DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Things not to do whilst flying your drone...

A confessional thread as I’m sure we’ve all done something stupid whilst flying.

Me? The other day I flew out from the coast about 800m to photograph a shipwreck. Took the drone down to about 9m for one last shot and then hit RTH on the display.

Only I didn’t - I hit auto land instead! Luckily I noticed pretty quickly and cancelled it but was a nervous moment. Didn’t have a lot of altitude to play with.

From now on I will only use the RTH button on the actual remote...

I did that once because my neighbor was distracting me with a story about watching someone crash their model airplane when he was a kid. Almost auto landed on the house across the street. Thankfully I noticed in time and canceled.
 
Shortly after getting my P3P I was cruising along at near max speed a few feet above the snow and ice. Ahead was a gentle rise in the surface of the ground so I raised the drone up. Well I thought I did. I was used to aircraft sims where you pull back on the stick to go up. Yep. That's what I did and the drone dropped, hit the ground, went into a nice tumble and ejected the battery coming to rest in slush. Someone was watching out for me because after taking it home and drying it out I found no damage to the drone or the battery. Unfortunately I did not get that final scene due to the battery saying "I'm out of here."
ALWAYS, always be familiar with your controls and the orientation of your aircraft!
 
I received my new M2Z about a week ago and haven't had the time to try it until today. So after finding out that I could pack the drone, the controller, and the charger in my camera bag, together with the camera, I felt very happy to take it all out for an initial tour. I put the bag in the compartment of my scooter and travelled to a site where I know I would be alone and where it would be safe to initiate a first flight. I unpacked the drone, the controller, started up DJI GO 4 on my mobile phone and fitted the phone into the controller. I then removed the gimbal protector and was almost ready to take off, except that one thing was missing - the propellers! I forgot them at home!!!!
 
A confessional thread as I’m sure we’ve all done something stupid whilst flying.

Me? The other day I flew out from the coast about 800m to photograph a shipwreck. Took the drone down to about 9m for one last shot and then hit RTH on the display.

Only I didn’t - I hit auto land instead! Luckily I noticed pretty quickly and cancelled it but was a nervous moment. Didn’t have a lot of altitude to play with.

From now on I will only use the RTH button on the actual remote...

I've done that too, thought I hit RTH and hit auto land. I noticved my drone descending and wondered why and then realised my error. I don't think the farmer would have been too pleased!
 
On only my second flight with my Parrot Bebop 2 I hit up (ascend) thinking I was moving forward. It was when I reached about 280ft (85.3m) I realised what I was doing and quickly descended. (I also used to think that 40m was the height limit for flying, which is why I quickly descended!)

Evidence here

 
I was showing off for some kids at church at the end of my flight and a gust of wind blew me into the flag, I thought it was all over and I was going to be picking up pieces of my Mavic 2 Pro.
Lucky for me it didn't skip a beat and I was able to land with no damage at all. I was screen recording here is a small clip of the crash.

 
Wanting to land my mp2 on my terrace like I did hundreds of times before. but this time the forward sensors didn’t allow me because of the wall 2m ahead. So I tried the tripod mode and pushed the forward button. Just that instead of tripod mode, I had put sports mode...

So it crashed into the wall just besides me, and on the way down to the concrete floor, in my panic I tried to catch it with the props fully spinning - so I ended up with a destroyed camera, gimbal, front drone arm and a bloody destroyed hand...

Two learning: a) sports mode is the opposite direction and opposite effect of tripod mode
b) never catch a tumbling drone with your bare hands. The scars will stay forever...

Best regards
Mariachi76
 
Wanting to land my mp2 on my terrace like I did hundreds of times before. but this time the forward sensors didn’t allow me because of the wall 2m ahead. So I tried the tripod mode and pushed the forward button. Just that instead of tripod mode, I had put sports mode...

So it crashed into the wall just besides me, and on the way down to the concrete floor, in my panic I tried to catch it with the props fully spinning - so I ended up with a destroyed camera, gimbal, front drone arm and a bloody destroyed hand...

Two learning: a) sports mode is the opposite direction and opposite effect of tripod mode
b) never catch a tumbling drone with your bare hands. The scars will stay forever...

Best regards
Mariachi76
c) Don't call it an mp2 because that does not exist. Call it what it actually is, an M2P. :)
 
  • Haha
Reactions: JS1600
I was showing off for some kids at church at the end of my flight and a gust of wind blew me into the flag, I thought it was all over and I was going to be picking up pieces of my Mavic 2 Pro.
Lucky for me it didn't skip a beat and I was able to land with no damage at all. I was screen recording here is a small clip of the crash.

Incredible luck and video too!
 
  • Like
Reactions: JS1600
Great thread, been enjoying it. Reminds me of the time I mistook the left stick for the right one and went full down on it and started chatting up with a few kids who were around me. In my mind, I was bringing it back. The AC was descending 800 meters away and over a lake. It was 12m above the water by the time I realized what I was doing. It had descended all the way down from 80m. A few seconds more and it would have been lost. It remains the stupidest thing l have done to date.
 
A confessional thread as I’m sure we’ve all done something stupid whilst flying.

Me? The other day I flew out from the coast about 800m to photograph a shipwreck. Took the drone down to about 9m for one last shot and then hit RTH on the display.

Only I didn’t - I hit auto land instead! Luckily I noticed pretty quickly and cancelled it but was a nervous moment. Didn’t have a lot of altitude to play with.

From now on I will only use the RTH button on the actual remote...
Am sure many of us have done the same thing, I did, my Mavic was a kilometer away on the edge of a small town and hit what I thought was the RTH buttom but then on my screen saw that it was landing somewhere I was not. I retrieved the situation and landed safely next to me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JS1600
Flying over water! It's just a matter of time before you lose it; so those who fly over the water either have plenty of money or just like the thrill of the possibility of losing it! LOL Also I have spent 100s hours on a simulator and I still crash often; if you own a drone; you will crash it; but experience minimizes the damage
 
Flying over water! It's just a matter of time before you lose it; so those who fly over the water either have plenty of money or just like the thrill of the possibility of losing it! LOL Also I have spent 100s hours on a simulator and I still crash often; if you own a drone; you will crash it; but experience minimizes the damage

I don’t think that’s true. You’re no more likely to come down over water than land and the ground can be pretty unforgiving. Likewise flying over mountains, dense forest or anything else that isn’t just a wide open field.

I’m sure there are many pilots who have never crashed - land or water.
 
  • Like
Reactions: OldGoatMTB
I don’t think that’s true. You’re no more likely to come down over water than land and the ground can be pretty unforgiving. Likewise flying over mountains, dense forest or anything else that isn’t just a wide open field.

I’m sure there are many pilots who have never crashed - land or water.
It's absolutely true what I said; I didn't say it was more likely to crash over water than land; you said that; I said that flying over water you do not get a second chance! I also said all pilots have crashed and if they haven't yet; they will
 
It's absolutely true what I said; I didn't say it was more likely to crash over water than land; you said that; I said that flying over water you do not get a second chance! I also said all pilots have crashed and if they haven't yet; they will

I have flown in plenty of places where the chance of retrieval is essentially nil but haven’t involved water. On my recent holiday to Cyprus I was out over very rugged, forested mountain. Had it gone down I’d never have got her back. Zero chance.

And I disagree; not all pilots crash. That’s an assumption that just doesn’t hold water. For what reason will all pilots crash?
 
Other than rogue winds, water is actually safer than rugged terrain IMO. The main problem is figuring out how to walk on water but on the plus side you have perfect LOS, good signal (staying VLOS), and no possibility of running into a tree (most of the time) or mountains. I've yet to hit the ground but have clipped a few branches in my day flying over land. I still get pumped up when flying in mountainous terrain. VLOS is a bit more difficult and trying to keep below 400'AGL can be challenging. Chances of finding my downed drone in some of those places would be difficult to impossible as well. On the down side of water, some people have insurance that requires the drone be retrieved to get a replacement so you'd need a boat and a locating target like get er back.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dannybgoode
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
131,110
Messages
1,559,925
Members
160,087
Latest member
O'Ryan