My Mavic flew off today in the NV wilderness

[GerdS]

After seeing a video where a Mavic crashed into a tree while in Active Track mode and the owner had to search quite long for it, although the GPS position was known, I decided to attach a Loc8tor transmitter to my Mavic with velcro, just above of the rear LED. Compared to a white Phantom the Mavic is quite difficult to recognise, especially if it lands in gras or bushes, so the Loc8tor will be a good aid for the last 100 meters or so.

 

[Watty]

I am a total noob tho... only been flying for a week.

Bloody hell, when I'd been flying my Phantom for only a week, I never went further than a few hundred feet.

 

[ACR]

Why were you flying it a mile away? FAA regulations say you must fly within vlos at all times.
If you were flying around Red Rocks then you were doing so illegally as it is a National Park. I tried a few years ago and the Ranger stopped me.
Hopefully, you will learn from this and never fly beyond vlos!

I joined this forum for two reasons. Reason one is to learn as much as I can before the Mavic is delivered. There is a lot of information to learn posted by some very knowledgable people. Thank you to those people.

The second reason, is to inform you, Grey Wolf, that your tone in many of your posts is doing nothing for the forum, nor the people in need of help.

There are much better ways to help people instead of letting them know that "hopefully they'll learn from this and never fly beyond vlos". Did he have binoculars, spotter, camera with super tele? Or, perhaps his eye sight is better than average and is able to see his drone up to a mile away.

Here's a good suggestion: Read, and then re-read posts before responding and jumping on the regulation bandwagon. As I understand, utahlasvegas was filming some rocks that were lit up by the sun.

To the OP: I'm glad you made it back to your truck, getting lost is never a good time after dark. If you go out searching, make sure you're prepared to spend a night in the wild and let someone know where you are, and when you plan to be back.

 

[DroningOn]

The second reason, is to inform you, Grey Wolf, that your tone in many of your posts is doing nothing for the forum, nor the people in need of help.

There are much better ways to help people instead of letting them know that "hopefully they'll learn from this and never fly beyond vlos". Did he have binoculars, spotter, camera with super tele? Or, perhaps his eye sight is better than average and is able to see his drone up to a mile away.

^^^ What he said

 

[utahlasvegas]

I'm about to try to go find it, but the gps coordinates from the flight log has one more number on lat and longitude than the Garmin handheld. Do any of you awesome folks have any suggestions?


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[Romi]

Why were you flying it a mile away? FAA regulations say you must fly within vlos at all times.
If you were flying around Red Rocks then you were doing so illegally as it is a National Park. I tried a few years ago and the Ranger stopped me.
Hopefully, you will learn from this and never fly beyond vlos!

NOT helpful.

 

[Skydog]

Is it after a decimal?


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[utahlasvegas]

No, my coordinates are 36.471146, -114.214532. I don't have room for the 6 or the 2 with how my Garmin is setup


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[GerdS]

Then just round up to 36.47115 and down to -114.21453.

 

[HeavensAbove]

No, my coordinates are 36.471146, -114.214532. I don't have room for the 6 or the 2 with how my Garmin is setup


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The garmin will just be slightly less accurate, hence fewer dps.


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[Skydog]

No, my coordinates are 36.471146, -114.214532. I don't have room for the 6 or the 2 with how my Garmin is setup


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Your talking less than 10 feet difference at that point

 

[utahlasvegas]

Really? Okay, that makes me feel more confident now. I didn't want to go out there yet without phone reception to try this out.


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[F6Rider]

From the looks of the area you should be able to make the climb, as long as it didn't tumble over the side.

 

[bsshog40]

I am really curious to see the outcome here. Good luck! Hope you find it!

 

[Vicrimo]

Hope you were able to locate it


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[utahlasvegas]

I had to head away from the location to get an internet connection to figure out what to do, and during the drive I noticed that my truck was acting really weird. The location is very remote and a bit of a difficult drive, so I'm hoping to head back out there after my truck is running better. With all of your help, I did learn how to pull the low-res video off my phone, and I put it up on Instagram because I'm close to being finished with my project 366 over there. After watching the video, though, it doesn't look like the drone is going to be in an easy place to reach.

Instagram video by Beau Rogers • Dec 19, 2016 at 2:56am UTC

 

[utahlasvegas]

I'm a college photography teacher who's semester just ended, and I'm at the beginning of a long and out of the way drive to my mom's house for Christmas.

 

[utahlasvegas]

After looking at that video again, I feel like I need a professional rock climber to get the drone back. :-( Hopefully, it kept flying a little bit before the video cut out.

 

[erkme73]

Why were you flying it a mile away? FAA regulations say you must fly within vlos at all times.
If you were flying around Red Rocks then you were doing so illegally as it is a National Park. I tried a few years ago and the Ranger stopped me.
Hopefully, you will learn from this and never fly beyond vlos!

Wow. A member here since mid-October. 70+ posts, and only 11 likes. It would appear @ACR calling you out on your pisss poor attitude drew nearly as many likes as you've been able to muster your entire two months here. Quite telling.

Yes, the OP may well have violated some guidelines, but WTH are you to immediately hop up on a soapbox and berate the guy. At least he has the courage to post about an experience that he knows the likes of you will trash - so the rest of the community can learn.

I am WAY more frustrated of the insidious need for people like you to publicly call out and harass fellow operators, than I am of any rules violations he may have committed. And, by the looks of the replies, it would appear I'm not the only one.

Your comments do immeasurably more harm to the forum community than anything the OP has done, by intimidating other would-be posters to the point that the will not share their experiences. Is that worth it?

 

[erkme73]

After looking at that video again, I feel like I need a professional rock climber to get the drone back. :-( Hopefully, it kept flying a little bit before the video cut out.

I'm sorry if I missed it @utahlasvegas, but did you take @msinger up on his offer to help? It seems that in most "lost drone" cases, there is a very distinct pattern. Poster states they've lost their bird. Msinger offers to help. Poster ignores or declines help. Fast-forward two or three pages later, and Poster accepts help. A few posts later, there is a report of a found drone.