New drone pilot here. Air 2s was stolen.

[Meta4]

Here is where things get confusing and this is just my recollection of the events leading to the crash. The drone did not seem to be responding to the left yaw input, or it was rotating very slowly, slower than I was accustomed to. I was in VLOS, and as far as I could tell connection to the drone was still strong. I estimate the drone rotated 50⁰-70⁰ to the left when I began inputting left stick to fly the drone back towards me sideways, while the left yaw completed the 180⁰ turn and I could just fly straight towards me. Very quickly after the left stick action, the drone seemed to bank and dive to the left. I tried to conteract this with back and right yaw, but it was too late.

I've gone over the data several times and can't find anywhere that teh drone's performance doesn't match the joystick inputs.
It's not as easy as would be for most flights because the joystick inputs are so gentle and the speeds are very slow.
Added to this there were some complex combinations of joystick input.

Where you gave left yaw input appears to be from 1:36.2 and the drone appears to respond to the yaw input, slowly rotating from a heading of 225° to 207° at 1:41.6.
You also gradually increased elevator input from 1:38 and added aileron input from 1:40.4 and this caused the forward speed to gradually increase.
At the same time you applied gentle negative throttle and the height slowly reduced.
The drone seems to have been following the joystick inputs.

As the elevator and aileron inputs increased, so did the speed of the drone, which reached 14 mph at 1:46.0, after that you applied gentle negative elevator and moderate left aileron, while also adding positive throttle and moderate left yaw.

The aileron input kept the speed at around 11 mph and the drone crashed into something at 1:50.5 and fell.

I really don't know what happened. I recently read that reinforced concrete can mess with the compass and on this flight I stayed close to the building. Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

Launching from reinforced concrete can cause problems, but I can't see any evidence that it did in this case.
If your drone had experienced a yaw error incident, it would have happened some time earlier in the flight, as there had been several large heading changes, which all matched the rudder inputs.

There was no unexplained increase in speed or direction.
It appears that the drone was under control when it was flown into part of the building.

 

[Tommyg86]

Lol, why not?

"custom controls #1" was the closest to what I was already used to from my prior RC controllers

 

[Tommyg86]

I've gone over the data several times and can't find anywhere that teh drone's performance doesn't match the joystick inputs.
It's not as easy as would be for most flights because the joystick inputs are so gentle and the speeds are very slow.
Added to this there were some complex combinations of joystick input.

Where you gave left yaw input appears to be from 1:36.2 and the drone appears to respond to the yaw input, slowly rotating from a heading of 225° to 207° at 1:41.6.
You also gradually increased elevator input from 1:38 and added aileron input from 1:40.4 and this caused the forward speed to gradually increase.
At the same time you applied gentle negative throttle and the height slowly reduced.
The drone seems to have been following the joystick inputs.

As the elevator and aileron inputs increased, so did the speed of the drone, which reached 14 mph at 1:46.0, after that you applied gentle negative elevator and moderate left aileron, while also adding positive throttle and moderate left yaw.

The aileron input kept the speed at around 11 mph and the drone crashed into something at 1:50.5 and fell.


Launching from reinforced concrete can cause problems, but I can't see any evidence that it did in this case.
If your drone had experienced a yaw error incident, it would have happened some time earlier in the flight, as there had been several large heading changes, which all matched the rudder inputs.

There was no unexplained increase in speed or direction.
It appears that the drone was under control when it was flown into part of the building.

So then the next question is why did the sensors not stop it from crashing into a 36 story building.

 

[Meta4]

So then the next question is why did the sensors not stop it from crashing into a 36 story building.

Probably because the obstacle avoidance sensors on the Air 2 s provide good coverage for obstacles in front and behind the drone, but not at the sides of the drone.
... and
At the time of the collision, the drone was being flown sideways to the left while it was also rotating anti-clockwise at 25° per second.

 

[MS Coast]

If you read his original post you would see that he included the serial number, his FAA registration number, and the police report number. It is becoming quite apparent that the person that picked it up did not turn it in to the police or advertise that they found a drone. I think at this point we can safely consider this aircraft stolen.

We see a lot of this in communities in Florida where people walk around or ride bikes wearing backpacks. They are looking for any opportunity to steal property sitting in someone’s yard, an unlocked car, in a golf cart at a store, etc. Basically any target of opportunity to grab something they can make a fast buck on. Guess it is easier to steal than get a job even when businesses are offering top wages and signing bonuses. Go figure!

Or perhaps he wasn't an habitual offender out cruising the neighborhood for crashed aircraft, while getting fat on federal pandemic stimulus checks and scorning honest work. Maybe it was just a young guy riding a bike down the street who saw a drone fly into the street and picked it up.

Maybe he took it home and put it in the garage and hasn't thought any more about it. Maybe he doesn't subscribe to this forum or read the police reports or even know the drone is worth much.

Maybe it's not quite appropriate to call him a thief. Or, if it is appropriate, what should we call the fellow who failed to control his aircraft and allowed it to crash into a public street and narrowly miss passing vehicles and cyclists?

Let's lighten up before reading too much into this story.

 

[Tommyg86]

Or perhaps he wasn't an habitual offender out cruising the neighborhood for crashed aircraft, while getting fat on federal pandemic stimulus checks and scorning honest work. Maybe it was just a young guy riding a bike down the street who saw a drone fly into the street and picked it up.

Maybe he took it home and put it in the garage and hasn't thought any more about it. Maybe he doesn't subscribe to this forum or read the police reports or even know the drone is worth much.

Maybe it's not quite appropriate to call him a thief. Or, if it is appropriate, what should we call the fellow who failed to control his aircraft and allowed it to crash into a public street and narrowly miss passing vehicles and cyclists?

Let's lighten up before reading too much into this story.

He was definitely a thief. Police report filed

 

[sancap]

He was definitely a thief. Police report filed

Unfortunately I do not believe you will learn anything from this experience.

 

[DoomMeister]

Or perhaps he wasn't an habitual offender out cruising the neighborhood for crashed aircraft, while getting fat on federal pandemic stimulus checks and scorning honest work. Maybe it was just a young guy riding a bike down the street who saw a drone fly into the street and picked it up.

Maybe he took it home and put it in the garage and hasn't thought any more about it. Maybe he doesn't subscribe to this forum or read the police reports or even know the drone is worth much.

Maybe it's not quite appropriate to call him a thief. Or, if it is appropriate, what should we call the fellow who failed to control his aircraft and allowed it to crash into a public street and narrowly miss passing vehicles and cyclists?

Let's lighten up before reading too much into this story.

Just like finding a wallet with ID and not attempting to contact the owner. With the information on the drone the police would be able to find the owner if the guy on the bike contacted them.

 

[MS Coast]

He was definitely a thief. Police report filed.

Ok.

I'm going to refrain from jumping to conclusions or name calling with respect to the pilot who flew a drone (without contact information on it) sideways into a building in broad daylight in a heavily populated urban area, causing it to fall 360+ feet and crash onto a public street.

I do hope you recover your drone.

 

[BuzzardBob]

Hi, my name is Tommy. I've been into RC and photography much of my life, recently I merged the 2 with a Mini 2 and Air 2s purchase. Unfortunately my Air 2s was stolen today. I crashed it and I had to lose sight of it for a few minutes to reach it. When I got to the crash site it was gone. I found some surveillance footage and some guy picked it up and rode off on his bicycle. Someone on FB suggested I post the story here as well so here is the link.

https://m.facebook.com/groups/stolenstuffhawaii/permalink/3134787276783930/?sfnsn=mo&ref=share

I'm pretty devastated, I don't really know what my next move should be now. Keep an eye out for it for me.

Thanks guys and gals

I'm thinking maybe a "If found return to (reward)" sticker with a phone number, might have helped.