My new drone - "gone with the wind".

[JAW]

P.S.
I am really frustrated. Maybe on the brink of giving up the hobby entirely

+1

 

[Phantomrain.org]

At least now you have a golden field of drones or drone's honeypot or drones Bermuda triangle

Just kidding.

I am so sad and angry that it is only thing I can do now.
You've got a luck to find your drone.

How am I going to find mine in this area? The last known location is a roof of some kind of a greenhouse.
Every time I look at the map it seems to me than I can find it or search with my other drone (BTW, no GPS problems with the second one).
But when I drove there it is much worse than it looks from above - a lot of fences of private areas and houses.
Should I knock in every door asking "May I check your roof. My drone may be landed on it or maybe not"
Sounds ridiculous.

The first night I entered illegally that greenhouse to look through the roof ( you know "greenhouse I can see through a roof"). I thought, people sure would thought that I am a burglar and I thought about explanations I am going to give in local police and explain to police what it is "flyaway".

What is better needle in haystack or drone in Corn Maze

View attachment 136716

Very interesting how your mobile behaves on that "golden field" ?

Sorry are you using the Find my drone function as I do not see the Line being drawn from you home point to the drone that should show up and stay for about 30 days ? This function is in the Profile menu on my Smart Controller.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain

 

[slup]

...The last known location is a roof of some kind of a greenhouse.

Yes ... but on 90,2m height.

It's highly unlikely that your Hubsan would have landed straight down (if that's how Hubsan drones are programmed if connection is lost while not having GPS positioning).

If you land a drone while it hasn't horizontal position hold it would drift the whole way down as even the slightest wind would effect it. With it's maximum descent speed of 3m/s it would take approx. 30sec before it touched down ... if the wind velocity where... say 5m/s, it would drift 150m down wind. If also adding in the uncertainty regarding the actual height above ground where it touched down (as those 90,2 is relative the HP ... not taking in higher or lower grounds where your drone was). And that the wind velocity most probably also changed on the way down ...

The search perimeter quickly grows pretty large & it's over that not exact ...

But as said earlier ... Hubsan maybe aren't programmed to land if loosing horizontal hold, then the search radius from that last position is counted in kilometres depending on that you had 67% battery left.

Sorry are you using the Find my drone function as I do not see the Line being drawn from you home point to the drone that should show up and stay for about 30 days ? This function is in the Profile menu on my Smart Controller.

What you may or may not find in which location in your DJI app or SC is most probably not relevant as the OP were flying a Hubsan Zino Mini... or are you referring to the Hubsan app? Furthermore a find my drone functionality relies on that a GPS position is maintain until the drone hits the ground ... in this case the last GPS position was recorded up on 90,2m height... meaning that a find my drone functionality is mainly worthless.

 

[albertly]

After some math - wind speed and direction, my drone altitude, ascending speed etc.

I approximated the area of search and made an aerial scan with my other drone.

Lo and behold - here it is "my precious", waiting for me 3 days.



The mission accomplished. Clever me.

Not a single scratch. Perfectly working.

 

[Zbip57]

Lo and behold - here it is "my precious", waiting for me 3 days.

Brilliant! Well done.

 

[vindibona1]

You know what Forrest Gump would say… In this case there were cascading decisions that caused a loss.

1) You get what you pay for. I learned my lesson first buying a cheap Chinese drone recommended by “Captain Drone”. Mine came defective and after a month of rope-a-dope with Banggood I turned to my bank for a refund. Should have gone DJI initially in spite of their worts.

2) WTH were you doing flying 16,000 feet out??? VLOS rules during the day would probably limit your ability to see your drone 1/10th the distance you chose to fly.

3) Flying super long distances often run the risk of your drone draining the battery.

4) Your disregard to the warnings you got was probably a major factor.

One has to presume you flying a newHubsan Mini pro would hint that you are a brand new pilot as is the ridiculous distance you tried to fly; far beyond any nation’s regulatory limits. It is actions like this that reflects poorly on the drone community, causing political leaders to pass draconian restrictions. Should you choose to replace this drone I would hope that you might grow to understand that these are not toys and you got lucky that the worst of the situation is simply a lost drone.

Sorry to be so harsh, but many of us here depend on our drones as part of our livelihoods and don’t take well to reckless actions that make it more difficult for us to fly. Dismounting soap box.

 

[spsphotos]

Hate to say this but don't have much sympathy. You ignored warnings that were clear and urgent. You flew way beyond VLOS as well...which is worse. Expensive lesson.

 

[albertly]

Hate to say this but don't have much sympathy. You ignored warnings that were clear and urgent. You flew way beyond VLOS as well...which is worse. Expensive lesson.

What warning did I ignored. Switch to ATTI mode? I can fly ATTI mode ( I did it on racing ). According to Hubsan's documentation CE mode has 6 km range. I was a little more than 5 km. I've got more than 60% battery.

The warning I've got from the software was "Switching to ATTI mode. Fly with cautious".
I didn't get the warning "Return home as soon as possible" or "Find a place for immediate landing".

About VLOS you are completely right ( I totally and deliberately disobeyed local rules). Albeit, I don't like this rule this is THE rule. Zino Mini has very weak light, I cannot see the drone. Today I bought additional good lights for the drone, flew with them. Perfect I can easily see the drone from 1.5 km at night (maybe more I didn't push it this time).

We have another rule that I just cannot obey for the sake of safety - 50 meters altitude limit. Flying so low it's dangerous (IMHO), there are trees, buildings, utility poles of power lines, cellular antennas, birds.
I never ever ever fly in NFZ. BTW, NFZ map of DJI is completely wrong (at least for Israel).
I don't know what to do with 50m limit. Meanwhile I just ignore it.

​

 

[albertly]

Hate to say this but don't have much sympathy. You ignored warnings that were clear and urgent. You flew way beyond VLOS as well...which is worse. Expensive lesson.

What warning did I ignored. Switch to ATTI mode? I can fly ATTI mode ( I did it on racing ). According to Hubsan's documentation CE mode has 6 km range. I was a little more than 5 km. I've got more than 60% battery.

The warning I've got from the software was "Switching to ATTI mode. Fly with cautious".
I didn't get the warning "Return home as soon as possible" or "Find to place for immediate landing".

About VLOS you are completely right ( I totally and deliberately disobeyed local rules). Albeit, I don't like this rule this is THE rule. Zino Mini has very weak light, I cannot see the drone. Today I bought additional good lights for the drone, flew with them. Perfect I can easily see the drone from 1.5 km at night (maybe more I didn't push it this time).

We have another rule that I just cannot obey for the sake of safety - 50 meters altitude limit. Flying so low it's dangerous (IMHO), there are trees, buildings, utility poles of power lines, cellular antennas, birds.
I never ever ever fly in NFZ. BTW, NFZ map of DJI is completely wrong (at least for Israel).
I don't know what to do with 50m limit. Meanwhile I just ignore it.

​

 

[albertly]

my lesson first buying a cheap Chinese drone recommended by “Captain Drone”

What a coincidence. My first drone was recommended by the same guy - SG 906 . I had many toy drones before for my kids. But this was the real one. It's still alive. Actually, today "he" rescued my lost drone.

 

[albertly]

And thank you all for your help - practical and moral. Many of you guys have personal communication with me in order to help. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

I've learnt my lesson. Also the lesson about the rules. Most of them is good for flying and safety (however not all of them IMHO).

P.S.
There are two kinds of people - smart ones who learn on mistakes of others and the second kind ( it seems I belong to this group) who learn on their own mistakes.

 

[Rogat19]

I know this is a forum about Mavic Drones. But my main question is “Could it possible to happen with Mavic Drones”.

Recently, I’ve bought Hubzan Zino Mini.

I wanted to check a flight range with a parabolic antenna.
I checked in a rural area - I couldn't properly check a range (was windy), however FPV feed was perfect (the receiver of Zino Mini on the back part, so when I fly back from a long range I have some minor glitches in video feed). In the case with a parabolic antenna when returning home there were no problems whatsoever.

I was very happy and excited - it seems to me that a parabolic antenna works. And I was eager to check a range in non-windy condition.
Yesterday at night there was no wind - perfect condition to fly (on my opinion and on opinion of "UAV Forecast").
So, I started to fly (in semi urban area - suburb). In the range of about 5 km I had an error - "The current environment has a lot of interference to GPS. Flying in attitude mode".

Some days before I've got the same error in the same area. However, I thought that it was minor hiccup - GPS was restored - everything was OK. I was a little bit worried about "GPS interference", checked the internet on the subject, not found something satisfaction - more on this later.

So, I thought surely the GPS would be restored, I have very strong signal – so be it – attitude mode, let's push a little bit forward.
My joystick was in forward position, the drone flew forward. The GPS was occasionally restored and occasionally weakened. I was not worried I went forward - signal was strong.

However, after a while, I lost connection with an error "Adjust your antenna ... ". What I do in such a case - I try to raise my controller up and move myself toward a drone direction as much as possible. Every time it worked, connection was restored and I pressed RTH.

Not in this case. I did everything I raised my hands up, I walked toward the drone about 300 m (it was as much possible I could). I should mention that all this time GPS was disconnected as well. I started to panic. What to do? To wait for the drone automatic RTH but no GPS. I waited about 10 min. The drone wasn't on the horizon. I turned the controller off in desperate hope that it might reconnect to the drone when I turn it on. No luck.

I tried to drive and looked for the drone in "last known location" - nowhere to be found.
In the morning I make a search of "last known location" with my other drone in that area. No luck. My new drone is gone.

About losing GPS signal, I've checked the internet, causes:
1. The sun activity - not my case - "UAV Forecast" said good to fly, at first my drone locked decent amount of satellites. The sun activity could not change so suddenly.
2. Interferences - The error I've got: "The current environment has a lot of interference to GPS" and many people mentioned this cause.
flyi

But I never ever ever lose GPS signal of my mobile phone.

If anybody knows what is the real cause of losing GPS signal?

Maybe it's just bad and cheap GPS module in Hubsan Zino Mini Pro?
Can it happen in DJI Mavic products?
Mavic products are thought to be far more reliable and higher quality (maybe next to Autel Evo drones)?
You guys mostly fly DJI drones. Have you experience problems with GPS signal?

P.S.
I am really frustrated. Maybe on the brink of giving up the hobby entirely. The possibility that 500$ or event 2000$ (in case of Mavic 3) just can fly away not so appealing to me.

So straight off the bat, around at the maximum reaches of your drones capability basically, never a good idea (don't believe the advertisements!) flying that far away there are so many variables your asking for trouble at that distance, secondly and more importantly you're breaking the law by not having your drone in sight (eyesight that is!)

• Drone pilots must maintain full line of sight with their drone while flying.
• Drones may not fly above 50 meters (164 feet) from the ground.
• Drones may not fly within 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) of any airport or airfield.
• Drones may not fly within 250 meters (820 feet) of people and buildings.
• Drones may not fly in No Fly Zones. See a map of No Fly Zones in Israel here.
• 
  
• A piece of friendly advice don't get caught doing what you do the fines are expensive I'm sure, the above rules are there to protect you and more importantly the people around you, we as a collective struggle with our image as responsible Drone flyers and doing this sort of thing does nothing to help our image to the general public, please consider the big picture when flying your drones.
• all the best for the future happy flying D

 

[Zbip57]

we as a collective struggle with our image as responsible Drone flyers and doing this sort of thing does nothing to help our image to the general public, please consider the big picture when flying your drones.

I do not condone this type of long distance flying, especially when such clear warning messages were ignored leading to an inevitable result. However...

I think there is far too often and too much weight given to "our image to the general public" versus the reality of the actual risk involved. The gist of these incidents is always "think of what could have happened" versus what actually did happen, which is nothing at all. The drone landed in a field, nobody was injured, no property was harmed, no international incident was triggered, etc.

He learned a valuable lesson and was lucky to have successfully recovered his drone.

you're breaking the law

Those laws are an unfortunate consequence of people having done stupid things with their drones, the results of which sadly affect us all. For the most part, many of the laws are perfectly reasonable. But there are a frustrating many that make no sense at all and that are not based on any actual risk analysis or supported by any actual data since collected.

• Drones may not fly in No Fly Zones. See a map of No Fly Zones in Israel here.

There's no doubt about the line of sight, max height, or over people and buildings transgressions, but I was curious about that No FLy Zone one. I figured a place like Israel must be jammed tight completely covered with No Fly Zones. So I checked that link.

You can read the GPS location of the controller and last known position of the drone on his video. The track he flew over is probably the only "safe" place to have done a flight like this, mostly farmland and low density housing. Certainly not within any of the marked No Fly Zones.


Again, just out of curiosity, I zoomed in on Google satellite view and street view to see what's along that yellow arrow line. There's an interesting hilltop that gives a much better overlook onto the entire area, rather than from the ground level area where he took off from.

Go here on Google maps (goo.gl/maps/Saumv3VS7os8WXfE6) and drag and drop the little yellow Streetview person onto this blue dot to open an aerial photosphere. Evidently someone else has already flown a drone from this hilltop. You have good line of sight in all directions from here. Rotate and zoom the spherical view.


This shows approximately the first half of his long distance flight. Take off from the open field beyond the apartment buildings, cross a busy highway (think of what could have happened, but didn't), past an electrical transformer station, cut between this lake and the commercial buildings, while flying mostly over empty farm fields.


He should have quit there...

It's this second half that really pushed the limits too far. He should have detoured around this neighbourhood to the left, staying over the open fields. Flying over all those houses is risky. Recovery from a crash landing there hinges on the cooperation of a possibly irate homeowner.

As it was, the control signal was eventually lost at the start of the "corn maze". Maybe the signal was blocked by these tall office towers on the right in this image?


In any case, I would not recommend to anyone doing this particular flight.

 

[JAW]

In any case, I would not recommend to anyone doing this particular flight.

Nor would the OP as he has clearly stated:

There are two kinds of people - smart ones who learn on mistakes of others and the second kind ( it seems I belong to this group) who learn on their own mistakes.​

 

[Kywon McCain]

I'm not sure about drones other than DJI,

As far as I know, if a DJI drone loses it's gps signel during rth, it just lands itself where it is. I think.

 

[Dave P]

I know this is a forum about Mavic Drones. But my main question is “Could it possible to happen with Mavic Drones”.

Recently, I’ve bought Hubzan Zino Mini.

I wanted to check a flight range with a parabolic antenna.
I checked in a rural area - I couldn't properly check a range (was windy), however FPV feed was perfect (the receiver of Zino Mini on the back part, so when I fly back from a long range I have some minor glitches in video feed). In the case with a parabolic antenna when returning home there were no problems whatsoever.

I was very happy and excited - it seems to me that a parabolic antenna works. And I was eager to check a range in non-windy condition.
Yesterday at night there was no wind - perfect condition to fly (on my opinion and on opinion of "UAV Forecast").
So, I started to fly (in semi urban area - suburb). In the range of about 5 km I had an error - "The current environment has a lot of interference to GPS. Flying in attitude mode".

Some days before I've got the same error in the same area. However, I thought that it was minor hiccup - GPS was restored - everything was OK. I was a little bit worried about "GPS interference", checked the internet on the subject, not found something satisfaction - more on this later.

So, I thought surely the GPS would be restored, I have very strong signal – so be it – attitude mode, let's push a little bit forward.
My joystick was in forward position, the drone flew forward. The GPS was occasionally restored and occasionally weakened. I was not worried I went forward - signal was strong.

However, after a while, I lost connection with an error "Adjust your antenna ... ". What I do in such a case - I try to raise my controller up and move myself toward a drone direction as much as possible. Every time it worked, connection was restored and I pressed RTH.

Not in this case. I did everything I raised my hands up, I walked toward the drone about 300 m (it was as much possible I could). I should mention that all this time GPS was disconnected as well. I started to panic. What to do? To wait for the drone automatic RTH but no GPS. I waited about 10 min. The drone wasn't on the horizon. I turned the controller off in desperate hope that it might reconnect to the drone when I turn it on. No luck.

I tried to drive and looked for the drone in "last known location" - nowhere to be found.
In the morning I make a search of "last known location" with my other drone in that area. No luck. My new drone is gone.

About losing GPS signal, I've checked the internet, causes:
1. The sun activity - not my case - "UAV Forecast" said good to fly, at first my drone locked decent amount of satellites. The sun activity could not change so suddenly.
2. Interferences - The error I've got: "The current environment has a lot of interference to GPS" and many people mentioned this cause.
What BS is that. I drive my car in populated urban area, in traffic jumps - I do not lose GPS signal. What is there less interference? It is a mother of all interference. When I drive into a tunnel - yes, I do lose GPS signal - and it is obvious why. However, when I am out the signal is quickly restored and I am happy on my way.

The truth to be told, I did lose GPS signal of my car's built-in GPS (because I think my car's GPS is bad and cheap)
But I never ever ever lose GPS signal of my mobile phone.

If anybody knows what is the real cause of losing GPS signal?

Maybe it's just bad and cheap GPS module in Hubsan Zino Mini Pro?
Can it happen in DJI Mavic products?
Mavic products are thought to be far more reliable and higher quality (maybe next to Autel Evo drones)?
You guys mostly fly DJI drones. Have you experience problems with GPS signal?

P.S.
I am really frustrated. Maybe on the brink of giving up the hobby entirely. The possibility that 500$ or event 2000$ (in case of Mavic 3) just can fly away not so appealing to me.

I am so sorry about what happened ro you. I learned years ago, the hard way just as you did, not to buy Hubsan products. They are all terrible. I have had several h501's and an H109. All flew away within 20 or so flights. If they cant make low end drones how in the world could they compete with DJI or Autel. Dont keep wasting your money and stick to what we know works

 

[THEYNINE]

Had a Hubsan ‘ return to home’ , problem was we did not agree where home was and it vanished into the wilderness instead. Was only 75 feet away when it decided to “cya later”. The Mavic mini that replaced it is still behaving.

 

[Cookedinlh]

I know this is a forum about Mavic Drones. But my main question is “Could it possible to happen with Mavic Drones”.

Recently, I’ve bought Hubzan Zino Mini.

I wanted to check a flight range with a parabolic antenna.
I checked in a rural area - I couldn't properly check a range (was windy), however FPV feed was perfect (the receiver of Zino Mini on the back part, so when I fly back from a long range I have some minor glitches in video feed). In the case with a parabolic antenna when returning home there were no problems whatsoever.

I was very happy and excited - it seems to me that a parabolic antenna works. And I was eager to check a range in non-windy condition.
Yesterday at night there was no wind - perfect condition to fly (on my opinion and on opinion of "UAV Forecast").
So, I started to fly (in semi urban area - suburb). In the range of about 5 km I had an error - "The current environment has a lot of interference to GPS. Flying in attitude mode".

Some days before I've got the same error in the same area. However, I thought that it was minor hiccup - GPS was restored - everything was OK. I was a little bit worried about "GPS interference", checked the internet on the subject, not found something satisfaction - more on this later.

So, I thought surely the GPS would be restored, I have very strong signal – so be it – attitude mode, let's push a little bit forward.
My joystick was in forward position, the drone flew forward. The GPS was occasionally restored and occasionally weakened. I was not worried I went forward - signal was strong.

However, after a while, I lost connection with an error "Adjust your antenna ... ". What I do in such a case - I try to raise my controller up and move myself toward a drone direction as much as possible. Every time it worked, connection was restored and I pressed RTH.

Not in this case. I did everything I raised my hands up, I walked toward the drone about 300 m (it was as much possible I could). I should mention that all this time GPS was disconnected as well. I started to panic. What to do? To wait for the drone automatic RTH but no GPS. I waited about 10 min. The drone wasn't on the horizon. I turned the controller off in desperate hope that it might reconnect to the drone when I turn it on. No luck.

I tried to drive and looked for the drone in "last known location" - nowhere to be found.
In the morning I make a search of "last known location" with my other drone in that area. No luck. My new drone is gone.

About losing GPS signal, I've checked the internet, causes:
1. The sun activity - not my case - "UAV Forecast" said good to fly, at first my drone locked decent amount of satellites. The sun activity could not change so suddenly.
2. Interferences - The error I've got: "The current environment has a lot of interference to GPS" and many people mentioned this cause.
What BS is that. I drive my car in populated urban area, in traffic jumps - I do not lose GPS signal. What is there less interference? It is a mother of all interference. When I drive into a tunnel - yes, I do lose GPS signal - and it is obvious why. However, when I am out the signal is quickly restored and I am happy on my way.

The truth to be told, I did lose GPS signal of my car's built-in GPS (because I think my car's GPS is bad and cheap)
But I never ever ever lose GPS signal of my mobile phone.

If anybody knows what is the real cause of losing GPS signal?

Maybe it's just bad and cheap GPS module in Hubsan Zino Mini Pro?
Can it happen in DJI Mavic products?
Mavic products are thought to be far more reliable and higher quality (maybe next to Autel Evo drones)?
You guys mostly fly DJI drones. Have you experience problems with GPS signal?

P.S.
I am really frustrated. Maybe on the brink of giving up the hobby entirely. The possibility that 500$ or event 2000$ (in case of Mavic 3) just can fly away not so appealing to me.

My Friend . . what a CRAZY thing to do with a drone . . It did not fly away . . .you FLEW it AWAY . . at night at extreme range in suburban wifi pollution . . .and it lost signal . . your RTH at that range is unreliable at best. . . and thinking that a "UAV forecast" is somehow going to protect you from overflying the command and control system stability . . . a drone is not a camera phone . . it's navigation is not just a matter of getting a signal. You have seriously overestimate its performance limits and paid the price . . My suggestion: buy a Mavic and flying withing 1000ft and then 1100ft and then 1200ft and bring it home under MANY weather and EMI conditions.(Electro-Magnetic Interference) . . don;t go to the extremes till you fully understand its behaviour under a all it's MODES and a variety of conditions and ALWAYS fly UPWIND first if you ever expect to get it back.
Here are some hopefully useful ideas I leaned the hard way.

 

[Drones.n.Pixels]

You are a braver flyer than me, if I had had any message at 5km stating that "The current environment has a lot of interference to GPS. Flying in attitude mode".
I would have instantly rotated the drone 180 degrees and flew back like a bat out of hell, never to fly near that location again, it looks like after you lost GPS connection, the drone got to a point that forward momentum took it permanently out of RC range so no matter what you pressed on the controller, it would have done nothing, eventually due to drift etc due to no GPS, so no failsafe RTH, the drone battery would have depleted & it would have forced landed due to this.
Sorry for your loss, but it's an expensive learning curve, the Mavic series seems quite resilient to GPS lock loss, but even these are not infallible, keeping the drone within RC control range is the key so that the second this sort of error occurs, retrieval of the drone is still possible

I was about to write same thing about bravery and being out of range - actually, I fly Mavics and I lost GPS few times. All you have at that time is the drone heading and those times I brought it back using drone heading as RTH did not work until GPS signal was regained. I never flew out of range, but my drone is set to RTH on lost connection. With GPS this works, but I can imagine that if I had no GPS and was out of range, this would fail even on Mavic (as there would be no way to know where “home” is.

 

[Drones.n.Pixels]

You had a very smart drone, Giving you all the warnings but you did not take real notice
Long distance flying is Risky not sanctioned and ignoring warning as you did is the cause of the loss.

You went 16,000 ft when you experienced a loss of GPS signal. The same day before you got the same thing .

Notice how I lost my GPS signal. I believe its related to the DJI programming of the Warning System in the software.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain and Capture the Storm

It’s not the GPS signal that you lost, it’s the RC connection, but you are completely right about the warnings.