Today I finally fly my drone - Mavic Air going up higher for the first time. After many months of fears of flying that far and higher....Now I wanted to ask some questions because I got scared when I noticed red light flashing on the drone meaning the battery is low so I decided to bring it down to the ground I had to use my RC joystick "down" position then MA did fly downward to about 5 feet from the ground then all of sudden MA went upward as if it is trying to flying away. I frantically trying to pull down joystick it does down but still went up and flew forward as it was seeking to attack young students playing ball. I hit RTH, it didn't work. I had to use both joysticks down to force MA down and it did. I was like having a heart attack when MA was attempting to attack students. Now my questions....I'm trying to figure why MA choose not going down....

I am assuming MA won't go down because it was not on the "right" RTH location????
What would happen if MA started to "fly away" and (I know it will RTH) but it is strange for me not able to get MA down to the ground.
I know it sounds stupid but will MA fall down when battery is out and in case I am unable to pull joystick "down" position???
Don't tell me not to be fear - I don't have DJI Care Refresh.

It got me thinking I'm not ready to fly my drone over ocean this time.   I have been flying a drone FEW times due to so many restricted airspace's out there.....

Do you always look at your drone above or look at you RC with mobile phone screen? I looked at my drone because I could not see RC screen due to glared screen during bright day. That's why I'm sad I can't try out active track feature.

How come many of you guys don't use propeller guard? Just curious that's all.

You will have to excuse my English grammars because English is not my primary language because I am DEAF and use sign languages as my primary

Thank you very much.

Since you are deaf pay attention to any vibrations issued by the controller/phone, generally I find there is a message on the phone screen and maybe your controller. I have gone deaf so that is what I sometimes do.
Whilst I do watch the drone, it is wise to keep an eye on the battery level via 'occasional' glances, so that you are not caught out by the drone suddenly being in a low battery situation. This is even more important when the drone is over water and most of my flights would be over water.
That said, with other drones, I have countered a drone wanting to "low battery RTH" to 'somewhere else' (I had moved from the home point and not reset it) with full down stick, I do not know if the MA behaves differently.
With regards to literally running out of battery whilst airborne, assuming the MA behaves in the same way as other DJI drone it should, if kept in the air long enough, enter the critical battery level landing phase (possibly around 10%) and descend, whether it is low enough to actually reach the ground depends on how high it is. In normal flights I would expect it to be low enough to do that but there has been at least one thread here or on MavicPilots where the drone went exceedingly high, well above 500m, (that was an equipment failure , a rare thing) and it ran out of battery whilst airborne and was lost.

I'm trying to figure why MA choose not going down....
The best way to find out what actually happened and why, is to post your recorded flight data.
That will have the answers to many of your questions and give you ideas to prevent this from happening in future.

Go to http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
It has instructions to find the .txt file from your phone or tablet which you can upload to that site
Upload it and it gives you a summary of the flight data.
Post a link to that summary.

Or just post the .txt file
I am assuming MA won't go down because it was not on the "right" RTH location????
Don't assume anything.
That doesn't sound like the reason for your incident.
Post the data and someone should be able to analyse it and come back with answers for you.

Labroides Posted at 6-4 01:08
I'm trying to figure why MA choose not going down....
The best way to find out what actually happened and why, is to post your recorded flight data.
That will have the answers to many of your questions and give you ideas to prevent this from happening in future.

Thank you very much I nam not using laptop to downlow flight data - I am using iPad so I guess I can’t download it all? I will have to figure out how.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 6-3 23:19
Since you are deaf pay attention to any vibrations issued by the controller/phone, generally I find there is a message on the phone screen and maybe your controller. I have gone deaf so that is what I sometimes do.
Whilst I do watch the drone, it is wise to keep an eye on the battery level via 'occasional' glances, so that you are not caught out by the drone suddenly being in a low battery situation. This is even more important when the drone is over water and most of my flights would be over water.
That said, with other drones, I have countered a drone wanting to "low battery RTH" to 'somewhere else' (I had moved from the home point and not reset it) with full down stick, I do not know if the MA behaves differently.

I did when i low MA so I could see red light flashing that is when i decided to pull MA but it won’t go down. It kept on flying upward and flew to where RTH spot but I can’t because the students were playing ball at the spot. It was like MA was seeking to “attack” at the students. I finally pull both joystick down position and MA did down at different RTH location.

Labroides Posted at 6-4 01:08
I'm trying to figure why MA choose not going down....
The best way to find out what actually happened and why, is to post your recorded flight data.
That will have the answers to many of your questions and give you ideas to prevent this from happening in future.

Ok I hope you can help this flight data as to why it is happening in a plain English please to Mae me deaf person understand easier

Thank you

. I.Flight Data here

I think that, in part, this was due to a battle between the drone wanting to RTH and you commanding it to land. If I am wrong hopefully someone will correct me.

The home point was at a guess set correctly near an isolated building at the complicated junction of Rosemont Ave and Seco St.


The thing I can not explain is why it would not actually land when it got close to the ground and you had the throttle held down/closed. I will try to experiment with this today with either an M2Z or a Mavic Mini, to see if I can, during an RTH, force a drone to land away from the home point.

RTH height was set to 31m 102ft.

When the MA is over 20m/ 66ft away from the homepoint it will climb to RTH height then return ( pages 13 to 15 of the manual). When less than 20m away from the home point things get more complicated and depend on whether the "Current Altitude" option is enabled, ( page 15 of the manual)
The charts below show the 100 or so seconds of the flight.

I think you could have avoided the fight by cancelling the RTH and then command the drone to land .....or...... by letting the drone complete the intial low battery RTH that started at 13min 10sec / 790sec. I  think you may have cancelled that low battery RTH using the button on the controller but do not know what started the 2nd RTH.

With the drone in GoHome mode I am not sure what should have happened when you released the throttle with the drone inside the 20m boundary but beyond that boundary it was attempting to RTH and climb to 102ft. Inside the 20m boundary it may have been attempting to climb to either 102ft or the 2.5m 8ft of the "current Altitude" thing.

If you don't mind saying, how did you get the flight log off the ipad?
I ask because, because of your post I tried with an iPhone.  I know how to get the logs off the phone when downloading them to a computer but could not find Go4 logs on the phone when trying to upload them straight from the phone to Phantomhelp.

Just tried it with the M2Z, not something I would care to repeat.

I could not stop the climb to RTH height.

Once at RTH height I could reduce the height and had to use full reverse stick to fight the drone's desire to fly to the homepoint.

This seems to correspond to what you saw.
Also I have just remembered that there is a height threshhold during the  climb, if the drone is higher than something like 20m moving the  throttle cancels any further climb and the drone then flies towards the  homepoint.



Edit oh I didn't even get close to trying to land, it was too confined a space too risk having to fight the drone's desire to fly to the homepoint.

Hi,

Had a look at your flight too.
Lots of inputs last part of the flight, looks like panic....

The reason why it 'suddenly' started to climb...low battery return to home!
But before that a countdown 10 - zero to let your know it will do a RTH, did you had your volume low ?

In a RTH your drone will climb to the RTH setting and after reaching that height it will fly towards home, as it did in RTH.
In RTH mode you cannot lower the craft while it is climbing to the RTH height (if i remember correctly) , just cancel RTH and fly manually to home at a height you can control.

With a critical low batt  a drone will autoland itself, cannot be cancelled, it will not fall down ofcourse.

cheers
JJB

''....., did you had your volume low ?....'' JJB, he is deaf.

JJB* Posted at 6-8 04:10
Hi,

Had a look at your flight too.

Ah thank you very much for plain English the reason I did not want MA go to RTH spot because the students were playing ball so i had to find different RTH spot that is why it kept on climbing upward toward there RTH spot I got scared when MA was climbing upward and start “seeking” to attack students playing ball where RTH spot is.
I don’t use volume because I am completely DEAF. Sorry.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 6-8 05:39
''....., did you had your volume low ?....'' JJB, he is deaf.

:thumb up:

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 6-8 03:35
Just tried it with the M2Z, not something I would care to repeat.

I could not stop the climb to RTH height.

Thank you very much for your answer…This is the first scare I got with MA..Now I will remember next time

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 6-8 02:18
If you don't mind saying, how did you get the flight log off the ipad?
I ask because, because of your post I tried with an iPhone.  I know how to get the logs off the phone when downloading them to a computer but could not find Go4 logs on the phone when trying to upload them straight from the phone to Phantomhelp.

Oh no I didn’t. After google it and had to use laptop to get flight data file. I don’t feel like carrying my laptop when i am traveling so I had to use iPad.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 6-8 01:43
I think that, in part, this was due to a battle between the drone wanting to RTH and you commanding it to land. If I am wrong hopefully someone will correct me.

The home point was at a guess set correctly near an isolated building at the complicated junction of Rosemont Ave and Seco St.

Ok I feel bit better now….Think I. Am ready to fly MA over the ocean? Maybe not

I would practise/experiment more before flying over water. Over water a mistake like the one of this thread could cost you the drone.
Read through the RTH section of  the manual and try out, in a safe, wide open space with no trees and no people about, every possible combination. If something doesn't match your expectations read the manual again, if it still doesn't match your expectations ASK questions either here or over on MavicPilots.
I read through the manual before I first fly a drone and EVERY model of drone I have flown has caught me out with unexpected behaviours during RTH. And that includes the  "current altitude" behaviour of the Mavic 2 Zoom, even more so when combined with the obstacle avoidance being switched on.

Especially if your understanding of written English is not good, the poor wording of the manuals will be even harder for you to understand.
I would also suggest reading up, either here or in the manual ( if the manual explains it ) on how to change the home point, it may come in handy at times.

It's a useful 'trick' to remember that switching the drone's flight-mode cancels many of the automated behaviours i.e change from say sports mode to P or N mode  etc. or whatever the relevant names are for the MA. It may not always work for every thing but I do remember using it once myself for something that I couldn't work out how to cancel.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 6-8 13:30
I would practise/experiment more before flying over water. Over water a mistake like the one of this thread could cost you the drone.
Read through the RTH section of  the manual and try out, in a safe, wide open space with no trees and no people about, every possible combination. If something doesn't match your expectations read the manual again, if it still doesn't match your expectations ASK questions either here or over on MavicPilots.
I read through the manual before I first fly a drone and EVERY model of drone I have flown has caught me out with unexpected behaviours during RTH. And that includes the  "current altitude" behaviour of the Mavic 2 Zoom, even more so when combined with the obstacle avoidance being switched on.

Yeah I will do that before i feel confident enough I will let you know Like you said I need to fly more to get know drone better. Thank you very much

DeafMacBoi Posted at 6-8 11:20
Ah thank you very much for plain English the reason I did not want MA go to RTH spot because the students were playing ball so i had to find different RTH spot that is why it kept on climbing upward toward there RTH spot I got scared when MA was climbing upward and start “seeking” to attack students playing ball where RTH spot is.
I don’t use volume because I am completely DEAF. Sorry.

oops DEAF,  i did not read your post that good, sorry for that!
and, better to cancel the RTH if you do not feel comfortable doing a RTH.
Cancel (easy just press the RTH/Cancel btn once), and drone will hover, time to think and react what to do best.

Mayby DJI could add some features for deaf drone pilots, like vibrate when the RTH countdown is started! Guess many more vibrate actions on other situations too.
cheers
JJB

JJB* Posted at 6-8 22:43
oops DEAF,  i did not read your post that good, sorry for that!
and, better to cancel the RTH if you do not feel comfortable doing a RTH.
Cancel (easy just press the RTH/Cancel btn once), and drone will hover, time to think and react what to do best.

Yes I will remember that to cancel button next time thank you very much and of course they DJI should have add features to help with deaf drone pilots like me! I feel like I am the only one deaf person with drone out there!

DeafMacBoi Posted at 6-9 13:18
Yes I will remember that to cancel button next time thank you very much and of course they DJI should have add features to help with deaf drone pilots like me! I feel like I am the only one deaf person with drone out there!

There are quite a few of us.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 6-9 15:18
There are quite a few of us.

Are you deaf at late age?

DeafMacBoi Posted at 6-10 09:36
Are you deaf at late age?

sort of, one ear started to go in my 20's the other in my 50's.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 6-10 14:37
sort of, one ear started to go in my 20's the other in my 50's.

Okay I supposed you are wearing hearing aids to help you hear better? I am profoundly deaf and don’t wear it.

DeafMacBoi Posted at 6-11 11:31
Okay I supposed you are wearing hearing aids to help you hear better? I am profoundly deaf and don’t wear it.

Not any longer, they are of no use, I can not recognise word sounds as words anymore. A cochlear implant may be in the offing.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 6-11 12:10
Not any longer, they are of no use, I can not recognise word sounds as words anymore. A cochlear implant may be in the offing.

Oh I see. No idea if CI will work on older people but all i know it works on young people under 7 or something. Anyway hope you can get it for yourself. Not for me I am happy what/who I am now.