Air 3S drifting from take-off

carlovian38 · 2026-01-31T18:06:41-0500

Hi all, I bought an air 3s 15 months ago. I love it but I've had an issue with it on two occasions and im just checking has anyone had the same issue as me. The issue ive had is that when I take off the drone has drifted to the right, not responded to the controls and hit a tree or a pole. On both occasions I replaced the blades and the drone performed as per afterwards. Im now extremely nervous about using the drone over these occurrences. The second occasions this happened it was near an very high river that i was wishing to get footage of. The drone drifted right and if it had drifted to the left it would have been in the river. I have care protect cover and I returned the drone to dji after the first incident and they said they couldn't see any issue in the flight log. Is this just part of the life of having a drone or is this something that warrants my concerns? Thanks for any advice/help

FLDave · 2026-01-31T18:22:39-0500

What about the flight data from the flight log? Details matter. How far did it drift to the right? What were the wind conditions? When did it achieve best GPS connections?

MS Coast · 2026-01-31T18:27:26-0500

I'm assuming you had a good GPS fix and a home point had been established before takeoff.

Before takeoff, did you confirm that the compass heading shown on the screen agreed with the actual direction the drone was pointed? If the drone is started in the presence of ferrous metal or a magnetic field, it's possible for the compass to be biased. Then, on takeoff, the drone will do something similar to what you described.

carlovian38 · 2026-01-31T18:29:22-0500

FLDave said:
What about the flight data from the flight log? Details matter. How far did it drift to the right? What were the wind conditions? When did it achieve best GPS connections?

Thanks for the reply. The area was very open with a tree line to the right of the drone. Wind was minimal, if any. I waited and the gps changed from waiting for gps signal to safe to fly. I waited 5 seconds or so afterwards that to make sure and I raised the drone avout 1m and it instantly started drifting. I tried using the controls to come back towards me, go down or turn it and it just kept leaning to the right.. it drifted about 5m until it hit a tree. I replaced the blades and it just hovered at 1m with zero issues from the exact same take off location

carlovian38 · 2026-01-31T18:32:05-0500

MS Coast said:
I'm assuming you had a good GPS fix and a home point had been established before takeoff.

Before takeoff, did you confirm that the compass heading shown on the screen agreed with the actual direction the drone was pointed? If the drone is started in the presence of ferrous metal or a magnetic field, it's possible for the compass to be biased. Then, on takeoff, the drone will do something similar to what you described.

I didnt check the compass before take off. I will do this in future, but it had good gps yes.

MS Coast · 2026-01-31T18:58:46-0500

carlovian38 said:
I didnt check the compass before take off. I will do this in future, but it had good gps yes.

It's highly likely compass bias was your problem. I've had issues starting the drone in certain places on the patio, which has embedded rebar. I've avoided the issue there by holding the drone at waist level while starting it. But I conscientiously verify the compass accuracy for every flight, regardless of whether any ferrous metals or magnetic fields are likely to be present.

You might post your flight log if you want more information. There are some very skilled folks on the forum who are very generous with their time in diagnosing flight issues.