So if you find yourself in a situation when kosing control of your drone . What step should you tryout and in what order before panic.

Also are there any dont that should be listed.

For example restsrt of DJI GO  ?

Sportmode ?

Turn of gps mode ? What does that mean ?

Sys warning ?

Yes the list goes on and it would be great to get some best pro tips on this and how to react.

Also are there any dont that should be listed.

Yes. The title of this thread is, "When to Panic?" and the answer is "never". In fact, staying calm is one of the more useful things you can do. One thing that helps with that is preparation, as in identifying the most likely scenarios and being ready to handle them. That seems to be what you're trying to do here so good for you.

For example restsrt of DJI GO ?

This is unlikely to help anything so it's not something I'd recommend. Even if the GO application stops working you still have control of the aircraft through the remote, and restarting the GO app is only going to be a distraction you don't need.

Sportmode ?

This might help in some circumstances, such as if you're executing a Litchi waypoint mission or fighting a strong wind (see below), but in general it's not going to be a solution if you're "losing control".

Turn of gps mode ? What does that mean ?

I don't know; where did you hear that from? Are you maybe thinking of / referring to the ATTI mode available on DJI's Phantoms? Because if so, it's provided by DJI with the Mavic.

Sys warning ?

I don't understand that one either.

Situations where you truly lose control of the Mavic are very rare. Possibly the most common one where that seems to happen is what I call BATTI mode, which can be triggered by taking off from a geomagnetically distorted location such as near steel or other ferrous metal. When that happens the Mavic seems to have something of a mind of its own, but the effect is only temporary and if you gain enough altitude to avoid crashing into anything it'll eventually recover and fly normally. So the best thing to do in that situation is gain altitude and try your best to negate the effects of BATTI.

Another common scenario is insufficient power to make it home, and the best thing to do in that situation is what pilots of "real" aircraft are trained to do: look for a good place to land that's close enough to reach. Granted, if you're flying over water there may not be a location where you won't lose the aircraft, but you can sometimes increase speed by reducing your altitude and, depending on how strong the wind is, you may be better off in Sport mode.

Hi and thanks for the reply .
I had my drone fly away and the message was sys warning , connection lost and something with gps etc change mode to no gps mode. I might be wrong since it happend so fast

I just felt that I had no clue or prep on what to do.

fansb8b222f3 Posted at 2017-9-9 13:26
Hi and thanks for the reply .
I had my drone fly away and the message was sys warning , connection lost and something with gps etc change mode to no gps mode. I might be wrong since it happend so fast

Ah, yes, I see that you mentioned that in this thread and were asked to provide the flight log but so far it hasn't been made available. The log they're talking about is a TXT file stored on your mobile device. The instructions for uploading it are here and once you've uploaded it to PhantomHelp you'll need to provide a link to it in this thread and / or the other one.

An even more useful file is the DAT file on the Mavic itself, but if -- as I'm guessing is the case -- you're using the latest (.1000) firmware it won't be available.

fansb8b222f3 Posted at 2017-9-9 13:27
I just felt that I had no clue or prep on what to do.

Provide a link to the flight log uploaded to PhantomHelp and I'll take a look at it and may be able to offer some additional insight into what happened.

Never, b/c then your def in trouble. Before heading into panic mode, get focused and quickly get out of the danger zone.

Sportbike_Pilot Posted at 2017-9-9 13:38
Never, b/c then your def in trouble. Before heading into panic mode, get focused and quickly get out of the danger zone.

That is an excellent point!
Panic mode is definitely missing on the Mavic's RC.
I hope DJI is reading this...

DroneFlying Posted at 2017-9-9 13:28
Ah, yes, I see that you mentioned that in this thread and were asked to provide the flight log but so far it hasn't been made available. The log they're talking about is a TXT file stored on your mobile device. The instructions for uploading it are here and once you've uploaded it to PhantomHelp you'll need to provide a link to it in this thread and / or the other one.

An even more useful file is the DAT file on the Mavic itself, but if -- as I'm guessing is the case -- you're using the latest (.1000) firmware it won't be available.

Flight Data is available under FW .1000 version:


-----------
When you start DJI Assistant 2 (version 1.1.6) and select your MP, you will get an error message about the SD-Card in the MP, ignore this message...

You can find your flight data under "data upload". Only flight data since your update to FW .1000 can be found there. You can select them and safe them local.

When you then go to "flight data" you will get  the same error message about the SD-Card, ignore it again... open "Data viewer" and open one of the saved DAT-files... Don't know how "Data viewer" works, so I don't get any data on the screen. But when I open the same saved DAT-file wit CSVview I can view my flight data.
------

fansb8b222f3 Posted at 2017-9-9 13:27
I just felt that I had no clue or prep on what to do.

I've replied your previous thread, please provide me with your ticket number or case number so I can look into it.

MARSAN Posted at 2017-9-9 13:55
That is an excellent point!
Panic mode is definitely missing on the Mavic's RC.
I hope DJI is reading this...

The panic button is there. It's the pause button on the RC.  Has worked in many case for me including dubious RTH.

Of course, if the connection is lost between the RC and the Mavic, there is nothing much you can do at the moment. However you should review your RTH settings before each flight.

"The panic button is there. It's the pause button on the RC... "

I completely forgot about that button! Nice tip, thnx!

ars.fabula Posted at 2017-9-9 22:04
The panic button is there. It's the pause button on the RC.  Has worked in many case for me including dubious RTH.

Of course, if the connection is lost between the RC and the Mavic, there is nothing much you can do at the moment. However you should review your RTH settings before each flight.

I had an intelligent "Panic Mode" in mind, which would be a bit more involved than the RTH or Pause button.
Panic Mode could gather all the info from the aircraft, like height, speed, position from HP, flight mode, obstacles, possible flyaway and then take a decision for the pilot displaying feedback on the screen.

Whats does b/c stand for ?

Thats actually a great idea ! To have a panic configuration tied to RTH key, but would require 5 quick taps or equal that could have a series of tests to take control of aircraft . I see if I can find the log file to upload. Is there one for each flight recorded ?

I was using the iPad , Im guessing that where I find the file... trough ITunes then

fansb8b222f3 Posted at 2017-9-9 13:26
Hi and thanks for the reply .
I had my drone fly away and the message was sys warning , connection lost and something with gps etc change mode to no gps mode. I might be wrong since it happend so fast

That's sad to hear fella. I have had the 'connection lost' message a few times and I have actually restarted the GO 4 App and that did fix it.  The connection wasn't actually lost, but the video feed was, and it's easy to think you've lost control of the Mavic when you haven't.
You may have seen my 'air crash investigation' video on youtube about how Panic Mode kicked in and made me completely stuff up over Dover. I lost it and as far as I know, it's still down there somewhere in the scrubland under the White Cliffs...  Panic makes you do stupid things, so I try and avoid that now

Cheers,
Ian

https://www.youtube.com/IaninLondon

first thing: never panic, at all..  period.  panicking will be the cause of accident, keeping a a level head and cool about you will help you the most.  like imagine racing a car on a track and the rear starts sliding out, if you panic you will lose it and spin out or over correct, if you keep your cool, maintain it and slowly pull it back in you got it and look good doing it.   same logic here, if sh**t hits the fan, keeping cool is the key you likely regain control and reel it back in manually..

secondly, some general questions: did you calibrate IMUs/Gyro/Compass at all?    did you set RTH height to be above the tallest tree/buildings/structures that you would been around?  what was the weather conditions? pleasant outside or was it windy and rainy?

i have had a really bad experience with my first DJi Spark.. i will just say sometimes pause button did me no good during a few fly aways i had.  RC was connected with green LED and pause did nothing.. app kept crashing out or disconnecting..so that was no good to me..  nothing i could do but it let it crash sometimes (which sucks).  

Before take off you should mitigate all potential risks. As in:
1. Return to home point and altitude are set
2. Your return will not hit any trees or other obstacles
3. You have a good GPS signal
4. your compass and IMU are calibrated
5. the area you are flying is safe and legal

There are plenty of pre flight checks on this form all of which help reduce risk, thus reducing the need to panic because if something does go wrong the drone should safely return to home without a scratch because you were prepared.

fansb8b222f3 Posted at 2017-9-10 06:27
Whats does b/c stand for ?

"Because".

Will you be uploading the flight log?

Brian88 Posted at 2017-9-10 10:40
Before take off you should mitigate all potential risks. As in:
1. Return to home point and altitude are set
2. Your return will not hit any trees or other obstacles

you shouldnt calibrate the compass and IMUs unless you have confirmed nothing externally interfering with the drone and it still asking for a recalibration..   things that can externally impact drone can be underground wiring, undergrounding piping, reinforced concrete structures. aerial power lines. and large metal structures like bridges and heavy machinery, trains, etc.

  like the parking garage i took off from once the compass was soo unhappy... but once in the air away from it all it cleared up..  does same if i place my mavic pro on hood of my car, roof of my car, front of my ATV, or im taking off from a bridge, or.. my laptop will through the compass backwards completely..

Here an image from the setting I was flying on right before. Abit cloudy. No extreme weather. Havnt had access to my computer yet with to get hold of flight log.

The Mavic fly away got to be over the forest you see in the picture. So i was only left with on screen , system warning etc . But could see trough camera feed.

I wish it would be more accesible to get hold of the flight log files. Right from the IPad to dropbox or similar.

ars.fabula Posted at 2017-9-9 22:04
The panic button is there. It's the pause button on the RC.  Has worked in many case for me including dubious RTH.

Of course, if the connection is lost between the RC and the Mavic, there is nothing much you can do at the moment. However you should review your RTH settings before each flight.

I have a lot to learn!

One thing I dont understand, when link is broken btw rc and drone. Doesnt the drone still communicate with satelites ? Meaning , if connection is lost the RTH should kick in ? Also I would be fine with a requirement of having a home point set close to pilot (radius/height) before beeing able to take of

fansb8b222f3 Posted at 2017-9-10 15:10
Here an image from the setting I was flying on right before. Abit cloudy. No extreme weather. Havnt had access to my computer yet with to get hold of flight log.

could be anything, have to see the logs to know.  

Yes understand sorry, will try to get hold of it tomorrow evening.

I went over a distance of 16,000 feet today lost video feed and weak signal for about 6 secs...I DID NOT PANIC ! a bit anxious yes but knew RTH was still functioning so let the app/electronics do their job. Video screen came back up and it sure was returning home.

Wellsi Posted at 2017-9-10 09:45
That's sad to hear fella. I have had the 'connection lost' message a few times and I have actually restarted the GO 4 App and that did fix it.  The connection wasn't actually lost, but the video feed was, and it's easy to think you've lost control of the Mavic when you haven't.
You may have seen my 'air crash investigation' video on youtube about how Panic Mode kicked in and made me completely stuff up over Dover. I lost it and as far as I know, it's still down there somewhere in the scrubland under the White Cliffs...  Panic makes you do stupid things, so I try and avoid that now  

"Panic makes you do stupid things, so I try and avoid that now"

Precisely, that's why I allowed the electronics do what they're supposed to do.

Sportbike_Pilot Posted at 2017-9-10 15:44
I went over a distance of 16,000 feet today lost video feed and weak signal for about 6 secs...I DID NOT PANIC ! a bit anxious yes but knew RTH was still functioning so let the app/electronics do their job. Video screen came back up and it sure was returning home.

nice!.   i got over 15,000 feet today... around 3 miles over a populated area.. an area that normally i'm seeing about 1.5 - 2 miles out of occusync.  i noticed when i sat down on the step out front of the building i was flying from and hand antennas angled 45 degrees down on sidewalk it improved my signal, this was a first for me because reflection off things never helped unless it was over open water.  

i would love to understand more about how RF works in these scenarios.. but all of my studying has lead me to come to a conclusion its magic..

In the Phantom vision 2 days we could only get approximately 2km max.
If I was blind - no telemetry or video feed, i would blindly ascend and trigger RTH.
In a last ditch effort, i would turn off the controller and put my hands together and pray.
DJI's devices are designed with redundancy for the aircraft to return if the controller battery dies or turned off or the device doesnt get any input for 20 seconds or so.
It's bit different these days with the Mavic capable of 7km range. I dont think i would the courage to turn the controller off and wait.

QuanthonyTrang Posted at 2017-9-10 16:14
In the Phantom vision 2 days we could only get approximately 2km max.
If I was blind - no telemetry or video feed, i would blindly ascend and trigger RTH.
In a last ditch effort, i would turn off the controller and put my hands together and pray.

i wouldn't recommend turning controller off..  few reasons why. i sometimes noticed that controller still has link when the app does not.  not sure why there sometimes that glitch or how it happens.  so always check the RC to see if if has link, if so you can maybe fly it blind back or hit RTH after ascending while reconnecting the app and cable..

the other reason i dont recommend it is because at some point the aircraft will come back in range if it is truly broken connection and failsafe RTH engages.   personally once i regain connection i let it get closer, give it 30 seconds then i take over, i treat RTH as a fail safe not as a luxury to rely on.  plus it is good practice learning how to bring her back in safely and handle it all yourself.

bigger reason why is because i believe it is illegal or should be semi illegal to not be at the ready to control it during a fail safe event for when it does come in range again so you can prevent crashes or damages.  

final reason is common sense, you want to take control when and if you can, no matter how smart the drone maybe, some stuff still requires human intervention and prevention.  

Ok so to summarize this:
When connection lost, stay calm
Try RTH to start with. If nothing happend or you wont get a confirmed RTH , then continue with abort mission if its on a mission.
If nothing happends try to manually steer the drone to see if you get any respond. If no respons try to quickly reposition to get better signal and repeat RTH command.
Or if battery is low try to guide the drone to a safe landning site closeby. Like an empty open field or equally. Would that be correct to asume ?

OK, drumrolls...
Here are the flightlogs

this shows only part of the runaway... I was flying on the big empty area to the right

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/2E48Z7CTXPYXXWXKJMLC/

this seem to include more of the flight

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/704O4TCA2CXE2JW0O9LS/

Here is the .dat files for the flight if needed

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/aqru5 ... dO-mmS3yYFY4Ha?dl=0

image provided shows area to be mission mapped using GSP

During mission I needed to swap battery, and when hitting resume mission the drone went in the correct direction but never stopped and I had no control of it until the last bit

Everyone panics at sometime or other, don't worry about it, if you have gps just let go of sticks and take a breath before deciding what to do, loss of video you still have control it's why it's important to be within VLOS, particularly when your new to flying.

Pre flight checks are always a good idea, to make sure AC is working properly and ready to fly, I'll leave a good exercise below for you to try it will also give you some confidence in your AC..

Tip To Help Avoid compass interference and crash.


1/ Never calibrate Compass unless prompted to.

2/ start AC leave until you receive enough gps lock ,

3/ if you get Compass interference turn off AC and move to another location,
without interference.

4/ In bottom left hand corner on your map you will see small red triangle, check to make sure that this triangle is pointing in the same direction (heading) as your AC, this will show good compass on the ground.

Raise AC to height of 8ft
Hover for 20 seconds
Fly forward 2ft
Backward 2ft
Left 2ft
Right 2ft
Up 2ft
Down 2ft
Yaw left
Yaw right
Each time returning to hover position
If you have a good horizontal each time, you will then know you have good GPS good IMU and good Compass, and your ready to fly.

This exercise takes less than 2 minutes and is worthwhile doing before every flight,

ImHereToCrash Posted at 2017-9-10 15:56
nice!.   i got over 15,000 feet today... around 3 miles over a populated area.. an area that normally i'm seeing about 1.5 - 2 miles out of occusync.  i noticed when i sat down on the step out front of the building i was flying from and hand antennas angled 45 degrees down on sidewalk it improved my signal, this was a first for me because reflection off things never helped unless it was over open water.  

i would love to understand more about how RF works in these scenarios.. but all of my studying has lead me to come to a conclusion its magic..

"hand antennas angled 45 degrees down on sidewalk it improved my signal, this was a first for me because reflection off things never helped unless it was over open water."


Wow I'd say anything over 15k is pretty impressive for this copter to travel. Yeah I did the same upon loosing signal. Adjusted RC/attennas and it regain connected but again after 6-7 secs of so.  

Again, when you don't






You can potentially make better decisions !