My very forced landing - battery at 10%

[Dbez1]

I’m just a hobbyist, so there’s nothing important enough for me to take the chance of running out of battery power. I seldom land with less than 30% which probably makes me ridiculously conservative ?. I’ve learned on this forum that 50%-0 goes considerably quicker than 100-50.

 

[DanMan32]

To clarify in case one isn't aware,, the setting for low battery warning is only an alert. It otherwise has no action. If you're one that prefers calling it quits at 30% and head back, that's where you'd set it.

On the P3, you could also set critical land setting, but 10% was minimum.
I understand that now critical land can be dynamic based on altitude, but generally it is about 10%.

 

[CountryGuy]

may i ask how the heck .you managed to be a mile away with 10% battery
not the best advert for safe drone flying ,if you carry on like that your drone will not last long
your very lucky the guy on the bike, didn't stop and either nick your drone, or damage it

Absolutely. A mile away with low battery? Seriously?? That could have ended up very badly. No sympathy for the OP in the least. Can only hope a lesson learned-- but somehow I doubt it.

 

[VenomXts]

dont have a MA2 so i am not best placed to answer you question ,but with my MPP it can be set within the APP ,it seems that with the advent of the new fly APP ,many of the settings that were available in the GO4 app seem to have been omitted ,but if you look in the manual then maybe it will tell you if you can set it

yah its not a option in the fly app. shame..

 

[Lets Fly]

with me hand catching is not really an option ,as i take a anticoagulant on a daily basis for my heart condition ,and my blood does not clot as normal ,so any chance of getting cut is really a no, no ,i just cant take the risk, so i always land on the pad on the ground
i probably appear to many on this forum as a mister goody two shoes, who is always going on about safety and legal flying ,but my motivation for such posts,is to give advice to help people have a good experience when they fly ,and keep their drone in one piece

We know that about you OldMan, just keep giving your good advice. I also will never hand catch a drone designed to land on its legs.

 

[Steel63]

with me hand catching is not really an option ,as i take a anticoagulant on a daily basis for my heart condition ,and my blood does not clot as normal ,so any chance of getting cut is really a no, no ,i just cant take the risk, so i always land on the pad on the ground
i probably appear to many on this forum as a mister goody two shoes, who is always going on about safety and legal flying ,but my motivation for such posts,is to give advice to help people have a good experience when they fly ,and keep their drone in one piece

Please no hand catching we would like to have you around for many years to come God bless please stay safe

 

[SpitFire]

You are very, very, fortunate to have your drone with no damage to it.
I do the same thing old man Mavic doses, only my first low battery message is at 30% and the next one at 10%. And, I never use RTH in auto, always bring it in manually. If remember correctly, in low battery RTH you only have 10 seconds to cancel the auto return home. If it does not have enough power to make it home, you know the rest of the story.

 

[DanMan32]

If you miss canceling within the 10 seconds, you can still do so any time thereafter.
Unless you hit a big enough headwind, you should be able to make it back when it calls for RTH. Just don't wait any longer.

 

[Cobber]

My MA2 did emergency RTH at 34% battery and 2kms distance. Had scary experience when it started emergency landing at 44m from my deck with 12% battery. Had to do battle with sticks up and forward to get to safely land on deck with 6% battery left.

 

[JackL]

My MA2 did emergency RTH at 34% battery and 2kms distance. Had scary experience when it started emergency landing at 44m from my deck with 12% battery. Had to do battle with sticks up and forward to get to safely land on deck with 6% battery left.

Thankfully I was over land and in my neighborhood for this *very* important lesson in power management!! I am happy to learn up stick will give you a few more meters for maneuvering in a pinch.

 

[JackL]

Absolutely. A mile away with low battery? Seriously?? That could have ended up very badly. No sympathy for the OP in the least. Can only hope a lesson learned-- but somehow I doubt it.

At the very least I've learned the battery goes way quicker when it gets to 30% than when starting out from 100%! Most of my flying is over the ocean so you can be sure this experience will be sticking with me.

 

[JackL]

You are very, very, fortunate to have your drone with no damage to it.
I do the same thing old man Mavic doses, only my first low battery message is at 30% and the next one at 10%. And, I never use RTH in auto, always bring it in manually. If remember correctly, in low battery RTH you only have 10 seconds to cancel the auto return home. If it does not have enough power to make it home, you know the rest of the story.

Now that I read this, I believe it is just what happened to me. I almost want to replicate the condition but don't want to be taking my battery down to 10% to learn what is already clear now.

Be back with 30%!!

 

[Kilrah]

At the very least I've learned the battery goes way quicker when it gets to 30% than when starting out from 100%!

It doesn't in normal conditions, but if you happen to have a hewadwind during the return trip it certainly will.

That's why you observe wind distance and either do your flight so that the return has a tailwind, or you simply add extra margin if there will be a headwind.

 

[EricJT]

I’m just a hobbyist, so there’s nothing important enough for me to take the chance of running out of battery power. I seldom land with less than 30% which probably makes me ridiculously conservative ?. I’ve learned on this forum that 50%-0 goes considerably quicker than 100-50.

I am conservative too with my M2P.....I get my audible alert at 30% and then bring it home. I find 70% of battery flights yield enough videos and pictures to keep me busy editing for a considerable amount of time.

 

[JackL]

It doesn't in normal conditions, but if you happen to have a hewadwind during the return trip it certainly will.

That's why you observe wind distance and either do your flight so that the return has a tailwind, or you simply add extra margin if there will be a headwind.

Incredibly I had a nice tail wind for the return trip. Sadly I did not get to use it. So far I have only flown into the wind (when there has been any) so I would always have an extra margin of safety. I must have become inattentive to the battery levels. This was an excellent learning experience that thankfully turned out well.

 

[In The Zone]

I could swear in youtube videos I have seen people cancel auto landing over and over and get back at 0%. Today is the first time I pushed
it with the battery and was pretty surprised when it told me auto landing, period at 10% battery. I was pretty freaked because it was a mile away so maybe I missed something but I really wanted to cancel it and there was no option...lol
It actually picked a decent spot and it seems I almost clipped the powerlines getting it to the sidewalk because I was afraid for the props and didn't want to go in the muck. I have been flying over the ocean mostly before this so I am really glad I have seen this behavior now on land

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By the looks of it you got very lucky it didn't land in the street didn't hit the power lines and the bikers didn't steal it.... The bigger question is why the hell was your drone a mile away from you at 10% battery that's just plain Reckless and stupid!!!

 

[In The Zone]

I am conservative too with my M2P.....I get my audible alert at 30% and then bring it home. I find 70% of battery flights yield enough videos and pictures to keep me busy editing for a considerable amount of time.

I'm extremely conservative most of the time... I usually land my drone at 35% to 40% I do not take any risks with running out of battery power to get back home. My average flight time with 600 flights is 22 minutes each battery on avg. I have taken my battery down to 25% a few times just flying around my yard with about 1 to 2 minutes left before it RTH.

 

[basyok]

You can't cancel it, but just push the stick up to continue flying. All it does is put the "zero vertical speed" point at stick half up.

I was wondering about this. Thanks for clarifying. This is how it is with my old spark too. I once pushed my spark and ended up having to stick up to get it back home, and it finally completely ran out of juice 3 m above my concrete roof, onto which it crashed into pieces. Luckily, the spark is extremely repairable. This isn't something I'm keen to discover about my MA2 though...