PLEASE Help. LOST Mavic Enterprise Dual - PILOT APP

[chris010572]

Please Help. Any info would greatly be appreciated.

Info: Mavic Enterprise Dual using Dji Pilot App.

I ignored the low battery warning to return home while taking a video and once I decided to return I knew at 10% battery remaining I was not gonna make it back to my home point.

I tried to use the camera to find a safe place to land but it was near impossible being night time, then having to keep the drone from descending from less than 10% battery & looking for a spot through the various modes (standard camera, thermal & even maps).
I finally decided to try and land near the highway but wasn't quit sure where I was so I got as close to what I thought was the highway but came up short. I used the last flight route to try and determine where it may have landed but with no luck. I got the last gps coordinates (end of flight video) from the pilot app and put them into Google maps, but no luck at that spot.

I'm not sure what the 32ft at end of flight record video means. I am assuming it could mean caught up in a tree but not sure. One reason is bc when I walk near the gps coordinates location it then shows to be in a field but it's not. If anyone would be willing and is knowledgeable about things like this, the last flight record is interesting bc it shows it descending over some tall pine trees then when it makes a sharp curve at around 70ft or so it suddenly skips a bit on the video and jumps done to 50ft then crosses over the hwy and stops with a slight left turn at 32ft.

Now that I'm at the location where it supposedly crashed or hopefully landed, I can see that those pine trees it made a sudden skip at could well be close or taller than 60-70ft.

Could it have hit those ans crashes down into the tree tops or fell to the ground. Or possibly hit and continued on over a short way to land in a tree at the 32ft? I just do not know and I'm out of ideas.

If someone took the time to read this then if you dont quite know how to help could you be so kind as to forward it to someone you may know could possibly help? Thanks in advance guys. This was my Birthday present to myself back on January 5th and its killing me to think this thing could very well be lost for good.

Sincerely, Chris

 

[Fly Dawg]

If someone took the time to read this then if you dont quite know how to help could you be so kind as to forward it to someone you may know could possibly help?

We will need to see the actual flight log for this flight. Preferably both the .txt log and the device .dat. You can directly upload the .txt log here, or share from Airdata if applicable. If you are unsure of how to do this just ask.

 

[AMann]

Please Help. Any info would greatly be appreciated.

Info: Mavic Enterprise Dual using Dji Pilot App.

I ignored the low battery warning to return home while taking a video and once I decided to return I knew at 10% battery remaining I was not gonna make it back to my home point.

I tried to use the camera to find a safe place to land but it was near impossible being night time, then having to keep the drone from descending from less than 10% battery & looking for a spot through the various modes (standard camera, thermal & even maps).
I finally decided to try and land near the highway but wasn't quit sure where I was so I got as close to what I thought was the highway but came up short. I used the last flight route to try and determine where it may have landed but with no luck. I got the last gps coordinates (end of flight video) from the pilot app and put them into Google maps, but no luck at that spot.

I'm not sure what the 32ft at end of flight record video means. I am assuming it could mean caught up in a tree but not sure. One reason is bc when I walk near the gps coordinates location it then shows to be in a field but it's not. If anyone would be willing and is knowledgeable about things like this, the last flight record is interesting bc it shows it descending over some tall pine trees then when it makes a sharp curve at around 70ft or so it suddenly skips a bit on the video and jumps done to 50ft then crosses over the hwy and stops with a slight left turn at 32ft.

Now that I'm at the location where it supposedly crashed or hopefully landed, I can see that those pine trees it made a sudden skip at could well be close or taller than 60-70ft.

Could it have hit those ans crashes down into the tree tops or fell to the ground. Or possibly hit and continued on over a short way to land in a tree at the 32ft? I just do not know and I'm out of ideas.

If someone took the time to read this then if you dont quite know how to help could you be so kind as to forward it to someone you may know could possibly help? Thanks in advance guys. This was my Birthday present to myself back on January 5th and its killing me to think this thing could very well be lost for good.

Sincerely, Chris

Hi Chris,

The only way for people here to really help is if you post the flight logs. This link tells how:

Mavic Flight Log Retrieval and Analysis Guide

With the introduction of the Mavic Mini there has been a noticeable uptick in the number of posts requesting help with lost or crashed aircraft. While there is plenty of help and advice available on this forum, and detailed guidance and options on several other websites, I thought that perhaps a...

mavicpilots.com

 

[chris010572]

Thanks Fly Dawg & AMann

I have the flight records (.txt & .dat) ready to upload. Just to be sure I'm getting you the correct ones, here's how I got to them:

* plugged smartphone (Note 8 w/dji pilot app) into windows 10 PC.
* went to DJI folder
* then to com.dji.industry.pilot folder
* then to FlightRecord folder
* here I found a DJIFlightRecord_2020-02-09_[18-46 text document & a folder named MCDatFlightRecords. Inside that folder there is a DAT file named 20-02-09-18-46-07_FLY091

Are these the only two files you need? If yes, could you send me a link to the place I need to upload them to or an email address to send them to?

Thanks again. Chris

P.S. Fly Dawg, I'm in GA also. Way south of you. (Fitzgerald).

 

[slup]

Just use the big button below were you write new posts & attach the 2 logs ...

 

[chris010572]

Thanks, Just wanted to be sure, Here they are

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Chris, hope you recover your M2E, it'd be terrible to lose such an aircraft.
The analysis here is first rate, there's @sar104, and some new people coming through now that really enjoy doing this.
sar104 is particularly good at location in such cases, so you have a good chance of recovering yours.
Why I've tagged him above.
Again, good luck !!

 

[chris010572]

Chris, hope you recover your M2E, it'd be terrible to lose such an aircraft.
The analysis here is first rate, there's @sar104, and some new people coming through now that really enjoy doing this.
sar104 is particularly good at location in such cases, so you have a good chance of recovering yours.
Why I've tagged him above.
Again, good luck !!

Hey MAvic_South_Oz

Thanks for doing that. Yeah, I'm kinda bummed out right now. I haven't had much luck finding lost drones over the last few years but if this one is lost, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna find myself another hobby. LOL

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Hey MAvic_South_Oz

Thanks for doing that. Yeah, I'm kinda bummed out right now. I haven't had much luck finding lost drones over the last few years but if this one is lost, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna find myself another hobby. LOL

Hey mate, all good.
This is a great site and I can empathise with your loss, cheer up, you have a much better chance of finding this now than before !!
I hope this case is as successful as other recent ones here, there's been some incredibly accurate drone locating going on.

 

[Keule]

Any info would greatly be appreciated.

Hi Chris,

here a 3D replay of your flight:

M2ED low battery - UAV - Flight Telemetry

Your view into the world's great adventures.

ayvri.com

The flight ended with 2% battery left
(here a Google Earth image of the last section of your flight)


The last recorded position is: 31.776169, -83.384996

With the help of a GPS device goto the coordinates. The aircraft should be there in close range - with 2% battery it entered forced landing, so it can't be far away.

Good luck.

 

[slup]

In the last 10sec before the log ends you had connection RC-AC & that showed a heading speed of 8,7m/s & a vertical down speed of 0,9m/s ... this was at an relative height from your HP of 9,4 meters. Your HP was situated approx 4 meters below the last reported point just vertical below were the log ends ... giving that the AC were approx 5,4 meter above ground.

So if the descent speed were uninterrupted it took 5sec to reach ground ... with the heading speed taken into consideration the AC traveled further 40-50 meters.

@sar104 is the master of this kind of calculations but I'm giving it a shot as it was so close to ground ...

 

[Meta4]

I ignored the low battery warning to return home while taking a video and once I decided to return I knew at 10% battery remaining I was not gonna make it back to my home point.

I'm kinda bummed out right now. I haven't had much luck finding lost drones over the last few years but if this one is lost, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna find myself another hobby.

Maybe you need to pay a little more attention to battery management?
Treating the battery level as if it was the fuel level in a plane you were flying might be a good place to start.

You started this flight with the battery showing 71%.
You flew in battery burning Sport Mode
At 5:18.6 and a mile out the app was warning you that the remaining battery was only enough to return home.
You pushed on, ignoring the warning .. and 89 more warnings, not turning back until 7:24.7 when you were more than 2 miles out and the battery down to 21%.
At 8:36.1 with the battery showing 11% the drone started to autoland to prevent crashing due to critically low battery.
It was still 7126 feet from home.

 

[kidroc]

I’m with Meta on this one you kinda asked for it. I’m sorry and hope you find her in one piece and you learned your lesson!

 

[Mav1c]

Definitely some mistakes. One of the “pilot attitudes” talked about in the part107 test was at play here. Nonetheless, still anticipating @sar104 analysis. OP, I hope you find your aircraft and this will serve as a very scary warning.

side note: I worry about how close you were to the highway when you lost connection

 

[The Editor]

Your original post stated you have lost several drones over the last few years.
Respectfully, it appears you have not learned much from your prior experience if on this occasion you had low battery alarms (numerous) but by your own admission elected to ignore them whilst being BVLOS and some distance away from you.
If you do manage to recover this one, without a change in flying behavio, I fear it will be only a matter of time before it is lost for good.

 

[sar104]

Definitely some mistakes. One of the “pilot attitudes” talked about in the part107 test was at play here. Nonetheless, still anticipating @sar104 analysis. OP, I hope you find your aircraft and this will serve as a very scary warning.

side note: I worry about how close you were to the highway when you lost connection

The estimate above is going to be pretty close, but I'd make one slight correction.



The aircraft was in autolanding mode at the end of the flight, and the lateral movement was entirely due to elevator and aileron stick input. When the link was lost it will have resumed vertical descent. It was at 8 meters AGL and out of the stronger wind at that point, so I'd expect it on the ground within a few meters of the last recorded position, as shown below:

 

[JAW]

Awaiting the good news that you found your drone.

 

[Gindra]

Yes, please let us know how it goes.

 

[Mavic Mac]

Might be time to take a trip to GA ? ?

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Might be time to take a trip to GA ? ?

I wonder how many people reading here might be unscrupulous enough to do that, after going to the trouble of checking the maps / gps co ords in the thread ?
Anyone can read here of course.

I'd expect it on the ground within a few meters of the last recorded position, as shown below:

Well, there you go Chris, get out there and have a good look in a decent radius form that pin, and spread out from there as far as needed.
Good luck and you do have to let us know how you go, don't forget.