Please select Into the mobile phone version | Continue to access the computer ver.
Safety assessment question
924 13 2020-2-23
Uploading and Loding Picture ...(0/1)
o(^-^)o
red squirrel
Captain
Flight distance : 55610 ft
United States
Offline

Yesterday I wanted to explore the cliffs on the other side of this stream with the Mavic mini.  The trees were low over me so in order to get to the other side of the swiftly moving water with a variable updraft that I could feel, I would have needed to fly out over the water at the base of this approximately 50 ft gorge at a height less than 10 feet before I could ascend.  I hovered over the bank for a while trying to work up the courage but it just seemed too risky with my 3BCD2B44-2580-40AB-BCA1-FAD8A70330BD.jpeg level of inexperience flying (I've read a lot of posts about fly-aways, the dangers of flying low over water, and flying close to rocks or walls) so I went into an open field and flew around there instead.  Although I think the views would have been great around the cliffs, I don't regret my caution and today have been trying to do a postmortem on my intuition to try to learn something about hazard assessment.  I'd appreciate if experienced pilots could indicate the things they'd be thinking about before deciding whether or not to take this particular flight.
I had 8 satellites but have learned today that in a canyon or gorge, the distance between the satellites might have been an issue and is indicated in the signal bars.  That was not something I was aware of yesterday and so I didn't look at that piece of information to take note but certainly will next time I fly.  I do check wind conditions before going out but special winds created by features of the environment aren't something I'd see on a METAR report.  Do remote pilots use equipment to measure when they are unsure or estimate by what they can feel?

Any insight into how others would handle this situation is appreciated!
2020-2-23
Use props
DJI Stephen
DJI team
Offline

Hello and good day red squirrel. Thank you for reaching out and for sharing these information with us. I hope that you will get the best recommendation and feedback for our valued DJI co pilots on there experience on this kind of situations. In addition, I would suggest to always have a pre flight checklist each and every flight for safe always. For reference, I will post a DJI Forum Thread on DJI flight checklist ( https://forum.dji.com/thread-144807-1-1.html ) and a link where in you can check if a certain location is a No Fly Zone ( NFZ ) or if a certain location is free to fly your DJI Mavic Mini ( https://www.dji.com/flysafe/geo-map ). I hope this information can help. Thank you and have a safe flight always.
2020-2-23
Use props
red squirrel
Captain
Flight distance : 55610 ft
United States
Offline

DJI Stephen Posted at 2-23 10:47
Hello and good day red squirrel. Thank you for reaching out and for sharing these information with us. I hope that you will get the best recommendation and feedback for our valued DJI co pilots on there experience on this kind of situations. In addition, I would suggest to always have a pre flight checklist each and every flight for safe always. For reference, I will post a DJI Forum Thread on DJI flight checklist ( https://forum.dji.com/thread-144807-1-1.html ) and a link where in you can check if a certain location is a No Fly Zone ( NFZ ) or if a certain location is free to fly your DJI Mavic Mini ( https://www.dji.com/flysafe/geo-map ). I hope this information can help. Thank you and have a safe flight always.

Thank you DJI Stephen for the tips!  I do perform a preflight checklist that includes things like assessing weather conditions, equipment, obtaining LAANC authorization, and unlocking geo zones before I go out and another after take off checklist to make sure the controller and drone are doing what they should at a hover before flying.  Specifically, I am curious to learn from others’ mental processes in a situation like this in order to improve my ability to assess risk.  Thanks for all the help this forum provides!
2020-2-23
Use props
hallmark007
Captain
Flight distance : 9812789 ft
  • >>>
Ireland
Offline

Making risk assessments about what you plan to do will always stand you in good stead and lessen the chances of you loosing your drone.

I was a little confused as to whether you were above the gorge flying into it, or taking off in gorge,

If I were flying into gorge with risk of loosing gps, I would first asses if I’m lowering craft and loosing gps . How quick can I increase altitude to regain gps , if it’s straight down and up with no obstacles then risk is really only how far can my drone drift before I can regain gps.

With regards to flying over moving water, it’s something I do often and quite low with other dji drones, "not mini "with no problems, I have flown low at a very fast river coming off waterfall and mini was continually moving at 2 m but as soon as I gave slightly up stick movement it stabilized, it was worth the risk because I was very close to drone and I could easily monitor it.

Always good to have a look around to see if you can lower the risk by moving to better safer location , but actually considering the risks and managing them is very much what it’s all about if you value your drone, and you obviously know how to do that .

2020-2-23
Use props
red squirrel
Captain
Flight distance : 55610 ft
United States
Offline

hallmark007 Posted at 2-23 11:04
Making risk assessments about what you plan to do will always stand you in good stead and lessen the chances of you loosing your drone.

I was a little confused as to whether you were above the gorge flying into it, or taking off in gorge,

Thank you for the tips!  I am at the bottom of the gorge, at the bank of the stream but can’t take off straight up because of low trees.  I also would have needed to navigate the craft back to where I started in order to retrieve it which contributed to my reticence as I’m not highly reliable with that just yet.
2020-2-23
Use props
hallmark007
Captain
Flight distance : 9812789 ft
  • >>>
Ireland
Offline

red squirrel Posted at 2-23 11:14
Thank you for the tips!  I am at the bottom of the gorge, at the bank of the stream but can’t take off straight up because of low trees.  I also would have needed to navigate the craft back to where I started in order to retrieve it which contributed to my reticence as I’m not highly reliable with that just yet.

Ahh ok so I think you made the right decision, one thing when flying undercover to keep in mind if craft is within 20m and you lose signal it will just land, great for flying in forest and important to keep 20m from homepoint, but if craft is further away than 20m and signal is lost it will climb to Rth setting and most likely crash.
This is a learning curve for all of us .
2020-2-23
Use props
Traxx119
Second Officer
Canada
Offline

I hope you get all the information you seek from experienced pilots on how to better handle similar situations in the future. But for today, i think you did it perfectly. You were not certain about something, so you didn't put your Mini at risk. Good job!
2020-2-23
Use props
m80116
Captain
Flight distance : 3264131 ft
Italy
Offline

Let's suppose you were kind of in a tunnel of bare trees before you could ascend, so despite random branches Line of Sigh should not have been a problem.

If I were there I assume I already did my safety checks, like the weather, the wind (before departing at home and with an app) and on the field. Everything is calibrated correctly (compass on the drone, compass on the remote accounting for disturbance, meaning calibrated after it is attached to RC) and the batteries are full.

At that point I could take the risk knowing full well that... you need extra care not to confuse the sticks (for example if operating facing the drone on the comeback trip during a tunnel of branches), a low wind forecast might become quite a blast near a cliff, the environment will be unforgiving.

In a gorge w/ low GPS the drone will keep fluctuating because of instable GPS reception and low (count) satellites, the VPS will be next to useless above water and next to a cliff, and you cannot enforce ATTI mode which would give the drone better stability. Also to consider in case of high altitude flights is propeller status (top notch shape) and the possibility of sudden drops in altitude when the airspeed around the drone body suddenly changes, like when coming Sport mode full speed to a halt.

If you have a challenging passage consider where you're hovering, if above water or a cliff it is probably best to try the more difficult approach in a safer place if possible, so should the worst happen you car recover your the little one. Once on top of the cliff don't forget to maintain Line of Sigh in order not to lose the connection (despite probably a good initial take should you venture further on). You could also set an home point more more suitable for auto landing should RTH be auto-initiated, you might not be able to re-gain control until later where it might be too late.

Congrats for the great introspective post... not many have the courage to expose this kind of thinking.

Happy flights!
2020-2-23
Use props
ALABAMA
Captain
Flight distance : 10442687 ft
United States
Offline

Always better to be safe than sorry!
2020-2-23
Use props
red squirrel
Captain
Flight distance : 55610 ft
United States
Offline

hallmark007 Posted at 2-23 11:24
Ahh ok so I think you made the right decision, one thing when flying undercover to keep in mind if craft is within 20m and you lose signal it will just land, great for flying in forest and important to keep 20m from homepoint, but if craft is further away than 20m and signal is lost it will climb to Rth setting and most likely crash.
This is a learning curve for all of us .

Good point.  Being more likely to lose GPS in the gorge than other places should mean for my safety assessment to weigh whether I would be able to fly it back to that tight spot and not crash it in the water while fighting variable wind coming off the stream.  Not there yet, glad I listened to my gut and still have my mini.
2020-2-23
Use props
red squirrel
Captain
Flight distance : 55610 ft
United States
Offline

ALABAMA Posted at 2-23 13:24
Always better to be safe than sorry!

The mini lives to fly another day!
2020-2-23
Use props
red squirrel
Captain
Flight distance : 55610 ft
United States
Offline

Traxx119 Posted at 2-23 12:21
I hope you get all the information you seek from experienced pilots on how to better handle similar situations in the future. But for today, i think you did it perfectly. You were not certain about something, so you didn't put your Mini at risk. Good job!

Thanks!  I’m grateful for the generosity of all the experienced pilots on this forum who share their knowledge.  It helps a lot to bounce things off of people for me to think them through.  Yesterday I just had a gut feeling that said “mini danger” but the guidance here is helping me to understand why so I can improve my situational awareness.  Who knows, maybe one day I can fly that gorge!
2020-2-23
Use props
red squirrel
Captain
Flight distance : 55610 ft
United States
Offline

m80116 Posted at 2-23 13:14
Let's suppose you were kind of in a tunnel of bare trees before you could ascend, so despite random branches Line of Sigh should not have been a problem.

If I were there I assume I already did my safety checks, like the weather, the wind (before departing at home and with an app) and on the field. Everything is calibrated correctly (compass on the drone, compass on the remote accounting for disturbance, meaning calibrated after it is attached to RC) and the batteries are full.

Thank you for that insightful reply!  I hadn’t thought about the different RTH point (assuming I still had signal).  That is definitely something I should keep in mind in the future.  Following that chain of thought, my LAANC authorization was only to 100 feet.  Not sure I would have cleared the trees at that height.  Starting at the base of the gorge, I would have had to add an extra 20 or so meters too to my RTH if I enacted that strategy.  Planning really is key.
2020-2-23
Use props
DJI Stephen
DJI team
Offline

red squirrel Posted at 2-23 11:02
Thank you DJI Stephen for the tips!  I do perform a preflight checklist that includes things like assessing weather conditions, equipment, obtaining LAANC authorization, and unlocking geo zones before I go out and another after take off checklist to make sure the controller and drone are doing what they should at a hover before flying.  Specifically, I am curious to learn from others’ mental processes in a situation like this in order to improve my ability to assess risk.  Thanks for all the help this forum provides!

You are very much welcome red squirrel. If you have any other inquiries or concerns with DJI. Please feel free to post it here at DJI Forum. We are all here to help and support you.
2020-2-23
Use props
Advanced
You need to log in before you can reply Login | Register now

Credit Rules