So I'll get to the point, I had my Mavic Mini for 2 days and ive already lost it in the sea
It was totally my fault so I thought I would share my experience so hopefully I may prevent more losses.
Basically, I was flying it in near a coast on a windy day (yeah yeah, alarm bells, but I originally had no intention to take it past 10 ft) I knew the winds were potentially too high but I was just wanted a short video of the cabin we are staying in. I was just so surprised and impressed with how well the little beast was handling at 6ft - 10ft I took it higher. Again, total control. My trust in it grew and I inched it up a little higher again. Game over. Suddenly the drone was swept away with a massive gust. It zipped over the cabin and out of sight, next I lost connection. Naturally at this point I paniked, and ran to re-establish visual, I also made a bigger mistake and pressed the 'return home' button. In all my flustering I hadn't realised that the little 249g drone had been swept over a nearby valley, as the land fell away from it I commanded it to 'return home' which in turn instructed it to go even higher than it already was. Bad news indeed…. I finally got signal return to my controller to horrifyingly find it was already over the coast line. there was nothing I could do and now it lies at the bottom of the ocean.
THE LESSON, don't fly the drone on a windy day near a coast. i'ts just too light for that kind of work. Failing that, if you have lost control of your drone due to high winds, do not press the ‘return home’ button, instead do a forced landing ASAP or just reduce the height of the drone.
Also reassess your return home height for every flight, I had set mine to 25ft because if where I was flying it the previous day.
Return home is a great function and has its place, but understand that it will force the drone to ascend first as the mini has no obstacle avoidance…. This is no good on a windy day..
AS A SUB TOPIC Does anyone know where/ if I can buy another aircraft? Is anyone for whatever reason selling a mavic mini?. I've contacted DJI and unfortunately they don't sell just the aircraft by themselves. This seems bizarre to me as i know im not the first (or last) to lose a drone, I don't want another controller. I assumed I would be able to just buy every spare part I needed from DJI??
Anyway, from my short time with the drone I can confirm it was a wonderful little machine. I will get another one at some point and I will be a better pilot in the future. I'm still very bitter about the incident but much worse things can happen in life.
|