Hi all, my name is Simone and I'm new on the forum!
After having thought this may never happen to me...it happened...I crashed my Mavic


I'm an aerospace engineer and a private pilot. I've always found airplane accident report really useful to understand and learn.
I'll try to do the same with myself, fortunately with much less consequence than other aeronautical accidents: ''just'' economic loss.

As you know, accident are often a chain of events:
1] Mistaken Home Point location
For the first time of my mavic life I decided to update the home point in flight (in know now it's not a good practice). It just seemed offsetted on the map and I decided to do so.
http://www.simonesimone.it/FDMavic.mp4
For a reason I ignore the home point was set well beyond me and my drone position.

Uploading the log I discovered it was set just on that blue dot. Does anyone can explain what does it represent?
I would have expected the home point to be set on the aircraft position which is exactly represented on the map. So the GPS signal was right a suppose.


2] Loss of Remote Controller-Drone signal
During the manual landing the controller signal was lost. Actually on the screen nothing was strange, full signals strenght was present both for video and controls. However my Mavic stopped responding, and hovered for few seconds even if my left stick was full down.
Probably the cause was a Medium Voltage power line few meters behind me.

3] At this point the following RTH logic was triggered
...with the unlucky effect of climbing to 10 meters (this due to the logic itself, my RTH altitued was set to 100m infact) and with the course set to the wrong home point.
This brought the drone at the exact height and in the exact direction of a medium voltage power line.

http://www.simonesimone.it/MavicCrash.mp4
This was the result:


The cool and strange thing is that I was still able to control the drone (event if hanged on a 15.000 V power line).
I've tried to start the motor but it was unable to do so due to wrong attitude.
This really disappointed me, a function to ovverride this check (which is correct) can be usefull. With a drone perfectly working I can't deliberately use it's own power to recover it. Think how useful can be with a drone stuck on a tree (or a wire) to sacrifice props but with the advantage to move and hopefully recover the drone.

4] In the end as I was trying a solution to hit the drone from the distance
I went home and back with a friend. But the drone was taken from someonelse, smarter than me probably if he was not hit by the power line.
The high voltage and the sound from it was quite scaring me.

It would be nice if DJI may note my serial number and put it in a blacklist for any future activation.
My ex-Mavic Pro S/N is: 08QCE7K01214V

That's it...hope this can be helpful for everybody...and as per any aeronautical accident eventually bring to improvement.
And just ot conclude with some happiness this mishap...a new Mavic 2 Pro is on its way.

In this particular case, being able to start it wouldn't help.  It wouldn't start because that prop is tangled in the power line.

The blue dot is your current location of your cell phone. The RTH feature is set off the current location of your mobile device not necessarily the drone.

AG0N-Gary Posted at 5-3 06:22
In this particular case, being able to start it wouldn't help.  It wouldn't start because that prop is tangled in the power line.

I post also this image where maybe is more visible. The left landing gear/antena acted as a hook. All the prop where free of spinning however. But of course, for sure this is not the main point.


One of the main cause for sure is I completely mistaken the logic of the home position update. This means that I've wrongly pressed the right button instead of the left one?

So smartphone GPS vs drone GPS basically?

simonesimone Posted at 5-3 12:00
I post also this image where maybe is more visible. The left landing gear/antena acted as a hook. All the prop where free of spinning however. But of course, for sure this is not the main point.
[view_image]

I see that now...and that's probably what happened to it to make it disappear.  It probably fell off the line on its own and someone picked it up.

AG0N-Gary Posted at 5-3 17:28
I see that now...and that's probably what happened to it to make it disappear.  It probably fell off the line on its own and someone picked it up.

Thinking similar.  Perhaps wind blew drone loose.  Drone fell to ground.  With someone picking drone up.  
Be nice if person who recovered drone, posted a few signs in area saying drone found: Call and describe.

Flip is to post a few signs in area offering a reward and number to call.

HedgeTrimmer Posted at 5-3 19:34
Thinking similar.  Perhaps wind blew drone loose.  Drone fell to ground.  With someone picking drone up.  
Be nice if person who recovered drone, posted a few signs in area saying drone found: Call and describe.

The reward in that area is a good idea! Many thanks for the suggestion.

However, like you, I was doing some speculation of who might have recovered it.
I would exlude the wind, was very high the day of the crash and not sufficient to titlt it. Next days wind was completely calm.

In my opinion someone recovered it using: stones, balls or a fishing pole (this is risky against 15.000V line).

My fault I waited 2 days for recovery, I thought the power line was a good warning system itself, but I was wrong...

So lesson learned? Do not leave 1000€ hanged on a wire too long!

simonesimone Posted at 5-4 01:10
The reward in that area is a good idea! Many thanks for the suggestion.

However, like you, I was doing some speculation of who might have recovered it.

Very sad and unlicky story.   Really sorry to read.     I think you're right about the reconvery; someone throwing things at it to knock it off.  
I have my name, email and phone number on my drones, ever hopeful of human nature is lost and found   
Keep smiling. Get another one. Keep having fun...

Ian in London

simonesimone Posted at 5-4 01:10
The reward in that area is a good idea! Many thanks for the suggestion.

However, like you, I was doing some speculation of who might have recovered it.

They may have used a fiberglass fishing pole.  Or like you said, thrown objects at drone till it was knocked loose.  Shoe would do.

Best of luck recovering your drone.

I was starting to sell spare parts of my drone...and would you believe that this is my drone, now, on my desk and perfectly working?

I thought I was caught from the bad luck, but sometimes the world surprises you with the goodness of people.

Today I've received a call from Jim of DJI support in China, he told me that someone found my drone and wanted to contact me.
The DJI support was able to put Luigi and me in contact and we arranged a meeting this evening.
Luigi is a model aircraft enthusiast who was able to take down the drone and activated himself on every possible channel including DJI support to contact me.
He gave me my Mavic back this evening and I thanked him in several ways including a reward.

I'm very happy I was in the end able to have my drone back. But most of all I'm really positively surprised of having met Luigi, an amazing person, and the amazing work done by DJI support.
This is not common for such a big company to assist customers also in this way.

So a big big thanks to DJI and Luigi!!

simonesimone Posted at 5-6 11:56
I was starting to sell spare parts of my drone...and would you believe that this is my drone, now, on my desk and perfectly working?
[view_image]
I thought I was caught from the bad luck, but sometimes the world surprises you with the goodness of people.

Great end to the story

BTW, this is why I have a label with my phone number on my drones.

Well wait - how did Luigi get the drone off the wire?

BKahuna Posted at 5-8 07:30
Well wait - how did Luigi get the drone off the wire?

He explained me the technique: common plastic bag full of rug thrown vertically and a friend of him took the drone when falling. They made it at the first attempt he said.

simonesimone Posted at 5-11 14:47
He explained me the technique: common plastic bag full of rug thrown vertically and a friend of him took the drone when falling. They made it at the first attempt he said.

Wish someone had a video of it.
Thumbs up to DJI for working with Luig.
Thumbs up to Luig for efforts to return your MP.
  

simonesimone Posted at 5-6 11:56
I was starting to sell spare parts of my drone...and would you believe that this is my drone, now, on my desk and perfectly working?
[view_image]
I thought I was caught from the bad luck, but sometimes the world surprises you with the goodness of people.

What a great result - Much nicer than the usual doom and gloom stories on this forum.

The bloke that caught it also deserves a beer, probably saved your Mavic Pro from impact damage

simonesimone Posted at 5-6 11:56
I was starting to sell spare parts of my drone...and would you believe that this is my drone, now, on my desk and perfectly working?
[view_image]
I thought I was caught from the bad luck, but sometimes the world surprises you with the goodness of people.

Fantastic Outcome. I also put my name and phone number on the outside of the drone. Just with regular label maker paper/stickers. It holds up really well.

Bing Err Posted at 5-11 20:46
Fantastic Outcome. I also put my name and phone number on the outside of the drone. Just with regular label maker paper/stickers. It holds up really well.

Sure, putting owners' identification / phone number / email etc... is a good rule I now learned and should be suggested to anyone.

I personally gave Luigi (and his friend...the "on the fly guy") a reward about 10% of the Mavic value. I found this to be an honest non-written reward for lost and found cases.

Thanks to all guys!

What a great end to your story. Yes humans can surprise us sometimes and its good to know that there are still some out there. Glad it all worked out for you.