hi
first weekend of owning a mavic air.. and unless i find it, also my last. it managed to fly it only 40 mins until disaster struck...

went flying in the mountains for some awesome footage, and when i activated RTH, the drone landed
more than 900ft away, and I lost it. looked for it for 2 hours but the terrain makes it close to impossible unless i can get
direct location.
Have anybody had problems with the RTH function not being reliable?


i tried to locate it using find my drone but phone signals in the mountains as not great
so at the moment i'm screwed.


meantime a question:
are the GPS coordinates super accurate, because then it should work to locate it, right?
only last attempt tracking would be if I upload . KML file into my garmin bicycle GPS. at least that works.



i try to read the flight log, and it appears i had satellite connection until last seconds.

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/LBZVH47HGMSLGTR71JGZ/#

so the last recorded coordinates should be accurate right

any help/ideas very welcome.

in theory you should wait before you send you drone away to record its present RTH position, and you get a message when you are safe to fly.
Assuming you sent the drone staight away and it did not have a chanse to record your RTH position then it might have recorded another RTH position as soon as the satelite position for accurate enough.
You have a good chance of finding it as when the drone flies high enough above trees and buildings it gets a very good signal strengh and thus high gps position accuracy.
The dji go 4 app has a "find my Drone" menu option so you could try that... or the flight log cordinates if they are the same.
The option is on the top right side where the 3 bars are and its the last menu option.
Good luck and let us know if it works

Last known location was here:

Last known location was here: https://www.google.com/maps/plac ... 6.9%22E/@43.8036969,7.4242088,196m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d43.803624!4d7.424134

You could try uploading your flight to the AirData site (here is an example, you get more information if logged in):

https://app.airdata.com/main?fli ... amp;page_id=GENERAL

Very odd how it got further away while it was landing.

43°48'13.1"N 7°25'26.9"E

Or paste that into Google.  Don't click my link in the earlier post, copy and paste.

cspain Posted at 2018-2-11 10:18
43°48'13.1"N 7°25'26.9"E

Or paste that into Google.  Don't click my link in the earlier post, copy and paste.

thanks for the comments. the RTH was recorded while is was hovering, prior ascending.
i'll put the coordinates into my garmin gps, and go back tomorrow. but mentally its lost..

Don't give up. If the coordinates are accurate, it shouldn't be too hard to find as you have the road, and a nearby building to reference off. Just make sure to look up in case it is stuck in a tree! Once you park, try putting the coordinates into Google maps on your phone and then have it direct you to them. Just hope no-one here lives nearby and tries to find it themselves

The problem here was, when RTH was initiated your aircraft flew to RTH homepoint, it was 1300ft above the homepoint and landing was taking place, it’s my thinking that at this stage it was out of Los, you can then see from your log that you were pushing on right stick (elevator )0moving aircraft further from your homepoint until it was almost 900ft from home but continuing to descend.

Your Aircraft should be close to last coordinates but could be anywhere in an approximate 30metre radius, so search party might be needed.

If you had have let RTH take place it would have landed at homepoint , but it was the continuous pushing on the right stick (elevator) that was guiding aircraft away from homepoint.

spycorfu Posted at 2018-2-11 09:54
in theory you should wait before you send you drone away to record its present RTH position, and you get a message when you are safe to fly.
Assuming you sent the drone staight away and it did not have a chanse to record your RTH position then it might have recorded another RTH position as soon as the satelite position for accurate enough.
You have a good chance of finding it as when the drone flies high enough above trees and buildings it gets a very good signal strengh and thus high gps position accuracy.

Homepoint was recorded.

the drone autolanded so it came down softly - thats good news. check in the location according to the map - there are some nice referance points and easily accessable. when you get to the crash site visualise a search area as hallmark says of about 30 m radius. Then start at a point and do one systematic sweep through the area being sure to look onto of bushes also. If no luck then do a systematic wider search - repeat until drone is found. i lost my drone once and found it about 30-50m away from the position indicated on my devise - but it was there.

so the last recorded coordinates should be accurate right

Yes, it's very likely that it ended up near the last reported location, though that terrain looks a bit challenging to me when it comes to finding something as small as your drone.

cspain Posted at 2018-2-11 10:14
Last known location was here: https://www.google.com/maps/place/43%C2%B048'13.1%22N+7%C2%B025'26.9%22E/@43.8036969,7.4242088,196m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d43.803624!4d7.424134

You could try uploading your flight to the AirData site (here is an example, you get more information if logged in):

You could try uploading your flight to the AirData

PhantomHelp is actually a much better resource than AirData for situations like this; AirData is fine for keeping a record of flights but not nearly as good for finding lost drones.

My very wild guess is that something confused downwards obstacle sensors at the beginning of the flight.
See that GoHomeStatus Ascending to avoid obstacle at the very beginning.
Than when RTH kicked in, MA did excellent job returning to the home point and than again problems start at 358s of the flight.
MA attempted landing but seems like it thought there are obstacles underneath it.... again GoHomeStatus started to be Ascending to avoid obstacle.
So, it was drifting and like finding the place where there is no obstacles and where it's safe to land.
It is interesting to see that as some point in the flight that GoHomeStatus was cleared...
Very weird log indeed.

Did your RC lose connection after the drone landed?  If not, I'm struggling to understand why you didn't take off again and try to reestablish visual line of sight.

Berg I Imagery Posted at 2018-2-11 14:05
Did your RC lose connection after the drone landed?  If not, I'm struggling to understand why you didn't take off again and try to reestablish visual line of sight.

More than 300m away and 25% of battery. Chances for establishing VLOS at that circumstances would be roughly 0 even for experienced, 20/20 vision PPL holder.
After carefully reviewing what hallmark said, yes, there was commanded action from pilot, flying AC away from the Home point. Taking back what I said before.

eYeSkYeYe Posted at 2018-2-11 14:17
More than 300m away and 25% of battery. Chances for establishing VLOS at that circumstances would be roughly 0 even for experienced, 20/20 vision PPL holder.
RTH is meant for inexperienced pilots and I would expect it to work flawlessly.
Experienced pilots would stop RTH while aircraft was at 1.2m from home point and land it manually.

Those obstacle ascending message is the new go home status it’s on all logs, the controller moving his aircraft while descending and this is what caused it to move of course.

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-2-11 14:25
Those obstacle message come from controller moving his aircraft while descending and this is what caused it to move of course.

Totally agree with you. There WAS pilot commanded action to fly away the AC.
Simple solution would be to cancel RTH and initiate it again, without touching the sticks.
And if you can clarify further, please, let's say IDs 230-240... AC is ascending and status still keeping that obstacle message.

eYeSkYeYe Posted at 2018-2-11 14:29
Totally agree with you. There WAS pilot commanded action to fly away the AC.
Simple solution would be to cancel RTH and initiate it again, without touching the sticks.
And if you can clarify further, please, let's say IDs 230-240... AC is ascending and status still keeping that obstacle message.

crap.. so basically in short. panic rookie move... i couldn't see the drone anywhere, so i must have touched the control.

i remember i was just looking at the screen, and it didn't move closer to me, but it was descending.
and suddenly it stopped.

DroneFlying Posted at 2018-2-11 13:56
You could try uploading your flight to the AirData

PhantomHelp is actually a much better resource than AirData for situations like this; AirData is fine for keeping a record of flights but not nearly as good for finding lost drones.

Why is AirData not as good, it seems to show all points and the last known location. It shows all this on a Google satellite map. It has a lot of other details too including photos. I'm not disagreeing with you (I have been a proud AirData user for approximately one day ;), just curious.

cspain Posted at 2018-2-11 14:59
Why is AirData not as good, it seems to show all points and the last known location. It shows all this on a Google satellite map. It has a lot of other details too including photos. I'm not disagreeing with you (I have been a proud AirData user for approximately one day ;), just curious.

Unless you opt for paid version you are not likely to get any real information which is contained in the cvs log, from this log you can obtain all long lat all stick movements much more battery data and all pitch and roll movements.
You can use long/lat to discover location on google earth. All this data is available free on phantomhelp.

Yes I had a similar case with my Mavic Air. I pressed RTH and a new Home Point was generated >4000 ft away...yikes! I was able to guide the MA back using FPV. This case has been submitted to DJI Support and they are aware of the problem. They stated the problem would be "renovated" in the next firmware uodate. Meanwhile avoid using RTH.

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-2-11 15:11
Unless you opt for paid version you are not likely to get any real information which is contained in the cvs log, from this log you can obtain all long lat all stick movements much more battery data and all pitch and roll movements.
You can use long/lat to discover location on google earth. All this data is available free on phantomhelp.

Ah, I see. When I downloaded the CSV there was much more information. I was going off what was on the page linked where you just get a map and a small amount of information. The downloaded CSV  has lots of cool information including control inputs.

fansc41ffd87 Posted at 2018-2-11 15:26
Yes I had a similar case with my Mavic Air. I pressed RTH and a new Home Point was generated >4000 ft away...yikes! I was able to guide the MA back using FPV. This case has been submitted to DJI Support and they are aware of the problem. They stated the problem would be "renovated" in the next firmware uodate. Meanwhile avoid using RTH.

This homepoint was set correctly aircraft returned correctly to homepoint, on landing controller shifted landing position by moving controls.

cspain Posted at 2018-2-11 15:35
Ah, I see. When I downloaded the CSV there was much more information. I was going off what was on the page linked where you just get a map and a small amount of information. The downloaded CSV  has lots of cool information including control inputs.

Yes that’s where most of the useful stuff is, enjoy the reading.

cspain Posted at 2018-2-11 14:59
Why is AirData not as good, it seems to show all points and the last known location. It shows all this on a Google satellite map. It has a lot of other details too including photos. I'm not disagreeing with you (I have been a proud AirData user for approximately one day ;), just curious.

I'm not criticizing AirData; it's good at what it's meant to be, which is a way of recording your basic flight history. But that's all it provides (basic information), while PhantomHelp is specifically designed to be helpful when it comes to analyzing what went wrong on a flight, and does that partly by providing the maximum amount of information that's available from the log file.

To really understand what I'm talking about, though, you should do as Hallmark suggested and compare the level of detail that's provided by the two, especially if you choose to download the CSV file from PhantomHelp. Another feature of PhantomHelp that AirData doesn't provide is the ability to download the original log file, which can come in handy.

The bottom line is that it's an apples-to-oranges comparison. AirData is mainly meant to help you keep a record of your flights, while PhantomHelp is intended to help you analyze what happened on a single flight, and the latter is a much better tool in scenarios like the one discussed in this thread.

fansc41ffd87 Posted at 2018-2-11 15:26
Yes I had a similar case with my Mavic Air. I pressed RTH and a new Home Point was generated >4000 ft away...yikes! I was able to guide the MA back using FPV. This case has been submitted to DJI Support and they are aware of the problem. They stated the problem would be "renovated" in the next firmware uodate. Meanwhile avoid using RTH.

Just received email from DJI Support, concerning my Fly Away, which stated:

"The DJI Go app Android Version v4.2.6 was released, and this issue has been renovated in that upgrades."

Hopefully the update resolves the Fly Away issue. Will need to conduct controlled RTN tests for confidence sake.

Did you find your drone yet?

cspain Posted at 2018-2-12 20:25
Did you find your drone yet?

nope, its gone. gone with the wind...

sad.

thomasjakobsen Posted at 2018-2-13 12:56
nope, its gone. gone with the wind...

sad.

if you complain to DJI will they give a new drone for you know,,

I just got a Mavic Air.  Has the fly-a-way issue for iPhone been fixed with firmware update?

Christine Annette LaBeach Posted at 2018-7-4 17:35
I just got a Mavic Air.  Has the fly-a-way issue for iPhone been fixed with firmware update?

There is no fly away issue with Mavic Air .

As he said, there’s no ‘fly away issue’ with the iOS version of Go

The same thing happened to me on 1/3/19, I went to the mountain to take some nice videos, I made sure that the RTH position was recorded before I took off, GPS signal was good and the drone landed 1600ft away from the home point. The worse thing is that the drone decided to land in a military base, I still had connection for about 3 minutes before the battery died. I called the base and informed them of what happened, I can assure DJI if I get in trouble because the drone decided to land 1600ft away in a military base I will sue them. I have contacted DJI, they gave me case number, but no body contacted me yet to tell me what is going to happen to my drone. Its been raining all night and all day, if that drone was not recovered by the military after I had called them I am sure it is useless now.

eYeSkYeYe Posted at 2018-2-11 14:17
More than 300m away and 25% of battery. Chances for establishing VLOS at that circumstances would be roughly 0 even for experienced, 20/20 vision PPL holder.
After carefully reviewing what hallmark said, yes, there was commanded action from pilot, flying AC away from the Home point. Taking back what I said before.

EDIT: i know this is an old post...just wanted to comment
300m at 25% battery..  easy.    if you got signal well worth trying to fly it back manually..  you wouldn't trash the battery doing that, i done 1 mile on 30% battery with slight head wind and barely made it back with 0% and landed it... that battery is still running in my mavic air and gets similar battery life to my other well treated packs.. i just marked it with a X so i know which battery i thrashed hard.

in terms of 25% battery life time... you could walked rough location of the drone and used find my drone button in the dji go 4 app (dji really needs to make this function more apparent int he app and easier to get to)  and set off its ESC beepers and LED flashing and pin it on the built in map.. 25% battery you should have half hour or so of idle power left

RBas Posted at 1-5 11:47
The same thing happened to me on 1/3/19, I went to the mountain to take some nice videos, I made sure that the RTH position was recorded before I took off, GPS signal was good and the drone landed 1600ft away from the home point. The worse thing is that the drone decided to land in a military base, I still had connection for about 3 minutes before the battery died. I called the base and informed them of what happened, I can assure DJI if I get in trouble because the drone decided to land 1600ft away in a military base I will sue them. I have contacted DJI, they gave me case number, but no body contacted me yet to tell me what is going to happen to my drone. Its been raining all night and all day, if that drone was not recovered by the military after I had called them I am sure it is useless now.

definitely sucks.. they probably didn't recover it if it didn't land in an active location its probably still there in fact!     unfortunately nothing you could really do unless you have insurance on the drone (like from state farm) then maybe claim total loss from a accident...  otherwise not much you can do, have to be always willing to take over for RTH routines..

HereForTheBeer Posted at 1-5 12:41
definitely sucks.. they probably didn't recover it if it didn't land in an active location its probably still there in fact!     unfortunately nothing you could really do unless you have insurance on the drone (like from state farm) then maybe claim total loss from a accident...  otherwise not much you can do, have to be always willing to take over for RTH routines..

Oh, they will have to explain to me why it landed 1600ft away from the RTH location, that's not accurate at all.

RBas Posted at 1-5 18:17
Oh, they will have to explain to me why it landed 1600ft away from the RTH location, that's not accurate at all.

few possible reasons why.

1.  software/firmware glitched.  my mavic pro (1st gen) had this weird software glitch where after got home point at taker off it would overwrite homepoint again a few moments later... not sure why.  i also seen it not even mark homepoint at take off with full lock.. but it came back reliably even without it announcing homepoint or showing it on the map.

2. multi-pathing..  GPS signal is reflecting around off the rocks and trees above or behind take off location and sometimes this causes a conflict with how signal is picked up it will either delay homepoint being established if the GPS knows something isnt right or if GPS doesn't know something isnt right the accuracy could drop down and after the drone flies off it could re-establish a better lock it will reset itself there.   software and hardware should be able to filter this out but we dont live in a perfect world.

3. large satellite diversity/spread.. meaning for whatever reason at that very moment all sats up in the sky where "bunched up" too close together and wasn't a wide enough spread to give diversity in timings and distances, and so location accuracy suffers horribly....

4.  you just took off before home point got established and it didn't finish a full GPS lock until much further away... just because it says GPS ready to go doesn't mean full GPS lock..just means enough GPS for it to position itself laterally, doesn't mean has enough accuracy on its own to pinpoint your drone to a homepoint .

5. weather.. weather can be dramatically different just very short space.. wind may have bee too strong and pushed it around and the drone couldn't fight it in RTH mode on its own..