I have posted a thread with similar content in the Chinese DJI Forum http://bbs.dji.com/thread-155680-1-1.html , but I think my stories is worth sharing. So I tried to tranlate it and post one here.

The first pic below was the last pic shot by my Mavic, after that I lost him over the sea.

  

1.    It was planned as a conservative flight, I make him start return home when he still had 70% battery, but out of my expectation, even in sport mode, the speed was only around 2-3km/h, he was flying against the strong wind I guess.

  

  

2.    The battery runs very quickly, after 30 seconds, I determined my Mavic was not able to return home with the strong wind and reminding battery, what made it worse is he was over the sea. I was extreme nervous at that moment.  What I do is  I turned him, find a direction to the closest land (not against the wind) flying towards it, so at least it can land on the ground.

  

  

3.    But auto return home appeared, cancel, auto return, cancel, auto return, (cancel) command time out (I don’t know what it means), (cancel) command time out.  Also the weak signal warning appeared, I can barely control it. This process ate lots of battery volume.  

  

  

4.    The last signal, 8% battery, 23 meter, descending, still over the sea, only 100m to the land. I lost him forever.

My feeling was like Tom Hanks in the movie Cast Away when he lost Wilson.

  

  

I am sorry! Mavic! I am sorry.  At least you were not steal from me, at least I didn’t lost you because I forget to bring you with me, at least you  die flying, at least you die like a drone!

I also come up with some suggestion for other pilots and for DJI, I will just briefly deliver it (very detail is in the Chinese version)

For other pilots:

1.       Fly with extreme caution when over sea, you cannot get it back when the system force landing.

2.       Observe the wind, guess how strong the wind by the data showed on DJI GO app ( like the relation between engine percentage and  velocity).

For DJI:

1.       Provide different levels of high wind warning. Almost every flight before the accident I got High wind velocity warning, I just don’t pay attention to it anymore. If it can set level-1 warning, level-2 warning , level-3 warning, the accident might be prevented.

2.       The return home time should also take wind factor in consideration.

3.       The customer service needs improvement. I don’t how is the English customer service, but the Chinese one is pretty bad and make me sick, emotionless , not negotiable. After the phone call , I have an even worse feeling.

                     

As a Chinese, I was so proud of DJI. I thought one day people might not make fun, make jokes about “Made in China” anymore  because of DJI. But it turns out maybe not. I am disappointed. I am shamed about what happened on my drone! Is it worth $1000, maybe yes, maybe not...

I have posted a thread with similar content in the Chinese DJI Forum http://bbs.dji.com/thread-155680-1-1.html , but I think my stories is worth sharing. So I tried to tranlate it and post one here.

The first pic below was the last pic shot by my Mavic, after that I lost him over the sea.

1.    It was planned as a conservative flight, I make him start return home when he still had 70% battery, but out of my expectation, even in sport mode, the speed was only around 2-3km/h, he was flying against the strong wind I guess.

2.    The battery runs very quickly, after 30 seconds, I determined my Mavic was not able to return home with the strong wind and reminding battery, what made it worse is he was over the sea. I was extreme nervous at that moment.  What I do is  I turned him, find a direction to the closest land (not against the wind) flying towards it, so at least it can land on the ground.

3.    But auto return home appeared, cancel, auto return, cancel, auto return, (cancel) command time out (I don’t know what it means), (cancel) command time out.  Also the weak signal warning appeared, I can barely control it. This process ate lots of battery volume.  

4.    The last signal, 8% battery, 23 meter, descending, still over the sea, only 100m to the land. I lost him forever.

My feeling was like Tom Hanks in the movie Cast Away when he lost Wilson.

I am sorry! Mavic! I am sorry.  At least you were not steal from me, at least I didn’t lost you because I forget to bring you with me, at least you  die flying, at least you die like a drone!

I also come up with some suggestion for other pilots and for DJI, I will just briefly deliver it (very detail is in the Chinese version)

For other pilots:

1.       Fly with extreme caution when over sea, you cannot get it back when the system force landing.

2.       Observe the wind, guess how strong the wind by the data showed on DJI GO app ( like the relation between engine percentage and  velocity).

For DJI:

1.       Provide different levels of high wind warning. Almost every flight before the accident I got High wind velocity warning, I just don’t pay attention to it anymore. If it can set level-1 warning, level-2 warning , level-3 warning, the accident might be prevented.

2.       The return home time should also take wind factor in consideration.

3.       The customer service needs improvement. I don’t how is the English customer service, but the Chinese one is pretty bad and make me sick, emotionless , not negotiable. After the phone call , I have an even worse feeling.

As a Chinese, I was so proud of DJI. I thought one day people might not make fun, make jokes about “Made in China” anymore  because of DJI. But it turns out maybe not. I am disappointed. I am shamed about what happened on my drone! Is it worth $1000, maybe yes, maybe not...

Sorry to hear that, Peter! I've also had some anxious moments trying to return home against the wind. These days I try to make sure the home point is downwind from my flight path so the wind helps rather than hinders. Sorry also to hear about the customer service experience. Hope you have insurance coverage. ;(

Ex Machina Posted at 2017-10-17 10:47
Sorry to hear that, Peter! I've also had some anxious moments trying to return home against the wind. These days I try to make sure the home point is downwind from my flight path so the wind helps rather than hinders. Sorry also to hear about the customer service experience. Hope you have insurance coverage. ;(

Thanks Machina!  I am happy to hear some reply.
Unlike US, we usually don't have insurance on everything. The best DJI offer is give me 15% discount to buy a new one. But my fund is not enough T^T. Maybe hardworking for another year.

Take care of the wind when flying！

Peter_XU Posted at 2017-10-17 11:01
Thanks Machina!  I am happy to hear some reply.
Unlike US, we usually don't have insurance on everything. The best DJI offer is give me 15% discount to buy a new one. But my fund is not enough T^T. Maybe hardworking for another year.

even in sport mode, the speed was only around 2-3km/h, he was flying against the strong wind I guess.

Based on the photo / screen shot you provided it looks like you may have been flying pretty high for at least part of the time. For future reference, wind speeds are often much lower closer to the ground (or water), so if you find yourself in a similar situation and can still maintain your connection to the aircraft you should try losing some altitude before flying back.

DroneFlying Posted at 2017-10-17 11:08
even in sport mode, the speed was only around 2-3km/h, he was flying against the strong wind I guess.

Based on the photo / screen shot you provided it looks like you may have been flying pretty high for at least part of the time. For future reference, wind speeds are often much lower closer to the ground (or water), so if you find yourself in a similar situation and can still maintain your connection to the aircraft you should try losing some altitude before flying back.

Yes, that's true, it was pretty high at some moment. It is a good advice. When I have a new drone(crying...) I will try.

Just to mention, at that moment, the battery was burning, my mind was thinking if I descend him then return, I might not have enough (battery) time .

That last picture cracked me up!
Sure, it may be made in china but DJI is still at the top of the food chain as far as user-friendly drones go.

Doots Posted at 2017-10-17 11:18
That last picture cracked me up!
Sure, it may be made in china but DJI is still at the top of the food chain as far as user-friendly drones go.

I love the movie

Yeah, I am still pound of DJI, but not as much as before.

DroneFlying Posted at 2017-10-17 11:08
even in sport mode, the speed was only around 2-3km/h, he was flying against the strong wind I guess.

Based on the photo / screen shot you provided it looks like you may have been flying pretty high for at least part of the time. For future reference, wind speeds are often much lower closer to the ground (or water), so if you find yourself in a similar situation and can still maintain your connection to the aircraft you should try losing some altitude before flying back.

DroneFlying's advice is spot-on.  I just returned from some beach flying and I can attest that ocean winds can be unpredictable and are much better at lower altitudes. In my recent experience, I had some extreme cross winds at 300 ft that were moving the AC down the beach faster than closer home.  Lowering the altitude to 50 ft made all the difference.  I chose not to switch to sport mode due to the higher battery consumption.  I probably would have switched if the lower altitude hadn't been effective.

Sorry for your loss.   BTW, while at the beach, I came across a notice attached to a trash receptacle offering a reward if anyone found a drowned GO-PRO washed up on the beach :-)  Wiped-out surfer, no doubt.

Peter_XU Posted at 2017-10-17 11:01
Thanks Machina!  I am happy to hear some reply.
Unlike US, we usually don't have insurance on everything. The best DJI offer is give me 15% discount to buy a new one. But my fund is not enough T^T. Maybe hardworking for another year.

Oh man, sorry to hear that. We'll look for your triumphant return -- hopefully DJI's discount offer will still be available to you.

Sorry for your loss.

Sorry for your loss, but your post was both amusing and informative!

"  Provide different levels of high wind warning. Almost every flight before the accident I got High wind velocity warning, I just don’t pay attention to it anymore. "


Been there before and it's not a good feeling that's for sure; scary as hell when it's fighting against strong headwinds. If you had gotten a lot of warning signs that means there must have been some serious windy conditions. I had that the other day and flew close to home base and flew near b/c I didn't feel too confident flying too far away.

Thanks for posting as this is definitely a lesson for any neophyte or seasoned pilot.

Sorry for your loss.
It scares me to fly over water, but it seems that all the things I want to take pictures or videos of include some.

Expensive series of mistakes i guess, not the drones fault.
Looks like you went out a really long way with the wind (first mistake) and were so far out the signal degraded (second mistake).  This unfortunately triggered a signal loss RTH.  A low battery RTH might have kicked in too.
One thing i didnt see you mention is reducing altitude - winds are often stronger the higher you go so bringing it in closer and closer to the water might have got you a more favourable return trip.  But also the lower you go the more chance of a signal interruption.

FWIW there are 2 levels of wind warning on the app although its not really documented.  You have the lower level one you can close clicking X that comes up on the main screen itself.  You also have a 2nd one triggered at higher winds in the status bar at the top (the same place it says aircraft connected, low battery etc).  The first one i get on most flights.  The second one appearing means i always struggle to fight back against it.

Poor you and very good experience for everyone

Steve1503 Posted at 2017-10-17 15:54
Sorry for your loss.
It scares me to fly over water, but it seems that all the things I want to take pictures or videos of include some.

Someone in the Chinese DJI Forum, suggested we can attach a piece of foamed plastic to drone when fly over water. So at least, when it crash, there is still possibility to get it back!  

Ex Machina Posted at 2017-10-17 11:42
Oh man, sorry to hear that. We'll look for your triumphant return -- hopefully DJI's discount offer will still be available to you.

Thanks man!

Griffith Posted at 2017-10-17 11:36
DroneFlying's advice is spot-on.  I just returned from some beach flying and I can attest that ocean winds can be unpredictable and are much better at lower altitudes. In my recent experience, I had some extreme cross winds at 300 ft that were moving the AC down the beach faster than closer home.  Lowering the altitude to 50 ft made all the difference.  I chose not to switch to sport mode due to the higher battery consumption.  I probably would have switched if the lower altitude hadn't been effective.

Sorry for your loss.   BTW, while at the beach, I came across a notice attached to a trash receptacle offering a reward if anyone found a drowned GO-PRO washed up on the beach :-)  Wiped-out surfer, no doubt.

Ha Ha.
Thank you for sharing your experience!

But if I always fly with spot-on, I feel I can almost hear Gordon Ramsay in drone field say to me:" You cook (fly) like old people fxxx" (Sorry for my language, I hope is not a bad joke)

gnirtS Posted at 2017-10-17 17:05
Expensive series of mistakes i guess, not the drones fault.
Looks like you went out a really long way with the wind (first mistake) and were so far out the signal degraded (second mistake).  This unfortunately triggered a signal loss RTH.  A low battery RTH might have kicked in too.
One thing i didnt see you mention is reducing altitude - winds are often stronger the higher you go so bringing it in closer and closer to the water might have got you a more favourable return trip.  But also the lower you go the more chance of a signal interruption.

Thank you for your analysis and suggestion.

I didn't describe every detail, but what I want to express is DJI can do better. The auto return home and obstacle avoidance. etc. make it a easy to control machine (like auto focus camera) for everyone. So intuitively it should have the function I suggested. It is a $1000 drone more expensive than others after all.

For my mistake you mentioned.
1) On the ground there is barely wind, I found out the strong wind when I started to try return home. So I say if it can give me enough alert at first, I won't try to fly that far.
2) The signal went bad when I turned around it (same distance), it might related to the position it send out signal. Usually as soon as I receive weak signal, I return home.
3)What I did is full speed descending and forward. At that moment, I think it might not have enough battery if I descend it to low enough altitude ( as we know it didn't descend very fast, and to make it horizontally not move in strong wind, the engine might even more power.

I was also informed the 2 level of wind warning after the accident. I think I DJI can set up more levels with different color tho, I can barely distinguish them when flying and it was on iphone-size screen.   

Peter, we are so sorry for your loss, it is definitely a lesson for all users. Hope all pilots will learn from this and be cautious during flight.

The reason of the accident is very clear and our support and moderator in Chinese Forum have explained the whole process. Strong wind is an important factor for flight, the anti-wind ability of the drone is limited, the higher you fly, the stronger wind will be, especially the wind in the ocean, like Griffith said, it is unpredictable.

For your suggestions, we will feedback to our engineers for consideration in the future development, we appreciate it very much.
We sincerely apologize on behalf of our support, will report to our management department to improve the customer service to make your experience with us better.

Sorry for you loss. RIP, Mavic. As they say in TV: "Don't try this at home". The reason I bought me a drone is to get some additional aerial shots on a planned trip to USA next year. After reading some stories here in the forum I solemnly swear: I will never fly otherwise than line of sight. I will never use RTH willingly. I will obey the law and not exceed the given altitude of 100 m and the range of my eye-sight.
Do my shots get boring? I think not. Maybe some day my mavic gets close to dying of age. Maybe then I will turn into a daredevil. Until then it is way to expensive to send it on missions with little or no chance to return.

DT Hai Posted at 2017-10-17 17:15
Poor you and very good experience for everyone

True Story T^T, Sad Story T^T...

Sorry for your loss.

How quick can the mavic fly with 50kph tailwind?

DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-10-17 19:44
Peter, we are so sorry for your loss, it is definitely a lesson for all users. Hope all pilots will learn from this and be cautious during flight.

The reason of the accident is very clear and our support and moderator in Chinese Forum have explained the whole process. Strong wind is an important factor for flight, the anti-wind ability of the drone is limited, the higher you fly, the stronger wind will be, especially the wind in the ocean, like Griffith said, it is unpredictable.

Thank you for your reply.  and thanks for merge my duplicated post (I don't know how to delete the duplicate one）

I am aware the English customer service is more easygoing and open, but I will focus my discussion with customer service in the Chinese forum (link above, if anyone interested, maybe Google translation is useful).  I hope what I am doing can make it better. (make the world a better place, hahahha)

Peter_XU Posted at 2017-10-17 21:32
Thank you for your reply.  and thanks for merge my duplicated post (I don't know how to delete the duplicate one）

I am aware the English customer service is more easygoing and open, but I will focus my discussion with customer service in the Chinese forum (link above, if anyone interested, maybe Google translation is useful).  I hope what I am doing can make it better. (make the world a better place, hahahha)

No problem, thanks for your sharing and suggestions, hope the case will get sorted out soon.
Good luck.

Peter_XU Posted at 2017-10-17 17:46
Ha Ha.
Thank you for sharing your experience!

Well, I can identify with that, since I officially qualify as an 'old fart'.  I just don't like throwing a stack of Franklins in the ocean.

You might try posting a reward poster .. if you;re  interested in recovery.

Peter_XU Posted at 2017-10-17 10:40
I have posted a thread with similar content in the Chinese DJI Forum http://bbs.dji.com/thread-155680-1-1.html , but I think my stories is worth sharing. So I tried to tranlate it and post one here.

The first pic below was the last pic shot by my Mavic, after that I lost him over the sea.1.    It was planned as a conservative flight, I make him start return home when he still had 70% battery, but out of my expectation, even in sport mode, the speed was only around 2-3km/h, he was flying against the strong wind I guess.  2.    The battery runs very quickly, after 30 seconds, I determined my Mavic was not able to return home with the strong wind and reminding battery, what made it worse is he was over the sea. I was extreme nervous at that moment.  What I do is  I turned him, find a direction to the closest land (not against the wind) flying towards it, so at least it can land on the ground. 3.    But auto return home appeared, cancel, auto return, cancel, auto return, (cancel) command time out (I don’t know what it means), (cancel) command time out.  Also the weak signal warning appeared, I can barely control it. This process ate lots of battery volume.   4.    The last signal, 8% battery, 23 meter, descending, still over the sea, only 100m to the land. I lost him forever.

Hi Peter XU,

We are living in the same region in the southern part of China. If my memory is correct, there was a strong north monsoon from 10 to 15 Oct 2017 affecting Guangdong & Fujian, with up to 70kmh sustained wind speed / 90kmh gusts in certain moments. The widespread north monsoon eventually affected the Typhoon in the South China Sea which made its way close to Hong Kong on 15 Oct 2017, causing 110kmh sustained wind speed in some part of HK.

I would like to share some of my experiences. hope you will find them helpful (although I am a Chinese, my Chinese typing is not so good, so I write in English).

1) My experience with Mavic Pro with respect to wind in the first few days I flew it in Nov 2016 (when compared with Inspire 1 Pro and Phantom 3 Pro) was that it lacked the power to penetrate strong wind. I had once set off my Mavic to open sea and experienced 2 to 3m/s returning home speed at full throttle (not in spot mode, with obstacle avoidance on). I determined that I would never flew it when there would be wind speed beyond 36kmh, in which Inspire 1 Pro can handle flawlessly and P3P can handle barely, but not the Mavic Pro.

2) With that experience, I made it a habit to me that before every flight of my Mavic I obtained local realtime wind speed data from a few hours ago up till that moment from Hong Kong Observatory App and assessed my flight environment (wind direction, speed, direction of flight, terrain, and so on) to ascertain whether or not to set off my flight. I don't know whether you have App access to realtime local wind speed data, but I would recommend you this habit if such information is available to you.

3) I found that above open sea, the wind speed slowed a little bit only when I lowered the flying height. Wind that was too strong for the Mavic would still be too strong even when the Mavic was lowered close to the sea, e.g. 25m above sea level!

4) There must be a reason DJI Engineers set the RTH speed for all its drones (Inspire 1, Phantom 3, and Mavic Pro) at 10m/s at zero wind. This should be the optimum speed for all quad-copters running LiPo batteries including the Mavic in heading back home with respect to endurance and efficiency (maximum distance the Mavic can travel per unit batteries power the Mavic consumes, at such speed).

5) Please learn how to read the Flight Telemetry Gauge (姿态球) - the line separating blue and black has a lot to tell. Imagine you were sitting inside your Mavic looking out of a circular window at the front to the open sea - if your Mavic is hovering in zero wind, you would see the blue sea in the bottom half of that circular window and would see the black sky in the remaining half, and the line separating the blue sea and black sky will be level, passing through the centre of the gauge circle. If your Mavic is banking (rolling) left, the line will be inclined to the right. If your throttle up your Mavic, your will see the blue sea more. The more you push your throttle, the more the Mavic tilt, the more the blue sea appears in that circle. This is how we read the Flight Telemetry Gauge (姿态球).

6) Try out RTH in no wind / calm wind environment, and remember how the Flight Telemetry Gauge (姿态球) appears to you. You would then know what to look for when dealing with head wind. If you encounter substantially slow speed (2-3m/s) when flying head wind while keeping your throttle to maintain such tilt of the Mavic to give the same Flight Telemetry Gauge (姿态球) readings as you've learned when flying in normal mode with obstacle avoidance off, you had better not to fight against that head wind but should follow the wind and find suitable ground to land. A preflight planning for suitable landing ground (e.g. small island with beach) before setting out to open sea is therefore essential.

This is my 2 cents and hope these help.

Henry

Hi Peter XU,

One more trick - it appeared to me that the Mavic could best penetrate wind when it was steered with its body 45 degree towards wind, i.e. either front right prop into wind, or front left prop into wind. You can steer your Mavic to this posture and keep your right stick to the left-forward or right-forward corner of your stick gimbal in your remote control and you will see how faster the Mavic can go, when comparing with just pushing your right stick forward only. I have no idea on aerial-dynamics of the Mavic but this was my experience. If eventually you recover your Mavic or re-purchase another Mavic, try this out.

Henry

Henry M.Y. Posted at 2017-10-18 07:28
Hi Peter XU,

One more trick - it appeared to me that the Mavic could best penetrate wind when it was steered with its body 45 degree towards wind, i.e. either front right prop into wind, or front left prop into wind. You can steer your Mavic to this posture and keep your right stick to the left-forward or right-forward corner of your stick gimbal in your remote control and you will see how faster the Mavic can go, when comparing with just pushing your right stick forward only. I have no idea on aerial-dynamics of the Mavic but this was my experience. If eventually you recover your Mavic or re-purchase another Mavic, try this out.

Hi Henry,

Thank you so much for your advice. Actually, I took my undergraduate study in HK and flew several times in Cyberport, Science Park, CityU. etc.  But most of the time the security guy will appear as soon as I turn on the drone. .. Also the drone community in Hong Kong is pretty nice as I recall.

Also I  live in Southeast part of China, ZheJiang.  Actually I was just traveling there (QuanZhou), stayed in the city only for 3 hours and got an unforgettable memory.

In terms of the weather,  I am aware of the monsoon, since lots of my friends in Hong Kong talked about the No.8 XXX, but really, at the place I set off my drone , I can barely feel wind. I can not say  the weather is sunny but it is not cloudy either.

For the App, I am not sure if mainland have one, I will definitely use it for my "return"  flight.

All in all, thank you so much for your suggestions. I am sad about my experience, but I love the community.

DroneFlying Posted at 2017-10-17 11:08
even in sport mode, the speed was only around 2-3km/h, he was flying against the strong wind I guess.

Based on the photo / screen shot you provided it looks like you may have been flying pretty high for at least part of the time. For future reference, wind speeds are often much lower closer to the ground (or water), so if you find yourself in a similar situation and can still maintain your connection to the aircraft you should try losing some altitude before flying back.

This is so true. I was flying and it wasn't too windy on the ground (I did get the red box warning tho), but I got my MP caught up in some gusty high-altitude winds that were blowing it away from me and I couldn't get it to return. The motors weren't strong enough to counteract the wind at 1,000 feet. Thankfully I had read on several of the forums that the first thing you do is lower the altitude. I immediately brought it down and was able to fly it back to me.

I know its common sense to think that lowering altitude might help, but in the heat of the moment you are just trying to get control of your drone. If I hadn't recalled reading about wind issues on here, I probably would have wasted my battery fighting the winds and panicking, and then lost my bird.

These forums are a great way to learn tips and tricks (including camera settings - a favorite of mine) and to ask questions. The forumers are by far some of the best folks - so helpful and willing to dig into issues to figure out a solution.

I am sorry you lost your Mavic.

As sad as I am to see any pilot lose their quad - for whatever reason - I also appreciate the facts and the advice posted up and take it as points to remember whenever I'm out flying.  It's always a learning experience and, God forbid, if or when I have a "teachable moment" I'll be sure to post it up and hope that someone learns from my experience as well.

@Peter_XU - I am sorry for your loss but grateful you posted it up!  I hope you can get another Mavic soon and join the ranks again!