Yeah... Don't fly a Mavic Mini in strong wind lol.

[Cappydrone]

Hey guys. So I've had my mini for about two weeks now. Against my better judgement I decided to launch it this afternoon despite there being quite strong winds.

Flew the drone out about 500 metres from my house, everything seemed fine. Until I decided to turn around and come back. At this point I was heading home but actually going backwards despite being full throttle forward towards me.

I was going backwards at a rate of 30km/h. I went from 500m distance to 2km away. I got pushed into restricted airspace where at that point the drone was forced to land and I lost all signal.

I then panicked jumped in my car and drove as close as possible. I then went on foot through the bush. I ended up finding it, SOMEHOW it had auto landed in an open space in the forest, with literally a 5m squared box of clearing of trees.

Lucky I was able to get close enough quick enough using gps and it's last known position, tho it didn't reconnect until I was within about 5m of it because of the trees

I was extremely lucky. Moral of the story, DONT fly in strong winds.

 

[old man mavic]

Hey guys. So I've had my mini for about two weeks now. Against my better judgement I decided to launch it this afternoon despite there being quite strong winds.

Flew the drone out about 500 metres from my house, everything seemed fine. Until I decided to turn around and come back. At this point I was heading home but actually going backwards despite being full throttle forward towards me.

I was going backwards at a rate of 30km/h. I went from 500m distance to 2km away. I got pushed into restricted airspace where at that point the drone was forced to land and I lost all signal.

I then panicked jumped in my car and drove as close as possible. I then went on foot through the bush. I ended up finding it, SOMEHOW it had auto landed in an open space in the forest, with literally a 5m squared box of clearing of trees.

Lucky I was able to get close enough quick enough using gps and it's last known position, tho it didn't reconnect until I was within about 5m of it because of the trees

I was extremely lucky. Moral of the story, DONT fly in strong winds. View attachment 88263

yes it will get you every time ,glad you retrieved you MM, you wont do that again im sure

 

[Meta4]

I was extremely lucky. Moral of the story, DONT fly in strong winds.

There are too many similar incidents this week.

If it's windy, Rule 1 is ... Always fly off into the wind.
Don't fly off downwind only to find out you can't get back.
It might be slow but the return home will be easy.

 

[FoxhallGH]

How do you get a new Mavic Mini?
answer: Go out the first windy day after Christmas, and just wait downwind of a built-up area!

 

[old man mavic]

How do you get a new Mavic Mini?
answer: Go out the first windy day after Christmas, and just wait downwind of a built-up area!

many a true word spoken in jest, we will need a special forum heading ( MM flyaway reports )

 

[webvan]

Where you in S mode ?

In any case another "blown away" MM ! That 2S battery really doesn't cut it. Can't remember any reports of a Spark/Air/MP/M2 being blown away like this ? Obviously they have a wind tolerance limit but it seems it's more "in tune" with what pilots sense ;-)

 

[FoxhallGH]

A big problem here is that the MM will be blown down-wind, go out of controller range and then do a RTH.
That will make it rise into faster air, which will only blow it much further away. This is not unique to the MM - there are loads of postings on here about the same issue with larger Mavic Pro's and 2 Pro's.

 

[webvan]

"Loads" ?! How about one for a start ;-)

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

"Loads" ?! How about one for a start ;-)

A search on this very forum for > wind blown away

Lost M2P. Please help me decipher log?

Hi, Long time listener, first time caller. ;):rolleyes: I was doing a night videography flight and I think I may have experienced a “flyaway”? Background and situation: I’m a recreational flyer only. VERY familiar location flying from the home where I grew up in a semi-rural area. Had flown...

mavicpilots.com

Flyaway with Flight Log/PLEASE HELP

I unfortunately lost my drone to the ocean while visiting the Algarve in Portugal a few days ago after only having it for a few days. I was wondering if someone could have a look at my flight record below and let me know if this was all user error? At one point it said to return to home so I...

mavicpilots.com

There are others, but these were up top of the list that stood out.

I'm sure most people who have owned their aircraft long enough, have built enough knowledge to realise if their aircraft can fly at X, and wind is at 1.5 times X, then it will not be able to maintain position no matter what stick input they make.

It's kind of common sense, but in the excitement of new drone ownership, and they way these machines pretty much fly themselves, many get a bit overconfident, or forget about basic physics.

 

[FoxhallGH]

"Loads" ?! How about one for a start ;-)

I promise you ... Stick with this Forum for a year or two, and you'll see a lot of fly-aways that will be attributed to a lack of understanding that wind speeds at ground level, are lower than at altitude - and how that translates into a difficulty with RTH or even manual return of the drone.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

View attachment 88263

Flew the drone out about 500 metres from my house,

. . . and at 138m altitude ?
Winds are going to be a LOT higher up there !!

Did you open up the default 120m setting ?
If so, it's set there as it's CASA's legal limit for drone flight, and most countries with developed airspace regulations.

That's right inside Kempseys uncontrolled airport airspace, and also Kempsey medical heli airspace, so best to keep it lower in case you need to drop fast if any manned aircraft become known nearby.

OpenSky

opensky.wing.com

 

[Meta4]

"Loads" ?! How about one for a start ;-)

It's a very common scenario
Here are a few I've dealt with just today:

Lost M2P. Please help me decipher log?

Hi, Long time listener, first time caller. ;):rolleyes: I was doing a night videography flight and I think I may have experienced a “flyaway”? Background and situation: I’m a recreational flyer only. VERY familiar location flying from the home where I grew up in a semi-rural area. Had flown...

mavicpilots.com

NEED HELP!! Lost Mavic Mini

Need assistance. i lost my drone in alfonso, cavite Philippines. it was just few hundred meters away from when i lost control of it. i cant make it come back to home... so i decided to push RTH but to no avail. i tried to recover it thru find my drone but it was not there on the said GPS...

mavicpilots.com

Lost mavic mini on first flight with it flying away and not responding

Took delivery of my mini last week after waiting a month for the fly more combo. My first ever drone and this was my first flight outdoors. First day of good weather today when I had free time took it out to an local area with good open spaces. it was 9 Degrees C with winds of 9 mph and gusts...

mavicpilots.com

First fly away. Got lucky.

Had my first Mavic Mini flyaway a few days ago. All rookie mistakes. Windy day. Flying around a lake (large flat area allowed wind to gust hard and fast). My trouble started when i was 75 ft altitude and 175 ft distance. Wind took the drone out to about 705 ft distance. OH! and before I forget I...

mavicpilots.com

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

I was only looking at the pro models myself.
Wind loss will be particularly more common with the mini, I'm sure.

Isn't the weaker performing mini battery going to have trouble fighting wind ?
Especially the way errors come up during higher demand like sports mode ?

 

[webvan]

Yes that's exactly the point I was making, it seems that the 2S battery is just not providing the "juice" needed for "reasonable" pilots to get out of situations that are more windy than they look. Here and in the MM FB group we're getting X reports EACH day on "blow aways", this simply has not happened with any other drone in the past.

Thanks for digging up these M2 reports but I mean, come on, people flying in 40 or 50mph winds, complete airheads we'll probably all agree, pun intended ;-)

 

[Capt KO]

I’m beginning to feel sorry for all the complete novices that are going to try to make these minis do everything that they have seen the big ones do on TV. I would’ve already lost mine if I didn’t have the experience of larger drones first. I can see a lot of Mini remotes and batteries going for sale soon.

 

[Cappydrone]

. . . and at 138m altitude ?
Winds are going to be a LOT higher up there !!

Did you open up the default 120m setting ?
If so, it's set there as it's CASA's legal limit for drone flight, and most countries with developed airspace regulations.

That's right inside Kempseys uncontrolled airport airspace, and also Kempsey medical heli airspace, so best to keep it lower in case you need to drop fast if any manned aircraft become known nearby.

OpenSky

opensky.wing.com

I didn't start at that altitude, I tried going higher thinking I'd go above the wind. Lower wasn't an option as I lost signal when I did. Also the helipad is no longer used, and as I said I got blown backwards 1.5km INTO the restricted airspace.

Lesson learned lol

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Oh yeah, lesson learned, going higher will 99% of the time (allowing for the inevitable rule variation) always take you into higher wind speed.

@Cappydrone, OpenSky (Airservices Australia supply info) needs to pick up their game on the mapping, as you see in the link post 11, the Heli pad is shown active, but like most heliports, uncontrolled and likely rarely used (medical emergency like car accidents ?).

I'm confused about the restricted airspace parts of your posts though.

The uncontrolled airspace is ok to fly in (whether Kempsey or old heli), you can fly to 120m, and just land if you become aware of manned aircraft activity.
As seen in the map link, Kempsey uncontrolled airspace is already over that spot and home point, going north doesn't take you into anything as far as the OpenSky info, in fact you are heading out towards the outer part of the zone.

Is there some sort of other local unmarked NFZ not showing on OpenSky ?
I'm thinking military or other such sensitive area ?

It does seem strange for it to auto land otherwise.

 

[DanMan32]

A blue zone is not restricted airspace, it's an authorization zone. Normally one can self-unlock those. I suppose since MM doesn't yet have provision to unlock them, they are effectively restricted for the time being.

True restricted airspace would be red. As some examples, you'll find runways of controlled airspace airports, prisons, power plants and some military areas be marked in red.

DJI tends to mark runway approach paths as authorization zones, even in G space. I don't think they have information on how active a runway is. In general though, one does need to take caution on approach paths.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

A blue zone is not restricted airspace, it's an authorization zone.

Nothing to do with US regs here Dan, as far as I'm aware the average hobbyist doesn't have the systems to unlock anything either.
You can get into the NOTAMS and local field thing, but most don't have to.

As mentioned, while we have the red total NFZs / approach / departure areas etc, where you virtually can't even spin the props, in these uncontrolled airport / heliport orange zones, you can fly to our legal 120m, but must land if you become aware of manned aircraft operations.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Maybe the OPs mini autolanded due to loss of signal, low power, or other such ?
It seems odd he states it was blown into some sort of restricted airspace, when there is none shown on our app map.