Hi,

This is my first post but I have been reading the forum for the last few weeks trying to gather us much information as possible before I take the plunge and purchase a Mavic Air.

The one thing that concerns me is the loss of my drone or a crash. I would be devastated if my £760 drone is lost or damaged.

After reading some of the excellent advice on this forum, I would follow all of the advice given, i.e. only taking off with 11 + satellites keeping LOS and always ensuring a suitable RTH is set. I would also only be flying in rural areas (away from water to start)! It goes without saying that I have already read the online manual a number of times so that I will be familiar with my Mavic Air when I purchase it.

If I follow all of the above, realistically, how likely is it my drone will crash or fly of uncontrollably never to be seen again? I have read a fair few posts on here where people have lost a drone!

Looking forward to hearing from you all!

Many thanks,

Chris   

Welcome to the forum.
In answer - very unlikely. I've never lost a DJI drone in two years. The Mavic Air is a great drone, especially to start with.
If your budget can stretch I would highly recommend getting the flymore combo for £949 given the lower overall price than buying seperately and excellent additions including a total of three batteries to start with - you'll need them (I have 4, considering a 5th).
As for insurance, buy DJI care refresh for £89 - it covers accidental damage caused by crashing due to pilot error with a small excess in the first year of purchase. Also - IOS works best with the app. An iPhone 6 to 8+ or X is best. And get a good micro SD card - Sandisk extreme pro 32gb V30 A1. A good set of ND filters, sunhood and landing pad should be considered too.

Just make sure to read the manual fully a couple of times, watch all the vids on youtube you can, and take it slow. Little bits at a time.
But keep in mind, you are fighting gravity....

I had the same concern as you do . You can maximize your chances with these rules, more I would add: Always check state of sensors before every fly, check Compass and IMU interference status - it's very important, most of these fly-away events are cause of bad compass. Good luck.

My number one bit of advise that’s commonly debated but in my experiance seems to have worked out.

Do not calibrate the compass unless you are flying over empty area and it’s freaking out in the sky.. (with compass errors).

The reasoning is people calibrate their compasses right away and forget to check to see if there is something around causing magnetic interference  like metal in the floor/ walls, power lines under ground, pipes, ect and etc..   then people calibrate their drones in that mess and end up making the compass confused since improperly zeroed out now.  

Also you don’t have to calibrate the compass everytime you travel thousands of mile around the world, magnetic north is a fixed location, it doesn’t change because you are in a different place.  


As for drones being uncontrollable mess, such as a toilet bowl effect.. ya just try to land it ASAP (as in don’t even bother trying to fly it back to yourself, just land it right away) and recover it try to get your logs reviewed here or get the drone replaced..  personally I would get it exchanged if it happens within 30 days..

Buy yourself a cheap quadcopter like a Syma and practice flying without aids like gps and barometric level control (and they're tough enough to withstand most crashes). One cause of crashes is pilots panicking when presented with an unexpected situation like loss of signal or gps.

I never take off unless I have 10+ satelites no matter how long it takes to get that number.  The more the better.  Always ensure that your home point is updated before taking off.  Check your RTH settings to ensure your RTH altitude is set high enough to clear any trees or anything else that could be in the way.  Be extra careful when flying over water or under bridges as with water your APAS can get disorientated I have seen a few times on here and causes crash in water.  Under bridges you can lose connection and can easily crash and have seen that a few times on here.  Download and install UAV forecast as it will give you a good forecast and if it is safe to fly or not.  Make sure and really pay attention to the wind.  It may say good for 25 feet up but then 100 feet+ may be too strong wind so always check this.  Most important thing you can do is buy the DJI Care refresh.  Easiest to do within first 48 hours of purchase because if you wait longer then you will have to submit a video to show your working bird.  

HereForTheBeer Posted at 2018-6-1 05:55
My number one bit of advise that’s commonly debated but in my experiance seems to have worked out.

Do not calibrate the compass unless you are flying over empty area and it’s freaking out in the sky.. (with compass errors).

I believe in following the DJI instructions on this, and calibrate the compass when the app asks for it.  When you do calibrate the compass, follow the advise, and make sure there is nothing close that will interfere.  It takes only a few seconds to calibrate when asked.

The advice that magnetic north doesn't change isn't entirely accurate, while the location only moves very slowly with changes in the earths magnetic field, the location of magnetic north ISN'T the same as true north, so the relationship between your GPS and compass as they calculate the direction you traveled, and the direction you may need to travel, for RTH, will vary by location.  The effect varies more if you travel East or West, less if you travel North or South.

Merced69 Posted at 2018-6-1 06:52
I believe in following the DJI instructions on this, and calibrate the compass when the app asks for it.  When you do calibrate the compass, follow the advise, and make sure there is nothing close that will interfere.  It takes only a few seconds to calibrate when asked.

The advice that magnetic north doesn't change isn't entirely accurate, while the location only moves very slowly with changes in the earths magnetic field, the location of magnetic north ISN'T the same as true north, so the relationship between your GPS and compass as they calculate the direction you traveled, and the direction you may need to travel, for RTH, will vary by location.  The effect varies more if you travel East or West, less if you travel North or South.

I fully agree with you, when prompted, your MavAir is equipped with a look up table that will recognize if magnetic declination has change and will make necessary allowances for this change in declination.

Good day. Welcome to the forum. Thank you for all of that helpful advice. I just want to add that you should enroll your drone to our DJI Care Refresh so that just in case there will be a problem with the drone in the future you will be able to have your drone fixed with minimal payment.  

Hi everyone. Thanks for all your advice.  This seems like a great place to get all the help I may need. I think I’ve been convinced to purchase a Mavic Air. One question regarding the DJ Care Refresh. If my drone were to flyaway, as I’ve read has happened to a few people, I take it that it would not be covered?

Do any of you guys recommend any other insurance type policies?

my 2 biggest suggestions to anyone buying a drone....which would stop about 90% of the complaints seen on here....

buy local - if you have a problem within the first 2 weeks you can just return it within minutes. If its working good for 2 weeks you should be fine.

get insurance (state farm) if anything happens to my drone I get a check in a few days. I wouldn't want to send my drone out for repair and wait and get back a used one. No thanks.


Also i do agree with the guy who said never do a compass calibration unless you have serious problems or it asks you too. On both my DJI drones i calibrated once when I got it and NEVER again, even after years and flying around the country to new places with it.

I calibrate compass only  when asked, insure that I have 10+ satellites, insure that homepoint is recorded and MOST IMPORTANT..fly it in each direction a short distance before going anywhere further.  This way you know you can always hit pause if it does something weird and manually fly it home in either Program or Sport mode.  Practice with a cheap drone builds your confidence to do so.  My other advice is to ALWAYS use the physical RTH button on the controller rather than the soft button on the app to avoid accidently hitting the Land button by mistake which could land it where you might not be able to take off again such as water or a field of rocks or water.

Merced69 Posted at 2018-6-1 06:52
I believe in following the DJI instructions on this, and calibrate the compass when the app asks for it.  When you do calibrate the compass, follow the advise, and make sure there is nothing close that will interfere.  It takes only a few seconds to calibrate when asked.

The advice that magnetic north doesn't change isn't entirely accurate, while the location only moves very slowly with changes in the earths magnetic field, the location of magnetic north ISN'T the same as true north, so the relationship between your GPS and compass as they calculate the direction you traveled, and the direction you may need to travel, for RTH, will vary by location.  The effect varies more if you travel East or West, less if you travel North or South.

The the problem with this is sometimes people don’t realize that they maybe near mag interference than they just calibrate against that on the spot, this zeroing things out incorrectly.  Basically making genuine interference the new zero and that can cause issues.  

For example, inside driveway from my house to the road has a lot of mag interferences , I don’t know why, no wiring or metal underground there, but it does.. if I put my mavic down on the ground to launch it it will ask me to calibrate, but if I calibrate it there, I will mess the compass up entirely.  But if I’m 5 feet off the ground hovering, the drone has no compass errors. Or if I take off from another location it doesn’t prompt me.   

And when you have you drone, go to a large open field and play with the RTH function, so that you fully understand these option. There are servial things that involve the RTH function.

All the above, and if I may add:  
* If the AC ask for an update don’t do it. It will be fine without updating. If you update before a shakedown and you have a problem, you’ll have a fit trying to sort out if it’s the AC or the update.
* Remember your phone/tablet is a very important link in the performance of the Mavic Air. Make sure your device is up to the task, and optimize it for use with you AC.
* As you stated, read the manual. I suggest printing two copy’s one stays with your AC and the other stays in the loo.

Good Luck and stay safe.

In my experience, it's the surrounding that will affect your compass or transmission. And the air is a little too sensitive in my opinion. but as long as I have full bars, I ignore the warnings. Also the mavic air is pretty stable even in high winds, but ones I notice it tilting too much, I bring it down.

First of all,  welcome to the forum!

A CW put it best.  If you follow the guidelines that you've already read,  a flyaway is highly unlikely.  Also as he said, if you can stretch, get the FlyMore Combo.  It will be well worth it.

It is an unfortunate part of the hobby that the possibility of loss is there.  Whether it be a crash or a flyaway.  However, the odds of a flyaway are low.  Make sure you get a program like UAV forecast and also make sure you keep up with the airspace you're flying in.  I use AirMap for that.

I've had my Mavic Air for almost 2 months, and it's seen a good amount of airtime.  It's steady, and stable.  Make sure you have the latest version of the DJI Go4 App, and the DJI Assistant for your computer.  That way things should go smoothly for you when you get your aircraft.  Day one prep is going to take a while, so be prepared.  You'll need to charge all of  your batteries, and then power up the aircraft and make sure your firmware is updated on the aircraft, all of the batteries, and the RC.

Again, welcome to the forum.  and hopefully soon,  to the Mavic family!