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15% Battery Force Landing

Sau Wing Lam

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Evo will land when battery goes down to15%. But 15% battery could still fly quite a distance. Mavic does not force landing. What is the rationale for this force landing? I have experienced two forced landing so far and both times Evo is already close to home, but wind speed increased so the returns were slowed down. I can understand force landing at 2 or 5%, but 15%? Why???
 
Evo will land when battery goes down to15%. But 15% battery could still fly quite a distance. Mavic does not force landing. What is the rationale for this force landing? I have experienced two forced landing so far and both times Evo is already close to home, but wind speed increased so the returns were slowed down. I can understand force landing at 2 or 5%, but 15%? Why???
Safety measure. The battery percentage may indicate 15%, but it's only an estimation.

Depleting LiPo batteries to much will damage batteries over time.

If you throttle up, it will prevent the Evo from landing, but you will have to keep throttling until you get to your destination. At 8% it will land no matter what you do.
 
A very good safety measure I might add. I'm not one to roll the dice with a $1000 drone and push the limits of the battery power because sooner or later it will bite you. I recently got mine and the new battery shows about 27 mins of flight time and it has been wanting to RTH at around 5 mins remaining.

I really don't have a problem with that.
 
A very good safety measure I might add. I'm not one to roll the dice with a $1000 drone and push the limits of the battery power because sooner or later it will bite you. I recently got mine and the new battery shows about 27 mins of flight time and it has been wanting to RTH at around 5 mins remaining.

I really don't have a problem with that.
Unless it starts autolanding over the ocean fighting a headwind coming home. I'd rather sacrifice the battery over the aircraft in this case
 
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Unless it starts autolanding over the ocean fighting a headwind coming home. I'd rather sacrifice the battery over the aircraft in this case

I wouldn't put myself in that position. No real desire to fly over the ocean to capture any footage. Well, I suppose I could drive to the coast and shoot some footage of the cliffs... but even then that doesn't require the drone being miles off shore and whatever the circumstances I'd be doing it with a full battery.

RTH over ocean water isn't a problem I'll ever have.

I am going on a cruise in December but I'll be filming in similar circumstances... standing on a beach getting overhead shots. I won't be flying the drone 2 miles out then possibly running out of battery.

Happy flying!
 
RTH over ocean water isn't a problem I'll ever have.
So because you never had the problem its not an issue?

OK...

Its only in fringe cases where you would need that last 7% as most pilots worth their salt know to land Within 20% battery but sometimes weather can kick up and you may well find yourself needing every last bit of juice of the battery to get it back.Coastal areas especially are known for wind kicking up out of nowhere and often at altitude the wind is much stronger than what it is on the ground.

My very first flight in the Evo was no more than 200ft high directly above me, seemingly no wind on that day and out of nowhere wind kicked up and drone started drifting with the wind. I can only imagine the right conditions where one could find themselves fighting wind almost home only to have the drone descend into the water at 7%. This is the time I also found that the OA severly limits the drones ability to fight wind due to limited pitch, but thats for another thread.
 
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So because you never had the problem its not an issue?

OK...

Its only in fringe cases where you would need that last 7% as most pilots worth their salt know to land Within 20% battery but sometimes weather can kick up and you may well find yourself needing every last bit of juice of the battery to get it back.Coastal areas especially are known for wind kicking up out of nowhere and often at altitude the wind is much stronger than what it is on the ground.

My very first flight in the Evo was no more than 200ft high directly above me, seemingly no wind on that day and out of nowhere wind kicked up and drone started drifting with the wind. I can only imagine the right conditions where one could find themselves fighting wind almost home only to have the drone descend into the water at 7%. This is the time I also found that the OA severly limits the drones ability to fight wind due to limited pitch, but thats for another thread.
I believe you misunderstood his meaning. The way I understood it, is as he will never fly in open waters, therefore it will never happen to him. He is not denying the underlined problem.
 
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So because you never had the problem its not an issue?

OK...

Its only in fringe cases where you would need that last 7% as most pilots worth their salt know to land Within 20% battery but sometimes weather can kick up and you may well find yourself needing every last bit of juice of the battery to get it back.Coastal areas especially are known for wind kicking up out of nowhere and often at altitude the wind is much stronger than what it is on the ground.

My very first flight in the Evo was no more than 200ft high directly above me, seemingly no wind on that day and out of nowhere wind kicked up and drone started drifting with the wind. I can only imagine the right conditions where one could find themselves fighting wind almost home only to have the drone descend into the water at 7%. This is the time I also found that the OA severly limits the drones ability to fight wind due to limited pitch, but thats for another thread.

Sounds like you should get yourself a copy of UAV Forecast to see what the wind is doing at different heights. It is a very handy app for that purpose!
 
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Hi Everyone,
Well I had my Evo for three days, now its lost because of a forced landing, in a soybean field, cant find it, and I didnt have
my phone on the controller, so no maps, I will be getting a Marco Polo, always use my phone, come home before 5 percent.
If I ever get one again.
 
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Sry for your loss! Only one thing I can say - RTFM! Watch the Utube videos. And when you are done RTFM again... :mad:
 
I read the manual 4 times before I flew it, I did not see anywhere in the manual stating that a gps location
can only be obtained with a phone connected, I thought the controller would hold this info.
 
I read the manual 4 times before I flew it, I did not see anywhere in the manual stating that a gps location
can only be obtained with a phone connected, I thought the controller would hold this info.
You are correct. GPS located in the drone itself, no phone needed. The problem here is that the controller does not keep logs of the flight. Therefore there is no way of using it to find the drone.
 
Hi Everyone,
Well I had my Evo for three days, now its lost because of a forced landing, in a soybean field, cant find it, and I didnt have
my phone on the controller, so no maps, I will be getting a Marco Polo, always use my phone, come home before 5 percent.
If I ever get one again.
That's why I never fly using the controller alone, and refused to fly with iOS Explorer until iOS could actually finally record a flight log. Those flight logs and maps are critical to recovery, especially on an aircraft that has an uncancellable landing at only 8% battery!
 
Evo will land when battery goes down to15%. But 15% battery could still fly quite a distance. Mavic does not force landing. What is the rationale for this force landing? I have experienced two forced landing so far and both times Evo is already close to home, but wind speed increased so the returns were slowed down. I can understand force landing at 2 or 5%, but 15%? Why???
Sau, Check your software selection for the Low Battery and Critical battery level settings. There is a slider bar which allows you to drop your critical low forced landing to 10%. And you can lower your 25% low warning also. The 10% level at least gives you a few extra minutes to fly especially if you are flying right in front of yourself and there are no dangers of a forced landing out in the boondocks.
 
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I understand the logic and reasoning for defaulting to the forced landing, but feel Autel should allow for the user to manually override this at their own risk and liability. If needed, fly the battery to 0% to get the drone back home or land where the drone can be safely retrieved. DJI allows for this and even has a reserve of approximately 90 seconds of flight after the battery hits 0% (at least with the Spark). Not saying you want to push it this far, but allowing to fly beyond the forced (no override) landing at 8% can be the extra time needed to get the drone onto dry ground or a retrievable location.
 
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I understand the logic and reasoning for defaulting to the forced landing, but feel Autel should allow for the user to manually override this at their own risk and liability. If needed, fly the battery to 0% to get the drone back home or land where the drone can be safely retrieved. DJI allows for this and even has a reserve of approximately 90 seconds of flight after the battery hits 0% (at least with the Spark). Not saying you want to push it this far, but allowing to fly beyond the forced (no override) landing at 8% can be the extra time needed to get the drone onto dry ground or a retrievable location.

Its only logical. Flying a battery to 0% in an emergency forced landing override and trashing (perhaps and perhaps not) your battery but being able to walk over and retrieve your bird....OR....drop it in the lake, ocean, river, forest, soybean field, rush hour traffic and fork out another grand for a full replacement? An $85 sacrifice in a time of "emergency" is quite an obvious choice.

Abuse: Well look at it this way. If a pilot wants to override a forced landing and go for broke, i.e. max flight time on a charge and ultimately trashes his/her battery and must replace it, how often would they do that before they learned the $85 per flight lesson. :) Adding a stern warning in the manual about abusing the override is fair enough education.
 
Its only logical. Flying a battery to 0% in an emergency forced landing override and trashing (perhaps and perhaps not) your battery but being able to walk over and retrieve your bird....OR....drop it in the lake, ocean, river, forest, soybean field, rush hour traffic and fork out another grand for a full replacement? An $85 sacrifice in a time of "emergency" is quite an obvious choice.

Abuse: Well look at it this way. If a pilot wants to override a forced landing and go for broke, i.e. max flight time on a charge and ultimately trashes his/her battery and must replace it, how often would they do that before they learned the $85 per flight lesson. :) Adding a stern warning in the manual about abusing the override is fair enough education.
You will also see this with other manufacturers. It's not an Autel specific function. At least you get a fair amount of warning before autoland. On Yuneec drones, they don't have smart batteries, so if you aren't aware of your voltage, you will lose your drone.
 
I understand the logic and reasoning for defaulting to the forced landing, but feel Autel should allow for the user to manually override this at their own risk and liability. If needed, fly the battery to 0% to get the drone back home or land where the drone can be safely retrieved. DJI allows for this and even has a reserve of approximately 90 seconds of flight after the battery hits 0% (at least with the Spark). Not saying you want to push it this far, but allowing to fly beyond the forced (no override) landing at 8% can be the extra time needed to get the drone onto dry ground or a retrievable location.
My thoughts exactly. The Mavic 2 can still be flown for two more minutes after reaching 0%, and even then, only enters truly forced descent after the lowest cell voltage drops below 3.0V. EVO's 8% truly forced landing severely limits the ability to recover the aircraft when flying back over water or unretrievable terrain, if the wind shifts, or you lingered too long at your destination, caught up in the moment. It also means your realistic EVO flight times are reduced by another 8%.
 

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