jake37]

I think I can agree on when you hit cancel RTH or LAND it should just cancel, sometimes by the time you confirm it might be too late as this poster found out. I almost had a couple close calls myself!

I tell you what is really bad, I hate the LAND button on screen right above the RTH button on screen. I knew I had to RTH a couple times and not realizing I actually hit the LAND button, I was over a river once and luckily I caught it in time and canceled LAND NOW and then hit the correct button to RTH on Screen. I guess trying to be sure I have line of site and all the other on screen visuals and of course my old eyes, I need to pay more attention to the LAND or RTH symbols.... but why not move it to the far right or bottom of the screen to keep this from happening. Of course this is on the Mavic Pro but I would imagine the layout is the same on the Mavic Air's Phone screen!

 

[ciscokid]

I had this happen to me last week. the battery was not low, i was just trying to see how fast i could go and turn as i was going up and do it smoothly. yep, it got caught up in a tree. My brother and i looked around to see if anyone was looking, as we had to go get a poll to get it down.I did not want anyone to steal it while we were gone to get the poll. Ha, he had one of those extension polls used for painting and it extended 16 feet. It just made it to get it down. After that i went to Home Depot and bought one that has 3 extensions and will go up 23 feet. I took a roller handle for painting, got rid of the roller and put a bend in the metal where the roller slides on. The hook will help get it down. When it is all closed up it is only 8 ft long. I wont leave home with out it. Bottom line, fly in an open area when practicing.
At the time this happened i would have paid more than the $40.00 i paid for the poll to get it back.
I hope i will never need to use that poll.

 

[vashon100]

..... we had to go get a poll to get it down.....

What was the final vote count? (just kidding)