Air 3 went rogue and flew on it's own into a building.....what would cause this?

[MS Coast]

This is all DJI had to say,
"The data analysis has been finished and the unfortunate incident that occurred to your aircraft has been confirmed as a warranty case according to our data analysis.

If the aircraft cannot be recovered, we would like to offer you a replacement, DJI Mavic 3E aircraft (without the remote controller and battery charger)."

As @Meta4 and @slup suggest, your flight data will likely show the cause.

If you post your flight logs, you'll get far better analysis of the incident from the folks here than from DJI.

 

[StevenBrodsky]

As @Meta4 and @slup suggest, your flight data will likely show the cause.

If you post your flight logs, you'll get far better analysis of the incident from the folks here than from DJI.

Here is the link to the entire flight log DJI requested (I'll post it to Meta 4 as well) : FlightRecord.zip

 

[StevenBrodsky]

DJI analysis isn't what it used to be.
Your incident wasn't "a computer glitch in the drone" at all.
Your description is classic yaw error caused by powering up where magnetic interference upset the compass that the gyro sensor gets its initial values from.
Your flight data will almost certainly confirm this.

Here is the link to the full flight record of the drone as requested by DJI. If you could evaluate it for the community and myself it would be greatly appreciated. We all might learn something. :: FlightRecord.zip

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Jeepers that's 521 logs inc the DATs !!!!!!!!!
These might be what was sought

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

 

[slup]

Here is the link to the entire flight log DJI requested (I'll post it to Meta 4 as well) : FlightRecord.zip

In this case I can agree with DJI...

In a yaw error case we don't see a sudden abrupt uncommanded yaw movement in the log when the drone is on height... the yaw value is (even if deflected by a magnetically disturbed compass during power on) always somewhat the same (even though the log indicate another angle than in reality).

Here we instead see a quick CCW turn of approx. 140 degrees at approx. 11,5 sec into the flight when the drone is up on 9,5ft (which I imagine doesn't happen in reality).



If then also looking at the velocity difference between the IMU & GPS (which should be very near 0mph) we see major deviations developing right at that time.



Both these thing's indicate IMU or FC failures.

 

[BudWalker]

Here is the link to the full flight record of the drone as requested by DJI. If you could evaluate it for the community and myself it would be greatly appreciated. We all might learn something. :: FlightRecord.zip

Thanks for that. I'm assuming that
DJIFlightRecord_2023-09-16_[15-44-28].txt
is the log in question? The flight looks like this

Note that this shows the drone is facing north west away from the house on take off. Is this accurate?

 

[StevenBrodsky]

Thanks for that. I'm assuming that
DJIFlightRecord_2023-09-16_[15-44-28].txt
is the log in question? The flight looks like this
View attachment 171928
Note that this shows the drone is facing north west away from the house on take off. Is this accurate?

yes

 

[masterangler]

Let me preface and say I'm not expert, this is an upgrade from the original mavic I bought years ago and upgraded to the air 3 when it came out. Today I drove to the city knowing it'll be very empty with the holidays. Flew it in a few locations and the last one was by the river and bridges. Flew it for a few and landed. Next walked about 1/4 mile down and took off, it was hovering and I looked up and before i could spot it I heard it and then caught it in the corner of my eye and saw it go at full speed into a building. My fingers were off the toggle so I was not controlling it so I'm wonder how in the heck would make it go nuts and just go full speed in one direction when I did not ask it to do that? One of the arms is completely damaged and the camera has now now fallen out from the space it needs to be in, its basically out of commission, which is sad. I do did not by the DJI Care, which I now regret, but prob should see what it would cost for repairs.

I'm trying to see how I can download my flight records to see what went wrong, but still trying to figure it out. Any advice or input would help in order for me to avoid something like this again, losing a drone after investing thousands into it at no fault of my own stings a bit.

TIA!

One question, were there any power lines in and around where you were especially ones with transformers? I have only noticed control situations with my 3 Pro if I'm within about 25-30 of a transformer. I didn't lose it I just had a very difficult time controlling it so I brought it down and left the area. Pure speculation on my part.

 

[BudWalker]

In this case I can agree with DJI...

In a yaw error case we don't see a sudden abrupt uncommanded yaw movement in the log when the drone is on height... the yaw value is (even if deflected by a magnetically disturbed compass during power on) always somewhat the same (even though the log indicate another angle than in reality).

Here we instead see a quick CCW turn of approx. 140 degrees at approx. 11,5 sec into the flight when the drone is up on 9,5ft (which I imagine doesn't happen in reality).
View attachment 171924


If then also looking at the velocity difference between the IMU & GPS (which should be very near 0mph) we see major deviations developing right at that time.

View attachment 171925

Both these thing's indicate IMU or FC failures.

This appears to be a self inflicted yaw error fly away. I.e. it wasn't the pilot but instead the FC that caused the fly away. Easy to see why this could look like the familiar pilot-causes-yaw-error-fly-away scenario.

The initial yaw of -34° is consistent with the south westerly trajectory and roughly -30° roll. I.e. the M3E was facing north west and rolling CCW causing the M3E to move south west.

 

[Ted and Nune]

Apologies for the long post. Similar but different problem here. I'm a moderately experienced pilot with about 350 km in flights. Upgraded to latest Mavic 3 pro last year with no fly away issues until recently. The first time, I was flying perfectly well about 5-10 min in and hit the descend stick. Instead of descending, it tried to land. I cancelled the landing but the problem continued. I flew to myself and hand caught it. Second time, same thing. The third time, about two min in, it just started flying forward. I reflexively hit the reverse stick which made it hover with a very slow back up. It kept going forward on its own every time I let go of reverse. I managed to finagle it back to catch it. Fortunately, all three times, I was close enough to see what was happening but if I had been 100 ft higher or farther away, I would never have known what was going on and it would have crashed. I'm flying in open areas, N, some power lines, but I always get a good lock on sats and update the home point before shooting. I often fly high or long distances but won't risk it now. Still under warranty and I set up a service ticket but I'm wondering if there's something I can do about it now. I'm on a shoot overseas for another month and would really prefer to use the Mavic over the Mini 3 I have available. The only thing I can think of is that it's cold here--about 22f--close but still within tolerance. Any thoughts?

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Apologies for the long post. Similar but different problem here. I'm a moderately experienced pilot with about 350 km in flights. Upgraded to latest Mavic 3 pro last year with no fly away issues until recently. The first time, I was flying perfectly well about 5-10 min in and hit the descend stick. Instead of descending, it tried to land. I cancelled the landing but the problem continued. I flew to myself and hand caught it. Second time, same thing. The third time, about two min in, it just started flying forward. I reflexively hit the reverse stick. It kept doing it every time I let go of reverse. I managed to finagle it back to catch it. Fortunately, all three times, I was close enough to see what was happening but if I had been 100 ft higher or farther away, I would never have known what was going on and it would have crashed. I'm flying in open areas, some power lines, but I always get a good lock on sats and update the home point before shooting. I often fly high or long distances but won't risk it now. Still under warranty and I set up a service ticket but I'm wondering if there's something I can do about it now. I'm on a shoot overseas for another month and would really prefer to use the Mavic over the Mini 3 I have available. The only thing I can think of is that it's cold here--about 22f--close but still within tolerance. Any thoughts?

Post the flight logs concerned