This guy almost lost his DJI Mini 2 in a Windstream - Video

[Toorak6]

Happened to me a few times flying in Iceland in 'not so strong' winds. When wind gusts came, it's scary to see my MP drifted away. I normally use Ventusky - Weather Forecast Maps to check wind speed in higher altitude, but that don't eliminate risks from gusts. Earth Nullschool is another side but need to convert hPa to altitute. earth :: a global map of wind, weather, and ocean conditions

 

[f2000ez]

So much for LOS

 

[RussDrone]

I thought the general rule was if in doubt about wind strength, fly UP WIND first.

 

[Steve L]

So much for LOS

It really wasn’t BVLOS if you eat lots of carrots and wear some very powerful glasses.

 

[PBDawg]

I would like to throw out a whole other possibility - Propeller failure! It may be that a bug or other object hit a prop and stuck to it (or maybe something got stuck in the motor), and then was flung clear. The fact that the Mini 2 tilted and drifted downward and to the left may indicate a lack of lift on one of the left motors. That's what happened to my Mini as documented in the video below. If you just want to cut to the chase, you can start at 3:10 of the video.

 

[dwallersv]

Good grief, no one should be criticizing you, nor should you feel you did anything wrong, or amateur.

I watched it 3 times to be sure. It's very simple what happened: You hit wind shear. No weather forecast can tell you that's going to happen. It takes down full-size aircraft.

You were lucky!

 

[Bellerophon]

I would like to throw out a whole other possibility - Propeller failure! It may be that a bug or other object hit a prop and stuck to it (or maybe something got stuck in the motor), and then was flung clear. The fact that the Mini 2 tilted and drifted downward and to the left may indicate a lack of lift on one of the left motors. That's what happened to my Mini as documented in the video below. If you just want to cut to the chase, you can start at 3:10 of the video.

That is a great story. I'm glad you retrieved your drone. Thank you for sharing it with us.

 

[Howard70]

Hello Bellerophon:

Like others, I'm glad you got your drone back. I'm curious - during the whole loss of control incident did you manipulate the gimbal or did you have it in FPV mode? I ask because the camera obviously tilts quite a bit. I've had my MA2 in some high wind situations along cliffs (wind warnings, unable to make forward progress, etc.) but the gimbal always stayed remarkably level. PBDawg suggests a temporary propeller issue which seems possible. The only time I've seen my gimbal move about like that was when a bird attacked my drone.

I don't disagree with the previous posts about wind and wind streams in canyons, etc. Just curious if it could have been something else? I think the Mavic drones assume wind effects when the drone doesn't make progress or fly as the motor outputs would move the unit. In other words if the effect of the relative instantaneous power of the 4 motors, GPS and compass inputs would be 10 m/s on a heading of 200 degrees, but the drone only makes 2 m/s on that heading, the software assumes a wind effect. If something else was retarding progress (a bird?) the software might assume a wind effect. Of course it's hard to imagine a bird could retard progress of the drone without nicking the props or scratching the airframe or battery.

I didn't realize my incident was a bird attack until I found marks from the talons on the drone and noticed three props had nicks in their leading edges. The bird never showed on the camera.

Howard Snell

 

[Bellerophon]

Hello Bellerophon:

Like others, I'm glad you got your drone back. I'm curious - during the whole loss of control incident did you manipulate the gimbal or did you have it in FPV mode? I ask because the camera obviously tilts quite a bit. I've had my MA2 in some high wind situations along cliffs (wind warnings, unable to make forward progress, etc.) but the gimbal always stayed remarkably level. PBDawg suggests a temporary propeller issue which seems possible. The only time I've seen my gimbal move about like that was when a bird attacked my drone.

I don't disagree with the previous posts about wind and wind streams in canyons, etc. Just curious if it could have been something else? I think the Mavic drones assume wind effects when the drone doesn't make progress or fly as the motor outputs would move the unit. In other words if the effect of the relative instantaneous power of the 4 motors, GPS and compass inputs would be 10 m/s on a heading of 200 degrees, but the drone only makes 2 m/s on that heading, the software assumes a wind effect. If something else was retarding progress (a bird?) the software might assume a wind effect. Of course it's hard to imagine a bird could retard progress of the drone without nicking the props or scratching the airframe or battery.

I didn't realize my incident was a bird attack until I found marks from the talons on the drone and noticed three props had nicks in their leading edges. The bird never showed on the camera.

Howard Snell

Honestly, I may never know precisely what happened to the little Mini. I can say that I saw no marks of any kind on the drone. I opened a support ticket at DJI and they have the drone now. I am anxious to see what they say.

Best regards, Marcus aka Idaho Quadcopter

 

[boblui]

Honestly, I may never know precisely what happened to the little Mini. I can say that I saw no marks of any kind on the drone. I opened a support ticket at DJI and they have the drone now. I am anxious to see what they say.

Best regards, Marcus aka Idaho Quadcopter

If you can share the .TXT and .DAT flight log files of the flight in the phone, may be more insight into the cause can be obtained. This is the how to get the files : Mavic Flight Log Retrieval and Analysis Guide

 

[Bellerophon]

***Update*** DJI is replacing the main board on the drone under warranty. I look forward to more flights over the canyon with the Mini 2.