Near Miss, Mavic 3, Bird Attack

[thewishy]

Had a near miss in Iceland a couple of days ago. Shortly after launching, an Arctic Tern objected to it's presence. normally they make some noise and give you a chance to leave the area, I initially gained altitude to get some space, and the bird seemed to leave me, before swooping in from quite some distance, and the bird making contact. Presumably they had young nearby.
I saw it all, and I saw it drop about 10 meters. Fortunately the aircraft recovered itself, and after landing quickly I found a cracked prop but no other damage. Fortunately I carry spares, and I'm good to carry on droning, perhaps with a little more attention paid to Terns! They're super aggressive.

I thought I'd post, as the cause was obvious, and it's nice to know that the aircraft can correct. There is also good data and a recording of the whole thing.
Video:

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Airdata:
Lessons: Terns are (Mod Removed Language) and may not give you much warning before trying to take you down

 

[GFields]

Glad you got it sorted out without crashing!

 

[SladeSteele07]

Glad it was only one attack. Because, as they say, one good tern deserves another (so sorry).

 

[PHZ]

Mothers protect. Terns, falcons, red wing blackbirds, et. Al, will all get aggressive if they feel their young are threatened.
The drone recovery was impressive. Kudos to DJI.

 

[Dale D]

Glad it was only one attack. Because, as they say, one good tern deserves another (so sorry).

Yeah-it was certainly a tern for the worst

 

[Romanbydrone]

At what elevation was the drone when the bird struck? I fly fairly often with birds around and I wondered what would be a fairly safe height to allow the drone to recover should a strike occur.

 

[SladeSteele07]

Yeah-it was certainly a tern for the worst

Nice one!

 

[life.in.nb]

Yeah-it was certainly a tern for the worst

bah dum tish! LOL

 

[Flashheart]

I find crows and blackbirds to be most aggressive. Red kites are awesome, I've got a clip of one soaring next to my drone and inspecting it.
If you see a bird coming in to attack - stop and descend immediately at speed, IIRC, almost all birds cannot fly upside down or dive directly downwards as it disrupts the aerofoil created by the wing feathers.
Employing this tactic has saved my drone from several bird attacks.

 

[thewishy]

Sorry for the delayed replies. I've not checked the forum while away, and only got a notification of the first reply.
No other incidents for the rest of the trip to Iceland, need to work through the content. One thing which I will say though is that the M3 is an absolute beast in high winds. I was very nervous with very high winds, and it stayed in place without so much as a high wind warning. I did have a few remote control signal interference errors standing in the middle of a lava desert with nobody within a mile of me...

I find crows and blackbirds to be most aggressive. Red kites are awesome, I've got a clip of one soaring next to my drone and inspecting it.
If you see a bird coming in to attack - stop and descend immediately at speed, IIRC, almost all birds cannot fly upside down or dive directly downwards as it disrupts the aerofoil created by the wing feathers.
Employing this tactic has saved my drone from several bird attacks.

The advise I've read was to ascend rapidly, as birds are much slower to gain altitude than a drone. That gives you some time to get off their threat radar and return home safely. In this case, the bird came from some distance away very quickly, and I didn't have a lot of time to react.

Mothers protect. Terns, falcons, red wing blackbirds, et. Al, will all get aggressive if they feel their young are threatened.
The drone recovery was impressive. Kudos to DJI.

Certainly very impressed with the recovery, and DJI clearly did a good job with this

At what elevation was the drone when the bird struck? I fly fairly often with birds around and I wondered what would be a fairly safe height to allow the drone to recover should a strike occur.

I was at 30m, dropped 10m and recovered with 20 to spare. OTOH if the prop had snapped rather than cracked, I'd have likely be calling in

 

[Glenh]

A video from Australia on the subject

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[WanderLost]

I find crows and blackbirds to be most aggressive. Red kites are awesome, I've got a clip of one soaring next to my drone and inspecting it.
If you see a bird coming in to attack - stop and descend immediately at speed, IIRC, almost all birds cannot fly upside down or dive directly downwards as it disrupts the aerofoil created by the wing feathers.
Employing this tactic has saved my drone from several bird attacks.

That's good advice. Where I live, we have eagles, hawks, crows and blackbirds. I may need to use your escape advice.
It's interesting you mentioned something birds have difficulty doing. I did see (once) a Peregrine Falcon flying about 100 feet above me and suddenly notice a Mourning dove flying about 50 feet below. The falcon pulled in his wings and dove straight down at the dove. The dove saw it right away and did a barrel roll and "flew" upside down for 30 feet or so before righting and diving to the ground. The falcon got bored and went back to flying in it's original direction.
That was some amazing aerobatics!