I lost my Mini 2 yesterday - be careful of the wind!

Flying in a local park and experimenting with Circle process. Apparently a gust of wind blew the aircraft into a line of trees with heavy brush at ground level. At this point I don’t know whether it is stuck in a tree or buried in bushes. The last altitude in the log is 50+ feet. I searched for 2 hours yesterday and today and wI haven’t given up. I’ve included a link to my log file below.

Interested in any tips/suggestions that could help me locate this lost bird

[https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/D426AXAR8FVW8MUIUCJA]

Hi zcechmark,

No wind, your mini2 in quickshot doing a nice controlled move but stopped flying into trees.


So your drone must be there to be found.

cheers
JJB

Oops! Now to work on patience until it dislodges from the tree 50 feet up. . . .

I had a similar incident getting drone stuck high in a tree. We knew it was there because of the video cached on the phone. Can you find the video on your phone and watch its final moments? For your entertainment, here is the short version of my saga (video on first slide, then page to a couple other slides): drone crash 2 - Google Slides

If you can somehow spot it in the tree (was nigh impossible for us, but somehow we finally did), make a very long pole (45’ for us) and poke it until it falls. This is a multi person operation – a couple with the pole and at least one other a ways away who can see the drone and guide the poking. You have to assemble the pole as you push it up vertically – i.e., can’t build the whole thing on the ground. We used mostly PVC, which flexes more than you’d like. I recently put up some Christmas lights very high and found bamboo sections taped together with duct tape can give you a very rigid, light, long pole.

Have you tried, Find My Drone.

I am a Newbie, so I am interested in how well that function works!

Thank You

Find My Drone worked, but the drone (Mini 2) was so high in the tree, we could not see it flashing and could only occasionally barely hear beeping.

Quickshots are very risky - with no obstacle avoidence. I only use them in absolutely wide open spaces.

From the flight map included by JJB (if that’s your info…) it appears that your drone is in an area with a lot of trees with no other discernable land marks, in the middle of “no-where”. If you know which trees ate your drone, do everything to mark those trees (yellow ribbon, stake in ground, paint on trunk, etc…).

Winter is upon us and as the leaves drop, as the snowfalls, etc… things will look different and all the trees will start looking the same.

Keep going out there, take binoculars and a lawn chair and keep searching, do it at different times of the day, so the sun is in different positions. Get some friends to accompany you. Sometimes a different set of eyes may see more than you can wish for. I imagine every shadow is starting to look like your drone.

Good Luck.

LD

Agree with LoudThunder. We even knew which tree it was, but with 6 people looking for 2 hours we could not find it. Then my sister-in-law came out at night with a flashlight and binoculars and finally spotted it. It could only be seen from a few certain spots/angles. Having leaves down should help a lot.

ofcourse that is his info…why would i add a flightpath map from somebody else… :wink:

Thanks for sharing your experience. I don’t have any assistants to draw from so it looks like I’ll have to focus on patience until it gets disloged. The last photo shown on air data indicates an elevation of 55 feet(attached)


I have the DJI Care Refresh but it’s considerably more expensive if you can’t return the original aircraft. Fortunately, the crash site is located 5 minutes away. I seem to remember seeing some video footage of the drones last minutes, but can’t find it now. How long does the video cache last and where do you look on an iPhone. Thanks again!
I was able to locate the terminal footage and it is interesting in that it shows a patch of grass (end of soccer field) at the time of collision. A subsequent still image has no grass which seems to indicate that the drone is not wedged in and may fall as the winds blow. :slightly_smiling_face: :wink:
Terminal Crash Footage

Yes, Find My Drone was very informative about where the drone crashed, but since it appears to be high up in a tree-one of those below I’ll have to wait till it falls.

Live and learn. I’ve been flying drones for 4 years and this was the first (and possibly last) time that I attempted to use this feature. It worked fine on my Air 2 S but the Mini is a different animal.
Air 2 S Footage

Thanks for the comment. I actually have returned to the scene twice with a lawn chair, binoculars and garden shears to continue my search. I added the garden shears after falling twice in the heavy underbrush beneath the crash site. By Spring I wil have probably cleared a few more hiking trails for the walkers who must wonder what I’m up to (lol)

I have an Android, but I expect it is similar. When you open DJI Fly, there is an icon for ‘Album’. In there I see my cached videos.

Also, what you posted has the exact lat/long coordinates. Seems like that should help.

This is what your lat/long shows. Maybe a bit more exact than the flight pattern.

The data is very good. I was able to measure this area’s distance from some abandoned soccer goals.

Call arborists in your area, if they can’t get a cherry-picker truck in there they are also excellent tree climbers.

I had 1 guy offer to do it for free, but he got cash and a case of his favorite beer anyways.

Thanks, it’s on the border between a public park and a private farm but I will investigate your suggestion if the wind doesn’t blow my way in a month or so. . . .

It’s not far from the turf. Maybe 1 or 2 trees in.
Use binoculars and stand a bit further away and you might spot it.
As if you were looking for a bird.