Bought my Mavic Pro Fly More Combo in 2017. I'm an older person, but felt the technology had come to a point where I could enjoy it without too much fear of losing my investment in a crash. That held true for three years until two days ago and I'm completely stumped about what happened.
Took off from my backyard as I have many many times in the year we've been in our current house. Flew around capturing a sweeping view of Commencement Bay and then completely lost connection with the drone. It was 1800 ft away from home point and altitude was approximately 300 ft when the loss of communication occurred. I did receive "weak signal/adjust antenna" warning. Technically too far to actually see it, but there were zero obstructions from my point to the drone. I initiated a RTH and app showed confirmation of this, but drone didn't move. It did however do something I just can't explain. While hovering with communication loss and no stick input from me it started rising in altitude, topping out at approximately 430 ft! Sometime during this I recieved a "command time out" warning in addition to the "weak signal and strong interference" warnings, of which there were many . Throughout this episode of altitude increase the drone did respond to stick input intermittently to decrease altitude, but it was fleeting only to exhibit the rise in altitude again. I initiated RTH, app showed confirmation but again with no luck. At some point connection was re-established and I tried desperately to get it home, but even with full stick it's speed was very slow 2-5 mph. At almost the same moment I got the 'Critically Low Power/Aircraft Landing" warning, full forward speed returned. Again I tried desperately to get her home. In the panic that ensued and the drone trying unsuccessfully to land itself I inadvertently gave it full forward stick and it crashed into a tree, fell about 50' to a sidewalk and I'm pretty sure is a total loss. All obstacle avoidance was on so I'm not sure why it flew into the very large tree. The most frustrating thing is, there was more than enough battery power for me to manually land safely, but in my panic just couldn't put it together in my head. Was also confused by the app showing the drone should be right above the home point, but it was actually about 100 ft away from it. I'm hearing impaired so was not able to hear it so close by.
Later that evening a possible explanation for this episode came to mind. That was one of the nights that the aurora borealis was at it's peak even long before sunset and I'm wondering about the magnetic interference from it causing the conditions that lead to the crash. It's the only thing I can imagine, but don't know enough about the subject.
Finally - is it possible to buy a new or refurbished Mavic Pro and keep my current controller or can they not be linked properly.
Thanks for reading!
Took off from my backyard as I have many many times in the year we've been in our current house. Flew around capturing a sweeping view of Commencement Bay and then completely lost connection with the drone. It was 1800 ft away from home point and altitude was approximately 300 ft when the loss of communication occurred. I did receive "weak signal/adjust antenna" warning. Technically too far to actually see it, but there were zero obstructions from my point to the drone. I initiated a RTH and app showed confirmation of this, but drone didn't move. It did however do something I just can't explain. While hovering with communication loss and no stick input from me it started rising in altitude, topping out at approximately 430 ft! Sometime during this I recieved a "command time out" warning in addition to the "weak signal and strong interference" warnings, of which there were many . Throughout this episode of altitude increase the drone did respond to stick input intermittently to decrease altitude, but it was fleeting only to exhibit the rise in altitude again. I initiated RTH, app showed confirmation but again with no luck. At some point connection was re-established and I tried desperately to get it home, but even with full stick it's speed was very slow 2-5 mph. At almost the same moment I got the 'Critically Low Power/Aircraft Landing" warning, full forward speed returned. Again I tried desperately to get her home. In the panic that ensued and the drone trying unsuccessfully to land itself I inadvertently gave it full forward stick and it crashed into a tree, fell about 50' to a sidewalk and I'm pretty sure is a total loss. All obstacle avoidance was on so I'm not sure why it flew into the very large tree. The most frustrating thing is, there was more than enough battery power for me to manually land safely, but in my panic just couldn't put it together in my head. Was also confused by the app showing the drone should be right above the home point, but it was actually about 100 ft away from it. I'm hearing impaired so was not able to hear it so close by.
Later that evening a possible explanation for this episode came to mind. That was one of the nights that the aurora borealis was at it's peak even long before sunset and I'm wondering about the magnetic interference from it causing the conditions that lead to the crash. It's the only thing I can imagine, but don't know enough about the subject.
Finally - is it possible to buy a new or refurbished Mavic Pro and keep my current controller or can they not be linked properly.
Thanks for reading!
Last edited:
Would be interesting for the gents on here to see your logs though, just to see what went Ka-boom in your system?
