It is entirely possible that in the specific spot I was flying, at that particular minute, there were gusts even higher.

This is the last cached video before it died (I stopped recording before it died to try and save battery life when I realized it was recording). I'm fighting with the RTH to try and keep it in the air and take to shortest path to land.

Where it slows down towards the end, I don't recall why this was. At some point it slowed down the motors for some reason (according to a notification that popped up on the screen).

How do I find the log that shows all the warnings and stuff that went on?

SeanGalbraith Posted at 2018-2-9 07:25
Where it slows down towards the end, I don't recall why this was. At some point it slowed down the motors for some reason (according to a notification that popped up on the screen).

How do I find the log that shows all the warnings and stuff that went on?

What mobile device were you using?

GoldenSun Posted at 2018-2-9 07:29
What mobile device were you using?

I use an iPhone 7

SeanGalbraith Posted at 2018-2-9 07:29
I use an iPhone 7

Try this -

SeanGalbraith Posted at 2018-2-9 07:25
Where it slows down towards the end, I don't recall why this was. At some point it slowed down the motors for some reason (according to a notification that popped up on the screen).

How do I find the log that shows all the warnings and stuff that went on?

there's this wind fighting video on youtube which shows the same behavior.  MA limits the propulsion to save juice



at 14:02 in the video..

wow finally one person who didn't cry like a baby to DJI pleading give me a new drone or i will sue DJI for millions NOW! rofl Sorry to hear you failed to heed the wind warnings but acting like a man about it and owning up.

No i didn't read any of the comments as to not change my views on this matter. Should i?

cyborg Posted at 2018-2-9 07:41
there's this wind fighting video on youtube which shows the same behavior.  MA limits the propulsion to save juice

[view_image]

Yeah, that's the message I got.

GoldenSun Posted at 2018-2-9 07:31
Try this -

This doesn't seem to work anymore in the latest iOS/iTunes. I'll see if I can find a current process.
--- Edit... never mind, I figured it out.

ok, so if I've done this correctly, you should be able to see the flight record here:

http://app.airdata.com/main?share=ihfncv

Could it possible the battery dropped to below 10% and automatically landed during the RTH?
Based on your screenshot, it has 35% but distance is 2.5KM away..

Whosin Posted at 2018-2-9 08:36
Could it possible the battery dropped to below 10% and automatically landed during the RTH?
Based on your screenshot, it has 35% but distance is 2.5KM away..

That's definitely what happened, but before that point (when I had more juice) I was trying to cancel the RTH to land not at home and wasn't able to do so.

Whosin Posted at 2018-2-9 08:36
Could it possible the battery dropped to below 10% and automatically landed during the RTH?
Based on your screenshot, it has 35% but distance is 2.5KM away..

Also, the flight distance was 2.5km, but the RTH distance was 1.05km. It was much closer to ground if it didn't have to travel on the hypotenuse to home (i.e. right angle to land)

SeanGalbraith Posted at 2018-2-9 08:38
That's definitely what happened, but before that point (when I had more juice) I was trying to cancel the RTH to land not at home and wasn't able to do so.

Battery % can drastically drop flying below 0 celcius.... I suspect your battery dropped that wouldn't allowed you to cancel RTH....

rolling56 Posted at 2018-2-9 07:44
wow finally one person who didn't cry like a baby to DJI pleading give me a new drone or i will sue DJI for millions NOW! rofl Sorry to hear you failed to heed the wind warnings but acting like a man about it and owning up.

No i didn't read any of the comments as to not change my views on this matter. Should i?

That is what I was thinking.  It would be tradition to claim it was flying in an open area and just dropped from the sky.  Then leave it up to us to sus out the real story while the owner claims poor DJI customer service for the malfunction.

Service manager at the repair shop, "Who's the U-boat commander?"

Whosin Posted at 2018-2-9 08:45
Battery % can drastically drop flying below 0 celcius.... I suspect your battery dropped that wouldn't allowed you to cancel RTH....

Seems odd that battery life should matter on if I can cancel a warning or not.

Gunship9 Posted at 2018-2-9 08:46
That is what I was thinking.  It would be tradition to claim it was flying in an open area and just dropped from the sky.  Then leave it up to us to sus out the real story while the owner claims poor DJI customer service for the malfunction.

Service manager at the repair shop, "Who's the U-boat commander?"

Risky Business

I wonder if you had Smart RTM active.  If it was, I would have expected it to start the RTH much sooner given the distance from the take-off point you were at. Probably just after the 10 minute mark where the battery is at 40%.

Hummingbird.UAV Posted at 2018-2-9 09:05
I wonder if you had Smart RTM active.  If it was, I would have expected it to start the RTH much sooner given the distance from the take-off point you were at. Probably just after the 10 minute mark where the battery is at 40%.

Is there a way to confirm after the fact? (or is that only confirmable when connected to the drone?)

SeanGalbraith Posted at 2018-2-9 09:10
Is there a way to confirm after the fact? (or is that only confirmable when connected to the drone?)

I think smart RTH was active because this message in your log after 30% of battery:

Warning:The remaining battery is only enough for RTH. Return home now.

But about the wind speed: in my experience 22 to 30 km/h is easy for the drone to handle but only in Sport mode, RTH and the other fly modes never use sport mode, so RTH with high wind is impossible.

I think as a lesson, if at the start of the fly you need sport mode to go back, land. If wind develops on middle flight, get as low is possible and try to get back with sport mode. (by rule, wind is always stronger if you are higher, if atmospherical conditions are stable)
Also kudos for not complaining to dji haha and taking it with humour

Yeah, I thought the wind wasn't too much for it to handle, as it was flying in similar wind in the same area not long before the incident.

I'm not complaining to DJI, but I have opened a support ticket to find out why the software wouldn't let me regain control of it.

I thought I would share the response that DJI sent me:

For your claimed case CAS-1486767-W7L8R5, we have already finished the analysis, and the result is as follows:

1.  Unit was in P-GPS mode and was responsive to RC input;      
2.  At t=13 mins 24 secs, relative height=120 meters, battery reached low level, and the aircraft started to RTH;
3.  At t=14 m 0 s, h=120 m, battery level hit 13%, and there was no enough power for the drone to flew back to home point. The aircraft auto landed into the water.
4.  It's the pilot error that flew the drone while power was low over drain battery, flying over 100 meters high while wind was strong slow down the small drone to fly back. Please pay attention to the battery capacity and flight environment.
According to the analysis, the incident was not caused by any product malfunction factors. As such, we could not provide warranty service.

Basically, this answer didn't answer the question that I had: Why didn't DJI GO4 allow me to cancel the auto RTH and landing when I repeatedly mashed the red x.

SeanGalbraith Posted at 2018-2-23 09:51
I thought I would share the response that DJI sent me:

For your claimed case CAS-1486767-W7L8R5, we have already finished the analysis, and the result is as follows:

It would be interesting indeed to hear the answer to your question. Please keep us briefed when you get it.

Will do. I'm not sure how they can diagnose it, since it doesn't show up in the flight log.

SeanGalbraith Posted at 2018-2-23 10:33
Will do. I'm not sure how they can diagnose it, since it doesn't show up in the flight log.

Here another case where overriding RTH did not work:
Big question now is if this is intended to be a new security feature or simply a malfunction...?

SeanGalbraith Posted at 2018-2-8 19:12
I really wish I knew why. I was mashing that X repeatedly. No response.

Interesting reading, sad it drowned itself!

I did some RTH tests recently, the aircraft behaves differently depending on how the RTH initiates. Loss of connection, causes the aircraft to fly back along its original route, once connection is regained the RTH can be cancelled using the big red X.

A user initiated RTH causes a return directly shortest path.

I wonder why it would not let you override, taking control and landing would have been my choice too!

Did you have a disconnect? Was the video feed still working while you were hitting the X?

I had the app freeze on me yesterday, first time ever (crystalSky) and it took me a little while to realise. Being an iOS user it was new to me :-)

Hope your replacement isn’t too delayed.

How fast must be the wind to lost mavic air?  Is the 25 km/h ok to fly in open space?

Buzzyone Posted at 2018-2-23 22:52
Interesting reading, sad it drowned itself!

I did some RTH tests recently, the aircraft behaves differently depending on how the RTH initiates. Loss of connection, causes the aircraft to fly back along its original route, once connection is regained the RTH can be cancelled using the big red X.

I don't recall there being any disconnect until it hit the water.

Wachtberger Posted at 2018-2-23 10:59
Here another case where overriding RTH did not work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=MW5zU6DG4Pc
Big question now is if this is intended to be a new security feature or simply a malfunction...?

Very interesting! Thanks!

That suks! sorry to hear about this I guess I won't be flying in windy conditions over water.

Should have put floats on it.. they make them for when you go over water.

Sorry for your loss.

I'm a newbie, but have a Mavic Air for a few weeks now and have noticed something that might have affected your flight.  Again, minimal experience here, but the two times I reached maximum altitude or maximum distance, the MA acted strange - for the return flight (below those maximums) I did not have full or normal control.  Just a theory.  I have since changed my maximums (Canada max height 90M, so I set it to 100M - and max distance 500M, so I set to 600M) to account for this - giving myself a little buffer.

Anyone experience this as well?

Once the battery reaches critical level, you cannot cancel RTH and the aircraft will land where is, as is.  You would have had to cancel RTH between 13m25 sec and 13m59sec, kick into sport mode, and manually fly it back.

I am so sorry for your loss. I agree we should always respect the wind warnings. I have an app called UAV and always follow when it says 'Not good to fly'. I promise not to tell your wife about the demise of your Air.

Too bad man, kudos on taking it like a champ.

If it works for someone in the future, most of the times the wind is stronger the higher you go. I could see on your video that you *or RTH* tried gaining altitude. This slowed you down almost to 0 forward speed. If you're faced with this scenario, fly your drone lower (against your instinct) in search for lower windspeeds. More than likely you will find them and manage to advance towards a safe landing zone/site.

I've had to do it once, and it feel really uncomfortable going lower, which reduce your field of view with the camera; but that was what saved my Air that time.