Sport Mode is your friend

[FlySafeUAS]

To make a long story short, I was taking a pano shot with Mavic Air. (this gives awesome results IMO.) The location is a small river through the woods. Sun light filtering through the limbs. Nice mini rapids for the photos with light reflections all over. So, after getting the mavic air over the river about 10' from bank. 15' up surrounded by tree limbs. I start the pano. Have good satellite signals. The proximity beeps are happening. Move to a place where this stops. I start the pano capture. All looks as you would expect with rotations and photo capture. At the end of the series of photos, the MA just stops in a hover. Nothing I do on the controller has any effect. Turned off the app and restarted. No change. MA is just hovering. Can't use the RTH option because of the tree cover. Couldn't change the RTH height to 3 meters instead of 30. I'm evaluating where to stand to catch it when the battery runs out and how wet I'm going to be. Then try Sport mode!! All is good. Have instant control. After a few moves, a smooth dry landing happens. Sport mode is your friend. So is a fresh battery on every takeoff.

 

[SlavicSoul]

can confirm I had similar experience where I just switched sport mode on and off and I was able to regain control of my MA

 

[Lake_Flyer]

All the so called 'intelligence' DJI programmed in, to protect the typical selfie folks from doing anything stupid, is making these drones unpredictable in situations. Good to know that Sports mode overrides most of that. Should be a sticky here.

 

[Just_nick]

I'm guessing that the drone was detecting an imaginary object as an obstacle, thus it wouldn't move. This is most certainly not the first time that this has been reported.

 

[Seanjo]

Hey, I know with my MP sunlight glare triggers a front obstacle abundance at times...depending on the angle the sun hits the sensors. A buddy of mine had that same issue as well with his P4 with the afternoon Sun.

 

[thongbong]

Awesome! Sports mode is the new ATTI mode, only with sattelite precission. I harken back to the phantom 1 days. Lol

 

[droneworx]

I’ll tell you why this happened as I discovered this as well. After the quick shot is complete, it goes back to its starting spot, and then it waits for you Click that “X” to exit from the mode to go back to normal flight mode. I think it’s stupid, it should default back to the normal mode, but it doesn’t

 

[FlySafeUAS]

I’ll tell you why this happened as I discovered this as well. After the quick shot is complete, it goes back to its starting spot, and then it waits for you Click that “X” to exit from the mode to go back to normal flight mode. I think it’s stupid, it should default back to the normal mode, but it doesn’t

In my case, the photo sequence didn't complete so the little "X" exit didn't appear.

 

[dwallersv]

I'm guessing that the drone was detecting an imaginary object as an obstacle, thus it wouldn't move. This is most certainly not the first time that this has been reported.

Was it still over water when it refused to accept control inputs?

If so, could have been VPS failure, which doesn't work well over reflective or moving/changing surfaces, and can cause weird behavior. You should disable VPS for a position like that. Problem is, you need it for a shot like this.

 

[FlySafeUAS]

Was it still over water when it refused to accept control inputs?

If so, could have been VPS failure, which doesn't work well over reflective or moving/changing surfaces, and can cause weird behavior. You should disable VPS for a position like that. Problem is, you need it for a shot like this.

It was over the water. I need to shoot this again. I'll try without VPS

 

[dwallersv]

It's a conundrum. You need VPS for the positional stability to get a good pano, but it doesn't work well over unstable (i.e. changing) surfaces.

I think the way you did it was fine, but be ready to switch to sport if it starts to go wonky. Worth trying it with VPS off (in which case it has to use GPS for positioning) to see how well it stays put and takes all the snaps. If you have a really good signal with lots of sats, probably okay.

Also, if you want to get really technical and picky, check the predicted GPS DOP for the date/time you plan to shoot. When I fly a Litchi mission that I need to be as accurate as possible, I plan it for a date/time when the GPS geometry is particularly good for greatest accuracy. See this site to explore this further.

Google around for Trimble Planning Tool 2.9 and download it. It can no longer be found on the Trimble site (they have some online planning thing that requires SilverLight and IE, I'm a chrome user), but it's out there to download on a mirror.

 

[FlySafeUAS]

It's a conundrum. You need VPS for the positional stability to get a good pano, but it doesn't work well over unstable (i.e. changing) surfaces.

I think the way you did it was fine, but be ready to switch to sport if it starts to go wonky. Worth trying it with VPS off (in which case it has to use GPS for positioning) to see how well it stays put and takes all the snaps. If you have a really good signal with lots of sats, probably okay.

Also, if you want to get really technical and picky, check the predicted GPS DOP for the date/time you plan to shoot. When I fly a Litchi mission that I need to be as accurate as possible, I plan it for a date/time when the GPS geometry is particularly good for greatest accuracy. See this site to explore this further.

Google around for Trimble Planning Tool 2.9 and download it. It can no longer be found on the Trimble site (they have some online planning thing that requires SilverLight and IE, I'm a chrome user), but it's out there to download on a mirror.

Great feed back -Thanks...

 

[Travisimo]

Thanks for sharing your experience so that we can all learn from it. I'm glad to hear that Sports mode will regain control in this kind of situation, whether it was a software error, sensor problem, or otherwise.

 

[baksideDisaster]

I use Sport switch all the time to quickly exit a smart shot. Such a good trick to quickly take back control in an emergency situation.

 

[Balko]

I'm guessing that the drone was detecting an imaginary object as an obstacle, thus it wouldn't move. This is most certainly not the first time that this has been reported.

The Mavic usually confuses the glare from the sun as an obstacle. Hope DJI would come up with a firmware update that would resolve this issue. My P3A never had this.

 

[Brian_MavicPro]

I have had similar results with the Mavic Air not wanting to proceed as directed. I did not use Sport Mode but rather negotiated my course by flying sideways. If you can move it left/right, you may be able to get tease it out of the predicament and begin flying forward or reverse again. Go easy on the stick however...you would be amazed at how fast it flies left and right, lol.

 

[Just_nick]

I use Sport switch all the time to quickly exit a smart shot. Such a good trick to quickly take back control in an emergency situation.

Or the pause button.

 

[Regulator247]

To make a long story short, I was taking a pano shot with Mavic Air. (this gives awesome results IMO.) The location is a small river through the woods. Sun light filtering through the limbs. Nice mini rapids for the photos with light reflections all over. So, after getting the mavic air over the river about 10' from bank. 15' up surrounded by tree limbs. I start the pano. Have good satellite signals. The proximity beeps are happening. Move to a place where this stops. I start the pano capture. All looks as you would expect with rotations and photo capture. At the end of the series of photos, the MA just stops in a hover. Nothing I do on the controller has any effect. Turned off the app and restarted. No change. MA is just hovering. Can't use the RTH option because of the tree cover. Couldn't change the RTH height to 3 meters instead of 30. I'm evaluating where to stand to catch it when the battery runs out and how wet I'm going to be. Then try Sport mode!! All is good. Have instant control. After a few moves, a smooth dry landing happens. Sport mode is your friend. So is a fresh battery on every takeoff.

Every flight I have is in sport mode. I like going fast.
If you're not first you're last!

 

[Skymax]

Any time spent over water is a critical risk, how many threads have you read about ppl crashing in to water?
Far more than people hitting the ground. You fly over water you accept the risk of total loss.

 

[Regulator247]

I live 10 minutes from the gulf of mexico. I am quite often flying over large bodies of water and anytime I do so I make **** sure I have more than enough battery power to get back. But what exactly is the difference between the risk of flying your quad into the top of a 40 foot tree in the middle of nowhere or being over a body of water? Unless you've got a spare JLG handy your quad is probably gone in both situations. One can be flying in an open field and not pay attention and strike someone with the drone. Flying a remote controlled device is all about risk mitigation. Its not necessarily about the risks themselves, but how an operator can safely avoid said risks and continue to push their limits.