Being a wannabe film-maker, I've always aspired to own and film using a drone.
When the Mavic Air came out, it was a game changer to me, and I immediately bought a alphine white model within a week.

I shot extensively with it, and in a month, it had gone along with on 5 different cities across Asia.

Unfortunately it was met with an early demise in Bandung, Indonesia, when it landed into a tree.

I bought a second drone and brought it along with me to Perth, California, Arizona and came full circle back to Bandung today.

This time, I went up to a mountain and fired her up.
I'm not sure what's up with Bandung and my drones, but as I took off and started climbing, the drone suddenly tail-spinned out of the sky.

Landed into a dense 45 degree incline forest, we spent an hour searching to no avail. I ended up calling it off as searching for it was just too dangerous.
Using the coordinates, it would lead right into the spot it landed, but the drone just coulnd't be seen.

Shame, as I had bought DJI care here.


I've uploaded my log, if anyone's interested.

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/D7K890ST8JDY8QCKTF1C/

For everyone else, please enjoy some videos I shot. Not buying any other drones. Sick of dealing with the pain of losing my drone.

I am sorry for the lost. Please keep up because your footages are amazing. Hope you will change your mind.. All best wishes to you.

Sorry for your loss. Flying drones in dense areas is risky... both forest and buildings.
I avoid as much as possible and choose less risky flights. I am on my first drone / over a year now.

Good luck!
~ Time will pass and you will buy another. It appears to be in your blood now. ;)

You're not a wannabe filmmaker. You are a filmmaker. More than anything, you told a story instead of just capturing some pretty video. You did a great job of mixing drone video with other video. Great editing.

I'm sorry for your loss. Should I add that my thoughts and prayers are with you too? Funny, but whenever someone loses their drone, everyone on this forum says, "I'm sorry for your loss," like someone just died. Well, maybe something did die: The joy you got from being a filmmaker.  May I suggest that maybe that inner filmmaker just went into hibernation and will come out again and want to play on another day? You may surprise yourself one day by deciding to purchase that next cool drone that comes out.

Common mistakes for many first time pilots. Start to took great video immediately when get the drone before really participating their flight skill. It’s important to know the drone how it works and it’s limitations. Also need to learn how avoid dangerous and how to handle when facing issues. Need to start flying in safety place first. Only go to risky place when you capable to handle that. A skilful pilot is trained by hundreds flights.

Don't give up. Not only your recording but also your editing skills are great. I am sorry for your loss! Maybe DJI can help with 30% off the body only... Again, I am sorry. I have been there.

I join all others in being sincerely sorry for your loss but also to encourage you to continue, your videos are excellent!

I fully agree with the guys above, great videos there, just one thing with drones, always ensure you have full sats before taking off ensure pre flight checklists are done homepoint is recorded. Dont give up and get back in the saddle. Most here have got burned but did not give up they got up dusted themselves and learnt from their mistakes.

guys, the crash second time was with the drone falling out of the sky - didn't hit anything

does anyone have any insight to why?

I would open a ticket with DJI. Maybe they will tell you what happened, it might not even be anything you did wrong in which case they should replace your drone under warranty. It is interesting that both of your crashes happened in the same area. I did see a "Strong Aircraft Interference" message at one point in your log.

thank you, I'll drop a note today.

Can u tell what's cause it to fall?

Don’t fly anything you can’t afford to lose.

Fall out from sky is not normal. DJI should check is that hardware issue.

Sorry to hear about your negative experiences. While it's discouraging to lose your drone and I'd feel exactly the same way you feel right now, the bright side is at least you have some amazing videos and memories from past experiences. Usually when you're having a difficult time it's best to take a break and de-stress the trial and tribulations of flying drones. Maybe with time will come a new reinvigorated spirit to give another go at using these drones?

thanks guys, I'll be sending the flight logs to DJI, will be interested to know what's the fallout cause, especially since I bought DJI refresh for this purpose, but since drone's un-retrievable, nothing I can do

wow, sorry to hear about your drone.  
Your videos are amazing.,  as Danger said, you're not a wannabe.  You're a filmmaker.  Hopefully you'll eventually be able to add a drone back to your arsenal again.   
Good luck to you.

Sorry for your loss. Your videos are great and I hope you get it sorted out.

GDL Posted at 2018-5-28 08:00
Common mistakes for many first time pilots. Start to took great video immediately when get the drone before really participating their flight skill. It’s important to know the drone how it works and it’s limitations. Also need to learn how avoid dangerous and how to handle when facing issues. Need to start flying in safety place first. Only go to risky place when you capable to handle that. A skilful pilot is trained by hundreds flights.

What's wrong with trying to take awesome shots right away? I don't see the drone in danger from any of these shots (at least the edited ones). He has a knack for shooting scenes that flow together.

I had a look at your flight log mate and can see no anomolies. If you say that it spun on its descent, then that was after the log ends. Could you see if the battery became dislodged??

It was flying, and then suddenly just dropped. I couldn't find the drone though. But I always check to see if the battery is inserted correctly.

Also, my phone cache was full and didn't record the video, so I don't have something to look at aside from the log.

The question is do you want to risk your drone to take the film? If don’t want to lose it there are lot more considerations:

Is the place safe to fly? Are you confident with the fly planned? Can the aircraft RTH safe on there? When things go wrong can I get my drone back on there?

Those are questions I will ask before takeoff. I did a lot of flying exercises on safe place before go out to filming. I fly MA over 60 times and still not crash it.

Very sad to hear!

Sorry for your loss.
Don't quit now your videos are awesome. It's just a matter of time
you will get another one. Just stay out of Bandung, Indonesia.

I don't get how why some of you say it's his fault that the drone decides to drop from the sky.

Sorry for your loss.

Sorry to read that. Hopefully DJI will take sympathy on this situation and reach an amicable position for you to get back in the air asap. I hope you do as your footage is excellent.

That’s a shame because you have some really nice videos

If the TX link was all good, then I'm calling a catastrophic power outage. The batteries looked fine in the log, it just stopped.
You said that you saw it spin to the ground?? Could you see anything on the screen, even though it wasn't recording?

Dongster Posted at 2018-5-28 17:16
guys, the crash second time was with the drone falling out of the sky - didn't hit anything

does anyone have any insight to why?

My best guess is battery, prop or motor failure. Typically those 3 things will be the only things to make a drone drop from the sky. (bad compass would cause erratic flight then fall out of sky or hit stuff smashing into bits.)

Sorry for your loss, took a look at your flight data. Looks like you took off with less than minimum GPS satellites locked on, it did gain additional satellites later in the flight, there was no Home Point recorded which probably kept the drone in GPS-Atti Mode, many GPS errors as well as initial GPS reception being low.

I agree with your interpretation of the log QK, but the flight was straight and purposefull and eventually at some height (80+mtrs.)
Not the typical rooky operator in Atti mode, drifting in the wind?
Also, what adds to the interpretation of the log is this appeared to be a rushed flight, those batteries on the Air will fall right out if not secured correctly.

Any possible hit by bird or something?

Dont think so GDL because the log ends so abrubtly. Either link lost or power failure I think. But happy to be proved wrong!

Indonesia laws are very against the use of drones. From what I understand from researching recently they can use signal jammers to interfere with drone transmissions.  May be slim but maybe th ereason why your drone went awol. Did you allow sufficient time for gps etc?

very rural area, nearly impossible

I'm still investigating with DJI warranty experts right now.

As others have said, it would be a shame if you quit.  You've got some talent.  Good luck.

Never let something like this make you quit you have to get right back up and keep going.  Life is always about throwing things at us and is up to us to keep our head up and go forward.  Hope you continue your passion and not let something like this keep you down.

Wow, your videos are amazing.  You're truly a filmmaker. Please don't give up.
I'm sorry for your loss and I hope you'll have the courage to keep drone filming.

We are so sorry for your loss, you are indeed a filmmaker, the video is amazing, hope everything will turn out to be great, if you need any assistance, please post the case number here, we will do our best to help.

For DJI: I know you guys have put a lot of emergency features on this lovely piece of machine, but an improvement on how to locate and recover lost drone is needed, especially when a drone crashed.

Some people successfully found their drones, some others did not.
Some others put a tracker on their drones.

I seldom find myself lost in the parking lot. I use my car-lock alarm to locate my car.
A button to make a drone beeps? Practical enough?
It makes us feel much much much more secure.

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So sorry to hear your story man. I hope you are able to fly again.
Will avoid Bandung and Tangkuban Perahu for the time being.

That function is already available in 'find my drone' in the app...