I was hiking and decided to launch my Mini 2 from the trail - all was good when it just suddenly stopped and fell into the valley. I had flown it half-hour earlier over a lake with no problems. 

I probably stood there in shock for 5 minutes trying to process what happened and if I could scramble down the somewhat steep mountain side covered in dense bushes and find it. I tried and had to give up because I kept slipping (it had been raining for the past 2 weeks).

I ended up buying a Mini 4 Pro - which I’ve been wanting to do anyway for months but I felt like I gave up my 1st drone without trying very hard. Not to mention the 1TB sd card in it.

So 2 weeks later- after a lot more rain- I went back the first dry weekend with a plan and tools: 2 sets of hammock straps to tie myself to a tree, carabiners, a trekking pole and a trash grabber (in case it was in a place just out of my reach). 

I slowly went down a little ways from where I launched it originally, with about <50 feet of “rope” secured to a tree trunk near the trail. I spent 2 hours carefully going down and around looking into, above and under bushes. Early on I had to ditch the rope because it wasn’t long enough. Found and collected a surprising amount of trash along the way. 

After 2 hours I sat tired in between bushes and decided I gave it a really good try. I already had a new, better drone and the old one if recovered probably got wrecked by 2 weeks of rain. I turned to go back up when lying less than half a foot away from me was my Mini 2.

No scratches and still works. But can’t figure out why it fell in the first place.

Lost my Mini 2