I decided to share the horrific story I of my first Mavic crash after almost 150 flights...  
Last month I crashed my Mavic in a 80ft high tree at night... I know #dronepolice will say: No Night Flying, bla-bla-bla... but anyway... I think something good will result of all this... BTW, I was not flying over people, cars or construction... #dronepolice give me a cut here :-)


The guilty of the crash was entirely mine. I was descending my drone trying to make some nice cinematic footage whenI was distracted by a curious guy asking the usual questions about the Mavic performance... I hit the tree branches about 330ft distant from the home point. I was not flying VLOS (#dronepolice will come for me again).


Despite I knew the exact tree the Mavic crashed, because at night I could see the flashing lights, in the next day (during daylight) it was almost impossible to spot the drone through the branches and foliage. It was scary to go back home and leave my $1000 bird alone until next morning...


Next day it took to me and 2 more guys, almost one hour to find it.  It was nearly impossible to find it even knowing it's exact location!! If I looked somewhere else it was difficult to spot it again, because the black Mavic was camouflaged in the tree...


I had to pay a professional guy to climb the tree with ropes and climbing gear to get there. But finnaly I retrieved my bird unharmed after a 3 hour operation.


Lessions learned:
- never become too much confident because you have some flights under your belt
- never allow anyone distract you when you are flying. apologize and answer all questions after you land your drone
- when flying at night, keep a safe clearance height from obstacles- I already bought a fluorescent orange color skin for making easier to spot my Mavic
- plan your flight, and fly your plan

I hope to contribute to avoid same silly mistakes I made... #dronepolice, I'm all ears...

Here is a picture of it after the sucessful mission. I retrieved it without a scratch! (look a the climber's belly)

Glad you got your Mavic back... And unarmed!

It's good to know the drone was retrieved without any scratch, thanks for your sharing and hope other users will learn from this too.

DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-10-9 20:27
It's good to know the drone was retrieved without any scratch, thanks for your sharing and hope other users will learn from this too.

Thank you Mindy!!

Jyunte Posted at 2017-10-9 19:25
Glad you got your Mavic back... And unarmed!

I was lucky,  Jjunte!!

Thanks for sharing your experience!

It has happened or will happen to all who fly.

ALABAMA Posted at 2017-10-10 17:08
It has happened or will happen to all who fly.

For sure... the only way to be sure that you will never crash your quad is if you never fly!!! :-)

Wow what an experience! Glad your friend was able to retrieve the MP and no question, very lucky was MP was unscathed. Few lessons I'm sure are important points for any pilot regardless of the experience. I too had my first crash after many successful flights but it all boiled down to being a bit too confident.