Hello My 14 day mini 4 pro just drowned at sea.  It was on over 60% battery and gave battery warning to return home, this was done and then battery started draining super fast, it then complained and attempted an energency landing in the sea, it cancelled that as was unsuitable and told me to rescue it, but battery was depleting super fast and it was impossible to get to shore quick anough.  The river thames now holds my drone that cannot be recovered. I am claiming on the flyaway cover and its been agreed but i am shocked how the software has failed and just left the drone stranded at sea, should it not be thinking, lets not try crossing the river if it cannot get over it ?. It had such a large percentage of battery left also and it just plumeted so fast. I will have to pay the £220 but i am now scared to trust it. Perhaps its just my luck but thought i would see others expectations. Thank you

Definitely lost, i only see green

Sorry to hear about your Mini 4 becoming a submarine.

Best way to get help/advice/explanation for your issue is to share your flightlog(s)

use this link > https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/

Post the uploaded link on here.  

Hi there, we have replied on your another post, please check, thanks.
https://forum.dji.com/forum.php? ... 6orderby%3Ddateline

Post the flight log, as has been suggested.
Questions, how far away was it when the battery reached 60%?
At what percentage did it go for a swim?
What was the direction and strength of the prevailing wind?
How can it be "lost at sea" yet now in the owner ship of the Thames "The river thames now holds my drone that cannot be recovered."?

"....... but i am shocked how the software has failed and just left the drone stranded at sea, should it not be thinking, lets not try crossing the river if it cannot get over it ?". In order to prevent you from flying somewhere the drone would need to know where you intended to fly it. Outside of a way points flight how could the drone know where you intended it to go?

Hi All, is the below what you are looking for, to add context, my autistic son bought this drone with his disability allowance, he was flying and handed me the controller when it was all to late i.e it was screaming at him and landing in the sea.  I fully expect what happened was all our fault and i will pay the cost of the excess for replacement, this is purely a learning curve.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 10-15 06:50
Post the flight log, as has been suggested.
Questions, how far away was it when the battery reached 60%?
At what percentage did it go for a swim?

Hi Sean-bumble-bee,

You are correct, technically the river thames is not the sea and yes, even though it was going home, it could not have known i was not going to land it on a boat or something.   I have no idea about prevailing winds etc.

Me and my son are new to all of this and have learnt our lessons the hard way.

I ask my son why he did not turn back at first warning and he said, it had over 70% battery so he went a bit further basing it on turning back at 50% but he was well on his way back by that 50%, clearly that logic failed.     Thank you

Replay the flight on the Phantom Help web page and look at the artificial horizon.
On the outbound leg the drone was reaching 35mph + with virtually no tilt, to me that suggests the drone was flown down wind to a distance of 16,600ft.
Compare those tilts and speeds with the tilts and speeds of the homeward bound flight when the drone was flying up wind.
The summary is, I think the drone was flown too far down wind.
The return river crossing started at 19%, it would have been better to land the drone on dry land on the far shore rather than attempt that crossing.
Sorry, pilot error in my opinion.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 10-15 07:39
Replay the flight on the Phantom Help web page and look at the artificial horizon.
On the outbound leg the drone was reaching 35mph + with virtually no tilt, to me that suggests the drone was flown down wind to a distance of 16,600ft.
Compare those tilts and speeds with the tilts and speeds of the homeward bound flight when the drone was flying up wind.

Yes, i have already given my son as much talk as is possible about the logic that he used, unfortunately i was only handed the drone back when it was already doing a emergency landing in the river, so nothing could be done.  My only saving grace i suppose is the mistake with only cost us £220 instead of much more due to fly away cover.  I have also explained to him that that cover is one use, so if this happens again, cover will not be available.

Thank you Sean-bumble-bee

Fair enough, bear in mind I am not being nasty,  it is just that I think the facts are fairly evident in this case.
Any how .........
There probably is an "artificial horizon" available 'live' via the map box in the lower left corner on the screen device. If you don't know what the wind is like it is worth hovering the drone and checking that artificial horizon but, as a general rule, winds tend to get stronger as you gain height.
I tend to switch the gimbal to FPV mode and do a slow 360deg spin for the same reason but the artificial horizon in the app is probably better, my use  of FPV is habit.
Whether or not reducing the drone's height i.e. lowering the drone into slower wind, on the return leg would have saved enough battery to get across the river I don't know, sorry.
'Strictly' speaking the drone shouldn't be flown beyond the range of the pilot's eye sight.
For a mini sized drone I guess that's around 600m for most people.
You can set range limits in the app but they are easily changed.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 10-15 08:05
Fair enough, bear in mind I am not being nasty,  it is just that I think the facts are fairly evident in this case.
Any how .........
There probably is an "artificial horizon" available 'live' via the map box in the lower left corner on the screen device, it's worth hovering the drone and checking that if you don't know what the wind is like but as a general rule winds tend to get stronger as you gain height.

Thank you Sean-bumble-bee

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 10-15 08:05
Fair enough, bear in mind I am not being nasty,  it is just that I think the facts are fairly evident in this case.
Any how .........
There probably is an "artificial horizon" available 'live' via the map box in the lower left corner on the screen device. If you don't know what the wind is like it is worth hovering the drone and checking that but as a general rule winds tend to get stronger as you gain height. I tend to switch the gimbal to FPV mode and do a slow 360deg spin for the same reason but the asrtoficial horizon in the app is probably better, my use  of FPV is habit.Whether or not reducing the drone's height i.e. lowering the drone into slower wind, on the return leg would have saved enough battery to get across the river I don't know, sorry.

For a mini sized drone I guess that's around 600m for most people.

What special glasses du you wear ;-) do you mean feet or meter ?

Space Dream Posted at 10-15 09:05
For a mini sized drone I guess that's around 600m for most people.

What special glasses du you wear ;-) do you mean feet or meter ?

Reading glasses.
Against the correct background I have been able to see a Mavic Mini at around 600m, just.
However if I lose sight of it at that distance I can not find it again.
Younger eyes may be sharper than mine.

From a anaysis point of view interesting log!

Battery voltage dropped to  | #1 2.502 | #2 2.538 | volts, still flying !
With 6% battery, flying at -3 baro height, with full UP stick a cimb possible to  118 meter! (at that height ZERO % battery, really amazing)

Good example of battery consumption tail en head wind, see the distance flown from 90>80>70   and from 40>30>20.

cheers
JJB

Oh well, flying out with strong wind coming from the back, the classic setup. Usually you do this failure only once and have your lesson learned.

Thank you everyone for your help on this,  I beleive the upward thrust was when I was passed the control at the very end, not sure what I was thinking. maybe I thought I was pushing forward instead of up or maybe i was thinking, get it up high and may be it will glide home, who knows, total moment of panic and I am still facing flashbacks of the disaster a day after, does not help that it took a final 10 second shot of its demise into the river, I even went back today in some weird hope it was washed up on shore.

djiuser_kckWCyBAQAUu Posted at 10-15 07:39
Hi Sean-bumble-bee,

You are correct, technically the river thames is not the sea and yes, even though it was going home, it could not have known i was not going to land it on a boat or something.   I have no idea about prevailing winds etc.

Sorry about your wet drone. As a rule of thumb, it’s a good idea before you fly to check the local weather to see the wind direction and speed. Remember, wind usually increases with altitude and can change direction and speed, based on terrain. Good luck.

djiuser_kckWCyBAQAUu Posted at 10-15 07:11
Hi All, is the below what you are looking for, to add context, my autistic son bought this drone with his disability allowance, he was flying and handed me the controller when it was all to late i.e it was screaming at him and landing in the sea.  I fully expect what happened was all our fault and i will pay the cost of the excess for replacement, this is purely a learning curve, so please me nice

https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/0Z0PY4VFXMGJXUF6IJ4Y/

Genuine question... Are you aware of this?

https://register-drones.caa.co.uk/drone-code

There are laws which apply to drone flying in the UK and just based on distance flown away from operator your flight (son's flight) was illegal as it was WAY beyond the legally required visual line of sight.

So, from about two and a half minutes into the flight you (your son) were flying illegally right up until the moment the aircraft hit the water when it was still out of view.

I don't mean to sound preachy, but you really need to read up on the law and how drones operate BEFORE you pilot a drone.

The CAA link above Wil also take you to the Flyer ID registration pages. I fully recommend getting a flyer ID for both yourself and your son. While it's not a legal requirement for a sub 250g drone, the training will at least give you the very basics of the drone laws - and it's free!

No Original Thought Posted at 10-15 13:44
Genuine question... Are you aware of this?

https://register-drones.caa.co.uk/drone-code

Thank you for the information, i will of course check this out and adhere accordingly, as its a couple of times the line of site was mentioned

There is probably much more to this story!

TP-FPV Posted at 10-15 18:02
There is probably much more to this story!

No there isn't.

A new flyer, took off and flew with a strong tailwind, until the app initiated RTH.
He left the drone high up and hoped that RTH would bring it back against a stiff headwind ... and it wasn't able to.
There's nothing more to the story.
If you had looked at the flight data, you'd have seen everything there is to the story.

It’s clear these guys were not aware of the drone rules otherwise they would not have flown the drone ten times beyond visual line of sight. (I personally think VLOS is around 400 metres. If I’ve understood the thread correctly they flew their drone out to 4km. Yikes!!)

I recently sent back my feedback to the CAA as part of their consultation process. One of the things they are clearly considering is getting manufacturers to change drone software so that drones cannot be launched unless the drone pilot/operator is a) registered and b) has passed an exam. Whilst this won’t stop people from breaking the law, it will force drone pilots to be more aware of the rules. It looks like these guys bought their drone and went flying without first going any research or planning. Dad - that was poor supervision!

And as for the downwind flight - yes, a rookie mistake. But had they kept the drone within visual range they probably would have recovered it even from the downwind position.

Thank you all for your support, I have taken notice and am fully registered now after taking the exam.  Clearly a bit to late for the drone and a very expensive lesson learnt.  All I am hearing of my autistic son every 2 minutes is 'I am sorry, is their a way a can get another one'.  Even I am having issues sleeping, a bit weird over a drone, but true.

Thank you

Steph Jant Posted at 10-15 23:28
It’s clear these guys were not aware of the drone rules otherwise they would not have flown the drone ten times beyond visual line of sight. (I personally think VLOS is around 400 metres. If I’ve understood the thread correctly they flew their drone out to 4km. Yikes!!)

I recently sent back my feedback to the CAA as part of their consultation process. One of the things they are clearly considering is getting manufacturers to change drone software so that drones cannot be launched unless the drone pilot/operator is a) registered and b) has passed an exam. Whilst this won’t stop people from breaking the law, it will force drone pilots to be more aware of the rules. It looks like these guys bought their drone and went flying without first going any research or planning. Dad - that was poor supervision!

Guys lighten up a bit, I think they ( the OP/pilot and his Dad ) have got the message that mistakes were made.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 10-16 00:00
Guys lighten up a bit, I think they ( the OP and his Dad ) have got the message that mistakes were made.

Totally agree with you ⭐️

hard way to learn pilot 1st steps, but good overall, that only drone was lost and no other dmg to some1

djiuser_kckWCyBAQAUu Posted at 10-15 14:11
Thank you for the information, i will of course check this out and adhere accordingly, as its a couple of times the line of site was mentioned

Great response - all too often the responses here on the forum are that the rules are stupid and should be ignored.

And don't be too hard on yourself. You've acknowledged the mistakes made so I won't point those out again, however I think there is a problem with retailers and manufacturers here.

I'm betting that there was no prominent warming where you bought the drone, and there will have been no paperwork in the box, to alert you to the registration requirements and to.point you to the laws that apply.

For some.people that's an obvious thing to check, but others such as yourself simply don't even think about it.

I don't know if it's still the case, but when I last bought a TV in the UK I had to give my addresses for TV licensin my new TV is unlikely to fall from the sky any time soon, but they want to know I've bought itnso they can remind me about the required license if I don't have one. They could even go this far with drones, passing infonto the CAA to follow up.

Let's not blame DJI etc please, I wrote on the forum to seek help and received it.  I don't want this to be used as a case to bater DJI with and therfore bring further rules in to stop beginners enjoying drones.  I cannot actually remember if their was some paperwork about rules but then again, I probably might have ignored it as generally I am like a kid with a toy and rip open the box and start playing.  So it's all mine and my sons fault, no one else's.  I would rather have the post deleted than cause an incident that comes back on DJI.

Thank you

djiuser_kckWCyBAQAUu Posted at 10-16 00:32
Let's not blame DJI etc please, I wrote on the forum to seek help and received it.  I don't want this to be used as a case to bater DJI with and therfore bring further rules in to stop beginners enjoying drones.  I cannot actually remember if their was some paperwork about rules but then again, I probably might have ignored it as generally I am like a kid with a toy and rip open the box and start playing.  So it's all mine and my sons fault, no one else's.  I would rather have the post deleted than cause an incident that comes back on DJI.

Thank you

Hi,

Don`t worry, your post and some reactions will not fire back to DJI at all.

There are always members who act as moral rules law guys, even add pictures such as in post # 34.
Don`t get me wrong, it is good to mention about the rules, but imo don`t write in a pedantic and rejection manner.

Personally i think flying too high is absolute a nogo, flying outside line of sight is illegal too but not that risky, depending where you are flying. Even in my little crowded country i can fly 3km without flying over houses ect, yes i do fly sometimes not VLOS.
Public sharing such logs and videos not a very good idea, as the supervisory authority scans the web....

cheers
JJB

Stupid question, maybe, but has no one designed a life jacket for these drones that self inflates on hitting water.

No, I am not planning on a incident happening again etc but rescue seems to be the name if the game if like me, you have now lost your 1 time flyaway claim.  So a precautionary question.   I cannot be the only one in the world that has lost their drone into water.

djiuser_kckWCyBAQAUu Posted at 10-16 01:32
Stupid question, maybe, but has no one designed a life jacket for these drones that self inflates on hitting water.

No, I am not planning on a incident happening again etc but rescue seems to be the name if the game if like me, you have now lost your 1 time flyaway claim.  So a precautionary question.   I cannot be the only one in the world that has lost their drone into water.

You can buy floats for your drone....but be aware, such large floats make the drone more vulnerable to wind etc, hamper sensors ect.
Plus a drone floating on water becomes wet , drones don`t like (salt) water at all.

Just do a good pre flight planning, and land you drone at 20% battery, or fly close to homepoint with a low battery.

I fly alot over water, no problems whatsoever.

Happy many landings with your replacement drone!

cheers
JJB

some observations.

why the hell is the flight in "sport" mode ?

Going out in sport mode. coming back in sport mode with 0 understanding of the wind or conditions.

if you are going that sort of distance you want 100% wind on your side when coming back also the height at which this drone is flying.

this was a kamikaze flight . you gave the drone 0% chance to come back with all parameters stacked against you.

djiuser_kckWCyBAQAUu Posted at 10-16 01:32
Stupid question, maybe, but has no one designed a life jacket for these drones that self inflates on hitting water.

No, I am not planning on a incident happening again etc but rescue seems to be the name if the game if like me, you have now lost your 1 time flyaway claim.  So a precautionary question.   I cannot be the only one in the world that has lost their drone into water.

hahaha Is this "onion.com ?"

are you going to swim into Thames with tide going out and try to get that drone back.

I suggest you spend so time understanding the drone code. make a check list of conditions etc to make sure you fly in the "correct"  way.

this is one of the most "crazy" flights i ave ever seen. good that you posted as there is lot to learn here for new people.

djiuser_kckWCyBAQAUu Posted at 10-16 01:32
Stupid question, maybe, but has no one designed a life jacket for these drones that self inflates on hitting water.

No, I am not planning on a incident happening again etc but rescue seems to be the name if the game if like me, you have now lost your 1 time flyaway claim.  So a precautionary question.   I cannot be the only one in the world that has lost their drone into water.

It's not a stupid question, there are floats available but as JJB* has said, permanent floats increase the drone's sail area and make it more susceptible to wind. I recollect there is or perhaps was an inflatable one but I have no idea if it is still made.

That said and thinking about ONLY the water landing, I doubt they would have been of any help in this flight, I think you would have had to have been very lucky to find a floating or beached drone that came down there and was at the mercy of wind and tide etc.

Of course if you did find it it would save you the flyaway excess but you'd still almost certainly be looking at a care refresh excess, for a water damaged drone.
On the plus side, thinking about the head wind and "sail area", permanent floats might have prevented the drone reaching the river on the way back.

JJB* Posted at 10-16 01:53
You can buy floats for your drone....but be aware, such large floats make the drone more vulnerable to wind etc, hamper sensors ect.
Plus a drone floating on water becomes wet , drones don`t like (salt) water at all.

JJB* given that the drone remained airborne for an impressive 3 minutes 40 sec from the start of the auto landing do you think a combination of wind, throttle and commanded horizontal movement might have got it back to a dry landing on the far shore, approximately 2,300ft ?

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 10-16 02:58
JJB* given that the drone remained airborne for an impressive 3 minutes 40 sec from the start of the auto landing do you think a combination of wind, throttle and commanded horizontal movement might have got it back to a dry landing on the far shore, approximately 2,300ft ?

Interesting question!

FRAP cannot calculate distance to fly from zero battery to more zero....

If i set FRAP parameters to 10% usage battery to distance until zero battery than

• From 20% battery point distance to HP = 1876 meter.
• Calculated flyable distance to zero battery = 1311 meter (minus x meter due to battery output at < 10%)
  

Time beween 30 and 20% = 74 sec.
1% batt usage = 66 meter
Speed data form 20% battery = ~ 8 m/s
Craft at 0% battery stil 110 seconds in air.

In theory drone travels in 110s * 8 m/s = 880 meter ; in normal battery usage range
In theory drone travels in 110s * ~4 m/s = 440 meter ; batt < 10% and more < 5%  battery output is limited = less speed

  Thus at 0% battery still 1876-3111= 565 meter to go...      565 meter needed > 440 meter = Answer is NO

cheers
JJB

I think the above means that once I was handed back control, it was all to late, nothing I could have done to save the poor drone.

I am still in shock at the incident, the wife is taking the pee out of me, saying, 'I am not phoning the doctor asking for counciling. over a drone'

JJB* Posted at 10-16 03:49
Interesting question!

FRAP cannot calculate distance to fly from zero battery to more zero....

Ahhh as I understand your answer you are thinking I meant flying INTO the head wind to try to make it back to the home point.
I wasn't, I was thinking of flying DOWNWIND to the southern shore at approx
51.4503759758, 0.4449873805
i.e. back to where the drone was at 19%, 14:37.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 10-16 06:20
Ahhh as I understand your answer you are thinking I meant flying INTO the head wind to try to make it back to the home point.
I wasn't, I was thinking of flying DOWNWIND to the southern shore at approx
51.4503759758, 0.4449873805

you would have made it if you would have taken it back in the direction of wind and land on the bank of river or even in field somewhere  (my gut feel)

if you are having to use the sport mode to return back you know you are on the wrong side of wind.

if you would have landed and retrieved drone it would have been a safer option.