Seeking guidance regarding my eligibility for either the "Flyaway Warranty" or "Repair Service."

I've been flying and filming various nature and architectural scenes. During these flights, my drone maintained minimal altitude of approximately 6-7 meters above water or some trees. The first flight proceeded smoothly, but I encountered a connectivity issue when the drone was about 100 meters away from the remote control. Despite setting the home point and the drone successfully returning to it, it took less than 5 seconds for the signal to reconnect. This incident served as a warning, albeit not a significant one. Subsequently, I landed the drone, replaced the battery, and restarted both the controller and the aircraft. No errors were detected, so I initiated the second flight. Unfortunately, this flight proved to be the last. The drone took off normally, and I directed it towards the intended location. However, approximately 40 meters away from the controller and the shoreline(4-5 sec flight time) the drone began to descend rapidly (from approximately 6-7 meters to water level). Despite my attempts to regain control through the controller, the aircraft remained unresponsive and eventually collided with the water.

Efforts to retrieve the drone were futile as the water at the crash site is approximately 70 meters deep, leaving me unable to locate the drone.

I have DJI Care Express coverage, but I'm unsure if this situation falls within its scope, or if it would be covered by the standard warranty.  

(It's worth noting that obstacle avoidance was enabled, and I was filming in Normal mode.)

I've included links for both flights. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

First flight - Link to Airdata report for the first flight - https://app.airdata.com/share/tdNcrz

Second flight (Crash) - https://app.airdata.com/share/TosUyn

Suggest you contact DJI Support as they will be the ones best placed to advise you if you’re covered or not. For future reference, there have been lots of reports and posts over the years that these type of drones do not like flying close to water.

Hi,

Had a look at your second flightlog, the crash.

You started this flight with zero satellites, so your MINI4pro not in a GPS stabilized mode, bc of this max height set to 30 meter.Flying using the vision sensors.



At 11.5 secs in flight, flying at IR height of 11 meter, you push the stick down...so descending on RC input.
At 14.9 secs no more down RC input, now flying at 4.1 IR height.

At 15.8 you lost vision, so drone now in ATTI mode.
At 20 seconds drone decending, few times down input, no UP input to get some height!

Flying without a GPS lock is not a wise thing to do.

cheers
JJB   [ Charts by FRAP ; the 'best' software for data and visual flightlog analysis (www.jjbfrap.eu) ]

The express service is only if you are in a mad rush to get a drone back and you pay extra for the rush.

Since your drone can not be recovered you are looking at a "Flyaway" claim or a warranty request.
Your drone is, I believe, still under warranty and eligible.
I have not yet had a look at your logs.
However the Flyaway fee is quite espensive so I would be inclined to ask DJI to have a look at the flight logs and see whether or not this would be considered a warranty problem and therefore of no cost to you.  ( According to what JJB* has posted it looks like this is doubtful. )


If you wish DJI to look at your logs that I would also download, to your computer, the DAT logs that you may find in the floder named "MCDatFlightrecords". Hopefully you have not yet synced your logs with DJI, syncing may delete those DATs.

Steph Jant Posted at 3-10 12:21
Suggest you contact DJI Support as they will be the ones best placed to advise you if you’re covered or not. For future reference, there have been lots of reports and posts over the years that these type of drones do not like flying close to water.

Thanks, that's precisely what I plan to do first thing tomorrow. (It seems online support can't be reached this late on the weekend.) In the meantime, I've decided to create a post here because I just can't help but sit and wait for tomorrow. Regarding the height advice, I doubt I will ever fly above water

JJB* Posted at 3-10 12:25
Hi,

Had a look at your second flightlog, the crash.

"Hello, thank you for your time and response.

At 15.8, the vision was lost, causing the drone to switch to ATTI mode. This raises the question of what might have caused it. It's quite peculiar because I witnessed the aircraft colliding with water on my controller, and there was no vision loss indicated. (I also have a final clip from the aircraft that shows the same event.)"

At 20 seconds drone decending, few times down input, no UP input to get some height! - this event I'm not sure about, as I already mentioned I've witnessed drone hitting water on controller screen.

I  can share the clip from "Find my drone" if that helps.

Any ideas?  

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 3-10 12:26
The express service is only if you are in a mad rush to get a drone back and you pay extra for the rush.

Since your drone can not be recovered you are looking at a "Flyaway" claim or a warranty request.

Thanks a lot, I'll try to do this right away.

Hi

Your first flight, many pilot mistake made.

Started with 5 sateliites and zer for GPS quality.
Check next times the Top right icon on the fly app.
RED = not enough sats for GPS lock
YELLOW = enough sats fro GPS lock, but not enough for HomePoint to be set.
WHITE =  enough sats fro GPS lock, HomePoint was set.

At 19.2 secs in flight a WHITE icon, HP set....but not at your take-off position but at sea approx 132 away....
At 5m11s no connection for 11.seconds, your drone in a RTH   to HP   (not to you !)

Happily you managed to get your drone back home

cheers
JJB

Norwayaposs pilot Posted at 3-10 12:36
"Hello, thank you for your time and response.

At 15.8, the vision was lost, causing the drone to switch to ATTI mode. This raises the question of what might have caused it. It's quite peculiar because I witnessed the aircraft colliding with water on my controller, and there was no vision loss indicated. (I also have a final clip from the aircraft that shows the same event.)"

Hi,

Vision needs good reference to the surroundings, good lightning and ocourse flying within vision range.
Flying above water at 11 meter.....often not enough reference.
No vision and no gps = ATTI mode.When ATTI mode become active a warning is on the screen (plus audio)
Warning : "GPS signal weak. Switched to Attitude mode. Aircraft unable to hover. Fly with caution"

Vision is the drone vision system, it is not the camera view on your FlyApp screen.

Guess it went all so quickly, last part data i god data, pitch and roll data and speed shows normal flying data.

cheers
JJB

JJB* Posted at 3-10 12:50
Hi,

Vision needs good reference to the surroundings, good lightning and ocourse flying within vision range.

Thank you very much for your feedback.

I'm wondering why the signal was lost in the first place. During the initial flight, the distance was only around 100 meters, so it shouldn't have been an issue with distance.

Regarding the 'Home' topic, sometimes I set it up in an open area rather than where I actually start the flight. This is because I do hand start/land, and the 'home' spot can be quite rocky. In this particular case, if my HP would be where I stand, aircraft would hit a tree 100% cause they were in the way.  
However, it can be just a rookie mistake though.

I'll contact the DJI support team tomorrow to get guidance on my next actions. In the meantime, I'll investigate the 'no vision' error to understand what it is.

Norwayaposs pilot Posted at 3-10 13:11
Thank you very much for your feedback.

I'm wondering why the signal was lost in the first place. During the initial flight, the distance was only around 100 meters, so it shouldn't have been an issue with distance.

oke, well suggest you put your HP above land and not above water.
if your drone does not connect it will land at HP, better search on land than go for a swim.

but HP above you at rocky area, not problem    once it get in the landing above HP, cancel the autolanding and land manually in your hand.
And wait for a GPS lock !  if you cannot wait to fly....once HP is set in flight, update HP to the controller position.
cheers
JJB

JJB* Posted at 3-10 13:16
oke, well suggest you put your HP above land and not above water.
if your drone does not connect it will land at HP, better search on land than go for a swim.

Yeah, water was a bit cold today for my taste.

JJB* Posted at 3-10 13:16
oke, well suggest you put your HP above land and not above water.
if your drone does not connect it will land at HP, better search on land than go for a swim.

Also, while we are on the "drowning" topic.
Is there a slight chance of dron not dawning but floating on the water? in case of 249g Mini for example?

Norwayaposs pilot Posted at 3-10 13:18
Also, while we are on the "drowning" topic.
Is there a slight chance of dron not dawning but floating on the water? in case of 249g Mini for example?

No chance .. drones don't float.

Despite my attempts to regain control through the controller, the aircraft remained unresponsive and eventually collided with the water.
Your flight data doesn't show any attempt to stop the drone descending.
You didn't push the left stick up (which might have raised the drone), while it went down.

What were the weather conditions for the flight?

Labroides Posted at 3-10 14:39
No chance .. drones don't float.

Despite my attempts to regain control through the controller, the aircraft remained unresponsive and eventually collided with the water.

What were the weather conditions for the flight?

Nothing to special, small wind around 2-3m/sec, around 3PM so quite enough sunlight.

Norwayaposs pilot Posted at 3-10 14:44
What were the weather conditions for the flight?

Nothing to special, small wind around 2-3m/sec, around 3PM so quite enough sunlight.

I was wondering if the conditions might have been suitable to cause propeller icing?
Close to 0°C, moist air, maybe fog ??

Labroides Posted at 3-10 15:12
I was wondering if the conditions might have been suitable to cause propeller icing?
Close to 0°C, moist air, maybe fog ??

it was around 2-3 C. Air, hm, air is always moist here in Norway but nothing outstanding I guess

Norwayaposs pilot Posted at 3-10 15:14
it was around 2-3 C. Air, hm, air is always moist here in Norway but nothing outstanding I guess

Sounds like prop icing conditions.
That might explain the drone failing to hold altitude.
It's unfortunate that you didn't try to make it climb.

Sorry to learn about the crash. If retrieval is impossible to proceed and the drone is within the warranty period, data analysis can be performed and a flyaway case is suggested. Please find this link in filing the case. Should you encountered issues, you may contact our Product Support team to help you with arranging/create a case for you.

If you decide to use the flyaway replacement service, accident flight records need to be provided, and a DJI Care Flyaway Aircraft Report should be produced as a certificate for the replacement service. Data analysis will not be performed during the replacement service process.

After a DJI Care Flyaway Aircraft Report is produced, the flyaway aircraft will be restricted from use. If the aircraft is found before paying the service fee, you can contact DJI to cancel the DJI Care Flyaway Aircraft Report, and then your product can be used normally again. If you have already paid the service fee, the ownership of your original product will be transferred to DJI as a certificate of the replacement service and the DJI Care Flyaway Aircraft Report cannot be cancelled.