There’s no fool like an old fool...Mavic Mini lost!!

[OldGuy]

I hate to be added to the list of lost Mavic Minis but here I am. However I must say that it was my fault not DJI as I panicked! I’ve been flying R/C for over 40 years and now have a few years on drones so there is no excuse. This was my second MM having returned the first one due to a disappointing CE range. So here I am on my favourite hill 18th December with nothing around for miles. I fly the FCC version of the MM out almost 2 km and I am very happy due to the excellent range that it has. Unfortunately a cold wind started to blow so I packed up and set off home. Once home as I had proven the FCC MM I decided on one more flight from my garden before calling it a day. Now here is my first mistake I didn’t do a compass calibration which is most unusual for me as I am a big believer in CC. The next mistake was not hearing “The Home Point has been updated please check it on the map” message. I took off full of confidence and flew out across the valley (my place is 350 m above sea level on the side of a mountain). Next mistake was my premature over confidence. Instead of flying VLOS (I know you guys are going to jump on me because of this) I flew out around 600 m saying to myself “I've got a FCC MM so no problem”!! Suddenly everything went dead. I lost the tablet screen, all 4 lights on the remote stared flashing. Now here is the final mistake. I didn’t wait for the RTH to kick in. I reasoned that if I pulled back on the remote stick I would fly backwards along the outgoing flight path. However I should have put the remote down and waited for the RTH.
A futile search of the are revealed nothing. Find My Drone showed the aircraft heading to the coast and out to sea. The Flight Data Centre showed the outgoing flight path and the beginning of a RTH which was interrupted (by me fiddling with the sticks I suppose) which then resulted in the aircraft flying into the side of the mountain.
I returned to my office and immediately ordered another MM CE version which on a good note arrived on Christmas Eve. Since then I have flown this one several times and by switching to manual in Channel Mode have managed to get out around 2 km on 2.4 GHz. I didn’t try this with my first MM unfortunately.
I still look out over the valley and wonder what happened to my poor ill fated Mavic Mini.
I now am the proud owner of a Mavic Mini FCC remote but no drone! By the way I can confirm that it won’t pair with my CE drone!!
Final note: I forgot to put my phone number on the aircraft….all my other drones have it!!

OldGuy/Old Fool!!

 

[markp99]

Wow, lots of good lessons there! Sorry you lost your MM, but you may have saved a few like me from a similar fate.

Will be adding CC to my routine as well as adding my contact info to the AC.

 

[old man mavic]

thanks for sharing you story and thanks for your honesty about the reasons you lost your MM,most people come on here and blame the drone, then next doors cat ,the women up the street, you get the picture you might be old like me but you are no fool happy flying

 

[Antaire]

I keep reading conflicting comments regarding CC. It’s a must to do before every flight or it’s not required unless prompted.

 

[sirbadger]

I keep reading conflicting comments regarding CC. It’s a must to do before every flight or it’s not required unless prompted.

Surely if it was a must then the software would make you do it?

 

[old man mavic]

I keep reading conflicting comments regarding CC. It’s a must to do before every flight or it’s not required unless prompted.

it is not something you need to do before every flight unless the drone asks for it ,sometimes you will get calibrate compass simply because you are too near to your car or there is some metal in the ground you can't see,it is probably a routine that OLD GUY has been doing for many years because of something he read about it ,i have a routine where i use a small hand held compass to find magnetic north and set my take off mat to north before i fly and i swear by it and won't fly until i have done it that way i know that my Mavic is facing north because i can visually see it on the screen

 

[wjkrysak]

i have a routine where i use a small hand held compass to find magnetic north and set my take off mat to north before i fly and i swear by it and won't fly until i have done it that way i know that my Mavic is facing north because i can visually see it on the screen

I use the same tactic, when setting out to fly for the day. Compass heading North, mat oriented North and visual confirmation on controller. I used to be active in orienteering for years and just kept the habit of knowing my direction. Enjoy your flying.

 

[old man mavic]

I use the same tactic, when setting out to fly for the day. Compass heading North, mat oriented North and visual confirmation on controller. I used to be active in orienteering for years and just kept the habit of knowing my direction. Enjoy your flying.

i am glad i am not the only one, though i do get some funny looks if there are people walking by as i am doing it, you can see them thinking i wonder what's he up to and sometimes they will stand and watch

 

[OldGuy]

The reason I should have done a compass calibration is because I had done one on the hill some 10 km away from home. I had never flown the new MM from my place so should have done a CC for the first flight in a new location even though I was not prompted by the Fly app. This is one of the basic rules of drone flying which I ignored/forgot.

 

[sirbadger]

The reason I should have done a compass calibration is because I had done one on the hill some 10 km away from home. I had never flown the new MM from my place so should have done a CC for the first flight in a new location even though I was not prompted by the Fly app. This is one of the basic rules of drone flying which I ignored/forgot.

I'm new to dji but I've not seen anything saying it's basic rule to do it at all new sites, as I posted earlier if it were that important the software would insist that you did it?

 

[old man mavic]

The reason I should have done a compass calibration is because I had done one on the hill some 10 km away from home. I had never flown the new MM from my place so should have done a CC for the first flight in a new location even though I was not prompted by the Fly app. This is one of the basic rules of drone flying which I ignored/forgot.

well i guess we both in our own way do it,you by calibrating ,me by checking that my compass is not out and of course if i got a onerous reading then after checking if there was something affecting it i would do a compass calibration as well to see if that fixed it

 

[old man mavic]

I'm new to dji but I've not seen anything saying it's basic rule to do it at all new sites, as I posted earlier if it were that important the software would insist that you did it?

since november 2018 i have calibrated my MPP compass once when i first purchased it,and i also did the same with my MM ,and i do not expect to have to do either of them anytime soon

 

[OldGuy]

If you change locations it is recommended that you do a compass calibration in your new location. I have had a M2Z since they were first launched and from time to time it asks for a CC. I did one two nights ago when changing locations some 100 m away from my place. This was requested by the app. Also I own other makes of drone which require a CC every time you change the battery. So if you fly three times on three different batteries you have to do three CC. This is why I am a big believer in CC even though I failed and my lost MM.

 

[old man mavic]

the problem you have with calibrating the compass all the time is the fact that if you get a calibration prompt because there is metal such as rebar in the ground affecting the compass or the i watch you are wearing is causing it ,then doing a calibration is not going to make any difference in fact it can make the anomaly worse

 

[old man mavic]

i have heard that the second gen mavics do have a different approach to CC, with regards to a change of flight area, if it is over a certain distance from the last time it flew , but the ist gen mavics are not so sensitive to that requirement

 

[OldGuy]

since november 2018 i have calibrated my MPP compass once when i first purchased it,and i also did the same with my MM ,and i do not expect to have to do either of them anytime soon

Since I have had my M2Z I have calibrated the compass umpteen times. Now my latest MM is also requesting the same. Perhaps you are always flying from the same place? Or is it something to do with the fact that I am flying from a mountainous area or move some distance to fly in new places? I really don’t know but I often get told to do a CC.

 

[OldGuy]

the problem you have with calibrating the compass all the time is the fact that if you get a calibration prompt because there is metal such as rebar in the ground affecting the compass or the i watch you are wearing is causing it ,then doing a calibration is not going to make any difference in fact it can make the anomaly worse

You are right about the rebar. I tried to take off and film a neighbours house the other day from his balcony but it was impossible (lot of rebar under the tiles). I eventually moved to the drive and was able to take off from there and get some good photos.
I use a cheap plastic watch which I bought specifically for drone flying. I leave the Rolex at home! ha ha

 

[old man mavic]

Since I have had my M2Z I have calibrated the compass umpteen times. Now my latest MM is also requesting the same. Perhaps you are always flying from the same place? Or is it something to do with the fact that I am flying from a mountainous area or move some distance to fly in new places? I really don’t know but I often get told to do a CC.

i fly all over the place mostly in Wales and have gone well over 100 miles from home on several occasions to fly ,i have not taken the MM any further than 50 miles from home yet and have not been asked to CC i use my hand held compass method on both my drones to establish magnetic north ,and to check if there is anything in the ground that could affect the compass in the drone
to do that i hold the compass at chest height find north and then lower it slowly to the ground if the needle stays pointing to the north point on the ground ,then i know that there is nothing affecting it, but on several occasions the needle has moved quite a way off north due to something in the ground affecting it , then i move to another point and try again

 

[Meta4]

I keep reading conflicting comments regarding CC. It’s a must to do before every flight or it’s not required unless prompted.

The reason I should have done a compass calibration is because I had done one on the hill some 10 km away from home. I had never flown the new MM from my place so should have done a CC for the first flight in a new location even though I was not prompted by the Fly app. This is one of the basic rules of drone flying which I ignored/forgot.

If you change locations it is recommended that you do a compass calibration in your new location. I have had a M2Z since they were first launched and from time to time it asks for a CC. I did one two nights ago when changing locations some 100 m away from my place. This was requested by the app. Also I own other makes of drone which require a CC every time you change the battery. So if you fly three times on three different batteries you have to do three CC. This is why I am a big believer in CC even though I failed and my lost MM.

It's a matter of much misunderstanding and DJI's poor communications on the topic have spawned a lot of superstition about compass calibration.
The people that recommend frequent compass calibration don't understand what compass calibration actually does or when it's really necessary.
The only thing that compass calibration does is to identify and measure the magnetic fields that are part of the drone itself.
That is so they can be ignored, allowing the compass data to show actual magnetic fields in the flying environment rather than being influenced by the electromagnetic fields within the drone.

It has nothing to do with distance from anywhere and doesn't really need to be done at time intervals or after travelling.

Now here is my first mistake I didn’t do a compass calibration which is most unusual for me as I am a big believer in CC.
The next mistake was not hearing “The Home Point has been updated please check it on the map” message. I took off full of confidence and flew out across the valley (my place is 350 m above sea level on the side of a mountain).
Next mistake was my premature over confidence. Instead of flying VLOS (I know you guys are going to jump on me because of this) I flew out around 600 m saying to myself “I've got a FCC MM so no problem”!! Suddenly everything went dead. I lost the tablet screen, all 4 lights on the remote stared flashing.
Now here is the final mistake. I didn’t wait for the RTH to kick in. I reasoned that if I pulled back on the remote stick I would fly backwards along the outgoing flight path. However I should have put the remote down and waited for the RTH.

Compass calibration played no part in your flight incident and it's quite likely that your other ideas about your "mistakes" are also incorrect.
If you post your recorded flight data, we should be able to eliminate some or all of your other suggested causes and possibly find out what really happened.

 

[atsphenomenon]

It's a matter of much misunderstanding and DJI's poor communications on the topic have spawned a lot of superstition about compass calibration.
The people that recommend frequent compass calibration don't understand what compass calibration actually does or when it's really necessary.
The only thing that compass calibration does is to identify and measure the magnetic fields that are part of the drone itself.
That is so they can be ignored, allowing the compass data to show actual magnetic fields in the flying environment rather than being influenced by the electromagnetic fields within the drone.

It has nothing to do with distance from anywhere and doesn't really need to be done at time intervals or after travelling.


Compass calibration played no part in your flight incident and it's quite likely that your other ideas about your "mistakes" are also incorrect.
If you post your recorded flight data, we should be able to eliminate some or all of your other suggested causes and possibly find out what really happened.

It'll be great if we get the flight log. Unless you cancelled rth, stick inputs wouldn't have over ridden the rth. Seems like the culprit could be the wind, but that's speculation. Would be quite keen to see the log.