So this am I was flying the mavic down the river having initially put it at the right height above the trees.

I then enabled tap to fly and after a minute or so it started to quickly descend hitting a branch and crashing into the water. On the GPS Map it looks like its at the edge of the water about 1-2 metre away from the bank.

What do you think my chances are of finding it in the water or would the current have taken it further downstream now and I'm also wondering how accurate the gps position would be too.

Chances of finding it depend on how close you can get to where it dropped in and how fast the water was running.  Only one way to know for sure and that's go on a search mission. GPS should be pretty accurate and if you had video feed caching onto your device you should have a pretty good idea of where it dropped in. I dropped a P3A into a big stream a couple of months ago and found it easy enough. Dried it out and still flying it. But I got it out quickly and it was very clean and clear water. Good luck!

Snorkel gear and or a go pro with waterproof housing on a painters pole streaming video to your phone may help. Waterproof flashlight.

I've seen videos of guys crashing them in rivers, retreaving them days later and putting the Mavic in a hug bucket of rice for a few days and it worked fine.

If there is current where it crashed obviously start your search in the area of the crash and follow the current. Also look above the area that the gps says it crashed due to possible error. Do at least a 20 feet radius search. Move down stream and continue again. When you decide to end the search move back to the start location and search one more time with that 20 foot radius.

I hope you find it buddy! Keep us updated!

Cheers, had a long look along the river and no luck so far I'm 50/50 thinking its either at the bottom or the current has taken it along perhaps.

The water is quite brown so the idea of the go pro, pole and flashlight which might help to find it only problem is I wouldn't be able to get all that until tomorrow now.

I pulled of the flight log see the image attached its my own stupid fault I didn't realise tap to fly also descends as it started off with enough height.

Flight Log - Shot

I'm sorry you lost your Mavic. If the water is pretty muddy / murky then there's no point in getting a camera or even using a mask: you'd most likely have to locate it by touch. If you do manage to locate it, there's a possibility that it might still work after being dried out, but it seems that people have had mixed results in situations like this.

DroneFlying Posted at 2017-2-17 06:48
I'm sorry you lost your Mavic. If the water is pretty muddy / murky then there's no point in getting a camera or even using a mask: you'd most likely have to locate it by touch. If you do manage to locate it, there's a possibility that it might still work after being dried out, but it seems that people have had mixed results in situations like this.

Yeah thats one of my doubts and reasons for not jumping fully into the river I did stand in at the side which was about half a meter deep then theres a huge drop off.

Currently talking to our home insurance providers to see if its covered, also reached out to DJi I know its not covered by them but interested to know if I can order a drone without batteries etc to make the new purchase cheaper.

Failing all the above I'll sell the old controller on eBay and a battery they seem to fetch £300 - £400 which I can put towards a new one.

Super gutted with this mornings activities total user error, and I had some cracking footage prior to the crash.

"huge drop off" sounds dangerous. Dont jump in the river its not worth it.
Yeah you feel super gutted but take it easy on yourself, mistakes do happen.

greenwire Posted at 2017-2-17 07:33
"huge drop off" sounds dangerous. Dont jump in the river its not worth it.
Yeah you feel super gutted but take it easy on yourself, mistakes do happen.

Yup onwards and upwards, going to look into an additional external GPS tracker for the next one if such a thing exists

Put a shout out on facebook local page if there is one,  asking if there is a diver in town for hire ???  i would gather a group of friends and go in off a rope and harness if i were in the same position.  but i have grown up with rivers and floods , dont go in or only go in if you fully understand the forces involved, a 8 - 10mph flow can put a huge strain on your body when harnessed, like having two or three people sit on you.

Sounds very dangerous with that drop off. I should have given you a warning with my recommendation of using the snorkel gear and for that I apologize! Glad there were others on here with the smarts to do so!

Just a quick update we went back down to the river yesterday and used a grappling cook with rope to drag parts of the river, after about an hour nothing turned up so putting it down to a total loss now.

The idea with the go pro was also good we threw that in a few times and filmed the footage to see if anything came up too.

Still waiting on the insurance company to see if I'm covered the initial query seems to indicate I am covered but in the meantime ordered a 2nd Mavic, next time I won't be so stupid to fly it so close to trees with a new mode enabled.

Thanks for the help everyone

How deep and wide is the river? There are metal trackers, which people use as a hobby to look for antique coins or buried pieces. Some can be used inside the water.

monkeyblue Posted at 2017-2-17 07:13
Yeah thats one of my doubts and reasons for not jumping fully into the river I did stand in at the side which was about half a meter deep then theres a huge drop off.

Currently talking to our home insurance providers to see if its covered, also reached out to DJi I know its not covered by them but interested to know if I can order a drone without batteries etc to make the new purchase cheaper.

You've lost your Mavic you don't want to loose anything else, you can buy a drone but it will cost you $899, a bit steep, I would try to plead your case with dji, they may give you a discount, it can't hurt to try.

Good luck..