DJI Mavic Pro takes nose dive into Mantua Reservoir in Utah

DJI Mavic Pro takes nose dive into Mantua Reservoir in Utah –

I am a big fan of the reveal shot in video. Not sure if there is a better term for what I was doing. Kind of like the shot in Miami Vice intro where the focus is tight on some waves and the camera slowly tilts up to reveal more subject matter. I’ve done it many times before with my Mavic pro.

So this thanksgiving I went to Mantua Reservoir in Utah and flew around for a while. On my second battery, I tried to do some of these shots again over the lake. I was not very far away but did not have eyes on the actual drone, only on the screen I had attached to the remote control.

You can see me positioning the gimble straight down to see how close I was getting to the water. Nothing I haven’t done before. When I seemed ready to start the shot, I pointed the gimble down and started heading as fast as I could in sport mode while trying to slowly tilt the gimbal up like I have several times before. While looking at my screen it looked like I just lost connection to the drone. I thought that was odd because I technically had a direct line of sight to it over the water even though I couldn’t see it with my eyes.

I figured it would reconnect soon and/or return to home. After about a minute I started to see it on my screen again. Figured it was a normal reconnect but I was a little worried about losing connection over the water again so I started moving it over land just in case it lost connection again.

After it looked like I was over land again, I lost connection again.

I could see basically where it was on the map but no visual imagery. I didn’t hear it start to return to me for a while so I started walking around to where I thought it would be if it decided to land there or if it crashed around there.

I found it had landed fine and was still on. Just sitting there on a little frontage trail.

Only it was all wet. But there was no water on the trail.

So I took it home and checked the sd card and was surprised to see that after I had started flying it over the lake, it seems to have decided to dive right into the lake!

It seems like at least the gimbal was underwater for a while but I am not sure if the rest of it submerged. Also not sure if a submerged mavic can extricate itself from the water. Maybe the props stayed above water while the gimbal went under? Anyway, as you can see, it seems to have lifted out of the water, however deep it was, then promptly fall back in it for a moment.

About the second time it lifts out of the water is when I think I see it from my position on my screen, not yet knowing it took a dip.

I can still turn on the mavic but cannot seem to link it to my remote anymore. But it WAS linked for a few minutes after it came out of the water the second time… Guess I’ll give it another day or two of drying out before I call DJI support again.

Update: After drying out for a few days I can now fly the Mavic but it does not transmit imagery or record to the SD card. I also cannot move the gimbal with the remote.

Seen on Youtube!