I am sharing this for a deep grief over my just purchased yet sunken AVATA, as well as raising an awareness to whoever might benefit from my experience.

The video before crash is here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LOr4F8lqPXnX7V-TetKc6TTj3yX-zciL/view?usp=share_link

I say Avata is a great drone. It has given me lots of fun and allow me to experience something I had never imagined before.

But here's the thing: The bottom obstacle avoidance works great for a while, until it stopped sensing the danger when getting closer to the water. This is a completely new drong on its first couple flight. Firmware all up-to-date, no malfunction for either the drone, the headset or the motion controller.

And then "boom", it fell into the lake. It's like suddenly there's no obstacle ovoidance anymore. Straight into the water. More than $600 gone. Didn't even try to pull out from water (I am sure the moter has more than enough power to go straight up against water, but the software just doesn't ask it to do so).

I do have fly away coverage for this. It's like paying over $200 to get a refurbished drone, which is difficult to appreciate given the situation like this.

If you happen to read this and find it useful, please share and repost as much as you like (including the video).

If DJI doesn't care about this issue, I have at least tried to make the number of victim fewer. Thanks!

There is a warning on page 25 of the owner's manual that the vision system cannot work properly over water or transparent surfaces.
It's recommended to maintain flight control at all times and avoid overly relying on the sensor system.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

I'm sorry this happened to you but this is common knowledge when flying over water, not only for Avata but for other drones that have downward vision systems.  I think the reflective surface confuses it.  It is in the manual as well.

From page 25 in the maunal:

"The Downward Vision System may not function properly when the aircraft is flying over water.
Therefore, the aircraft may not be able to actively avoid the water below when landing. It is
recommended to maintain flight control at all times, make reasonable judgments based on the
surrounding environment, and avoid over-relying on the Downward Vision System."

Thank you for reaching out and we're deeply sorry for the incident that happened to your unit. In this kind of situation, I'm afraid that you may consider sending the unit in for a proper diagnosis. You can contact our support team to start up a ticket at https://www.dji.com/support . Also, the warranty can be applied depending on the outcome of the damage assessment including the warranty period of your unit. Thank you for your kind and understanding.

That video was hard to watch, I've never relied on obstacle avoidance to that point. if you use the sensors as a safety net for your mistakes you'll be much less likely to have a problem. But when you tell the drone to keep descending, relying only on the sensors to save the drone... things aren't always going to go well. Sorry to hear you lost your drone.

Sorry but this is 100% pilot error. You basically dove the thing straight into the lake.
Perhaps your first time flying? Sad Story. Your fault. Expensive lesson.

Do you have DJI Care Refresh / Fly Away coverage? (your only hope)

DJI Paladin Posted at 11-6 19:39
Thank you for reaching out and we're deeply sorry for the incident that happened to your unit. In this kind of situation, I'm afraid that you may consider sending the unit in for a proper diagnosis. You can contact our support team to start up a ticket at https://www.dji.com/support . Also, the warranty can be applied depending on the outcome of the damage assessment including the warranty period of your unit. Thank you for your kind and understanding.

dear moderators - please stop copy+paste this marketing blabla
Peter (author of post)  show (on vid) and write in text too, that his drone hit+sunk into water - really I doubt he will be able to fish it out
so this comment "..you may consider sending the unit for proper diagnosis..." is really bad joke to him.

but about who to blame for crash - I agree with other comments, that that is pure pilot error, sorry Peter

Hi, dear all:

Thank you for all the timely feedback. I didn't expect that many people here are this passionate.

It reminded me of the good old time when I first started playing League of Legends.

I guess I have picked the right game again.

Sincerely.

I never red that the downward vision system of the Avata would avoid any obstacles ! It’s just here to help stabilize the drone.
And when I’m flying towards the ground I never noticed an input that would avoid me to hit the ground !

Hi there, please note that the Downward Vison System may not function properly when the aircraft is flying over water. For more details, you can refer to the user manual below.https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/ ... _User_Manual-EN.pdf
And we managed to find out your case number and noticed that the quotation has been sent to you, please have a look. Should you have any further inquiries, please feel free to contact us.

when you fly over water make sure you have a full video signal .. Sad story

You wont like this answer, saw the video, but for me, this is just user error... you tried to go very low, your bitrate was below 10 already and you kept going down, they creates more lag, less detail to give an idea how low you are and took the risk to go lower. You also DOVE down in sport, which means its needs some time to "pull up" again if you give the command. So yeah, flying above water, you just take the risk and take your loss or just avoid water. like others said, its been for years DJI warns about sensors above water. In your case, it didnt see something below... It's part of the game. You will get over it and soon buy a new one for sure! if you buy drones, you will crash/loose some...