Anyone want to list there drone crashes and why they happend. I am looking for help as a beginner pilot on not crashing / avoiding things like popup rain storms. (Also, How to avoid bird attacks?)
Types of Drones Crashes
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I just want to centralize it, plus the ones I’ve found while searching aren’t what Im looking for.
I will say that 90-95% (maybe higher) of all drone crashes are due to pilot error. I think obtaining knowledge to prevent or reduce the likelihood of crashing your drone is important. DJI has this article on "Preventing Drone Crashes". Much of which is just common since and situational awareness.
Who doesn't forget their crashes:
1.Mavic2Zoom: prop broke in mid-flight, drone went down. Early in my drone life, maybe I failed to inspect or install correctly.
2.FPV: Aftermarket MAS prop wore out and finally snapped during a power climb and it went down like a sack of orange and green potatoes.
3.AutelEvoPro: In sport mode with sensors that automatically turn off, if you don't know that's a pretty fast drone and I made a high speed turn and instead of dodging a tall metal tower I tried to stop short and these drones don't stop on a dime; oops, my fault.
4.Skydio S2: eventually you get bold and while biking very fast with the drone following, your going down tight trails with thick trees and heavy foliage and limbs everywhere and while this drone is 95% accurate, one or two crashes are inevitable.
5.Mavic2Zoom: someone with an RC collides with my drone by following too closely; my fault for not landing my drone once I saw the guy flying in the same area.
1.Mavic2Zoom: prop broke in mid-flight, drone went down. Early in my drone life, maybe I failed to inspect or install correctly.
2.FPV: Aftermarket MAS prop wore out and finally snapped during a power climb and it went down like a sack of orange and green potatoes.
3.AutelEvoPro: In sport mode with sensors that automatically turn off, if you don't know that's a pretty fast drone and I made a high speed turn and instead of dodging a tall metal tower I tried to stop short and these drones don't stop on a dime; oops, my fault.
4.Skydio S2: eventually you get bold and while biking very fast with the drone following, your going down tight trails with thick trees and heavy foliage and limbs everywhere and while this drone is 95% accurate, one or two crashes are inevitable.
5.Mavic2Zoom: someone with an RC collides with my drone by following too closely; my fault for not landing my drone once I saw the guy flying in the same area.
1. Resist the urge to fly your first ever drone because you received the package while at work and then decide to have your first ever flight in the house, during the night so that you have no GPS and not enough visible light.
Walls seem to suck drones into them, LOL.
2. Be careful flying under bridges. Satellite numbers go up and down and even the helpful gurus on this board couldnt' tell me why the drone lost it and crashed in the should charge a fee for diagnosis Crash Assistance section.
3. Don't conduct training with a $25K drone indoors over a homogenous concrete surface and then decide to introduce something harder by turning off the lights and making usesless the VPS.
4. Make sure all propellers are on securely and on the correct motor.
5. When encountering an agitated, aggresive bird, find a safe place to land immediately.
6. Some crashes and flyaways are never fully explained if you send it to the manufacturer for diagnosis, use the Crash Assistance section here for a more caring and detailed analysis.
Fly safe!
Walls seem to suck drones into them, LOL.
2. Be careful flying under bridges. Satellite numbers go up and down and even the helpful gurus on this board couldnt' tell me why the drone lost it and crashed in the should charge a fee for diagnosis Crash Assistance section.
3. Don't conduct training with a $25K drone indoors over a homogenous concrete surface and then decide to introduce something harder by turning off the lights and making usesless the VPS.
4. Make sure all propellers are on securely and on the correct motor.
5. When encountering an agitated, aggresive bird, find a safe place to land immediately.
6. Some crashes and flyaways are never fully explained if you send it to the manufacturer for diagnosis, use the Crash Assistance section here for a more caring and detailed analysis.
Fly safe!
You're about a zillion times more likely to fly your drone into something than have a bird fly into your drone. Focus on your piloting skills, use a little common sense, and trust the birds do what they do best.
You might look at the Pilot Institute's free online courses on basic drone flying and maneuvers. Also, they offer a free "deep dive" course on the popular DJI drones that provides some very good information.
As someone who lost two drones due to pilot error, I would give you the following advice:
- Become very knowledgeable about your drone, its features and limitations. Read the manual then read it again - and again - and experiment with settings and options so that you understand what they do and how the can affect flight behavior.
- Practice, practice, practice and then practice some more so you get muscle memory to help when bad things happen. These drones appear to be pretty much "self flying" at first glimpse but anyone who understands them knows that is definitely not the case. Knowing how to control your drone, especially when unexpected things happen is critical, IMO. There are a lot of practice patterns you can fly to help you learn how to fly your drone.
- NEVER start flying until you get the 'Home point is updated" message - NEVER
- Be VERY careful when flying in closed in areas (trees, etc). Wide open spaces are WAY safer.
- Turn around and fly your drone back (or press the RTH button) at the first sign of trouble.
- NEVER let your battery get below 10% (some people would say 20%). I've never had a problem due to battery level, but it is a pretty common issue
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Following these tips should keep you out of trouble:
- Before attempting to fly, watch some videos on YouTube.com to learn more about your drone. Search for something like "Mini 2 Beginner's Guide" (replace "Mini 2" with your drone model).
- Read the DJI manual (available in the "Products" section of the DJI Download Center) from beginning to end (maybe a few times). You're certainly not going to remember everything, but it'll give you a good understanding of the available features and capabilities of your drone. And then you can go back to the manual or YouTube videos when you need to take a deeper dive into a specific topic.
- Don't power on your drone or take off when within about 20 feet of any magnetic metal objects (like your car or rebar in concrete sidewalks). See more on compass interference in this compass calibration guide.
- Before taking off, always review the drone settings in DJI Fly (or the app you're using) to ensure everything is set as expected. If you do plan on flying near any obstacles, ensure the RTH altitude is set properly in case your drone needs to automatically return back to the home point mid-flight.
- Never take off before DJI Fly (or the app you're using to fly) audibly mentions or shows the home point has been set. The drone will attempt to fly back to the home point location automatically if it loses connection with the remote controller, so it's crucial to ensure that location has been set prior to takeoff.
- DJI drones have a lot of awesome automated flight features. Use them with caution and never assume they are always going to function as expected (always be ready to take control if needed).
- Sensors are great and they can help prevent your drone from crashing into obstacles. They are not foolproof though. Never rely on them 100% or assume they are going to work perfectly in all flight conditions -- or react the same way when flying in similar conditions from past flights.
- Find a flat, wide open place to practice (free of people, trees, and all other obstacles). It's pretty hard to crash a DJI drone into the ground, so you'll likely have the best success if that's your only obstacle. Continue flying in this location (or similar locations) until you're able to control your drone without thinking about it (like riding a bike).
- Make sure you can easily see your drone at all times (required by law in most countries). After removing all nearby obstacles, nearly everyone who crashes/loses a drone is either not watching it with their eyes or cannot clearly see where it's located.
- The screen is chock-full of great information. Use it as a reference (sparingly) as you do when looking at your dashboard while driving a car. It's also a great tool for framing the perfect photo or getting your drone in just the right spot before hitting record. If you're mostly staring at the screen while flying, you'll probably have no idea where your drone is located.
- Don't fly in sport mode until you're comfortable controlling your drone. You don't want to get into a situation where you need to maneuver quickly and aren't quite sure which stick to move (another reason not to practice near obstacles).
- DJI batteries require special care that is unlike other batteries you commonly use. To prevent any damage to your DJI batteries, follow the tips in this DJI battery maintenance & storage guide.
Prevent a Crash or Flyaway with Your Mavic | Mavic Help
Mavic Help is a site for help with DJI Mavic drones. Find the latest fixes, how-tos, guides, accessories, modifications, and more.
www.mavichelp.com
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Always be sure the drone indicator in map view is correctly oriented to a street or house. The rotate left and right and watch the indicator track your motion. Fly after the Home Point announcement.
From threads I have read, reasons for crashes or lost drones.
In no particular order
1) switching the drone on NEAR magnetic metals, this can result in the drone thinking it is pointing in an incorrect direction and can result in a "yaw error" 'flyaway' which often ends in a crash.
2) pilot error, stemming from the pilot simply commanding the drone to deliberately or accidentally fly into something. This is sometimes coupled with
3) where it is available, placing too much faith in OA, obstacle avoidance, OR pushing the boundaries of what OA is able to detect and or avoid/solve.
4) Flying in wind that is too strong for the drone to fight and or flying the drone DOWNWIND on the outbound leg of a flight to significant distance. In general, loss due to wind is also coupled with the pilot not knowing how to deal with the wind.
5) Ignoring or over riding the low battery RTH, it's there for a reason and operates with some safety margin but you cancel a low battery RTH at your peril.
6) Setting an inappropriate RTH height, too low and it may lead to the drone RTHing into an object in its flight path home. Not all drones have OA.
Too high and you risk sending the drone up into strong winds. Wind speed generally increases with height.
You should reset the RTH height for each location.
7) Flying high in conditions that can lead to condensation/water on the downward looking sensors, this can lead to descent rates that are so low that the drone runs out of battery before it reaches the ground.
8) The pilot not knowing what control they have if, due to low battery charge, the drone enters a "forced landing/descent".
9) Flying the drone as per normal but on an 'old' battery charge, battery charge should be 'fresh'.
10) An inappropriate setting for "failsafe" i.e. what happens if the drone loses control signal connection with the controller. This setting IS recorded in the flight log.
11) Fairly rare but not unknown, an inappropriate choice of the emergency motor stop response. The default setting means that in a normal flight the motors can NOT be stopped with the drone in flight but the alternative setting WILL stop the drone's motors if the CSC position is held for the required delay period. Even though the CSC position results in 'acrobatics' it is thought that a few drones have been lost because the position was held with the drone in flight and the wrong emergency motor stop setting is presumed to have been set. THe setting is NOT recorded in the .txt flight log.
12) batteries not properly secured and dislodging during flight
13) Too low over breaking etc. waves, resulting in the drone being hit by spray.
14) Generally not knowing how the drone will behave in a given set of circumstances. READ THE DRONE'S MANUAL.
All of the above are basically pilot error in some form or other.
Other causes, that are not pilot error as such,
15) batteries that have been ejected because of battery swelling.
16) true software failures or
17) hardware failures, including props or blades coming off or breaking, but these are fairly uncommon.
18) bird strikes/attacks, rare but have happened.
I think that covers all the reasons I recollect having seen threads about.
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Always fly to a plan and configure to that plan ! I just lost a drone by changing plans and not configuring to the new situation ! add in child interference at the wong point and one huge mistake and the drone is sitting 200 feet up a cliff face in Sardinia!
Some say do not take a risk although I believe the saying which goes ? " The only worse thing than taking a risk is taking NO risk
On the Question of Birds ? My advice having flown with loads of Seagulls in the nesting season is CLIMB ! Seagulls can surround you but cannot climb anywhere near the rate of the Air 3 ! Climb out of a situation, leave the area and come back low and fast if over water
hiflyer201
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Altitude is your friend. Don’t launch in a place that’s not safe for a auto RTH ie under trees, on streets, near power lines.
While learning stay in a open area . In times of stress the vision narrows.
Never say “Watch This”
Have fun
I'll 3rd(or 4th?) wait till you have a RTH lock before flying. This one has gotten me a couple times when I first started. Another item I didnt see pop up in this thread- As tempting as it is to fly after a couple beers, especially to impress guests, DONT. Accdents(especially when first starting out) happen almost without warning and the consequences even for a small one can be quite costly.
OP, since you're asking these questions here, I'm assuming you're interested in a DJI drone. As such I'm also assuming you know that these things are not the cheap 'toy' drones many of us remember. One little oopsie in Sport mode with a Mavic or Air can easily set you back thousands.
Speaking of Sport mode, drones dont have brakes per se. Take your new drone out one day and get it to an altitude just above treelines, structures and other obstacles. Now punch it in Sport mode horizontally and vertically a few times making note of how much space the drone covers from the time you let off the stick till the drone comes to a complete stop. Now do it a hundred more times.
Lastly, I'd say to get into the habit of inspecting your props prior to flight. You'll have to put hands on them anyway to unfold the arms. Get into the habit of spending 3 more seconds before taking off.
Oh, one more big one came to mind, You have a few options in regards to RTH. Be sure to acquaint yourself with those options and be sure you set those options appropriately for your given flight surroundings. Since I have no idea which model you're looking at, I cant list your available options, but I'll give you a very easy universal example- RTH altitude is the height at which the drone will ascend prior to flying back to its takeoff location(You DID wait for RTH lock, right?). Note the approx height of trees, structures and other obstacles in the vicinity of your flight and be sure your RTH altitude exceeds that height. If the treeline is 150ft high, obviously you want the drone's altitude to be higher than 150ft prior to it attempting a return back to you if/when it goes into a RTH state.
OP, since you're asking these questions here, I'm assuming you're interested in a DJI drone. As such I'm also assuming you know that these things are not the cheap 'toy' drones many of us remember. One little oopsie in Sport mode with a Mavic or Air can easily set you back thousands.
Speaking of Sport mode, drones dont have brakes per se. Take your new drone out one day and get it to an altitude just above treelines, structures and other obstacles. Now punch it in Sport mode horizontally and vertically a few times making note of how much space the drone covers from the time you let off the stick till the drone comes to a complete stop. Now do it a hundred more times.
Lastly, I'd say to get into the habit of inspecting your props prior to flight. You'll have to put hands on them anyway to unfold the arms. Get into the habit of spending 3 more seconds before taking off.
Oh, one more big one came to mind, You have a few options in regards to RTH. Be sure to acquaint yourself with those options and be sure you set those options appropriately for your given flight surroundings. Since I have no idea which model you're looking at, I cant list your available options, but I'll give you a very easy universal example- RTH altitude is the height at which the drone will ascend prior to flying back to its takeoff location(You DID wait for RTH lock, right?). Note the approx height of trees, structures and other obstacles in the vicinity of your flight and be sure your RTH altitude exceeds that height. If the treeline is 150ft high, obviously you want the drone's altitude to be higher than 150ft prior to it attempting a return back to you if/when it goes into a RTH state.
âï¸ Calp ( Spain ) Pacefast
This clip from my Calp video showing Seagulls which even away from the rock will come and try to scare you off ! Near the rock was Manic I must have had 10 circling the drone and departed the scene vertically leaving them wondering where the drone had gone
ClimbThanks for all the tips and experiences so far. The reason i am asking is because I had a Mini 4 Pro fall out of the sky (yes literally) during a sudden rainstorm into the lake (I was only about 15ft from the shore). Luckily a friend dived in and grabbed it for me so I could use my care refresh.
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DJI Care Refresh could also have been used if you weren't able to retrieve it per the DJI Care Refresh TOS.
I already used my 1 flyaway when I crashed into a bridge 25 miles an hour in cruise control and couldn't retrieve the drone
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You never posted the recorded data from that incident.
It may have helped explain what happened.
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