Well, today I officially joined the "lost my mini" club.  I was getting some amazing footage while in Leavenworth Washington of the river and all the snow, was flying backwards let go of the sticks and she dunked right into the water.  Part of it was my fault, I was probably flying a bit lower than I should have over the water but for it to drop nearly 3 feet on a hard stop is still unacceptable.  So now my Mini which was an amazing Christmas present form my wife sits at the bottom of about 8 feet deep ice cold water with no way to safely retreive it.  So I guess when I get home from my trip DJI will be getting another $400 of my hard earned money for a replacement, not only does it suck losing the drone, but it also sucks losing the footage as I know it was turning out great.  Lesson learned I suppose.  

Sorry for your loss , this Water / ICE Issues is increasingly concerning , plz open a ticket with DJI support and keep us posted

Sorry to hear about the loss of your drone.
I fly over water probably 95% of the time, and I have experienced the drone just drop in altitude rapidly. It doesn't matter which mode I am  in C,P or S and at times doing very low speeds. I have been lucky enough to have caught it dropping and given it some up stick to catch it.
I have one eye glued to the altimeter now when low to the water, ready to punch it up if needed. I think it is GPS related, probably recalculating  alitude if new satellites found? IDK.

Might not be a $400 loss. I see some Minis on sale for about $300 by themselves with no remote.

GaryDoug Posted at 1-18 21:48
Might not be a $400 loss. I see some Minis on sale for about $300 by themselves with no remote.

I'm gonna buy brand new, at least I don't have to buy the fly more combo again, but rather not deal with someone else's potential problem drone they're trying to get rid of.  At least new if I have issues I can hopefully get support from DJI.

djiuser_5hoSuY0HZd5R Posted at 1-18 21:43
Sorry to hear about the loss of your drone.
I fly over water probably 95% of the time, and I have experienced the drone just drop in altitude rapidly. It doesn't matter which mode I am  in C,P or S and at times doing very low speeds. I have been lucky enough to have caught it dropping and given it some up stick to catch it.
I have one eye glued to the altimeter now when low to the water, ready to punch it up if needed. I think it is GPS related, probably recalculating  alitude if new satellites found? IDK.

I was in S mode when it happened, from visual I'd say I was probably 3-4 feet off the water when it happened, like I said it was partially my fault as I was full reverse and let off the stick and thats when it dropped, I think the sudden breaking maneuver caused it to drop and it ended up in the water, I'm chalking it up to mostly me being an idiot on this one, Wife wasn't to happy to watch it sink to the bottom of the river though lol.

Never fly lower than 10' when above water as the water reflection will confuse the Optical sensors at times.

You Still have the footage recorded on your phone It will be lo-res but still quite good and you can see your flight it only records video though on your phone not photographs hope this helps sorry for the loss of your mini

Oh man, sorry for your loss, never great to read this...

djiuser_5hoSuY0HZd5R Posted at 1-18 21:43
Sorry to hear about the loss of your drone.
I fly over water probably 95% of the time, and I have experienced the drone just drop in altitude rapidly. It doesn't matter which mode I am  in C,P or S and at times doing very low speeds. I have been lucky enough to have caught it dropping and given it some up stick to catch it.
I have one eye glued to the altimeter now when low to the water, ready to punch it up if needed. I think it is GPS related, probably recalculating  alitude if new satellites found? IDK.

I think it is GPS related, probably recalculating  alitude if new satellites found? IDK.
It had nothing at all to do with GPS.
GPS is only responsible for horizontal position data and has no impact on altitude.

You could post flight data if you are interested to see what that might show.

Wiz33 Posted at 1-18 22:59
Never fly lower than 10' when above water as the water reflection will confuse the Optical sensors at times.

Except that those sensors aren't doing anything in Sport Mode because the tilt angle is too great.

Anyway you could get the flight logs and post them?
The "dropping" issue is happening to many of us, we must report them if possible so DJI can sort it out.
Sorry for the lost drone.

3 feet flat out over water and suddenly try to break, did you expect it would have held its altitude exactly 3 feet.
Post log if your craft malfunctioned it will show on log.
You should have footage on your device so not totally lost .

So sorry to hear of your lost MM.  Extremely hard lesson learned.  About 2 weeks back my MM experienced a similar 3-4' drop, fortunately it was over land and not water and I was flying high enough so it did not impact the ground.

I checked everywhere on my device no cached footage (no big deal) I'll post flight data once I get home from our trip.

Hello and good day JeremyFr79. I am sorry to read and to know what happened to your previous flight with your DJI Mavic Mini. Since this unfortunate issue happened. Kindly please contact out DJI Support Team for further assistance at https://www.dji.com/support?site=brandsite&from=nav. We would do their best to find out the reason of the incident and then the corresponding resolution would be provided. Again I am sorry for your loss and thank you for your understanding.

Labroides Posted at 1-19 01:11
Except that those sensors aren't doing anything in Sport Mode because the tilt angle is too great.

Except when he came to a stop which is what he did over water.

Mayby a unwanted forcelanding? Log will explain more....

always the pilot's fault.  so much so we even have pilots started to openly admit it themselves.  he came to a quick stop, the drone dropped like a rock.  pilot's fault; he shouldn't have stopped so quickly. /s
maybe this isn't the ideal beginner's drone.

The Saint Posted at 1-19 11:49
always the pilot's fault.  so much so we even have pilots started to openly admit it themselves.  he came to a quick stop, the drone dropped like a rock.  pilot's fault; he shouldn't have stopped so quickly.

Is that a joke, stopping too fast? Even DJI’s training film says to just let go of the sticks if in doubt.

Ice_2k Posted at 1-19 11:50
Is that a joke, stopping too fast? Even DJI’s training film says to just let go of the sticks if in doubt.

sorry you got me; replied to my post before I could add the /s

gotcha On a more serious note, shouldn't this be covered under warranty if the logs show the drone indeed descended on its own?

hallmark007 Posted at 1-19 04:50
3 feet flat out over water and suddenly try to break, did you expect it would have held its altitude exactly 3 feet.
Post log if your craft malfunctioned it will show on log.
You should have footage on your device so not totally lost .

I think there is not footage on device (even in lo-res) unless you download them first.. am I right or there is any setting for this?

Tasos GR Posted at 1-19 12:24
I think there is not footage on device (even in lo-res) unless you download them first.. am I right or there is any setting for this?

footage is saved in the phone as you're flying. I believe there's also a setting in the Fly app where you can set the maximum amount of disk space the app is allowed to use for caching.

If I can say a positive thing about DJI assistance is that despite making me pay every single gram of my replacement unit it shipped almost immediately, compared to a 1+month wait for the store.

Also the S/N of the replacement unit seems to be earlier than my Dec 23 delivered CE model. So... they must have a stock ready to ship for replacements.

Wiz33 Posted at 1-18 22:59
Never fly lower than 10' when above water as the water reflection will confuse the Optical sensors at times.

It's not just that but sometimes the drones dip or gain altitude.  Some people think the altitude hold is perfect but it's not, it's just close to it.  Way in the air it doesn't matter but if you are 3' or less off the ground at full speed is when people find out the imprecision the hard way.

Ice_2k Posted at 1-19 11:50
Is that a joke, stopping too fast? Even DJI’s training film says to just let go of the sticks if in doubt.

I agree here, DJI and many experienced users recommend to let go the stick if in trouble.
My drops happened when leaving sticks, thankfully I was in VLOS and high enough to recover the drop.
DJI must be looking in to this since it has happened in many situations.

Ok, so whats the best way for me to pull the flight log and post it etc?

The Saint Posted at 1-19 11:49
always the pilot's fault.  so much so we even have pilots started to openly admit it themselves.  he came to a quick stop, the drone dropped like a rock.  pilot's fault; he shouldn't have stopped so quickly. /s
maybe this isn't the ideal beginner's drone.

Why always pilot's fault?

Ok so I dunno if this is viewable or not but here's my log on phantomhelp.....https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/XCKYU5SJSOEOTVCAEK12/

The drone was launched from a bridge over the river so the altitudes will all read a negative number.

JJB* Posted at 1-19 11:18
Mayby a unwanted forcelanding? Log will explain more....

that was also my first thought, its really scary to get down low over water bet the best shots you get low over water ...
anyway force landing is an good function and i have no idea how to make it better.

JeremyFr79 Posted at 1-20 13:07
Ok so I dunno if this is viewable or not but here's my log on phantomhelp.....https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/XCKYU5SJSOEOTVCAEK12/

The drone was launched from a bridge over the river so the altitudes will all read a negative number.

Your log doesn’t show end of flight , it doesn’t show any left stick down movements, because you are showing a minus it’s hard to know correct altitude of drone and breaking in sport mode could well cause craft to lower before recovering altitude.
I don’t believe unless you find craft with dat file intact that you will have any chance of warranty, dji will just look at device log and call it inconclusive offer you a discount, usually with no malfunctions no pilot error offer should be 30% discount .

hallmark007 Posted at 1-20 13:35
Your log doesn’t show end of flight , it doesn’t show any left stick down movements, because you are showing a minus it’s hard to know correct altitude of drone and breaking in sport mode could well cause craft to lower before recovering altitude.
I don’t believe unless you find craft with dat file intact that you will have any chance of warranty, dji will just look at device log and call it inconclusive offer you a discount, usually with no malfunctions no pilot error offer should be 30% discount .

Not sure I understand you saying it doesn't show end of flight?  When I look at it in FRAP there's a disconnect at the end of the log which is when it hit the water.  Am I missing something?

JeremyFr79 Posted at 1-20 13:38
Not sure I understand you saying it doesn't show end of flight?  When I look at it in FRAP there's a disconnect at the end of the log which is when it hit the water.  Am I missing something?

It doesn’t show me that on phantom help csv, I’m not using frap, maybe post copy of end of flight .

hallmark007 Posted at 1-20 13:46
It doesn’t show me that on phantom help csv, I’m not using frap, maybe post copy of end of flight .[view_image]

here's a screenshot from FRAP of the last few seconds.

Sorry here it is with headers....

JeremyFr79 Posted at 1-20 13:52
Sorry here it is with headers....

[view_image]

I think that’s just log disconnect, it shows no crash, I would have expected to see motor obstruction so I’m thinking last few seconds missing, it does show you letting sticks go but drop only less than 1 ft .

hallmark007 Posted at 1-20 14:03
I think that’s just log disconnect, it shows no crash, I would have expected to see motor obstruction so I’m thinking last few seconds missing, it does show you letting sticks go but drop only less than 1 ft .

I can tell you the last image on my phone after crash was before it hit the water which I thought was odd....

JeremyFr79 Posted at 1-18 21:50
I'm gonna buy brand new, at least I don't have to buy the fly more combo again, but rather not deal with someone else's potential problem drone they're trying to get rid of.  At least new if I have issues I can hopefully get support from DJI.

You can get combo and sell off remote/charger/batteries/props/guards/etc. This will make final price well below $400.

AntDX316 Posted at 1-19 22:04
It's not just that but sometimes the drones dip or gain altitude.  Some people think the altitude hold is perfect but it's not, it's just close to it.  Way in the air it doesn't matter but if you are 3' or less off the ground at full speed is when people find out the imprecision the hard way.

Well, how do we make nice low to the ground (or water) videos?  Will it be ok to do fast strait low pass from upper position, then go up again before stopping? In the cases I saw here altitude drops happened while maneuvering, stopping after full speed.