Share Your Drone Loss Stories

[double u]

it wa a DJI Mavic Pro

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by double u

it wa a DJI Mavic Pro

Sorry for your loss. Did you buy another one?

[double u]

when he visited us again for 3 months in PF he came with another one. No more flying from the moving boat though...

[double u]

upon soul-searching & reflection (after all our son had flown his drone many hours before & considered himself a moderately experienced operator our conclusion was:
the difficulty (except for a "natural") lies in judging the COG of the drone if the operator is on a moving boat & all he sees is the motion of the drone relative to the boat. Because of the position of mainsail, backstay & shrouds there is only a relatively narrow angle of approach when landing possible. Add to this wind & a very small "landing place" & a "first" for the operator - & splash!
If there were a "next time" we would train starting & landing on a moving pickup, of course while riding on it's bed ourselves.

[WhiteHill]

Originally Posted by coopec43

Maybe this is the answer?

https://www.google.com/search?q=dron...client=gws-wiz

I had a float kit 3D-printed for my Mavic Air 2 as described here:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4576554
and opted for the DJI insurance.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by double u

upon soul-searching & reflection (after all our son had flown his drone many hours before & considered himself a moderately experienced operator our conclusion was:
the difficulty (except for a "natural") lies in judging the COG of the drone if the operator is on a moving boat & all he sees is the motion of the drone relative to the boat. Because of the position of mainsail, backstay & shrouds there is only a relatively narrow angle of approach when landing possible. Add to this wind & a very small "landing place" & a "first" for the operator - & splash!
If there were a "next time" we would train starting & landing on a moving pickup, of course while riding on it's bed ourselves.

I agree. If I fly a drone from a moving boat again, it will be a cheap one, and I will plan to catch it somehow, instead of landing it. Expensive experience has taught me the truth of what you write above.

[mickand]

I flew my M Mini from the flybridge deck whilst moving.
As soon as it took off, it flew backwards over the handrail and tumbled over but landed on the swim platform.
Recovered it minus the battery but found it the next day in the dinghy.
It flew off looking for the home point I assumed.

[Sailor647]

Here's a great recovery story. She's got a few good videos on her channel that are sailing related.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zZeD6Udx7A&t=145s

[toddster8]

I haven't tried it yet from a moving boat. But given how much paraphernalia there is around the cockpit, it has occurred to me that maybe the safest landing pad would be the towed dinghy.

And I have acquired a "second best drone" from fleabay for just that purpose. There seem to be ample supply.

[joelhemington]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Misery loves company! So I'll tell mine if you tell yours.


I have had, that is, had, until yesterday, a DJI Mavic 2 Pro with the lucious large sensor Hasselblad camera. For a year and a half. I have not used it all that much, but recently started making better videos and started really enjoying it.


I was feeling confident enough to try to fly it for the first time from a moving boat. The conditions were perfect -- sunny day, almost calm, glassy sea sailing at 2 knots.


Taking off was no issue, flying it was no issue, but naturally I screwed up the landing. I think my chances would have been better in stronger wind and sailing faster. Because I had a momentary brain fart and forgot that letting go the sticks would NOT stop the drone in relation to the boat. I got within 12 inches of a landing on my afterdeck, then hesitated briefly, and there the drone goes over the pushpit. It hits my flagpole and right into the drink. Damn!


Scratch one drone cum Hasselblad camera.

Don't feel too bad. Brian of Delos must have lost about a dozen of them if he ever visits my boat, the first thing I do is hide the drone

[Breaking Waves]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

I agree. If I fly a drone from a moving boat again . . . . .

So, what I want to know . . Is it you buzzing the US navy with your drone swarm, and where did you get the EW packages? Are you really a NK asset? I think the aliens from Andromeda are better at landing their drones.

[Cpt Mark]

On Delos, Brady made a handle to catch the drone. Stuck straight down. Looks like it worked well. Catching one in a net. Hmm. I'd be really concerned about microfractures in the props after that. 1 tiny one and it could fly apart in flight.

[Cheechako]

I found #6 duck shot wont bring them down reliably, so I went to 00 buckshot with better results....

[Bill Seal]

Watched a guy doing some wild flying of some high speed drones among trees, using VR goggles. At least you would have a drone's eye view of the landing.

[mikereed100]

I am currenly on my third drone.

The first is a Mavic Pro that, while it has been thoroughly abused, I still have. I crashed it a number of times while landing on the boat, but it always managed to get hung up in the lifelines or rig so I was able to retrieve it. It once shut itself down and dropped like a brick immediately after takeoff while the boat was moving. Just happened to fall in the dinghy so it lived to fly another day. The last straw was when I was flying over a glacier in Patagonia. Don't know whether it was too cold (manual says must be over 5C) or whether it had just had enough, but it crashed itself on a mud flat in front of the glacier. It must have flipped back onto it's feet after crashing because after I lost visual and video I hit the RTH button and by god it did, with the gimbal hanging by it's wires. Review of the video shows it just gradually lost altitude before crashing. I have a replacement gimbal from Ebay that I hope will set it right.


The second drone, another Mavic Pro from Ebay to replace the first, was lost after only 2 weeks of life when I backed it into a cliff while filming another glacier. (Patagonia is hard on drones). Never recovered.

I just got a Mavic Air 2. We'll see how many lives that one has.

I have found that landing on the boat can be done but is very challenging. First, turn off all the obstacle avoidance features, then slow the boat as much as possible, hover over the landing spot and drop it as fast as you can. After crashing multiple times I now will not fly off of the boat unless the seas are calm and I can stop the boat. Catching is great in theory, but trying to maneuver the drone with one hand and catch with the other on a moving boat is beyond my skill level. I've tried talking my wife into catching it but her survival instincts are too strong.