Sorry about your drone. That sucks. But this story was vital to me the other day when I was trying to get my drone back home and it was going slow on the last 20% of battery, and then entered RTH on the last 13% and started to land. Because I just read your story I knew I didn't want to try to fly it all the way back to me (because I was over a river), so I looked around and found the closest/safest landing spot and put it down. So thanks for sharing your story.

cspain Posted at 2018-6-15 19:28
Eh, that's not my quote! Good information though!

Ah sorry about that only OP said you had said it.

Bing Err Posted at 2018-6-15 19:49
Sorry about your drone. That sucks. But this story was vital to me the other day when I was trying to get my drone back home and it was going slow on the last 20% of battery, and then entered RTH on the last 13% and started to land. Because I just read your story I knew I didn't want to try to fly it all the way back to me (because I was over a river), so I looked around and found the closest/safest landing spot and put it down. So thanks for sharing your story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4GZk42zU-w

Good video. One more point which helped me when I did land in the dark in taller grass is the "Find my drone" feature in the DJI app. Not only does it help orient you to your drone on then map, but there are options to flash the lights and make the motors/ESC beep loudly. I flew mine off a balcony at night over the mountains, but came back with a low battery and did not have enough time in the dark to fineness a landing back on the deck, so landed it in the grass below. There were no lights and I could not see it, but the motor beep option made it easy. Learned a lot that night

cspain Posted at 2018-6-16 19:48
Good video. One more point which helped me when I did land in the dark in taller grass is the "Find my drone" feature in the DJI app. Not only does it help orient you to your drone on then map, but there are options to flash the lights and make the motors/ESC beep loudly. I flew mine off a balcony at night over the mountains, but came back with a low battery and did not have enough time in the dark to fineness a landing back on the deck, so landed it in the grass below. There were no lights and I could not see it, but the motor beep option made it easy. Learned a lot that night

My drone shut off after it landed. I'm guessing that these lights/beeping features are only available if the drone stays on. Great advice though and I'll have to test out these settings before I actually need them some day. Thanks!

Long range flights over water, acid, or lava are always exciting.  Flying over land makes autolanding/battery issues so boring.  Do lots of pilots fly with the wind until they have used 50 percent of their fuel then try to return against the wind?  Obviously, not naval pilots.

cspain Posted at 2018-6-15 19:28
Eh, that's not my quote! Good information though!

I got a new aircraft now and I have been doing several tests on critical battery landing. I realize that you are correct if you push forward the landing is cancelled. Going back to my last flight I realize that it WAS ALL THE PILOTS FAULT. I was very nervous and I push forward after my poor drone was already swimming in muddy water. As real pilots, we have to keep training so in critical moments we can make the correct desitions in order to don't make fatal ones.
Thank god it was only the loss of a drone and no lives depended on my judgement and action

I got a new aircraft now and I have been doing several tests on critical battery landing. I realize that you are correct if you push forward the landing is cancelled. Going back to my last flight I realize that it WAS ALL THE PILOTS FAULT. I was very nervous and I push forward after my poor drone was already swimming in muddy water. As real pilots, we have to keep training so in critical moments we can make the correct desitions in order to don't make fatal ones. Thank god it was only the loss of a drone and no lives depended on my judgement and action

I just literally tested this out also.  Battery dropped to 13%, says it's going to land in 10s, cancelled that.  Kept flying, got to 10%, said it's going to land, simply pushed up on the stick to counteract it wanting to go down and it hovered there.  I kept it hovering until battery said 2% then thought best let it land to avoid the battery shutting off or something!

There was a good post on here and video a while back about someone with a Mavic who was pretty far from home when autoland started over water 10% or so.  He got it home safely using the sticks as mentioned above.  One thing to note (and I would not rely on this) he flew for like 2 minutes at 0% battery.


Wish i could find it now, I'll look a little more.