Hey guys,

Today I made a judgement call to fly my Mavic pro in 18kt winds over the ocean and after take off I felt comfortable continuing the flight as the drone seemed to be handling the wind with no issues. After only a couple minutes of low flying capturing shots of a sailboat, I decided to bring it back for a shot closer to the homepoint, which was when I switched into sport mode (which I've seen some people say is good practice in high winds) and started a straight flight path home. The drone looked perfectly stable coming back and then randomly it flipped forwards and upside down and spiralled quickly into the ocean. So, I'm wondering how this happened - 18kt winds is right on the threshold of DJI's max operating conditions so is that the simple answer? Or has anyone else experienced a similar thing and could there be an electronic glitch that happened?

I took the mavic out the day before and was experiencing some weird gimbal issues too that looked like it was affecting the drone's flight (which also only occured in sport mode). I've attached the video clip of that. Notice the wind was very light that day.

I've attached the flight record for looking over, what do you guys think?

Cheers,
Danny.

Link to Flight record?

It'll be easier to assess with the flight records

Humm seeing the props halfway down the frame (left) does not look like a good sign. Detailed flight record should show what happened - it might have been a compass error.

DAFlys Posted at 8-15 23:48
Link to Flight record?

My bad - here is a Dropbox link thanks!! https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5bcx1 ... saAsTAR2mnpRba?dl=0

A J Posted at 8-16 00:45
It'll be easier to assess with the flight records

Here's the dropbox link - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5bcx1 ... saAsTAR2mnpRba?dl=0

Cheers.

Strong wind gusts is possible.

SD_Pilot Posted at 8-16 09:13
Strong wind gusts is possible.

Definitely possible. Just strange that I didn't notice the drone acting unstable at all before bc that definitely would have made me pack things up quickly! :/

Lamplighter55 Posted at 8-16 06:44
Humm seeing the props halfway down the frame (left) does not look like a good sign. Detailed flight record should show what happened - it might have been a compass error.

I agree. Just called DJI asking if they could look into it and since it's out of warranty and no DJI care they said nope.. too bad because I really don't think I did anything wrong.

Quick glance - GPS seems fine from the outset, no battery errors or even serious cell deviation. Did notice one or two wind warnings which is nothing to worry about and typical when over water in faster winds - it seems at the end of the flight however you had several 'speed errors' which may have been exacerbated by flying in Sport mode for too long and added to the wind speeds this may have caused an ESC or motor malfunction. There is also the possibility of a bird strike. Sorry to see that as a gutting experience.  

my guess... prop failure.     maybe one of your props wasn't on fully or mount was damaged or something...   just in enough that it survived without too much issue but eventually it loosened itself.

i actually somehow did this with my mavic air where one of my props was somehow not fully locked in but survived take off without issue but 5 minutes into flight the drone did a weird spiral where i could see the arm of my drone in the live view and was like 3 seconds of no control then caught itself and i was able to bring it home and discovered that the front left prop was not seated correctly and was cracked on one of the points where supposed to mount into the motor...  

It’s very hard to tell what happened, it’s extremely hard to flip this drone, unless your in a small hurricane, your log shows nothing wrong and certainly no pilot error, check it out with support they may be able to help .

hallmark007 Posted at 8-16 10:41
It’s very hard to tell what happened, it’s extremely hard to flip this drone, unless your in a small hurricane, your log shows nothing wrong and certainly no pilot error, check it out with support they may be able to help .

Thanks for looking into it. Yeah I tried contacting DJI support but they left me hanging as I am outside warranty and don't have DJI care (which dji care doesn't even cover water damage anyways..) Ugh.

A J Posted at 8-16 09:51
Quick glance - GPS seems fine from the outset, no battery errors or even serious cell deviation. Did notice one or two wind warnings which is nothing to worry about and typical when over water in faster winds - it seems at the end of the flight however you had several 'speed errors' which may have been exacerbated by flying in Sport mode for too long and added to the wind speeds this may have caused an ESC or motor malfunction. There is also the possibility of a bird strike. Sorry to see that as a gutting experience.

Thanks for looking into it, if it was a bird strike this bird must have been tiny haha because I definitely didn't see anything in front of it. But who knows I guess...

skyscopeimagery Posted at 8-16 09:18
Definitely possible. Just strange that I didn't notice the drone acting unstable at all before bc that definitely would have made me pack things up quickly! :/

Definitely would've made my cheeks pucker .

When it says High wind velocity, land ASAP I have the attitude indicator up to check for angle and make my own determination.

Even with just say 10 degrees of angle it says land ASAP.  If it was going 30-45 of course it's time to land.

skyscopeimagery Posted at 8-16 11:07
Thanks for looking into it, if it was a bird strike this bird must have been tiny haha because I definitely didn't see anything in front of it. But who knows I guess...

Very unlikely it was as they almost always show up in the footage but yeah, hard to tell. A motor malfunction or loose blade is more probable.