Stuck at 50m above water and can't move :(

[BrAinZ]

Had a bit of a scare today....

I was getting some footage of a Classic Car event, which was being held next to a river. I flew the drone down above the river as obviously I didn't want to fly over the people or very nice cars.

I thought it would be a good opportunity to grab a 360° photo using the Hangar app, so quit DJi app and loaded up Hangar. Unfortunately that failed half way through, so I gave up with that idea and went back to the DJI app.

Problem I the hit was that the Mavic was at about 50m above the river.... but wouldn't move
Wouldn't go forward, back, up or down.
Panic set in as I was a little way away with about 50% battery and couldn't see any other future than the Mavic running out of battery and landing right in the middle of the river (no doubt to the amusement of the Classic Car peeps)

I quite the DJI apps restarted, but still the same.

Eventually tried switching to Sport Mode, which luckily allowed me to fly back to my position safely.

Any ideas why that would happen?

Would there be anything in the logs which would give a clue?

Did highlight a potential where it would always be a good idea to immediately reset the Home Point after using the Hangar app. In the case that would hopefully have made the difference between the Mavic coming back to me, or landing where it was in the river

 

[dewster]

I want to use those apps but stories like this keep me from using them.

 

[Doecliff]

Yikes! switching to sport mode was the right thing to do. Its kind of the default way to get out of hangar 360.

 

[Lapeer20m]

Similiar thing happened to me previously.

Only 1 app can "connect" to mavic at a time and it sounds like hangar 360 was still connected...or mavic rc thought it was still connected.

I congratulate you for having the ability to problem solve during an in flight emergency....even if the emergency was just mavic staying in place for several minutes.

Many people get a small dose of adrenaline and forget how to think in situations like this.

 

[dirkclod]

Agree with Lapeer on his post and have had it happen also .
Wasn't the height where you start from as I have been as high as 250' and started it . The app still seems not to work perfectly on the free version and don't have a clue on the paid app . I was over 1k out when mine did that and hit the RTH button real fast then double hit my home button and cleared all apps open and reopened the go app and to my surprise it was coming home .Why I don't have a clue but like he said just never panic and think it out .

 

[adramelech52]

What mobile phone or tablet do you use? I never had problem with hangar 360 or maybe once it's freezes at the beginning after 5 second counter for 10 sec.

 

[Path Finder]

Also recall you don't need any APP at all to fly. (Just can't "see" where you are going if you were beyond sight of it)

 

[Jacknet007]

I was trying Litchi and halfway through I was concerned my mission could hit high athletic field light poles. I though I aborted the mission by switching to FPV mode but as I was flying it the RC was still in waypoint. I killed the app but no change. Brought up dji Go but still in waypoint. Finally hit sport mode and that got me back in control. Good ol sport mode!

 

[tracer bullet]

Sport mode = good thinking. I'd have probably restarted my remote, but sport mode would be much faster.

Sounds like the app isn't letting go of control of the remote even after it's closed, like something is still hanging out there? Scary.

 

[BrAinZ]

I was using an iPhone 7, which to be fair has never let me down or crashed while flying. I did definitely close down Hangar in the background, but yes it was as if it still has control of the Mavic.
Weird that it just would move at all though, it sort of "tried" to, but acted as if an invisible brake was on.

 

[adramelech52]

Some time ago, hangar had problem with shooting (slight delay between shots) when strong wind was blowing, I think app wanted to maintain dron position. I also use iPhone (7+).