Please help me figure out what happened

[Nooker77]

Hi, I'm new to drone flying and had a very strange experience with my Mavic the second day I took it out. I'm hoping someone can help me figure out what happened. I'm ok if the answer is pilot error, but if so, I'd like to know what I did to prevent it happening again.

Here's what happened. I took off and then climbed up to about 100ft. I then remember getting some GPS warnings and the Mavic flew away from me pretty rapidly. I couldn't get it to stop and so rapidly chased after it. I finally got it to stop flying with the pause button I believe and then when I caught up to it, I was able to bring it in for a landing. Prior to the GPS error, I had a strong signal from 16 satellites and at the altitude and location I was at there shouldn't have been any obstruction. The flight log on my DJI 4 Go app shows the drone location jumping over 1000 feet in a split second. It's almost as if the GPS error caused the drone to think it was somewhere it wasn't and then try to fly where it thought it should be. I've tried to upload the log from the drone, but let me know if there is something else I should add.

As I said, happy to find out its pilot error if I can prevent it in the future. Thankfully I was in a wide open area and was able to catch up with the drone. Had I been somewhere else I could easily have lost my mavic.

Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[Cyberpower678]

I only looked briefly but it looks like your drone lost GPS signal lock. It then switched over into Atti mode, meaning you have to manually control the drones movements. In doing so it got blown away by the wind, which was going at 24.8 km/h.

As for why you lost GPS signal, I can't say, but flying on a windy day as a new pilot is wreckless and is indeed pilot error.

 

[Nooker77]

Thanks for the reply. Hopefully the GPS drop won't be a recurring issue because as I said, I can't imagine it had any obstruction where I was flying since it was really open. Interesting that it got blown away by the wind so fast, and that the wind was almost 25km/h at that altitude, it certainly wasn't windy at ground level (maybe 10km/h if that). Is there a good way to judge the wind at altitude if it can vary that much from ground level (which I presume is what weather forecasts report)?

 

[Cyberpower678]

Thanks for the reply. Hopefully the GPS drop won't be a recurring issue because as I said, I can't imagine it had any obstruction where I was flying since it was really open. Interesting that it got blown away by the wind so fast, and that the wind was almost 25km/h at that altitude, it certainly wasn't windy at ground level (maybe 10km/h if that). Is there a good way to judge the wind at altitude if it can vary that much from ground level (which I presume is what weather forecasts report)?

Wind speeds change greatly from ground up to 30 m. You can use UAV Forecast to plan your flying accordingly.

 

[Strafe1]

Hi, I'm new to drone flying and had a very strange experience with my Mavic the second day I took it out. I'm hoping someone can help me figure out what happened. I'm ok if the answer is pilot error, but if so, I'd like to know what I did to prevent it happening again.

Here's what happened. I took off and then climbed up to about 100ft. I then remember getting some GPS warnings and the Mavic flew away from me pretty rapidly. I couldn't get it to stop and so rapidly chased after it. I finally got it to stop flying with the pause button I believe and then when I caught up to it, I was able to bring it in for a landing. Prior to the GPS error, I had a strong signal from 16 satellites and at the altitude and location I was at there shouldn't have been any obstruction. The flight log on my DJI 4 Go app shows the drone location jumping over 1000 feet in a split second. It's almost as if the GPS error caused the drone to think it was somewhere it wasn't and then try to fly where it thought it should be. I've tried to upload the log from the drone, but let me know if there is something else I should add.

As I said, happy to find out its pilot error if I can prevent it in the future. Thankfully I was in a wide open area and was able to catch up with the drone. Had I been somewhere else I could easily have lost my mavic.

Thanks for the help in advance.

If you were able to stop the Mavic with the "pause" button, then I would assume your Mavic was in some sort of flight mode. That's what the pause button does. Perhaps your Mav went into RTH mode due to loss of GPS. If that is true, then your Home Point would be set somewhere other than where you were flying from. Did you verify your home point on the map before take off? Could be part of your issue. If it were me, I would want to know why GPS was lost. Perhaps your DAT files could help.

 

[Cyberpower678]

If you were able to stop the Mavic with the "pause" button, then I would assume your Mavic was in some sort of flight mode. That's what the pause button does. Perhaps your Mav went into RTH mode due to loss of GPS. If that is true, then your Home Point would be set somewhere other than where you were flying from. Did you verify your home point on the map before take off? Could be part of your issue. If it were me, I would want to know why GPS was lost. Perhaps your DAT files could help.

That is not what happened. The pause button was a coincidence. The drone reacquired GPS lock and switched back to GPS mode.