Nearly lost drone

Davidwh · May 10, 2017

Went to a local beauty spot with the intention of trying out the poi feature...pressed the rth and after a short distance an obstacle was detected at 50m high with nothing in sight. It kept doing this constantly putting braking messages up. At this point I had lost visual in the bright sunlight and started to panic. It was only with the help of a couple of people was I able to get a visual to bring it back. The only thing I can think of was the forward sensors were being interfered with by the bright sunlight.... a lesson learnt. If that was the case then I might gt a super bright strobe (any suggestions) of turning of the forward sensors off. Lesson for today do not do a rth into bright sunshine.

msinger · May 10, 2017

Davidwh said:
Lesson for today do not do a rth into bright sunshine.

That or turn off obstacle avoidance if the Mavic is flying into direct sunlight on RTH and does not seem to be making progress.

Pipes101 · May 10, 2017

Happen to me the other day and surely I didn't know what the hell was going on! Thx for bringing this to attention.

royalhghnss · May 10, 2017

Davidwh said:
At this point I had lost visual in the bright sunlight and started to panic. It was only with the help of a couple of people was I able to get a visual to bring it back.

You realize there's a map in the bottom left? In the middle is where the home point is, and it shows what direction the mavic is pointing. Point it at you, press up on the right stick. Boom, Mavic is coming back to you.

Davidwh · May 10, 2017

A bit difficult when the app also kept crashing. I am giving litchi some serious consideration now.

Marco Cantieni · May 11, 2017

Even with a crashing app you can bring your bird home. If the distance on the remote is reducing than you're steering into the right direction. This is not to blame you for what happened but for giving you a safety net for the next time. Fly safe and enjoy your machine

Michael Ainsworth · May 11, 2017

Its a pucker moment when you lose sight of your Drone even with everything working. I am starting to look at the different readouts on the screen as well as the RC just to get used to what they are showing. Was thinking about turning off the app and flying it back without those aids, not brave enough to try at the moment.
One of the downsides of having this great easy to fly drone is the underlying complexity of it. If all works well then its easy, if one part crashes then you need to know how to fly it blind. And trust the instruments.
Glad you got it back safely.

Davidwh · May 11, 2017

Marco Cantieni said:
Even with a crashing app you can bring your bird home. If the distance on the remote is reducing than you're steering into the right direction. This is not to blame you for what happened but for giving you a safety net for the next time. Fly safe and enjoy your machine

It,s a bit bit difficult when the sun is affecting the forward sensors and the magic thinks it,s going to hit something and won,t move forward...had to turn it backwards and fly backwards.

SeaComms · May 11, 2017

Exactly what happened to me the other day. In desperation as the battery was decreasing and it was still out of sight, I used the map to spin it around and fly backwards to me until I could see it and fly manually. It seemed that it only kicked up a fuss with the sun at over about 12kmh. Below that it was going fine into the sun bit I was too far away to fly at that speed all the way home!

Davidwh · May 11, 2017

It's an important lesson learnt for both of us

Hands0n · May 11, 2017

Michael Ainsworth said:
One of the downsides of having this great easy to fly drone is the underlying complexity of it. If all works well then its easy, if one part crashes then you need to know how to fly it blind. And trust the instruments.
Glad you got it back safely.

I think the story emphasises the need for Mavic (and other high-automation) drone pilots need to learn their way around the software controls, how to enable/disable the modes and how to actually fly with them switched off. That, and perform "dress rehearsals" of various failure modes such as how to bring the aircraft back in LOS from a distance should the video link fail and GPS/RTL be unresponsive. That kind of stuff ...

A really cool example that helped me heaps when I was learning to fly is this technique that I practise and use routinely.

SeaComms · May 11, 2017

Yes and no. I have been flying model aircraft and helicopters for over 35 years so orientation and flying by the seat of your pants is no issue for me.

However flying back toward home as battery is decreasing and getting a collision alert warning is not something anyone but a DJI designer would instinctively know what was going on. Next time yes I will be aware, but I had no clue what was going on, in fact I was certain it was birds! Cam was not picking up anything and with only minutes to ascertain what was going on I was lucky to pick it and fly back in reverse. Also this was my 3rd or 4th flight!

geigy · May 11, 2017

HandsOn's post is well worth watching for everyone.

Another thought. If the app is working, go into Home Lock and pull back on the stick. If you get a collision indication from the sun, rotate the Mavic and pull back on the stick.

If your app is crashing a lot, that's a high priority to address. Get an Apple device, or an Android system that others have found to be very stable - click here.