It just flew away! - <correction> it didn't fly away at all.

[sar104]

Bummer that DJI disagrees Meta. Take it up with them please.

I'm glad to hear that DJI helped you out here. I assume that they analyzed the same flight record that you posted since the aircraft remained lost and I've no idea how much effort they put into that or what, exactly, they told you but, as several of us pointed out, the flight record was not ambiguous. For example, if you look at the last 65 seconds of your flight record as the aircraft continued to move further away, and consider the aircraft heading, flight mode, pitch, and speed, the problem is very apparent:

During the two phases of GO HOME (RTH) the aircraft is pointing to the west (250° true), pitched forwards at 25°, and moving backwards (away from you) at 10 - 13 mph. A forward pitch of 25° is the most it will give you in RTH mode, and would equate to around 20 mph airspeed. But it's still going backwards at 13 mph, meaning that it was fighting a headwind out of the west of over 30 mph. That's not inconsistent with the AirData analysis that I posted earlier, and the aircraft FC itself gave you 6 high wind warnings during the flight. Perhaps you have a different explantion for those data?

To forestall the obvious question about the sport mode interval in the data above, when it re-entered sport mode at 863 seconds, you applied full forward elevator for 2.4 seconds, increasing the forward pitch to nearly 35° and slowing its drift away from you to under 10 mph, but then (presumably out of confusion) applied full backwards elevator for 4.2 seconds, briefly boosting its speed away from you to around 35 mph. Then you centered the sticks and its speed came back down before going back into RTH at 884 seconds following a brief disconnect.

So, you can gloat all you like that you think @Meta4 was wrong in his assessment, but he was not, at least based on the data that you provided.

 

[Meta4]

Since the moderator of this thread change my title without my permission, I would appreciate it if you would remove the <correction> It Did Not Fly Away At All. DJI disagrees with your opinion.

You were very, very lucky with DJI. Their decision as described goes completely against what the data clearly shows.
It would be very interesting to see their report.

I stand by my analysis and can't see any other possibility or any malfunction at all.
As the Mavic was unnecessarily allowed to be blown away by strong winds aloft, I'm not changing the (accurately) updated thread title.
This is confirmed by what SAR104 says above.
I hope you learn from your experience and the effort put in here to show you what really happened.

 

[nole1988]

Nole1988: I experienced the same bashing when I posted a fly away last December. I was expecting some good advice, or kind words, but was duly criticized instead.
I was flying for the second time in an area, with new and charged battery. While at high altitude, battery suddenly gives warning that it is reducing power to save itself...
couldn't overcome the wind and started flying North, away from me.
How in the world could anyone know that was going to happen with a new and fully charged battery-but the "experts" on this site had some way to tell me that I did something wrong.
UPDATE: after 5.5 months in the South Alabama rainy weather, a roofing crew found my drone. Every metal part was starting to rust, and the decal was faded, but after replacing the battery,
cleaning it up, new props, calibrations, it flew beautifully for 2 days. EVEN the camera worked perfectly. I was going to post how Great DJI products were.... But, then, something went amiss...
maybe a weather deteriorated ESC, the craft refused to behave and seemed to purposely crash-maybe commit suicide. Anyway, I got a good story out of it...call it the Phoenix

You were very, very lucky with DJI. Their decision as described goes completely against what the data clearly shows.
It would be very interesting to see their report.

I stand by my analysis and can't see any other possibility or any malfunction at all.
As the Mavic was unnecessarily allowed to be blown away by strong winds aloft, I'm not changing the (accurately) updated thread title.
This is confirmed by what SAR104 says above.
I hope you learn from your experience and the effort put in here to show you what really happened.

I hope you learn from this experience as well. Sometimes your forum members are right.

 

[sar104]

I hope you learn from this experience as well. Sometimes your forum members are right.

That's a remarkably feeble response. Are you ignoring the data that I posted above because you don't understand it, because you don't like what it shows, or for some other reason?

 

[nole1988]

My response was not directed at you Sar. I chose to ignore your response because I found it non-responsive since there was no persistent high wind. This was confirmed by the weather data and DJI. The flight record also showed the unit was avoiding obstacles at 400 feet. What obstacles?? That is where DJI focused because the unit was malfunctioning. Look at the picture that was posted. Does that look like 30 mph wind day to you? Beautiful sunny day with minimal wind. Anyway, no need to get mad Sar. This issue is weeks old. I started the thread by asking if DJI would stand behind their product. In the end, after much forum debate, they did. They did despite many people like you indicating that I somehow flew the drone in some of kind of sunny tropical storm or Category 1 hurricane.

 

[sar104]

My response was directed at you Sar. I chose to ignore your response because I found it non-responsive since there was no persistent high wind. This was confirmed by the weather data and DJI. The flight record also showed the unit was avoiding obstacles at 400 feet. What obstacles?? That is where DJI focused because the unit was malfunctioning. Look at the picture that was posted. Does that look like 30 mph wind day to you? Beautiful sunny day with minimal wind. Anyway, no need to get mad Sar. This issue is weeks old. I started the thread by asking if DJI would stand behind their product. In the end, after much forum debate, they did. They did despite many people like you indicating that I somehow flew the drone in some of kind of sunny tropical storm or Category 1 hurricane.

No, your previous response was clearly directed at @Meta4, to whom you were replying, and whom you quoted, not at me. So you found the data to be "non-responsive" and therefore ignored them? Is that supposed to mean something, or are you just experimenting with longer words that you normally use? You didn't even try to understand those data, did you?

Anyway, if your attempt at a counter-argument comprises that it was a sunny day and that you assert that DJI agree with you that it was not windy, and that the flight record shows obstacle avoidance at 400 ft, even though the flight record actually includes 6 high wind warnings and no apparent obstacle notifications, then, firstly, that's not an argument and, secondly, it's pretty obvious that you are not really interested at all in the data or understanding what happened. Good luck with your replacement aircraft, but I doubt that it will last very long.

 

[With The Birds]

No, your previous response was clearly directed at @Meta4, to whom you were replying, and whom you quoted, not at me. So you found the data to be "non-responsive" and therefore ignored them? Is that supposed to mean something, or are you just experimenting with longer words that you normally use? You didn't even try to understand those data, did you?

Anyway, if your attempt at a counter-argument comprises that it was a sunny day and that you assert that DJI agree with you that it was not windy, and that the flight record shows obstacle avoidance at 400 ft, even though the flight record actually includes 6 high wind warnings and no apparent obstacle notifications, then, firstly, that's not an argument and, secondly, it's pretty obvious that you are not really interested at all in the data or understanding what happened. Good luck with your replacement aircraft, but I doubt that it will last very long.

We don’t need to kick a man when he is down. I suspect it is apparent to him that poor judgement and lack of experience was the real contributor here and he probably has learnt from it. Some people just really don’t like being wrong. I picked how this was going to end when he said he was an expert and didn’t want advice in the OP. I am amazed DJI replaced the AC though.

 

[sar104]

We don’t need to kick a man when he is down. I suspect it is apparent to him that poor judgement and lack of experience was the real contributor here and he probably has learnt from it. Some people just really don’t like being wrong. I picked how this was going to end when he said he was an expert and didn’t want advice in the OP. I am amazed DJI replaced the AC though.

Fair enough - I'll leave him alone. I agree that it was a surprising decision if DJI did replace it. On the other hand, given the number of warrantly claims they likely receive as a result of poor piloting, I wonder whether they have enough resources to do a thorough analysis of every case.

 

[HELIOCAM]

WOW! New here. Not enough time to read the entire thread. But sure is a valuable lesson for newbs!

 

[Meta4]

We don’t need to kick a man when he is down. I suspect it is apparent to him that poor judgement and lack of experience was the real contributor here and he probably has learnt from it. Some people just really don’t like being wrong. I picked how this was going to end when he said he was an expert and didn’t want advice in the OP. I am amazed DJI replaced the AC though.

Judging by the message he sent me, I doubt this turkey has learned anything at all.
He's completely ignored the data which is very clear and unambiguous..
He's a lost cause but at least his incident is something anyone with an open mind can learn from.

@nole1988 .. you really have no idea.
Enjoy your short time with the new Mavic you have no right to own.
DJi fouled up big time if they really assessed your incident as a DJI malfunction.

 

[With The Birds]

Judging by the message he sent me, I doubt this turkey has learned anything at all.
He's completely ignored the data which is very clear and unambiguous..
He's a lost cause but at least his incident is something anyone with an open mind can learn from.

@nole1988 .. you really have no idea.
Enjoy your short time with the new Mavic you have no right to own.
DJi fouled up big time if they really assessed your incident as a DJI malfunction.

I think anyone that even might have a passing interest in this hobby and has followed the thread can see what happened, the well reasoned (and seemingly well intentioned by Sar104, yourself and others that spent time on this) factual analysis speaks for itself. Maybe the thread tittle should be changed to something along the lines of “Dangers or prevailing wind and RTH operation”. This is a great reference for new or less experienced operators who might potentially suffer a similar fate. Hopefully those who put the time in here won’t be discouraged by the response, I doubt DJI replaced the AC.

 

[QuadKid]

Just curious, re. "maintaining SA" - situational awareness .. which is difficult w. a drone as tiny, and symmetrical, as the Mavic and most small quads ... If you click RTH, and wait some period of time for the drone to be heading back to its Home Point, could you then cancel the RTH (what's the best way -- just moving the sticks?) and then go back to normal GPS flight, could you count on the drone then being on a track back to the Home Point? Would certainly be useful in high winds and having lost sight of the Mavic, which might not being making much headway in RTH mode ...

I use these Super LED's on my race quads for VLOS, I wire them directly to the XTC power connector so they go on as soon as I plug in the LiPo, you can easily wire them to a 9V battery and Velcro it to any type drone facing forward for situational awareness as to which way the drone is facing at a distance.

They are made for a Walkera F250 Runner and are available on Ebay Walkera Runner 250 White LED light | eBay

 

[Just Mark]

I use these Super LED's on my race quads for VLOS, I wire them directly to the XTC power connector so they go on as soon as I plug in the LiPo, you can easily wire them to a 9V battery and Velcro it to any type drone facing forward for situational awareness as to which way the drone is facing at a distance.

They are made for a Walkera F250 Runner and are available on Ebay Walkera Runner 250 White LED light | eBay

Thanks for pointing those out.

 

[Les Davidson]

Judging by the message he sent me, I doubt this turkey has learned anything at all.
He's completely ignored the data which is very clear and unambiguous..
He's a lost cause but at least his incident is something anyone with an open mind can learn from.

@nole1988 .. you really have no idea.
Enjoy your short time with the new Mavic you have no right to own.
DJi fouled up big time if they really assessed your incident as a DJI malfunction.

I am amazed that DJI replaced the Mavic. No wonder we all have to pay so much for our AC's. I nearly lost my Phantom 4 on the South downs in the UK. The wind was non existent at ground level but at 200 feet it was blowing my bird away. I had to go into sport mode to make headway and return. DJI obviously recognised that nole1988 was a troublemaker and thought it better to replace rather than argue the facts. I have read all the thread and cannot disagree with the detailed analysis of the two forum experts who obviously know what they are talking about.