Total Loss of communication

[MavicMiniMaster]

Hey there you lot. Question. . . . . . I know I messed up and I am no nooby having had 3 drones for 5 years now. But I was distracted and flew out with the wind, then lost contact when I couldnt get my mini back. The story ends well but bear with me.
I started just very low and local but needed a different perspective hence the distraction. The main issue was while I had boo booed I resigned myself to the inevitable forced landing somewhere in the vacinity so jumped in the car to get closer. I was getting a verbal warning of battery critical " Landing Landing Landing" etc but when I got to the last known siting my screen (samsung S6) lost all GPS and internet Connection. I then called on the "Find My Drone" button to start bleeping, sadly that turns out to be a duffer because to actually hear anything you pretty much have to be within arms reach anyway. Then, out of the blue, I picked up the camera view which showed it near a road, and soon when a cyclist rode by I was able to see the cyclist myself and track down the Mini. Safe and sound without a scratch. Amazingly it had landed on the very end of a wall next to a telegraph pole just inches from the main cable supporting the pole. Phew dont ask me how. I am attaching photo and Flight log in the hope that anyone may be able to understand how I lost contact and interweb thingy. Also maybe advise on what works for them.

 

[Meta4]

I am attaching photo and Flight log in the hope that anyone may be able to understand how I lost contact

It's no mystery and you answered your own question in your second sentence.

I was distracted and flew out with the wind

That's all you need to know to work out what happened.
Look at the flight data: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
See what's happening at 8:45.
The drone is 193 feet up and trying to RTH but is being blown backwards at 5-6.5 mph.

Two important points are:
The Mini is not a fast drone (RTH speed is 18 mph)
Winds up high are stronger than what you experience on the ground.
By sending the drone up 190 feet, you put it in a wind that was stronger than it could fight against.

Also maybe advise on what works for them.

Be aware, very aware of wind direction and speed.
Don't send your drone off downwind in a strong wind.
It's much easier to fly slowly up wind and have an easy return with a tailwind.
Try the other way and it can end badly (as you should know now).

If the drone is trying to push against a wind stronger than 18 mph, it's going to be blown backwards until battery level triggers autolanding
Never leave your Mini up high fighting a headwind.
Bring it down where the wind is less.

 

[MavicMiniMaster]

Teaching me to suck eggs I know. But my major problem was not that I flew in strong winds. But that my connection was lost once I went to recover it. That has never happened before, I'm guessing it was because the phone I use is not on a paid for network so relies just on GPS to give me a location. I dont know, I aint very savvy on the ins and outs of all this trickery.
Also in the 2 photographs the yellow sight line shows you where I was looking but the red cross shows where it actually was. I just got so lucky it landed by the road. If it had landed in a garden, there is no way I could have identified which one or where. ?

 

[Meta4]

Teaching me to suck eggs I know. But my major problem was not that I flew in strong windspaI.

Correction .. your major problems were:
1. You paid no attention to the wind's direction and strength and took off downwind flying a significant distance.
2. You let the Mini go high where the wind was stronger and left it there
3. Your situational awareness was inadequate and you didn't notice what the app was telling you
You set yourself up for a classic newbie blow away and it's only a matter of great luck that you found it.
Many others have had similar incidents that didn't end as well.

 

[slup]

Teaching me to suck eggs I know. But my major problem was not that I flew in strong winds. But that my connection was lost once I went to recover it. That has never happened before, I'm guessing it was because the phone I use is not on a paid for network so relies just on GPS to give me a location. I dont know, I aint very savvy on the ins and outs of all this trickery.
Also in the 2 photographs the yellow sight line shows you where I was looking but the red cross shows where it actually was. I just got so lucky it landed by the road. If it had landed in a garden, there is no way I could have identified which one or where. ?

So if I understand you correctly ... you wonder why the Mini was found elsewhere than the "Find My Drone" showed?

In the end of the recorded log the Mini was still up on 60m height (red graph), at a position that correlates to what you see in "Find My Drone". At that point it was in RTH mode & was fighting the wind with a remaining battery of 25% (yellow graph) ... then & there the low battery autoland threshold was defined to 7% (light blue graph)... the connection was lost & the log ends.

The big chunk of white here below in the chart is where the connection is lost, pink is RTH mode. Have placed the marker in the chart just in the very end so the graph values can be read under the chart. (Click on the chart to make it larger).



So how come the Mini landed where it did ... well, think the Mini finally could make headway in the end (along the red arrow in the pic below) but at that stage it entered the low battery theshold going below 7% battery & started to autoland, landed & shut down the motors & ending up where you found it.



That you got a live feed view when you arrived at the scene meant that you recovered the connection with the Mini ... but as the motors was off (the TXT log records only when motors is on) it didn't show up in the log or updated the position in the "Find My Drone"

 

[MavicMiniMaster]

Correction .. your major problems were:
1. You paid no attention to the wind's direction and strength and took off downwind flying a significant distance.
2. You let the Mini go high where the wind was stronger and left it there
3. Your situational awareness was inadequate and you didn't notice what the app was telling you
You set yourself up for a classic newbie blow away and it's only a matter of great luck that you found it.
Many others have had similar incidents that didn't end as well.

 

[MavicMiniMaster]

For someone who thinks he is so clever I'm surprised that you couldn't explain the problem I'm asking about. Yes I know I was a tw€t. But you sir are an even bigger one. Read the below answer to get an idea of how to act when faced with a serious question. There is no need to attack me, I know and stated that I messed up. I've flown over a thousand miles and do not need a lesson in when and where and how to fly. I needed a lesson in how to correct the communication error. So thank you for reading and trying to add to this post, but your ability to understand is not up to my level so adds nothing to mine. Thank you.

 

[MavicMiniMaster]

So if I understand you correctly ... you wonder why the Mini was found elsewhere than the "Find My Drone" showed?

In the end of the recorded log the Mini was still up on 60m height (red graph), at a position that correlates to what you see in "Find My Drone". At that point it was in RTH mode & was fighting the wind with a remaining battery of 25% (yellow graph) ... then & there the low battery autoland threshold was defined to 7% (light blue graph)... the connection was lost & the log ends.

The big chunk of white here below in the chart is where the connection is lost, pink is RTH mode. Have placed the marker in the chart just in the very end so the graph values can be read under the chart. (Click on the chart to make it larger).

View attachment 114611

So how come the Mini landed where it did ... well, think the Mini finally could make headway in the end (along the red arrow in the pic below) but at that stage it entered the low battery theshold going below 7% battery & started to autoland, landed & shut down the motors & ending up where you found it.

View attachment 114612

That you got a live feed view when you arrived at the scene meant that you recovered the connection with the Mini ... but as the motors was off (the TXT log records only when motors is on) it didn't show up in the log or updated the position in the "Find My Drone"

Thank you Slup, very informative. Could you tell me what app you used to read my log, my airdata app didnt explain that much.

 

[slup]

Thank you Slup, very informative. Could you tell me what app you used to read my log, my airdata app didnt explain that much.

I use the PC version of CsvView made by one of our members here @BudWalker ... he provide it for free here --> CsvView Downloads , it reads both the mobile device TXT & DAT logs but also the AC DAT logs if not encrypted.

Then read through this, skilled compiled by another member @sar104 --> Mavic Flight Log Retrieval and Analysis Guide to get a deeper understanding regarding the different available logs & what kind of data they can show you.

After that it will be kinda uphill knowledge wise to learn what signal to pick out to look at depending on the incident ... it's not as straight forward as Airdata.com or Phantomhelp.com unfortunately. But if you have the interest & time to invest and follow crash threads as your own here you will learn ... I mean, I hadn't touched a drone a year ago, followed every crash thread here to understand how drones work, started also with Airdata.com but understood that it was much more in the logs than shown there & other tools was necessary ...all to grow confidence to fly my own craft. If I could learn I think all can learn Good luck

 

[Meta4]

For someone who thinks he is so clever I'm surprised that you couldn't explain the problem I'm asking about. Yes I know I was a tw€t. But you sir are an even bigger one. Read the below answer to get an idea of how to act when faced with a serious question. There is no need to attack me, I know and stated that I messed up. I've flown over a thousand miles and do not need a lesson in when and where and how to fly. I needed a lesson in how to correct the communication error. So thank you for reading and trying to add to this post, but your ability to understand is not up to my level so adds nothing to mine. Thank you.

It's always a pleasure when people appreciate the work that goes into incident analysis.
Perhaps the lessons from your flight won't be lost on others.