Super important lesson to learn

[Amit Dunsky]

Youtuber Windswept Robert was kind enough to share this story.
For me: Lesson well learned. Never again will I assume the "signal loss" action is set to RTH.

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[Yorkshire_Pud]

Got to 5 minutes and I had had enough.
I think there is more than one lesson in this video.
Aside from anything else, look how he has the controller's antennae orientated! 45 deg or more above the horizon. Shouldn't they be pointed at the drone? Which, at that range and height, means the controller should be more or less horizontal.
Secondly he appears to have no idea where in the sky the drone is, he was fixated on the screen. I may well be 'slagged off' for saying it but to paraphrase "RTFM",....one can guess the rest.
"Fair bit of wind " he says, I think, at various points whilst the attitude indicator shows the drone, in N mode, to be flying in almost the hover position whilst doing 8.8m/s relative to the ground. In fact in places it is slightly nose up whilst flying forward i.e, trying to slow down, i.e. the wind speed is around 8.8m/s and more.

Is it worth carrying on to watch the rest of the video?

 

[teccer]

so glad you got her back but just one comment, as you were flying away the antenna was not pointing dirtectly at the drone, it was pointing at about 45 degrees plus up and the drone far away was more like 10 degrees, not sure if that was the reason you were getting orange warnings
good to see you made a grand effort to find her;-)

Yorkshire_Pud got the same thoughts as me​

 

[maggior]

I'm not sure how relevant the settings are in the app when you are not connected to the drone. If I pull DJI fly up and am not connected to the drone, my RTH altitude says 20m. As soon as I connected to the drone it will read the value I set it too.

No argument that you should check all of the safety parameters before each flight, but I'm not sure this is the problem with the flight in this video. When he takes off again, there is still plenty of battery left. If it was hovering it would have depleted the battery entirely.

I have flown "through" some signal issues because I know from experience that many times the signal will get strong again. When I see it multiple times as he did, I take the hint and bring it back.

And make use of the compass to see that you are pointed straight at the drone!!! All he had to do was turn a little bit to strengthen the signal.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

All he had to do was turn a little bit to strengthen the signal.

and not point the controller's antennae at the sky but at the drone or at least where he hoped the drone was.

 

[GFields]

Create a pre-flight checklist! Checking the "Lost Signal" and RTH settings should be done before EVERY flight not just after a firmware update. At least in my opinion. This is just one item on my pre-flight list.

 

[maggior]

Create a pre-flight checklist! Checking the "Lost Signal" and RTH settings should be done before EVERY flight not just after a firmware update. At least in my opinion. This is just one item on my pre-flight list.

Agreed. It feels mundane at times, but quite important when you think of the consequences of it not being right.

 

[Ty Pilot]

Got to 5 minutes and I had had enough.

Is it worth carrying on to watch the rest of the video?

You got waaaaayy past the point where I had to bail.

So much wrong there, it's a laundry list of "what not to do's"

 

[Amit Dunsky]

so glad you got her back but just one comment, as you were flying away the antenna was not pointing dirtectly at the drone, it was pointing at about 45 degrees plus up and the drone far away was more like 10 degrees, not sure if that was the reason you were getting orange warnings
good to see you made a grand effort to find her;-)

Yorkshire_Pud got the same thoughts as me​

Just a quick clarification: This is not me in the video. I had this video in my YouTube feed, and shred it here, as I believe there's a lot we can all learn from it.

 

[teccer]

Just a quick clarification: This is not me in the video. I had this video in my YouTube feed, and shred it here, as I believe there's a lot we can all learn from it.

yes I did understand that it wasn't you flying

 

[Meta4]

For me: Lesson well learned. Never again will I assume the "signal loss" action is set to RTH.

This is just misinformation from someone who doesn't understand much about how his drone works.

The RTH height and Signal Lost Action are stored in the drone, not the controller.
It has to be so that the drone knows what it has to do when signal is lost.
It's not possible to check what his settings were, unless the drone is connected to the controller and app.
His recorded flight data would show what the settings actually were.

His idea that an update must have changed the Loss of Signal Action is just wrong.
Updates will only ever change settings to DJI's default values, and the default LOS Action is RTH (because that's the only setting that makes any sense for 99% of flying).

And flying long distance when he knows that the return will be against a headwind was just asking for trouble.

It's most likely that his LOS Action was set to RTH and RTH height was set too high.
That would have left his drone battling a headwind that it couldn't fight against.
His recorded flight data would confirm whether that was what happened.

 

[old man mavic]

i watched the whole video,and it was clearly click bait, as someone who has posted many videos ,on the internet and who professes to know what he is talking about ,then to go out to fly ,firstly in such windy conditions, and secondly with the wind on the outward leg ,then to compound it all by finding that he had set it to hover instead of RTH ,sorry but the whole thing was a complete fabrication from start to finish, it was a great bit of theater ,and thats about all one can say about it

 

[Meta4]

then to compound it all by finding that he had set it to hover instead of RTH

He probably hadn't.
He has no way to tell what it was actually set to without checking his recorded flight data.

 

[123taff]

One thing is certain from the video whether staged or not, if we fly within the law, then this wouldn't have happened. If people continue to disregard the law, even in such "remote" areas AND post videos in the public domain, then we might expect further restrictions, especially as drone use for commercial purposes expand!

 

[Glenh]

@OMM I have never yet had a malfunction. Generally intrepid and fly by the rules. I don''t trust the RTH function but it generally works. Enjoy getting my bird back safely under my own direction..

 

[christheswiss]

my simple take on this is that I did learn something! it was interesting to see how he eventually found the drone using the map info...........aside from the "Theater", it was worth watching.............

 

[Barbara]

i watched the whole video,and it was clearly click bait, as someone who has posted many videos ,on the internet and who professes to know what he is talking about ,then to go out to fly ,firstly in such windy conditions, and secondly with the wind on the outward leg ,then to compound it all by finding that he had set it to hover instead of RTH ,sorry but the whole thing was a complete fabrication from start to finish, it was a great bit of theater ,and thats about all one can say about it

Hmm, so you think he pulled a "Trevor Jacob". Could be. He seemed to be doing everything he could to screw up, and then have a triumphant finish.

However, he did do a great job of illustrating all the things you shouldn't do...

 

[hiflyer201]

i watched the whole video,and it was clearly click bait,

couldn't have said it better!

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

He makes an interesting reply at one point in the comments.
"Live My Ph. Dream Yep, you won't be the first to report me"---- to the CAA--------"and you won't be the last, Karen."

 

[old man mavic]

@Glenh hi fellow flyer not quite sure why you mentioned me in your post #15 above,maybe you thought i was the person flying the drone