FLY AWAY FOUND IN PERFECT CONDITION

rewizard · Mar 21, 2021

Just an update on how not to give up if you have a fly away..... I took off from an area before I had home point established. When I realized it, after it reached an altitude of approximately 250 feet, I started to reset home point BUT the drone just took off leaving me with no control at all. I have been flying drones for 6 years and never had an issue like this. I watched it fly towards a Condominium nearby and could not get it to respond but once it disappeared from view the camera showed it upside down on a balcony. I judged that it was between the 24th and 26 floor. As I am a Realtor I did research and discovered that 2406 was on the market and it was one of the possible balconies. I called the Realtor and he said he was about to show the property and would check. Low and behold he called me and he had the drone. I had to then cancel my replacement from Cloud City as well as skins and SD Micro. A lesson well learned.... Don't give up and ALWAYS have good satellite connection before takeoff. The drone was in absolutely perfect condition with the props showing some scuffing. Before replacing I took off inside and it responded perfectly. I still replaced the props.

Droniac · Mar 21, 2021

rewizard said:
Just an update on how not to give up if you have a fly away..... I took off from an area before I had home point established. When I realized it, after it reached an altitude of approximately 250 feet, I started to reset home point BUT the drone just took off leaving me with no control at all. I have been flying drones for 6 years and never had an issue like this. I watched it fly towards a Condominium nearby and could not get it to respond but once it disappeared from view the camera showed it upside down on a balcony. I judged that it was between the 24th and 26 floor. As I am a Realtor I did research and discovered that 2406 was on the market and it was one of the possible balconies. I called the Realtor and he said he was about to show the property and would check. Low and behold he called me and he had the drone. I had to then cancel my replacement from Cloud City as well as skins and SD Micro. A lesson well learned.... Don't give up and ALWAYS have good satellite connection before takeoff. The drone was in absolutely perfect condition with the props showing some scuffing. Before replacing I took off inside and it responded perfectly. I still replaced the props.

Nice work. You have very good fortune. Great news!

Itzmyobsession · Mar 21, 2021

After being blessed with that kind of luck... I would go out and buy a lotto ticket

Yogi053 · Mar 21, 2021

Think I saw your flight on another thread. Weren't the local residents quite upset?

rewizard · Mar 21, 2021

Must be someone else. I had absolutely no issues with anyone.

vjpapa · Mar 21, 2021

rewizard said:
Just an update on how not to give up if you have a fly away..... I took off from an area before I had home point established. When I realized it, after it reached an altitude of approximately 250 feet, I started to reset home point BUT the drone just took off leaving me with no control at all. I have been flying drones for 6 years and never had an issue like this. I watched it fly towards a Condominium nearby and could not get it to respond but once it disappeared from view the camera showed it upside down on a balcony. I judged that it was between the 24th and 26 floor. As I am a Realtor I did research and discovered that 2406 was on the market and it was one of the possible balconies. I called the Realtor and he said he was about to show the property and would check. Low and behold he called me and he had the drone. I had to then cancel my replacement from Cloud City as well as skins and SD Micro. A lesson well learned.... Don't give up and ALWAYS have good satellite connection before takeoff. The drone was in absolutely perfect condition with the props showing some scuffing. Before replacing I took off inside and it responded perfectly. I still replaced the props.

Hi Droniac,

You mentioned:
....."A lesson well learned.... Don't give up and ALWAYS have good satellite connection before takeoff"

Do you recall how many satellites you connected?
vjpapa

Steel63 · Mar 21, 2021

What drone do you have

Meta4 · Mar 21, 2021

rewizard said:
I took off from an area before I had home point established. When I realized it, after it reached an altitude of approximately 250 feet, I started to reset home point BUT the drone just took off leaving me with no control at all.

It's not possible to guess what actually happened from this description.
Resetting the homepoint cannot cause the drone to zoom off uncontrolled, so something else must have been the issue.
The cause of the incident is likely to be found in the recorded flight data and it would be of interest to all flyers to help avoid a similar incident in future.
If you could post the flight data someone will be able to interpret it and possibly solve the mystery.

Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you (even if it looks like a nothing report).
Or .. just post the txt file here.

Little bird · Mar 21, 2021

rewizard said:
Just an update on how not to give up if you have a fly away..... I took off from an area before I had home point established. When I realized it, after it reached an altitude of approximately 250 feet, I started to reset home point BUT the drone just took off leaving me with no control at all. I have been flying drones for 6 years and never had an issue like this. I watched it fly towards a Condominium nearby and could not get it to respond but once it disappeared from view the camera showed it upside down on a balcony. I judged that it was between the 24th and 26 floor. As I am a Realtor I did research and discovered that 2406 was on the market and it was one of the possible balconies. I called the Realtor and he said he was about to show the property and would check. Low and behold he called me and he had the drone. I had to then cancel my replacement from Cloud City as well as skins and SD Micro. A lesson well learned.... Don't give up and ALWAYS have good satellite connection before takeoff. The drone was in absolutely perfect condition with the props showing some scuffing. Before replacing I took off inside and it responded perfectly. I still replaced the props.

Glad to here you had a good outcome. Thanks for sharing. Fly smart and stay safe.

Yogi053 · Mar 22, 2021

rewizard said:
Must be someone else. I had absolutely no issues with anyone.

Just a strange coincidence then. No offence intended.

rewizard · Mar 22, 2021

I tried to look at log for that day BUT it is gibberish. Looks like code of some kind. Can it be converted to something readable?

slup · Mar 22, 2021

rewizard said:
I tried to look at log for that day BUT it is gibberish. Looks like code of some kind. Can it be converted to something readable?

It's because the log is encrypted ... you can't just double click on the .TXT file.

You either upload the log to various web based services like:
Drone Data Management and Flight Analysis | Airdata UAV
or
DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

...they have a graphical interface that let you replay the flight & make you understand what happened...

Or you use other 3:rd party programs directly on your computer to decrypt & help you with the interpretation of the content in them.

You can also just attach the .TXT log in a new post here in this thread ... & someone here will assist you.

Meta4 · Mar 22, 2021

rewizard said:
I tried to look at log for that day BUT it is gibberish. Looks like code of some kind. Can it be converted to something readable?

Please post it so the data specialists can interpret it.

Capt KO · Mar 22, 2021

Always mark your drone! They nearly always return home. Maybe a little beat up but with a phone # you will get a call. I offer a reward as well. From experience, it WORKS

MaxE1955! · Mar 22, 2021

rewizard said:
Just an update on how not to give up if you have a fly away..... I took off from an area before I had home point established. When I realized it, after it reached an altitude of approximately 250 feet, I started to reset home point BUT the drone just took off leaving me with no control at all. I have been flying drones for 6 years and never had an issue like this. I watched it fly towards a Condominium nearby and could not get it to respond but once it disappeared from view the camera showed it upside down on a balcony. I judged that it was between the 24th and 26 floor. As I am a Realtor I did research and discovered that 2406 was on the market and it was one of the possible balconies. I called the Realtor and he said he was about to show the property and would check. Low and behold he called me and he had the drone. I had to then cancel my replacement from Cloud City as well as skins and SD Micro. A lesson well learned.... Don't give up and ALWAYS have good satellite connection before takeoff. The drone was in absolutely perfect condition with the props showing some scuffing. Before replacing I took off inside and it responded perfectly. I still replaced the props.

Glad it turned out well for you. You we’re fortunate in many ways.

Droniac · Mar 22, 2021

Capt KO said:
Always mark your drone! They nearly always return home. Maybe a little beat up but with a phone # you will get a call. I offer a reward as well. From experience, it WORKS

I do the same. Reasonable, simple and well worth the sticker :/

rewizard · Mar 22, 2021

Great comment " Always Mark your drone....." In any event the log shows a 32 second flight time. 1. Coordinates not available.2. Power 25.59 min, Max height 145.5, Controls: Not enough data That's it

slup · Mar 22, 2021

rewizard said:
...the log shows a 32 second flight time. 1. Coordinates not available.2. Power 25.59 min, Max height 145.5, Controls: Not enough data That's it

You haven't revealed which drone model you have, but ... in general it's way much more data in the .TXT log than that. Furthermore you also have another log ending with .DAT in the screen device you flew with, showing all the raw sensor & motor data.

From your description, that it just uncontrollably flew away up on 250ft indicate a totally different cause than that you just took off without a recorded HP.

If you want to know what likely happened so you can avoid the same mishap in the future & at the same time offer some good learning to others here at the forum... we gladly give it a try, but then you need to share your logs.

Rockgrip · Mar 22, 2021

Droniac said:
I do the same. Reasonable, simple and well worth the sticker :/

Agreed. I purchased a set of stickers from tagmydrone.com that have adhered well (no financial interest in the company)- low cost but can save big $$$ when your drone wants to play hid and seek.