Some helpful advice please!

[ryangooner]

Hi,
I've had my Mavic Air for approx 4 weeks and always flown it safe and slowly built up confidence with it. I've not used the active track feature on anything faster than walking pace. I am currently on holiday on the Gili Islands and was on a boat trip today so thought this could be a cool place to use active track.

All was good, getting some really good footage of the boat... I was flying the drone from the side of the boat and then to the front and back to the rear, around like a circle (boat was travelling at approx 15/20mph). It was when the drone went to the rear of the boat I started to have issues. It was getting further away from the boat and as I was between looking at the screen and looking at the drone, my image was lost... I then put my head up and couldn't see the drone at all!!!

I'm really not sure what had happened but my guess was that it lost signal so decided to RTH, but my RTH would of been set at where we first took off from (about 20 metres off shore, but quite a way back from where we was). I pressed cancel RTH and tried sending it up to gain a visual but nothing!

So panic set in, we turned the boat around and searched, by this time I knew it was in the water and could only guess it was near to where we launched. Luckily, a local free diver came to help and he found the drone on the sea bed approx 30 metres down!!!!

I have DJI refresh package, will I be ok to return?

Also, I have attached a link to the flight log if anyone can help? Hope this is the correct way of sharing this information.


Any help, advice, greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[WithTheBirds]

Care refresh will get you a replacement. Good work by the diver- DJI won’t do anything under the refresh policy unless you have the trashed AC. Water damage isn’t a problem.

Try setting hover on signal loss next time you have a go at this.

Wash the memory card out in fresh water a few times and dry it thoroughly. Good chance you will be able to retrieve the footage.

 

[InvisibleName]

Good advice given above. I’m somewhat amazed that you went from flying safe & slow to what is probably the most risky flying in one big leap!! Just as well you’ve recovered it & have Refresh. Do loads more practice over land when you get your replacement & read up on what NOT to do when flying from a boat.

 

[ryangooner]

Thanks for this advice, appreciated. I actually watched a few videos this morning before heading out, but to be honest, the loss of signal followed by loss of sight in quick succession sent me into panic mode. If I had hover on loss of signal, I would of been fine! So yes, thanks for advice.

 

[Meta4]

I'm really not sure what had happened but my guess was that it lost signal so decided to RTH, but my RTH would of been set at where we first took off from (about 20 metres off shore, but quite a way back from where we was). I pressed cancel RTH and tried sending it up to gain a visual but nothing!

Out on the water is an unforgiving environment.
Before getting adventurous on water, you need to have experience with everything you are going to be doing out there.
Maybe it lost signal but here's an alternative explanation.
On a moving boat, your drone will want to fly home when the battery is getting low.
You need to reset the home point during the flight to prevent the drone from believing it has to go a long way back.
To find out what really happened, we would need to see flight data (not a picture of an Airdata front page).
To share your data ....
Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer - Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.

 

[ryangooner]

Out on the water is an unforgiving environment.
Before getting adventurous on water, you need to have experience with everything you are going to be doing out there.
Maybe it lost signal but here's an alternative explanation.
On a moving boat, your drone will want to fly home when the battery is getting low.
You need to reset the home point during the flight to prevent the drone from believing it has to go a long way back.
To find out what really happened, we would need to see flight data (not a picture of an Airdata front page).
To share your data ....
Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer - Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.

Hopefully this is the correct link you're looking for..
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

Thanks again for looking into this for us. I need to learn from this and really appreciate the advice... I've had a great time up to this point. Trying to run before I can walk springs to mind, although...its very easy to get swept away with the idea of great footage just because we are on holiday and it would be a great opportunity for some fantastic footage! I'm very lucky though, we've had some great footage of waterfalls, volcanoes, rice terraces... and now we have 2 days left before we go home. Good job I burned all the previous videos to my Mac each night!

Lesson firmly learnt, but at least DJI refresh will soften the blow significantly.... you should of seen me in the water!!! Snorkelling around like madman trying to find it, then some local free divers started to help! Heart has only just returned to normal bpm!

 

[Meta4]

Hopefully this is the correct link you're looking for..

My guess was wrong.
It was only 570 ft from the saved home point and lost signal.
There are lots of small signal losses in the data but the final one was at 5:43.7 with 70% battery left.
Signal was lost for 16 seconds.
When signal was returned at 5:59.8, the drone was on its way back to the launch point.
You had signal until 6:08.6 and could have cancelled the RTH in that time brought the drone back and reset the home point.
But at 6:08.6 you lost signal again until 7:0.8 when the drone was 90 feet above the launch point and descending.
Again, you could have cancelled the landing and brought it back but that didn't happen.
The landing continued until 7:25 and the only control input seems to be pulling down on the right stick to fly it backwards as it was descending - not a very helpful action.

 

[ryangooner]

My guess was wrong.
It was only 570 ft from the saved home point and lost signal.
There are lots of small signal losses in the data but the final one was at 5:43.7 with 70% battery left.
Signal was lost for 16 seconds.
When signal was returned at 5:59.8, the drone was on its way back to the launch point.
You had signal until 6:08.6 and could have cancelled the RTH in that time brought the drone back and reset the home point.
But at 6:08.6 you lost signal again until 7:0.8 when the drone was 90 feet above the launch point and descending.
Again, you could have cancelled the landing and brought it back but that didn't happen.
The landing continued until 7:25 and the only control input seems to be pulling down on the right stick to fly it backwards as it was descending - not a very helpful action.

As you say, lots of signal loses and as I said... panic mode.

Thanks for your last comment regarding not a very helpful action... not quite sure there was a need for that comment to be honest. I've seen a few snarky comments regarding people losing drones on here, its just not helpful at all is it? I'm grateful that you looked at the data and gave comment, but just thought the last one was unnecessary. Its not like I was purposely flying it away as it was descending, I was panicking and thought I was flying forwards. As I said before, lesson learnt, but comments like that when you've just put your ££££ drone in the drink really isn't needed... if it sounds like I'm being touchy, its because I am... for obvious reasons

 

[Meta4]

Thanks for your last comment regarding not a very helpful action... not quite sure there was a need for that comment to be honest. I've seen a few snarky comments regarding people losing drones on here, its just not helpful at all is it? I'm grateful that you looked at the data and gave comment, but just thought the last one was unnecessary. Its not like I was purposely flying it away as it was descending, I was panicking and thought I was flying forwards. As I said before, lesson learnt, but comments like that when you've just put your ££££ drone in the drink really isn't needed... if it sounds like I'm being touchy, its because I am... for obvious reasons

You might feel touchy but your data shows that you had two chances to cancel the RTH but didn't.
It also shows you doing something with the joysticks, but not being aware that you had connection and that the screen would have told you everything you needed to know to recover.
That's not being snarky, it's being informative and explaining something you weren't aware of that could have saved your bacon.
By pointing it out, perhaps you'll remember something that could help you again in future.

 

[Jonny_Pain]

One useful skill is to be able to fly by the display only, in map view, kind of like instrument flight rules in a plane. With a spotter of course, and no obstacles in the are (a flat field) do some missions by only looking at your phone/tablet display.

The display can be toggled between camera view and map view by touching the little icon on the lower left hand side of the screen.

This could have helped in your situation. There will be a green straight line between you and the drone. You can fly this shorted route back to you by just flying the line

You can also check your altitude, battery usage, and speed.

This works as long as your are connected to the drone, and works better then trying to find it in the sky.

In your situation you should have been staring at the map view crossing your fingers to re connect and have your friends visually look for the drone.

You would have seen the chance to stop the auto land and had a chance to start flying the green line back to the boat.

 

[fleurdelisxliv]

One useful skill is to be able to fly by the display only, in map view, kind of like instrument flight rules in a plane. With a spotter of course, and no obstacles in the are (a flat field) do some missions by only looking at your phone/tablet display.

The display can be toggled between camera view and map view by touching the little icon on the lower left hand side of the screen.

This could have helped in your situation. There will be a green straight line between you and the drone. You can fly this shorted route back to you by just flying the line

You can also check your altitude, battery usage, and speed.

This works as long as your are connected to the drone, and works better then trying to find it in the sky.

In your situation you should have been staring at the map view crossing your fingers to re connect and have your friends visually look for the drone.

You would have seen the chance to stop the auto land and had a chance to start flying the green line back to the boat.

Im a rookie but this is some sound advice, i practice like this everytime i fly. I didnt touch mine the first week. I read i studied and watched many many videos. I wanted to be able to fly without the common problem of pilot errors. Its alot to learn, ive had a good number of flights now and am rdy to start learning my camera. From what ive gathered its two steps, learn your aircraft then learn your camera. Just my opinion but that will make any new pilot a lot better.

 

[ryangooner]

One useful skill is to be able to fly by the display only, in map view, kind of like instrument flight rules in a plane. With a spotter of course, and no obstacles in the are (a flat field) do some missions by only looking at your phone/tablet display.

The display can be toggled between camera view and map view by touching the little icon on the lower left hand side of the screen.

This could have helped in your situation. There will be a green straight line between you and the drone. You can fly this shorted route back to you by just flying the line

You can also check your altitude, battery usage, and speed.

This works as long as your are connected to the drone, and works better then trying to find it in the sky.

In your situation you should have been staring at the map view crossing your fingers to re connect and have your friends visually look for the drone.

You would have seen the chance to stop the auto land and had a chance to start flying the green line back to the boat.

Thanks mate, thats good advice and really helpful!

Once I get her back from DJI refresh, I'll be using the above methods.

Thanks again