The prodigal drone has returned!!!

[Stride8]

I have my Mavic insured thru state farm. It's the only thing I have insured from state farm. I think the agent misled you.

I agree, go see another agent

 

[Stride8]

I tried getting insurance from State Farm for my replacement. I contacted an agent in my area referred by someone in the Forum. According to the agent, the only way they would insure it was if I had other insurance such as my vehicle, homeowners ect with State Farm and it would cost me about $60 a year. I was not about to change my whole policy over to get my MP insured. My current insurance company covers my drone being lost or damaged under my homeowner's insurance. If the SF agent gave me wrong information and they insure just the MP, please advise and I will look into it again.

Yeah I think he misled you. Try another

 

[whiskeylover]

Nice!
If anyone is worried about privacy while posting personal information on the Mavic, may I suggest posting only an alternate email address? That way you still have a chance of recovering your lost drone without giving away any identifying info.

 

[JeepDSL]

If anyone is worried about privacy

I'm not too worried about putting an email address or phone number on the drone considering that none of the flight logs stored in the drone and none of the videos or photos on the SD card are protected in any way. If someone recovers my drone in working condition with the SD card intact, they can probably figure out where I live; where I've traveled recently; get pictures of myself, friends and family; and figure out other stuff about me. This is a real security weakness in the Mavic in my opinion.

I'm glad @Lil' DronePilot got his Mavic back.

 

[Big Fil]

Glad you got your drone back and it's working. One thing to maybe watch out for is the bearings in the motors may have rusted since they would have likely been exposed directly to the rain.

 

[Lil' DronePilot]

Glad you got your drone back and it's working. One thing to maybe watch out for is the bearings in the motors may have rusted since they would have likely been exposed directly to the rain.

So far just a bad battery. I don't know how but I do not see rust or oxidation in the motors. Light rust on a few screws but everything else working like when I first got it. I'd still would liked it inspected eventually. Until then, I still have my other MP. I'm glad I got it back but still can't believe everything works.

 

[Nikon1]

@Lil’ DronePilot - Great story and greater results! It does increase my faith in people to hear that the “finder” wouldn’t even accept a reward!

Continued Safe Flying

 

[halifax]

Agreed, great story and congratulations on the recovery. I love happy endings!

My main concern would be with the battery, and trusting it in the future

FYI, I use a Communications Specialists PR-100A 222MHz tracking receiver and their 30mW beacon as a recovery system. It works very well even in the forest/mountain environments where I fly. We tested it at two miles distance, non-line of sight, in ravine and ridge forested terrain and it worked very well.

Other thread comments:

I also have State Farm's $60/year policy which will cover up to $5000 worth of gear. Complete replacement of lost machines.

I, too, have been having problems with Litchi, in my case early termination of waypoint missions (3x in the last two weeks). Twice it completed the mission, once it just stopped and sat there and I had to drive to a nearby location while she was hovering to regain contact and switch to FPV/sport to bring her home. As much as I love Litchi, I'm looking for something more reliable for autonomous missions.

 

[SGM]

Good to hear you have it back, I enjoy reading about positive topics and stories on this site.

 

[ElPocho]

Amazing story! Glad it got home.

 

[Gerald Ellis]

I, too, have been having problems with Litchi, in my case early termination of waypoint missions (3x in the last two weeks). Twice it completed the mission, once it just stopped and sat there and I had to drive to a nearby location while she was hovering to regain contact and switch to FPV/sport to bring her home. As much as I love Litchi, I'm looking for something more reliable for autonomous missions.

I've been using LItchi 98% of the time when flying Phantom 3A and now with the Mavic and only had one problem whether just flying free style FPV or sending it off up to 3 miles away in my rural area. She always comes home after completing the missions. The one time where it had a big problem was when it was returning from a mission at 390' it detected an obstacle and climbed and kept climbing to over 1200' before I realized it was going haywire. Anyway, it went into low battery and decided to land but I was able to keep it away from trees and land it not far from my house.
This was not a Litchi problem but a DJI error due to the late afternoon sun tricking the obstacle avoidance system. If I would have just cancelled the mission and yawed the Mavic away from the sun I could have flown it home because at this point it was at VLOS. But...Panicking I wasn't thinking.
So I'm happy with Litchi as it never crashes my Shield tablet where GO4 hates me or the tablet and crashes at the most inopportune times.

 

[Stretch_hornets]

Thanks for sharing your valuable story. Makes me more confident of having my name and phone number visible on the side of the Mavic.

 

[Brunomargi]

Congratulation for getting your baby back. Compliments to the guy who gave you back.

I also lost my MAVIC because of my mistake: I lost the control after flying with goggles, because when I got them out it was too sunny. Finally I had some panic and it did not landed at home but about 300 m far.

Unluckily it was in a wild wood, but with the GPS coordinates I went with some young and sport friends and they climbed to the place.

This happened a couple of weeks later and there was some rain in the meantime.

One propeller was broken and the gimbal was a bit out of place.

Happy end: my drone is flying safe and recording smooth!

I agree that MAVIC is a solid drone, gimbal a little weak….

 

[Lil' DronePilot]

This happened a couple of weeks later and there was some rain in the meantime.
One propeller was broken and the gimbal was a bit out of place.
Happy end: my drone is flying safe and recording smooth!
I agree that MAVIC is a solid drone, gimbal a little weak….[/QUOTE]

Oh wow and your MP was upside down which I think would have allowed for rain and debris to get into the electronics easier. Also by crashing on vegetation I'd assume that little crawlers would of wanted to make use of your MP as a hide out. I'm a fan of the Mavic. DJI? Not so much as I don't agree with the things that they do. Overall, this little machine was able to take some punishment and keep on going. That they got right. Obviously more than once as your MP also survived a crash, weather and was still operable.

 

[Brunomargi]

0ur summer this year was very dry, only one night a few rain in these ten days. Maybe the leaves were even protecting the drone!

 

[royster]

Great your MP was found by a "good" person, nice to know there are people like this still out there, congrads!
Albert, a fellow I met flying related his lost Mavic story to me- Flying in/over his home in a fairly dense subdivision, he was new to flying & didn't even think about flying over people/homes.
Second flight he looses contact with his bird, hit RTH but because of the area he had a disconnect, after many hours of searching, no Mavic, no name or contact info on it either. Well, almost a month later he posts some Lost Drone, reward posters all over his neighbourhood & gets a call from a neighbour, just 4 or 5 homes away from his.
The guy was doing spring cleaning, unloading all kinds junk & stuff into a bin he rented & had parked end of his driveway.
Opening the bins big rear doors,& there sitting on the floor of this huge steel bin, his Mavic with no apparent damage!

 

[GTMonster]

Before you fly it... do you know why it went AWOL in the first place? If not, then it may be worth DJI having a look over it. If you have refresh, it may mean that you get a cleaned up Mavic back or failing that replaced screws. No point in getting it back just to let if flay off again!

 

[mildim]

Happy for you !!

 

[deggers]

Droneaway - Community-Based Lost & Found for Drones

Signed up to this and have a labelled attached to the side

It's free

 

[Lil' DronePilot]

Before you fly it... do you know why it went AWOL in the first place? If not, then it may be worth DJI having a look over it. If you have refresh, it may mean that you get a cleaned up Mavic back or failing that replaced screws. No point in getting it back just to let if flay off again!

I had DJI refresh on it. When I lost it and couldn't find it, I purchased another MP and transferred the plan. Unfortunately now that I found it, I reached out to DJI and I'm so still waiting to get an answer to see if it is covered or if I can purchase another refresh based on the fact that it was initially covered under the plan. I'm assuming I will wait and wait. I've flown it a bit since found and have to say, the few slightly rusted screws have no effect on its performance.