Anyone have any stories of ACTUAL flyaways?

[Humanparody]

I am curious if anyone has had an experience with a flyaway that WASN'T due to operator error (be honest, flying behind a building is not the drone's fault) or complete failure of their drone causing it to inexplicably fall from the sky?

I'm trying to get an accurate gauge as to how reliable the MP actually is. I notice that people are constantly warning people about the dangers of your drone "inexplicably" catching fire mid flight, falling 10,000 feet and landing on a orphanage killing all the babies, but I have yet to come across a thread where a crash can't be tied to operator error in some way. Do these things...not drones in general, just the MP... actually have catastrophic hardware failures? Or are we just being paranoid? Bonus points for links that can convince me that I should be scared that my sweet little Mavic is potentially a mass murderer.

 

[Cyberpower678]

A drone flying at 10,000ft is a problem in itself. The Mavic doesn't catch fire as far as I'm aware. Can't comment on the Karma however.

 

[Humanparody]

A drone flying at 10,000ft is a problem in itself. The Mavic doesn't catch fire as far as I'm aware. Can't comment on the Karma however.

Creative writing isn't for everyone I suppose.

 

[willhay555]

Creative writing isn't for everyone I suppose.

Neither is sarcasm.

 

[dewster]

I had my first flight with the Mavic yesterday (after a long wait). I didn't have the jitters (gut feeling of failure) that I had flying other aircraft. What impressed me with the Mavic and Phantom 4 was the redundant IMUs , compasses, and flight logic to error check the system for failures.

I avoided the Phantom 3s because of videos posted on flyaways. It's bad enough having operator error. It's worse when something is spazzing out after becoming self aware and going Skynet.

I feel good about the Mavic.


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[AyeYo]

Neither is non-flat ground.

I fly over 10,000ft all the time, at only a couple hundred feet AGL.

 

[Alex Baxter]

Constantly suffering fly-aways.
With the drone facing away from me, and I push the right stick forward, it flies away. Even worse, if I turn the drone 180 degrees and pull the right stick back it flies away again. Then when I calibrate the compass whilst standing in a steel box, and take off the instant it powers up, then sometimes it flies away. I called customer service, and they said it's my fault, how dare they blame me when it's so obviously a problem with the drone....

 

[Humanparody]

Constantly suffering fly-aways.
With the drone facing away from me, and I push the right stick forward, it flies away. Even worse, if I turn the drone 180 degrees and pull the right stick back it flies away again. Then when I calibrate the compass whilst standing in a steel box, and take off the instant it powers up, then sometimes it flies away. I called customer service, and they said it's my fault, how dare they blame me when it's so obviously a problem with the drone....

Creative writing AND sarcasm?!
Teach me, master.

 

[willhay555]

Creative writing AND sarcasm?!
Teach me, master.

I love how you've quoted a separate post.

That's way above my tiny mind, high brow even?

My sarcasm comment was referring to my interpretation of the first reply to your original post

 

[Humanparody]

I love how you've quoted a separate post.

That's way above my tiny mind, high brow even?

My sarcasm comment was referring to my interpretation of the first reply to your original post

I know, I misread your sarcasm as snarkiness and then the thread just snowballed into an awkward catastrophic failure that fell 10,000 feet and killed all the babies. Bygones?

 

[willhay555]

I know, I misread your sarcasm as snarkiness and then the thread just snowballed into an awkward catastrophic failure that fell 10,000 feet and killed all the babies. Bygones?

In your defence, one baby did survive

 

[Humanparody]

Just realized that you didn't actually post the first reply. Where the hell is my coffee?

 

[trev1968]

Hi , I have a "real" story of a flyaway. I have only just received my Mavic but have had a Phantom 2 , so although I'm new to the Mavic I'm not a complete novice. On my second flight ( the first was perfect with no issues at all ) the Mavic refused to answer any commands from the controller and headed away from me while climbing. If it hadn't been for a tree branch it was away and gone. I have uploaded the flight details to Healthydrone and everything is showing green. No less than 12 satellites locked in , full batteries etc. All I know is on take-off it started drifting so I pulled left stick down to land and instead it went up and away from me ( with no right stick input ) , as it was heading away it was drifting to the left towards some trees so I tried both left stick and right stick right with no response. I finally tried both down to switch engines off , again with no effect ! Thankfully it then hit a tree branch which brought it down. On the DJI app it clearly shows my stick inputs with no effect on the drone but with no warning messages etc. Apart from two damaged props , there doesn't appear to be any damage to the drone but I am really scared to try it again.

 

[Cyberpower678]

Just realized that you didn't actually post the first reply. Where the **** is my coffee?

Heh. I have those moments too. The reality is the Mavic is a solid device and I've only encountered one fly away that wasn't operator error so far on this forum. Fortunately, thanks to the flight logs we were able to assist the owner to help them re-unite them with their Mavic. Turns out the GPS is defective and the drone went the wrong way to return home despite the home point being properly set.

Now also a reality GoPro was smart to recall the Karma, what with the many issues it had. The just brought back on the market and have fixed a battery connectivity issue. I am so glad they were aware of and fixed the many issues leading to the recall and concluded the battery was the culprit. So we can expect to see no more unexpected tilt videos, unexpected fast driftaways, unexpected battery drainage, slow controllers, clunky controls, and most importantly addresses the issue of portability in mind by making the unit bigger and heavier than the Phantom 4 and its controller combined. Oh wait...


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[Cyberpower678]

Hi , I have a "real" story of a flyaway. I have only just received my Mavic but have had a Phantom 2 , so although I'm new to the Mavic I'm not a complete novice. On my second flight ( the first was perfect with no issues at all ) the Mavic refused to answer any commands from the controller and headed away from me while climbing. If it hadn't been for a tree branch it was away and gone. I have uploaded the flight details to Healthydrone and everything is showing green. No less than 12 satellites locked in , full batteries etc. All I know is on take-off it started drifting so I pulled left stick down to land and instead it went up and away from me ( with no right stick input ) , as it was heading away it was drifting to the left towards some trees so I tried both left stick and right stick right with no response. I finally tried both down to switch engines off , again with no effect ! Thankfully it then hit a tree branch which brought it down. On the DJI app it clearly shows my stick inputs with no effect on the drone but with no warning messages etc. Apart from two damaged props , there doesn't appear to be any damage to the drone but I am really scared to try it again.

I'd like to see that flight log. Maybe I can find something. If possible can you also send the flight log of the drone itself?


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[erkme73]

When the MP switches to ATTI mode suddenly - especially when it is either BVLOS, dark out, or orientation is not immediately clear - it may begin to drift rapidly away from a hover. What causes the switch from GPS to ATTI mode when a dozen or more full-strength satellites are shown on the controller has yet to be explained in some cases. Clear skies, open fields, 16 sats with full bars to 16 sats, one red bar. That's not a traditional flyaway, but it certainly has resulted in the loss of aircraft and crashes for users here. Most of them were replaced by DJI under warranty.

Obviously if this happens, and you're within VLOS, have clear orientation, and are skilled enough (i.e. not panicked) it should not result in a loss of the aircraft. But to say it hasn't, doesn't, and won't happen is probably a bit too optimistic.

I would love to know what causes the GPS_Health to suddenly drop, but for now, no one really knows.

 

[Inayat]

When the MP switches to ATTI mode suddenly - especially when it is either BVLOS, dark out, or orientation is not immediately clear - it may begin to drift rapidly away from a hover. What causes the switch from GPS to ATTI mode when a dozen or more full-strength satellites are shown on the controller has yet to be explained in some cases. Clear skies, open fields, 16 sats with full bars to 16 sats, one red bar. That's not a traditional flyaway, but it certainly has resulted in the loss of aircraft and crashes for users here. Most of them were replaced by DJI under warranty.

Obviously if this happens, and you're within VLOS, have clear orientation, and are skilled enough (i.e. not panicked) it should not result in a loss of the aircraft. But to say it hasn't, doesn't, and won't happen is probably a bit too optimistic.

I would love to know what causes the GPS_Health to suddenly drop, but for now, no one really knows.

Just a question popped up from your post. Is the fly away covered under normal warranty from DJI or do we need Care Refresh only to claim the flown away MP?

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[erkme73]

I can't answer with certainty, as I think each case is evaluated on its own merits. In the cases I've seen where DJI covered it (where DJI Refresh was not activated/required), the GPS signal just arbitrarily dropped, conflicting with the compass, causing the switch to ATTI. In those cases, the user was left with a MP that drifted away which crashed (or was never found). After reviewing the logs and DAT files (if recovered), the decision was based on no fault of the operator. I can't recall the specifics, but I've read at least two separate instances where the MP was replaced under these conditions.

 

[MavicGuy]

Yes the actual number of real flyaways is quite small. And we only know of the problematic units on he forum mostly. ALOT of owners are enjoying their units problem free


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[HK!]

Orphanage strikes, or "Blue on Boo" events are actually quite common, they are just not reported, as Orphans fall under State property.