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Experienced my first close call with a fly-away

DinoYYC

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My plan was to just climb, click a few photos and come back down. It was a windy day and I waited for the winds to calm down a bit. Then as I was clicking away, I noticed that I could no longer hear the drone above me. It was being carried away by the wind and picking up speed.

Thankfully I had a fully charged battery and thought to use Sport mode to bring it back with reasonable speed. Otherwise, I would have tried to just bring it down hopefully away from the trees! Good lessons learned.

Watch it here:

Hopefully this help someone avoid being placed in a similar situation and risk loosing their bird!
 
Welcome to the forum and glad you got out of that one .Thumbswayup
 
Good job bringing it back. Surprised you didn't get the High Winds Warning earlier. I'd re-calibrate in a wide open area.
 
I wish people would quit calling these incidents a "fly-Away". Is it just an attention-grabing effort to get us to read the post? It ISN'T A FLY-AWAY!!
It's a "I flew in too much wind. Wind that the Mavic can't and shouldn't be up against and it almost got BLOWN away".
 
I wish people would quit calling these incidents a "fly-Away". Is it just an attention-grabing effort to get us to read the post? It ISN'T A FLY-AWAY!!
It's a "I flew in too much wind. Wind that the Mavic can't and shouldn't be up against and it almost got BLOWN away".
I agree. The aircraft was still under user-control, did not malfunction, and did not 'fly away'. It was functioning exactly as it should have been; It was just being flown in high winds.
 
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I agree. The aircraft was still under user-control, did not malfunction, and did not 'fly away'. It was functioning exactly as it should have been; It was just being flown in high winds.
So let's call it a "Blow Away". LOL Speaking of using Sport Mode, has anyone else here ever had trouble getting the Mavic to go into Sport Mode? I have noticed a couple of times I had to totally let go of the sticks and come to a hover before it would go into Sports Mode. Just curious, I thought it was just my big fat fingers screwing it up.
Also, let's not forget folks, that sometimes we can take off in no wind whatsoever, then all of a sudden it's 50 MPH. Been there - Done that several times.
 
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Flew tonight against my better judgment in some brisk wind. I had just installed my Marco Polo and wanted to test it's range.

Well the winds at 200' were intense and my MPP started to drift away pretty quick. It didn't have enough power to get back. Thanks to all the good advice here I flipped it into Sport and brought here back safely.

One feature I would like to see DJI implement is auto sport mode activation during RTH if the drone can't overcome the wind. This could make the difference between a lost drone and successful return in a disconnect during heavy wind.
 
Flew tonight against my better judgment in some brisk wind. I had just installed my Marco Polo and wanted to test it's range.

Well the winds at 200' were intense and my MPP started to drift away pretty quick. It didn't have enough power to get back. Thanks to all the good advice here I flipped it into Sport and brought here back safely.

One feature I would like to see DJI implement is auto sport mode activation during RTH if the drone can't overcome the wind. This could make the difference between a lost drone and successful return in a disconnect during heavy wind.
But, in sport mode, the front sensors are deactivated. So, during RTH, you would have no obstacle avoidance. That's fine if you have your fail-safe altitude set correctly I suppose. Which you definitely should have.
 
That would be a nice feature. What some people don't realize is that yes, you use the battery faster in sport mode at full throttle, but you don't have to give it full throttle, just enough to overcome the wind and get back safely. It seemed to me when I was testing it that the throttle was very graduated and responsive, even from the speed of normal mode to the full speed of Sport mode.
 
But, in sport mode, the front sensors are deactivated. So, during RTH, you would have no obstacle avoidance. That's fine if you have your fail-safe altitude set correctly I suppose. Which you definitely should have.

True. A safe RTH altitude should always be on one's flight list.
 
Not disputing any of these events, however I've flown my bird in high wind & it just stays stedy freddy. It adjust cause GPS is dead on. I also have a Typhoon H pro. Hover sucks, drifts & cost TWICE as much. I don't kno what wind speed you guys are flying in. The dead on hover was one of the reasons I bought this bird. The H is actually my 3rd as I had 1 fly away, still haven't seen her using the wizard. Great warranty. My point also, after a real fly away lol. Hard to trust, I still 90% with H, 1000% with Mavic
 
Not disputing any of these events, however I've flown my bird in high wind & it just stays stedy freddy. It adjust cause GPS is dead on. I also have a Typhoon H pro. Hover sucks, drifts & cost TWICE as much. I don't kno what wind speed you guys are flying in. The dead on hover was one of the reasons I bought this bird. The H is actually my 3rd as I had 1 fly away, still haven't seen her using the wizard. Great warranty. My point also, after a real fly away lol. Hard to trust, I still 90% with H, 1000% with Mavic

Well that was my experience until the other night. Stead as a rock. The winds at 200' must have been pretty powerful. They weren't that bad at ground level or I wouldn't have flown. Time to start using my UAV weather app.
 
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Thankfully I had a fully charged battery and thought to use Sport mode to bring it back with reasonable speed. Otherwise, I would have tried to just bring it down hopefully away from the trees! Good lessons learned.

Hopefully this help someone avoid being placed in a similar situation and risk loosing their bird!

When you switch to the sport mode does it override whatever mode you might be in at the time?
 
Thanks for the prompt reply.

First time drone owner, trying like crazy not to loose it to a stupid mistake.
With my first ever job (L O N G time ago) the owner gave every employee a plaque "Mistakes will happen, why must you give them so much help". I still have it.
im not even a flyer yet,i will have owned my mp for 4 months before ill likely fly it but i do read alot,watch tons of video and browse this forum alot.
 
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Another good thing to remember.. If you are being blown away, and you feel you have to ditch it somewhere.. Turn the drone around and go with the wind that way you can see where you are heading, and find a safe place to land it, and not be blown into a tree.
 
Another good thing to remember.. If you are being blown away, and you feel you have to ditch it somewhere.. Turn the drone around and go with the wind that way you can see where you are heading, and find a safe place to land it, and not be blown into a tree.
Indeed! This kind of simple tip are easily miss-out when under pressure...
 
I think by lowering the altitude, you might have had less of headwind for the return leg
 
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