Hi All

Thought of sharing my recent flight experience.

Started with a battery that I charged 2 weeks ago (lesson to learn to confirm my battery level before taking off) and was able to take some nice videos and photos...however to my horror at 16% battery level instead of RTH, the drone decided to land on someone’s backyard in one of the most expensive neighborhoods (some ranges around $20-40M).

I have never known where the “Find My Drone” feature is located at.  My wife found this feature in the Go 4 App and used the GPS coordinates to locate my drone in Google Maps. So grateful to her!

The thrill was escalating as it was a gated community and the security guard did not allow us to enter because we are not residents there. After hearing our explanation, the security guard was kind to get approval from his supervisor to allow us to enter the area but we needed to be escorted.

We were thankful that the house owner was completely understanding and allowed the retrieval of my drone. Few feet away from the backyard was the owner’s deck to the private yacht area (and of course the water). My drone landed nicely and safely on the backyard with no single scratch.

Some Queries:
- It was around 450m away from “Home”, when it decided to land when the battery was at 16%. Is it expected?

- I was unable to cancel the land when the drone decided to land. I lost control completely and eventually my screen showed “Aircraft Disconnected”. Is it expected?

Thanks All

Your flight log will reveal what happened, but it sounds like the battery reached the critically low level and your drone auto landed at its current location (as designed). There is no way to cancel that auto landing.


You should make sure your drone is close to the home point by the time the battery reaches the low level. That will give you enough time to safely land.

Hi. Thank you for sharing your experience with us today. You need to check the battery level of your Drone every time you fly your Drone for safety and reliability purposes.

msinger Posted at 2018-7-21 07:18
Your flight log will reveal what happened, but it sounds like the battery reached the critically low level and your drone auto landed at its current location (as designed). There is no way to cancel that auto landing.

Thanks much msinger..yup I should not have cancelled the first RTH warning...

DJI Stephen Posted at 2018-7-21 07:31
Hi. Thank you for sharing your experience with us today. You need to check the battery level of your Drone every time you fly your Drone for safety and reliability purposes.

Thanks Stephen..yup, will check my battery level before each flight from now onwards..

All my previous flights have been shortly after I charged my batteries...this flight was the first time that I flew long after charging the batteries.

dronto Posted at 2018-7-21 07:51
Thanks Stephen..yup, will check my battery level before each flight from now onwards..

All my previous flights have been shortly after I charged my batteries...this flight was the first time that I flew long after charging the batteries.

Thank you for the quick reply. Please keep us posted. If you have any other concerns please feel free to post it here at DJI Forum. We are here to help you.

DJI Stephen Posted at 2018-7-21 08:00
Thank you for the quick reply. Please keep us posted. If you have any other concerns please feel free to post it here at DJI Forum. We are here to help you.

Thanks for your kind note Stephen

Welldone in recovering the Drone !

dronto Posted at 2018-7-21 07:51
Thanks Stephen..yup, will check my battery level before each flight from now onwards..

All my previous flights have been shortly after I charged my batteries...this flight was the first time that I flew long after charging the batteries.

Before flying always recharge batteries, if you leave for 5 days or so batteries will start hibernation process, which will start reducing fully powered battery to just over 50%, so always before flying refresh batteries.

DMX_MT Posted at 2018-7-21 08:11
Welldone in recovering the Drone !

Thanks so much for your kind note Captain DMX_MT

It was half-an-hour of palpitation...not knowing if my drone was recoverable...one worry was if nobody was home at that time.

Glad that it worked out well. Happy Droning

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-7-21 08:24
Before flying always recharge batteries, if you leave for 5 days or so batteries will start hibernation process, which will start reducing fully powered battery to just over 50%, so always before flying refresh batteries.

Thank you hallmark007 for your kind advice...I will charge before each flight from now on.

Glad you managed to recover the drone

Hi dronto,

An autolanding cannot be cancelled, as others have said. But you can stop the descend by pulling it up and fly forward to your homepoint for example. Or in this case just outside the walled backyard!

Give it a try the next flight, bring it close to you and wait for the autoland. Use all the sticks to see what is possible and land with 1% battery.(just for once, if done often its bad for your battery)

cheers
JJB

Suren Posted at 2018-7-21 09:44
Glad you managed to recover the drone

Thanks for your kind note Suren..

JJBspark Posted at 2018-7-21 11:58
Hi dronto,

An autolanding cannot be cancelled, as others have said. But you can stop the descend by pulling it up and fly forward to your homepoint for example. Or in this case just outside the walled backyard!

Hi JJB

Thanks for your kind and detailed information. I actually tried to pull the stick up to maintain the height but honestly speaking in the panic mode I couldn’t see the height changes from my input.

A very interesting experiment to see the difference next time

Thanks again.

We were thankful that the house owner was completely understanding and allowed the retrieval of my drone.

Based on cost of drone...  I would send home owner an appropriate / nice ''Thank you'' recovery gift.  Not sure what appropriate gift would be in Singapore.  Here in U.S. it could be gift basket, bottle of fine wine, or gift card for dinner at nice restaurant.  

HedgeTrimmer Posted at 2018-7-21 17:39
We were thankful that the house owner was completely understanding and allowed the retrieval of my drone.

Based on cost of drone...  I would send home owner an appropriate / nice ''Thank you'' recovery gift.  Not sure what appropriate gift would be in Singapore.  Here in U.S. it could be gift basket, bottle of fine wine, or gift card for dinner at nice restaurant.

Completely agree..thanks for your kind suggestion

dronto Posted at 2018-7-21 17:46
Completely agree..thanks for your kind suggestion

It is also something good to do to show Drone Pilots in a Good light to counter all negativity towards drones and drone pilots.



Glad owner was kind enough to let you retrieve your drone.
Cheers!

HedgeTrimmer Posted at 2018-7-21 18:32
It is also something good to do to show Drone Pilots in a Good light to counter all negativity towards drones and drone pilots.

Absolutely agree with you HedgeTrimmer. Thanks much

dronto Posted at 2018-7-21 17:29
Thanks for your kind note Suren..

                        

I am very happy to read that this all ended well!

Wachtberger Posted at 2018-7-21 23:29
I am very happy to read that this all ended well!

Thanks for your kind note Wachtberger; I was quite fortunate indeed; in addition to the yacht area, each house has their swimming pools and glad my drone decided not to land there

Suren Posted at 2018-7-21 22:47

thanks

JJBspark Posted at 2018-7-21 11:58
Hi dronto,

An autolanding cannot be cancelled, as others have said. But you can stop the descend by pulling it up and fly forward to your homepoint for example. Or in this case just outside the walled backyard!

Agree - I had these autoland scenarios 3 times at 3-5 km. away from me and all 3 times, I manage to fly safe home - the important part is to keep calm and despite annoying beep sound steer home

alex_markov Posted at 2018-7-22 00:25
Agree - I had these autoland scenarios 3 times at 3-5 km. away from me and all 3 times, I manage to fly safe home - the important part is to keep calm and despite annoying beep sound steer home

Thanks Alex for your kind advice

thanks for sharing

My pleasure jacksonnai; it was a lesson to learn for me

Nice story. Glad everything ends with some good news.

Awesome ending to the story and I am glad you got it back. Your mistake was that you were still 450m away with 16% battery. I always try to be landed by 20% to be safe. Always.

My drone never landed automatically on low batt situation.
I rarely flew until below 20% and more than 500m.
When it reaches 30% battery, I always pull back my drone. I keep that timing every time I fly.
When it landed, normally the battery was somewhere around 15%-25%.

I did have a lot RTH warnings
Typical flght duration is around 20 minutes

Happiness is recovering drone with no damages, happy for you.

MAN!  Step away for a few days and you miss all of the good stuff!!

Glad you got your bird back!!  I know that the MA batteries start their hibernation after 10 days.  I normally let them stay at 50% on Sunday when i pack it in for the day.  I really only get to fly on the weekends, so i normally charge up on Thursdays

HedgeTrimmer Posted at 2018-7-21 18:32
It is also something good to do to show Drone Pilots in a Good light to counter all negativity towards drones and drone pilots.

Hand-delivered with my wife a bouquet to the house owner. The house owner happened to be from my home country and was very happy with the flowers  

tjalex Posted at 2018-7-30 11:40
Nice story. Glad everything ends with some good news.

Thanks so much for your kind note

ny300z Posted at 2018-7-30 12:16
Awesome ending to the story and I am glad you got it back. Your mistake was that you were still 450m away with 16% battery. I always try to be landed by 20% to be safe. Always.

Great advice and thanks for your kind note

moulinrouge Posted at 2018-7-30 12:35
My drone never landed automatically on low batt situation.
I rarely flew until below 20% and more than 500m.
When it reaches 30% battery, I always pull back my drone. I keep that timing every time I fly.

Thanks for your kind advice

Picanoc Jack Posted at 2018-7-30 12:43
Happiness is recovering drone with no damages, happy for you.

Thanks so much for your kind note

3-D Posted at 2018-7-30 17:05
MAN!  Step away for a few days and you miss all of the good stuff!!

Glad you got your bird back!!  I know that the MA batteries start their hibernation after 10 days.  I normally let them stay at 50% on Sunday when i pack it in for the day.  I really only get to fly on the weekends, so i normally charge up on Thursdays

Great advice and thanks much for your kind note

Sentosa ?

pinkmenprints Posted at 2018-7-31 04:23
Sentosa ?

Hahaha no..in the West side