Tonight I had the worst experience with my Mavic Pro. I was one of the very first people to get one. I ordered it immediately.

Today, I was flying a mile away from a tiny uncontrolled airport, that I contacted and let know I'd be flying for fun. It is New Years Eve 2017. Mavic committed suicide at about 5PM.

I got the general warning and checked off the two boxes on the DJI go 4 app that say I'm authorized and Take responsibility. The airspace is unlocked and off
I go flying to grab most amazing images.

I land, switch batteries, answer the take off questions and fly the same pattern. About 300 feet up and 100 yards out, same pattern as before I get 'Auto-landing' . Hit max forward velocity toward the beach and push to arrest the decent. Hit the red-X, get 'command timeout' ... Try again, 'command timeout' try again. I'm within 10 yards of the beach, and my mavic continues into the waves. Lost. A couple of surfers from down the beach came by and looked for it, but clouds came and the light was dimming by then.

So there it sits, just 10 yards out, at low-tide. Now under 4 feet more of water as the 7 foot high tide is coming in.

So super-sucks that:
1. I was able to fly, the same way I've been flying all week, no problems.
2. Auto land put the Mavic into the sea, after I checked the responsibility and clearnance boxes, *and* flew this same pattern just 20 minutes prior.  - I'm out $800, plus amazing footage, panos of one of the best days.

Supersucks. so bummed.

What next?

What was the level of the second battery?
Post the logs, I'd bet critical battery.

I'm sorry to hear that happened. Please upload the flight log (TXT file from your mobile device) to PhantomHelp using these instructions if you'd like someone here to take a look.

I'm real sorry to hear about the loss of your Mavic. I'm still new to drones so I can't offer ideas but I'm starting to form an opinion and this is shaking my confidence in this drone. While others will comment about GPS signal strength and number of satellites, compass, IMU, Downward Vision over water, etc. the problem or pattern I'm seeing is unpredictable, uncontrollable drone behavior.

Whatever the underlying cause of loss of control I would think the software would be written not to dive into oceans or fly miles in the wrong direction. In the FAQ it says: "GPS signal is necessary but not sufficient for your drone to return to home safely." Why? If you have a GPS signal take a fix, move a few feet and take another fix. You now know where you are and where you are heading. It all just seems so, bleeding edge? Beta? Not fully baked? Definitely not confidence inspiring to me. With all the sensors available (accelerometer, gyro, proximity, pressure/barometer) you'd think the drone could just stand still and wait for a command if not use dead reckoning to return close to home.

Maybe I'm seeing a trend that doesn't exist but there sure seems to be a lot reports of Mavics doing the unexpected.

Kev

Bummer, that truly sucks

Kevin_d Posted at 2017-12-31 20:49
I'm real sorry to hear about the loss of your Mavic. I'm still new to drones so I can't offer ideas but I'm starting to form an opinion and this is shaking my confidence in this drone. While others will comment about GPS signal strength and number of satellites, compass, IMU, Downward Vision over water, etc. the problem or pattern I'm seeing is unpredictable, uncontrollable drone behavior.

Whatever the underlying cause of loss of control I would think the software would be written not to dive into oceans or fly miles in the wrong direction. In the FAQ it says: "GPS signal is necessary but not sufficient for your drone to return to home safely." Why? If you have a GPS signal take a fix, move a few feet and take another fix. You now know where you are and where you are heading. It all just seems so, bleeding edge? Beta? Not fully baked? Definitely not confidence inspiring to me. With all the sensors available (accelerometer, gyro, proximity, pressure/barometer) you'd think the drone could just stand still and wait for a command if not use dead reckoning to return close to home.

The Mavic Pro is a popular drone, and usually your always going to be hearing from the vocal minority who have run into issues.


Obviously these drones are an evolving technology with an EXTREMELY low margin for error compared to other things that keep their butts on the ground.

In this case, we can not draw any conclusions without the flight logs.

Dirty Bird Posted at 2017-12-31 20:24
A new Mavic!  

The RC pilot's creed:  "Every bird has an expiration date!"

Exactly - it's kind of weird but I've found I need to embrace the notion that what I'm flying is essentially an expendable bit of technology, with pretty much zero in the way of error tolerance (ie when things go bad the end result is usually catastrophic) ... embrace it whilst you can, and be ready to move on! Still hurts but, especially if you lost some great and unique footage.

Failure in any aviation equipment including drones will mean catastrophic consequences, there is no surprise there. However, both equipment manufacturers and owners are there to make sure that they are under proper maintenance to keep it out of trouble. Your flight data is very important here to find out what causes it to landing in the sea. The truth is based on facts and science not by personal perceptions.

Same type of "auto-landing" happened to me over the ocean.  Flight logs from your device uploaded to Phantom Help will assist in determining whether it was software or pilot error?

There's something in the manual for the inspire that says the VPS (Visual Positioning System) will switch the aircraft from P to A mode if satellites are weak and you fly over water. Could be the source of something?

Ive had the critical power error come on right after takeoff as well. Luckily was not over water!

Get the flight log, it will explain all.

I am so sorry to hear about your case, Alex, that is really a sad story. Had you reported your case to our support? If you haven't, you can contact our support and start a ticket. http://www.dji.com/support.

I lost my mavic pro very recently too. I have been flying many times with 20% battery before and have no issue. This time, it forced land by itself. I pressed stop many times and it fails to cancel landing. At the end, I have to find a bush and crash land. I cannot retrieve my aircraft too. Completely panic and depressed experience. Contact DJI and they insisted it was misoperation. But how could the user cannot full control of the aircraft even the battery low. It was 20% and I have plenty of time to come home. If it forces land on highway I would have caused catastrophic disaster by causing accident or kill someone. Please anyone, reconsider if you want to buy DJI products again. I have two other friends, playing quickshot mode and fail to stop too. Again DJI push the responsibility to user. Everything is user fault. Scam company!

djiuser_KFJ3ZIPPdigz Posted at 2018-2-28 03:25
I lost my mavic pro very recently too. I have been flying many times with 20% battery before and have no issue. This time, it forced land by itself. I pressed stop many times and it fails to cancel landing. At the end, I have to find a bush and crash land. I cannot retrieve my aircraft too. Completely panic and depressed experience. Contact DJI and they insisted it was misoperation. But how could the user cannot full control of the aircraft even the battery low. It was 20% and I have plenty of time to come home. If it forces land on highway I would have caused catastrophic disaster by causing accident or kill someone. Please anyone, reconsider if you want to buy DJI products again. I have two other friends, playing quickshot mode and fail to stop too. Again DJI push the responsibility to user. Everything is user fault. Scam company!

Post your flight records to Phantom help if you would like others to comment on what the cause may have been :-)

Thanks All.
So I did contact DJI Support, uploaded the flight logs. They said it was out of warranty and they couldn't do anything.
To answer the questions.

I had an occasional 'disconnect error', and then, 'auto-landing mode'. (The only difference in the flight logs is that
the drone was in Sport mode when the Go App took control and flew it down. )

Sadly, I bought the DJI Select program early December specifically for the Mavic DJI Care Refresh discount, but the weather was pretty aweful so I wasn't able to complete a demonstration
flight necessary to buy the DJI Care Refresh with the discount.

I went around and around with DJI Support and got the 'not covered', even after extracting all the logs, uploading, running through analysis on my end.

I did learn a few things I can share. You can download your data from the GO app, then convert it to a nice KML file and load that into Google Earth. From there,
you can examine the flight and the data points in 3D space. Looks cool, provides good insight into situational issues related to log-file events.

So each error is noted in 3D space and that means I can actually follow the drone decent line.




And lots of 'command failed' - even tho the downlink video was working, battery level was 100% on take off and i had no low battery indication.
i had contacted the local ATC and tiny airport about 1 1/2 miles away, and discussed the flight time, location and altitude as I had on 3 other flights, and
walked through the DJI screens validating i took responsibility for the flight to unlock the take off.

Something happened and no one at DJI is saying what it was, only that the warranty was expired so no one would even look at the data files. Its ok if the drone
lost a motor and crashed. I just don't see 'warranty' as 'fly your drone into the sea' - lesson learned I guess. To me, it means that I will not have faith.

It means I won't fly without insurance that covers the loss.
It also means, getting zip, from DJI, means I think their service isn't really up to standards for a great company.

I bought a Mavic Air, and tried to buy DJI Care Refresh with the Select discount. It wasn't listed as available on the web site so I figured I'd just buy the drone
get it home and call DJI before I registered / activated it, and buy the DJI Select discounted Care/Refresh.

But no! Today, my coupon comes up in my account as covering Mavic Air, but I can't use it for a Mavic Air.

And so the frustration continues. I suppose I could return the Mavic Air, then when I get credit, buy another one and then be able to use the Select Coupon, but that seems absurd.

I'm flying my P3P, selling the P4 and getting rid of the 2 batteries, remote, landing extenter, bubble, case, charge and 4 battery hub for the Mavic Pro.

Less is more.

Dirty Bird Posted at 2017-12-31 20:24
A new Mavic!  

The RC pilot's creed:  "Every bird has an expiration date!"

I actually did buy one from Costco, and because of other issues, I just returned it a couple of days ago. Never flew it. I know, these things expire.

Simmo1 Posted at 2017-12-31 20:36
What was the level of the second battery?
Post the logs, I'd bet critical battery.

left with 100%, flew for maybe 10-15 minutes. I'd say better than 50%

DroneFlying Posted at 2017-12-31 20:45
I'm sorry to hear that happened. Please upload the flight log (TXT file from your mobile device) to PhantomHelp using these instructions if you'd like someone here to take a look.

Did that, didn't get anywhere. case is closed I'm told

Kevin_d Posted at 2017-12-31 20:49
I'm real sorry to hear about the loss of your Mavic. I'm still new to drones so I can't offer ideas but I'm starting to form an opinion and this is shaking my confidence in this drone. While others will comment about GPS signal strength and number of satellites, compass, IMU, Downward Vision over water, etc. the problem or pattern I'm seeing is unpredictable, uncontrollable drone behavior.

Whatever the underlying cause of loss of control I would think the software would be written not to dive into oceans or fly miles in the wrong direction. In the FAQ it says: "GPS signal is necessary but not sufficient for your drone to return to home safely." Why? If you have a GPS signal take a fix, move a few feet and take another fix. You now know where you are and where you are heading. It all just seems so, bleeding edge? Beta? Not fully baked? Definitely not confidence inspiring to me. With all the sensors available (accelerometer, gyro, proximity, pressure/barometer) you'd think the drone could just stand still and wait for a command if not use dead reckoning to return close to home.

Because it didn't auto-land in PGPS mode (standard) and did in Sport mode, I suspect its a bug.

BengalBoy Posted at 2017-12-31 23:38
Same type of "auto-landing" happened to me over the ocean.  Flight logs from your device uploaded to Phantom Help will assist in determining whether it was software or pilot error?

I'd flown from this precise spot 3 other times over the past month. It is near an tiny airport and I do call in and get my clearance, and agree to the unlock screens on startup. I think there's still some bugs.

Well, I figured DJI is not going to offer anything to cushion the blow of their GO app landing my Mavic in the ocean. If it were my company, I'd offer a bug-bounty and $300 off a replacement Mavic.

Knowing DJI is a tech developer and not really in the Support side, I thought I'd *pay* for Support.  Because of crummy weather in December when I bought the DJI Select program I couldn't buy the Mavic Refresh with the coupon - I'd have to create a complex, one-take video of the Mavic flying and the weather was just windy and rainy.

So putting the Mavic loss behind me, I bought a Mavic Air, with the intent of buying DJI Care Refresh using the coupon code from DJI Select. I couldn't do it at Check out because Mavic Air wasn't yet listed on the Select web page. So I waited to register and activate the Mavic Air until Mavic Air was listed on the DJI Select web site as a unit for DJI Care Refresh.

Next, I picked the Mavic Air using the DJI Select 50% off coupon for  DJI Care Refresh purchase. Bing, software bug, maybe. The DJI store website reported unable to use this coupon.

That didn't make sense. Its a 1 year coupon, along with other 20% off coupons for the 1 year DJI Select program, right? So I wrote to DJI Support, and received:

"To make it clear, Our 50% discount for Mavic airDJI care refresh is only applicable once you are a member of our DJI select.
The scenario is, You placed an order Mavic pro with refresh to become eligible and a member of our DJI select.
That doesn't mean that 50% discount for Mavic airDJI care refresh will be applied, it is a qualifier for you to become eligible and member of DJI select and you can use our 50% discount for Mavic airDJI care refresh for the next purchase of any DJI care refresh."

So, am I just unable to make sense of this grammar? I'm a member of DJI Select. I bought a DJI Mavic Air that isn't activated. I am trying to use my Select coupon to get a few bucks off on the program.
just more frustration... Can I return my DJI Select? then I'll buy the refresh. Anyone want an unopened, unused,, unactivated  Mavic Air, make me an offer - I'm done with this.

I'm flying without the DJI Go app, DJI Select, DJI Care, Refresh. Fly P3Ps, they work! and State Farm covers them for $60 a year.

Thank You! I have learned from stories just like this one.
At least you did not take the drone down wind and fail to return due to strong up winds. That is my worst fear!
^^^^ This is super common. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I have learned that instead of fighting strong winds... LAND IT in a safe place and go get it.

Alexcmei Posted at 2018-3-10 23:09
Thanks All.
So I did contact DJI Support, uploaded the flight logs. They said it was out of warranty and they couldn't do anything.
To answer the questions.

It's actually a good thing you didn't buy DJI Care Refresh, because they require you to send back the drone. Losses over water mean you are out the cost of the drone plus $99.

This reality prompted me to call my homeowners agent. I found that the drone would be cover up to $1,500.

You may want to call yours.

Alexcmei Posted at 2018-3-10 23:09
Thanks All.
So I did contact DJI Support, uploaded the flight logs. They said it was out of warranty and they couldn't do anything.
To answer the questions.

It's actually a good thing you didn't buy DJI Care Refresh, because they require you to send back the drone. Losses over water mean you are out the cost of the drone plus $99.

This reality prompted me to call my homeowners agent. I found that the drone would be covered up to $1,500.

You may want to call yours.