Hello, I am new to the drone world, recently I bought a new Mavic mini, all seemed pretty good and the photos were amazing, this evening i decided to try some slow shutter photos, as I got the aircraft into a hover I had an max altitude warning come up, this was around 37ft! I brought it down slightly and checked the setting max altitude was above 400ft.
I slid the altitude up slightly and went for a second climb around the same altitude of 37ft i let it hover and then for no reason it started to bank to the right I tried to bring it back in but it decided it wanted to go elsewhere, this is when it shot off and collided with a tree crashng to the road. Now my poor Mavric is some nasty scratches and no propellers.

Does anyone know where I would stand with this on the warranty side of things (I don't have the refresh scheme) and also why it would have done this. I have attached a link of the flight log where it all went wrong should anyone want to have a look. https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/E3ZUBW7G9ESK9MR7VBGY


Many thanks in advance

Andrew

Firtst, you took off with 0 satellites locked so you were flying in ATTI mode for the first 26 seconds. As a new pilot, you probably want to read up on preflight procedures for your drone. One of the most important is giving your drone time to acquire enough satellites so it knows where it is in the world. Second would be not taking off unless you have at least 10-12 satellites locked (more is always better).
This probably explains why the drone was acting weird which would be my next point. When your drone starts acting up, land it immediately if you can. If it reported max alititude at 37 feet, you should have landed and figured out what the problem was. Expensive lesson, but one you probably won't make again.

Lastly, it looks like you're holding the left stick full down and to the right and the right stick full down and to the left. So it looks like you flew the drone into the ground from what I can tell.
I would say that DJI would say this is "pilot error" for a variety of reasons.

Hi Andrew, we apologize for the crash accident, please start a ticket online https://repair.dji.com/repair/index?site=brandsite&from=nav and send in the drone for the data analysis, our data analysis team will help figure out what happened and provide the proper resolution.

I agree with Paul_IA. It looks like you did several things wrong. You should have never taken off while it was in ATTI mode. Also at 30.9s on the flight log you kept the sticks held down and inward for an emergency shut off. I would def think DJI is going to call this "pilot error".

Slow shutter, so I presume it was dark maybe not a good idea until you get a bit of experience

I never take off until the app tells me that my “homepoint has been updated”.  That means that if you lose signal or it has low battery, it will fly back. to where you took off from

If you don’t it could fly back to where you LAST took off from.  I think that explains a few fly aways.

hallmark007 Posted at 11-28 20:29
Slow shutter, so I presume it was dark maybe not a good idea until you get a bit of experience

I'm intrigued, I can't see how you determined that from the Flight Log. What am I missing? lol

Sad to hear.
Hope you get it fixed.

yes an expensive lesson. Perhaps to eager to get and and practice. a lot of important points made and all I will take back. they say practice makes perfect and you learn by your mistakes all today I feel are true (other than the perfect) luckily it seems to be just facial damage and nothing serious, that being said I will send it to drone doctor for a repair should anything have been knock in the crash landing.

thanks again

Somebody mention in a post, a safety procedure after each take off, which is keep the drone at eye height for 10 seconds, then hover forward, backwards, left and right, then up and down and a 360 rotation, preferably in both directions, that simple 30 seconds check allows you to see any anomalies, weird sound, vibration from proppelers etc.
And like some mention, better to have 10-11 satelites or more for safety.
Hope you can get your unit fixed soon!

Paul_IA Posted at 11-28 16:32
Firtst, you took off with 0 satellites locked so you were flying in ATTI mode for the first 26 seconds. As a new pilot, you probably want to read up on preflight procedures for your drone. One of the most important is giving your drone time to acquire enough satellites so it knows where it is in the world. Second would be not taking off unless you have at least 10-12 satellites locked (more is always better).
This probably explains why the drone was acting weird which would be my next point. When your drone starts acting up, land it immediately if you can. If it reported max alititude at 37 feet, you should have landed and figured out what the problem was. Expensive lesson, but one you probably won't make again.

How do you know he had no sat lock, did he posted the log somewhere?

Andrew P Judge Posted at 11-29 02:22
yes an expensive lesson. Perhaps to eager to get and and practice. a lot of important points made and all I will take back. they say practice makes perfect and you learn by your mistakes all today I feel are true (other than the perfect) luckily it seems to be just facial damage and nothing serious, that being said I will send it to drone doctor for a repair should anything have been knock in the crash landing.

thanks again

Hello Andrew, would you mind sharing your logs? I agree that you might have learned the hard way but was this your fault or an issue with the Mini? Perhaps you could clarify this.

Is it possible the drone was not calibrated after you received it?  Maybe your ground level was higher than it's flight warning level above sea level and it determined you were at the height threshold -37 ft. when you took off?

In other words, if the drone was calibrated for sea level (0 ft.), but your launch site was at 363 ft. Above Sea Level, and say the max allowed altitude was 400 ft., then when it launched, it only allowed 37 ft. of climb before it hit what it thought was 400 ft.

I haven't owned a DJI drone before and I'm still waiting for my order to arrive, so I am strictly speculating here, not knowing exactly how "smart" these drones are.  I've heard of other drones needing to be re-calibrated when taken to a new launch site and thought this might be a contributing factor.  Interested to hear what the official results are from DJI.

Hi Andrew

sorry to here what happened, and like most people have pointed and and this has happened to me many years ago when i got into drone flying, since then touch would i've not had a fly away, a disconnection since...

I follow a simple pre flight checks, again like most other have mentioned..

once i have powered on the drone and controller and they are both connected i then check whilst its on the ground that i have the following

1. check the surrounding area i'm flying in to make sure i have the correct height set for auto return home is anything goes grong.
2. GPS lock - P mode is visible in the top left hand corner of the screen.
3. i have at least 10+ satellites connected.
4. whilst on the ground my height and distance are reading the correct values before i lift it off the ground.
5. check the map that drone is where is actually is.
6. once i bring the drone upto eye level i again check flight mode, distance and height of the drone in the bottom left hand corner of the screen.
7. leave the drone at eye level for 10 secs after i have got the message of home point recorded.
8. final check, flight mode, satellites connected, and height and distance. are all as before

if all is as expected, you can fly with confidence knowing everything is as it should be.

Enjoy, i hope you get back in the air soon once your MM has been checked out. Looks like it's mostly superficial damage from the photos, but it's worth getting checked as the gimbal has come away from its mounting.

Thanks

Ian

Definitely a lack of gps from the logs. Sorry to hear about your misfortune. I completely understand the desire to get the mini in the air though as it’s just a fun little bird. I never take off (NEVER) until I get 11 sat locks and hear the hone point updated. Then I go through the standard test as mentioned above. Also, even after all this, if you are flying in low light conditions where the downward facing sensors are disabled, the mini can still act strange and not hold its position (even if it has enough sat locks) so you need to be careful.

I hope you get it fixed soon. It’s a horrible feeling in your stomach and won’t leave you until the mini is back and repaired.
D

El Diabolico Posted at 11-29 03:03
Hello Andrew, would you mind sharing your logs? I agree that you might have learned the hard way but was this your fault or an issue with the Mini? Perhaps you could clarify this.

its in his # post, his log of this flight

c0p0ut Posted at 11-29 03:04
Is it possible the drone was not calibrated after you received it?  Maybe your ground level was higher than it's flight warning level above sea level and it determined you were at the height threshold -37 ft. when you took off?

In other words, if the drone was calibrated for sea level (0 ft.), but your launch site was at 363 ft. Above Sea Level, and say the max allowed altitude was 400 ft., then when it launched, it only allowed 37 ft. of climb before it hit what it thought was 400 ft.

DJI drones uses the take off position as its reference height (so Zero barometric height) , so from that height you can fly high up to the limit.

Hi Andrew,

sorry for your loss.

Another interesting point is that a CSC does not shut-off the motors of a mini if there are no warnings/errors present in the drone. (like Spark and MA)
see my video ; using CSC will bring the drone down in a spiral move....

Lots of checklists on this forum, use the one you like ( or make a new one) .  I use this checklist.



cheers
JJB

JJB* Posted at 11-29 04:16
its in his # post, his log of this flight

Thank you JJB ;)

JJB* Posted at 11-29 04:20
Hi Andrew,

sorry for your loss.

Thanks for linking the checklist!
I'm not a huge fan of comic sans font but I have to say the list is quite complete and newbie proof.
Good tips!

Sorry to read that

I think you are able to select what the mavic mini should do when you do both sticks Down and in.

InspektorGadjet Posted at 11-29 04:37
Thanks for linking the checklist!
I'm not a huge fan of comic sans font but I have to say the list is quite complete and newbie proof.
Good tips!

Thanks, if more people doesn`t like this font i will change it  

JJB* Posted at 11-29 04:18
DJI drones uses the take off position as its reference height (so Zero barometric height) , so from that height you can fly high up to the limit.

So then I have a question. If I take off from the edge of a cliff and the mini records the height, and then I drop a couple hundred feet down into a valley - how will the mini respond? Because essentially it will be in a negative height compared to it's take off height. thx

D

davidms Posted at 11-29 05:10
So then I have a question. If I take off from the edge of a cliff and the mini records the height, and then I drop a couple hundred feet down into a valley - how will the mini respond? Because essentially it will be in a negative height compared to it's take off height. thx

D

You will see negative height values.
When a RTH becomes active it will climb to the RTH height setting ; so flying down hill minus 200 feet and RTH height is set to 100 ft ; it will climb 300 feet before flying towards the HomePoint.

davidms Posted at 11-29 05:10
So then I have a question. If I take off from the edge of a cliff and the mini records the height, and then I drop a couple hundred feet down into a valley - how will the mini respond? Because essentially it will be in a negative height compared to it's take off height. thx

D

I don’t have a mini but Phantoms and Mavic 2s  will indicate a minus altitude in that situation. I’m sure the mini does too but do double check.

JJB* Posted at 11-29 04:20
Hi Andrew,

sorry for your loss.

Just had an extended break from flying. Very useful refresher to get my head back in the game. Thanks.

Andrew P Judge Posted at 11-29 02:22
yes an expensive lesson. Perhaps to eager to get and and practice. a lot of important points made and all I will take back. they say practice makes perfect and you learn by your mistakes all today I feel are true (other than the perfect) luckily it seems to be just facial damage and nothing serious, that being said I will send it to drone doctor for a repair should anything have been knock in the crash landing.

thanks again

Yeah, hard lesson.
Too bad a drone is usually flying when errors are made. (or at least, the consequences are there)
With your average camera you at most get a wrong exposed image.
Not a damaged camera....
Drones have less room for errors...

JJB* Posted at 11-29 04:20
Hi Andrew,

sorry for your loss.

Good info!

El Diabolico Posted at 11-29 03:01
How do you know he had no sat lock, did he posted the log somewhere?

You mean like the URL at the bottom of his post?

Wow I can’t believe the feedback and the amount of useful information everyone has left me. Thank you all so much. So I sent the drone off to be checked over, should hopefully have it back before Christmas, as I’m hoping to use it up in Scotland. I think this experience has taught me a valuable lesson;
1 DONT RUSH
2 go through a pre flight check list
3 most importantly, when on deployment tell the wife you bought a drone and not after you crashed it!
As well as many others.

Oh that sucks bud. Hope you have the refresh!

Knapweed Posted at 11-28 21:46
I'm intrigued, I can't see how you determined that from the Flight Log. What am I missing? lol

I didn’t look at the log lots of others had, he said he was trying to shoot slow shutter photos, in order to shoot slow shutter photos IE long exposures because of lack of ND filters you would need to be flying in the dark to be able to correctly expose for the slow shutter.

A small bit of detective work from what the op said in his opening post, I of course could be wrong, I have now seen 3 newbie crashes all in the dark, where it’s very difficult to get good footage or take photos without a lot of noise, but hey it’s their drone or at least it was .

djiuser_ZSD9sKzkJlgo Posted at 11-29 12:32
Wow I can’t believe the feedback and the amount of useful information everyone has left me. Thank you all so much. So I sent the drone off to be checked over, should hopefully have it back before Christmas, as I’m hoping to use it up in Scotland. I think this experience has taught me a valuable lesson;
1 DONT RUSH
2 go through a pre flight check list

Number 3 is specially important lol

djiuser_ZSD9sKzkJlgo Posted at 11-29 12:32
Wow I can’t believe the feedback and the amount of useful information everyone has left me. Thank you all so much. So I sent the drone off to be checked over, should hopefully have it back before Christmas, as I’m hoping to use it up in Scotland. I think this experience has taught me a valuable lesson;
1 DONT RUSH
2 go through a pre flight check list

1/ Only calibrate Compass when 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 first,
without interference.



Raise AC to height of 8ft
Hover for 10/15 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 1 minute and is worthwhile doing before every flight,

hallmark007 Posted at 11-29 13:11
I didn’t look at the log lots of others had, he said he was trying to shoot slow shutter photos, in order to shoot slow shutter photos IE long exposures because of lack of ND filters you would need to be flying in the dark to be able to correctly expose for the slow shutter.

A small bit of detective work from what the op said in his opening post, I of course could be wrong, I have now seen 3 newbie crashes all in the dark, where it’s very difficult to get good footage or take photos without a lot of noise, but hey it’s their drone or at least it was .

Cunning stuff! Thanks for the explanation.   

JJB* Posted at 11-29 04:55
Thanks, if more people doesn`t like this font i will change it

Make font, Comical Sans Chalk Eraser.  Might as well deliver the bad flight log news light-heartedly...

djiuser_ZSD9sKzkJlgo Posted at 11-29 12:32
Wow I can’t believe the feedback and the amount of useful information everyone has left me. Thank you all so much. So I sent the drone off to be checked over, should hopefully have it back before Christmas, as I’m hoping to use it up in Scotland. I think this experience has taught me a valuable lesson;
1 DONT RUSH
2 go through a pre flight check list

Another gotcha: Wind.

Keep in mind, wind at ground level can be significantly less than wind at flying altitude.
Don't be surprised to find wind directions are different at ground, at 100-feet up, and 380-feet up.

Avoid flying around buildings, which can result in a wind tunnel effect.  Wind is accelerated between buildings.  Along with unusual up drafts and down drafts near buildings.  

Always try to plan your outbound flights flying into wind.  Thus on return flight, drone does not have to fight wind and is instead aided by wind.  Keeping in mind, wind directions can change while flying.

Plan an alternate landing site, in case wind does increase and/or changes directions.  When flying over water (or inaccessible terrain), be prepared to go 45 or 90 degrees from RTH direction to reach a safe landing spot.

Paul_IA Posted at 11-29 07:20
You mean like the URL at the bottom of his post?

Yeah that slipped...

It's fun to grab night shots - as long as all other variables are constant Enough GPS sats is key, and low wind.

Night shot 4 sec shutter - go easy I'm new at this