Yes, I sadly lost my mavic. Any ideas?

[rabidhyena]

I can't believe that I have come to write one of these posts that we see too often.
No doubt there was some pilot error but who will know.
400 fw. android limitations removed app.
I'm a relatively experienced flyer and today I was doing a Litchi waypoint mission. I meticulously planned this and flew at approximately 50 m. I have done numerous waypoint missions before.
Yes, I broke the rules and it went out of VLOS.
When it first went up into the air it kept dropping signal even though it was only 50 feet away. Foolishly I ignored this and after a couple of failed attempts to upload the waypoints it finally accepted it and set off on its mission.with the frequent disconnects I was getting initially I should have just landed it and reconnected but I was impatient. Pretty much straight away signal was lost and I was unable to abort as it went off on its mission.
I did my usual watching the clock waiting for it to return and I did get some blips of signal when it was 150 m. There was no live video feed, no location on the map. Later at 15minutes i reconnected (just the controller) The distance kept hovering around 150 m. I couldn't hear or see it.
I tried the return home button and nothing happened. The controller was totally unresponsive and kept beeping and wouldn't turn off (in fact it's still beeping now will not turn off).Moving sticks had no effect .I could just watch the battery level dropping until it started to auto land at 2% .there was no video feed, no GPS location on litchi.
it landed somewhere or crashed somewhere. I walked the last 500 m of the route but there are many trees and bushes so it's unlikely that I would spot it.
I have the litchi log (csv) but am not sure how to view the last location recorded. I looked here-
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com and it only goes into the mission for first 4mins, so the litchi app never communicated with it after that.
lesson learnt-
any small issues at takeoff take as a serious warning especially when using waypoint missions

 

[MavicCF]

I can't believe that I have come to write one of these posts that we see too often.
No doubt there was some pilot error but who will know.
400 fw. android limitations removed app.
I'm a relatively experienced flyer and today I was doing a Litchi waypoint mission. I meticulously planned this and flew at approximately 50 m. I have done numerous waypoint missions before.
Yes, I broke the rules and it went out of VLOS.
When it first went up into the air it kept dropping signal even though it was only 50 feet away. Foolishly I ignored this and after a couple of failed attempts to upload the waypoints it finally accepted it and set off on its mission.with the frequent disconnects I was getting initially I should have just landed it and reconnected but I was impatient. Pretty much straight away signal was lost and I was unable to abort as it went off on its mission.
I did my usual watching the clock waiting for it to return and I did get some blips of signal when it was 150 m. There was no live video feed, no location on the map. Later at 15minutes i reconnected (just the controller) The distance kept hovering around 150 m. I couldn't hear or see it.
I tried the return home button and nothing happened. The controller was totally unresponsive and kept beeping and wouldn't turn off (in fact it's still beeping now will not turn off).Moving sticks had no effect .I could just watch the battery level dropping until it started to auto land at 2% .there was no video feed, no GPS location on litchi.
it landed somewhere or crashed somewhere. I walked the last 500 m of the route but there are many trees and bushes so it's unlikely that I would spot it.
I have the litchi log (csv) but am not sure how to view the last location recorded. I looked here-
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com and it only goes into the mission for first 4mins, so the litchi app never communicated with it after that.
lesson learnt-
any small issues at takeoff take as a serious warning especially when using waypoint missions

Sorry for your loss. I'm unfamiliar with Litchi, but this log is just of the beginning of the flight, not the end, as can be seen by the last know battery level being 87%. I wonder if it created a different csv. when it reconnected again towards the end of the flight, in that case, and if you can find it, we should be able to get the last know position. Without that though, I don't know if anything can be done. Maybe @sar104 would have some idea? Having the Litchi mission would be nice too.

 

[macoman]

This is why I am untrustworthy towards litchi. I paid $14.99 for it but never use it in a mission. I rather use the go 4 app.

 

[sar104]

Not much to go on here. You will at least need to post a link to the Litchi mission profile if you want any meaningful analysis.

Also - your flight log download link at PhantomHelp doesn't work.

 

[Huge Bama Fan]

I have come so close to doing a long flight using Lichi and have spotters along the way but this story is what scares me. I had connection issues with my mavic after a firmware update for about two days then it went away.

 

[sar104]

This is why I am untrustworthy towards litchi. I paid $14.99 for it but never use it in a mission. I rather use the go 4 app.

I don't recall any examples of Litchi failing to execute as instructed, at least in the last year or so.

 

[rabidhyena]

Sorry for your loss. I'm unfamiliar with Litchi, but this log is just of the beginning of the flight, not the end, as can be seen by the last know battery level being 87%. I wonder if it created a different csv. when it reconnected again towards the end of the flight, in that case, and if you can find it, we should be able to get the last know position. Without that though, I don't know if anything can be done. Maybe @sar104 would have some idea? Having the Litchi mission would be nice too.

Thanks. Yes. That's the only log. I think there was no more connection between my phone and the mavic. There was definitely an intermittent connection between the controller and the mavic.
Funny, whilst driving to the location I was thinking to myself that having flown it for 18 months there would have to be a time when something would finally pack up one day.

It throws up a few questions now.

Should I sell my controller?

What should I get now?

There was a sticker on it with my email address. Given it could have ended up anywhere, would you reply to an email? Might someone angry!

 

[MavicCF]

Just a quick thought, where was the sun while you were flying? low in the sky or high? In the east or west?

 

[ardeban]

For the next one I'd recommend a GPS tracker. First thing I got even prior to the mavic.

So sorry for your loss pal.

 

[MavicCF]

Not much to go on here. You will at least need to post a link to the Litchi mission profile if you want any meaningful analysis.

Also - your flight log download link at PhantomHelp doesn't work.

That's odd, I just downloaded it

 

[msinger]

Also - your flight log download link at PhantomHelp doesn't work.

Try it now

 

[rabidhyena]

2 hours before sunset. probably heading north at this point. So not likely to be that.
To be honest, I think it has ended up in the river. The last 300m of the route was coming back up the river. This is probably a good thing....not likely to have caused any damage.
I have run 50+ waypoint missions over the last 18 months and so I generally would trust it.
I hadn't used my bird for the last 2 months, so maybe something was up with it.

 

[sar104]

Try it now

Fixed. Thanks.

 

[sar104]

Just a quick thought, where was the sun while you were flying? low in the sky or high? In the east or west?

1730 BST London. Partly cloudy, sun @ elevation 26°, azimuth 270°.

 

[Hauptmann]

Try loading GO4. Press the three dots in the upper right corner of your phone. Choose "Find My Drone". Get a map loaded. The app should show you the last known location of your Mavic. The app will show the controller's location moving as you search for the drone. Since your drone is out of battery, you can't use the LED flash or sound, but the app you should lead you to your aircraft. It may be up a tree.

 

[msinger]

Try loading GO4. Press the three dots in the upper right corner of your phone. Choose "Find My Drone". Get a map loaded. The app should show you the last known location of your Mavic.

Unfortunately, that won't be possible since the OP was flying with Litchi.

 

[joejaxvic123]

This story stinks, sorry for your loss rabidhyena.

 

[ac0j]

wind issue?

 

[sar104]

wind issue?

Possible, but it depends on the mission, which we have no details on. It looks like winds were 10 - 15 out of the southwest.

 

[sar104]

One rather strange issue is the signal problem.



The disconnects (missing dots) are clearly visible, but Litchi was reporting good uplink and downlink quality even while that was happening.