Pilot error. Run away mavic

[Sarge]

Just a word of warning for those of us that sr Nes and could be getting to the "unconscious competent" stage if flying the mavic.
Today I flew the mavic around a. Coastal cliff environment catching sound big waves and unique cliff vistas. Eventually I got to the stage where I felt had enough footage and decided switch apps from DGI Go4 to litchi app to capture photos for a 360 pano.
During the process of taking the pics for the pano (directly above my 20 @120m) I noticed the image was hard to see on my iPad mini. So I decided to check the setting of together screen brightness. Once in the settings I had a thought the mavic may have an issue with me closing down the litchie app and doing what I was doing so I went straight back to the app and was greeted with an audible warning "lost connection" it was than I became concerned. I poked up and the mavic was heading straight out to sea at a "great rate of knots". The app didn't seem to want to re-connect after 10 seconds or so. By then the mavic was not visible to me. I closed the app and opened DJI GO4. Within a very short time I was able regain control and had video feed.
This was a massive feeling of relief as the mavic responded and was closing the gap to me.
The big concern I have is the behaviour after loosing connection. What made up its mind to just randomly head south? I understand that I made he mistake in the first instance but why head south at what appeared to be full speed?

 

[MavicKhan]

I don't know "what made up its mind to just randomly head south?"

I do know that it is a very unadvised idea to switch apps mid-flight.

MK

 

[JLane]

Grab the .dat file from the Mavic and upload it for analysis. It sure would be interesting to know why it took off out to sea.

How to retrieve a .DAT

 

[Owen Manderfield]

I don't think there is s problem switching apps mid flight (I often swap between Go4, Litchi and Hanger) but NOT when the Mavic is in the middle of a programmed sequence.

I always hover the drone somewhere safe, shut one app down then fire up the new one.

What might have happened here is that Litchi was shut down in the middle of running the 360 maybe inbetween commands and the drone headed off waiting for a stop command that would never come.

Flicking the switch over Sports mode immediately stops any programmed flights and returns you to joystick mode. So what ever your tablet or apps were doing at the time your drone will just stop and hover where it is.

You could then either fly back manual or restart Go4 and fly back. Hitting the switch is much quicker than trying to restart and connect an app! Its like a big red panic button.

It works a treat - unless you have an iPad mini stuffed in the controller - in which case its flipping fiddly to do - especially if your bird is making a break for freedom at the time.....

 

[Sarge]

Grab the .dat file from the Mavic and upload it for analysis. It sure would be interesting to know why it took off out to sea.

How to retrieve a .DAT

@ jlane. I will do that when I have some time on the laptop. Thanks.

 

[Sarge]

I don't think there is s problem switching apps mid flight (I often swap between Go4, Litchi and Hanger) but NOT when the Mavic is in the middle of a programmed sequence.

I always hover the drone somewhere safe, shut one app down then fire up the new one.

What might have happened here is that Litchi was shut down in the middle of running the 360 maybe inbetween commands and the drone headed off waiting for a stop command that would never come.

Flicking the switch over Sports mode immediately stops any programmed flights and returns you to joystick mode. So what ever your tablet or apps were doing at the time your drone will just stop and hover where it is.

You could then either fly back manual or restart Go4 and fly back. Hitting the switch is much quicker than trying to restart and connect an app! Its like a big red panic button.

It works a treat - unless you have an iPad mini stuffed in the controller - in which case its flipping fiddly to do - especially if your bird is making a break for freedom at the time.....

I think you are right about the switching time of the app. I did it without thinking because of the past use of the Dronepan app. It requires switching in mid flight but not mid process or program.
The info about the sport mode is very interesting and new to me so thanks for that tip. Yes I use an iPad mini 4 so I know what you mean about that.
Certainly from this date forward I will be certain to have the Mavic static before any app changes.