Fly away yikes!

[boblui]

The downlink restored message was at 2:16.9 after a blank of 0.9 seconds
RTH initiated later on at 2:29 with no lost time before it which suggest that RTH was initiated manually by the OP.

RTH is triggered by loss of uplink signal, not the downlink. The "downlink restored" message is just an indication that the radio signal was weak at that point. The quality of downlink and uplink signals is not necessarily symmetrical. E.g. if there is interference on the craft's side, it is possible to have the uplink broken while the downlink can still be maintained.

RTH can only be triggered by three reasons : low battery, lost of uplink and the pilot's action.

Low battery can be ruled out obviously.

The OP reported that he hit the RTH button only after the craft has started ascending by itself so it is impossible that the first RTH was triggered by the pilot's action. From the chart below it can be seen that after the first RTH was triggered, full throttle down has been applied repetitively but the craft did not descend, then RTH was cancelled because the pilot pressed the RTH button. The chart matches the OP's recollection perfectly. It can therefore be concluded that the first RTH was triggered by bad uplink radio signal.

The OP cancelled RTH at 4:45.1 and 4:47.8 he pulled the left stick hard down and brought the drone all the way down manually.

He has cancelled it a number of times. The last time he cancelled it but immediately re-enabled it was at 5:20 or 320 sec. As the craft was already above the home point, autolanding was triggered instead. As can be seen in the chart below. The craft descended steadily all the way despite irratic throttle inputs by the pilot.

 

[boblui]

Flyaway .... meant "I lost my drone and don't understand why".

Then what term should be used in the title of the post if laymen like me run into such situation ?

 

[Repaid1]

Then what term should be used in the title of the post if laymen like me run into such situation ?

I would hardly consider someone who can read logs and see the answer for him/herself a layman. But why jinx yourself into a position that will more probably than not ever happen? You know what not to put from the above post(s).

Use a header that defines exactly what your issue was (Be that "lost signal", "lost control", "almost crashed", "crashed"...ect, then define the issue accurately and best you can without presuming in your post. That is the only effective way of communicating both on forums and in real life. In my day when "we" heard: "I lost it" at the flying field...we all knew what that meant, just not why . Take care mate, fly safe...land happy.

 

[Meta4]

RTH is triggered by loss of uplink signal, not the downlink. The "downlink restored" message is just an indication that the radio signal was weak at that point.
I only mentioned the downlink restored message 12 seconds before RTH started because you had said ..

Immediately before that there was a "downlink restored" message indicating that the downlink has been broken. My best guess is that the trees in front of you was blocking the radio signals so the craft initiated RTH.

The OP reported that he hit the RTH button only after the craft has started ascending by itself so it is impossible that the RTH was triggered by the pilot's action.

One thing you learn from reading flight data is that memory during a stressful incident can be inaccurate.
The OP said that it took off straight up until it disappeared .
But the data doesn't agree.
There is no unaccounted time for any loss of signal to trigger RTH.
At 2:28.9 there is full connection and at 2:29.0 the drone is in RTH.
How long is signal lost before RTH is initiated?

It's interesting that he had full signal the whole time but never realised the drone was in RTH for much of the time.
It must have been there in big letters on the screen.
He didn't even cancel the autolanding but fought against it,

 

[Northwood Mediaworks]

Panic for some can be blinding ... also, the telemetry indicators in the Fly app suck, especially if you are in bright sunshine, so perhaps what was actually being displayed was overlooked or unseen. I know my 62 year old progressive lens wearing eyes struggle to see the satellite count every time... go4 was so much better for visual feedback. However, a solid pre-flight check routine would have shown the RTH altitude was set incorrectly. One of those live and learn experiences, thankfully with a happier ending than some.

 

[InvisibleName]

Give them time, they haven't been logged in since 8.20 pm yesterday (according to the time stamps that I see in their profile, and I am not sure of which time zone is referenced)

It’s a shame the OP hasn’t returned to give his view / feedback on the findings

 

[Northwood Mediaworks]

Give them time, they haven't been logged in since 8.20 pm yesterday (according to the time stamps that I see in their profile, and I am not sure of which time zone is referenced)

Eastern time zone... like me.

 

[Northwood Mediaworks]

One last comment, the OP was flying within the airspace of two registered aerodromes, so hopefully no manned aircraft were affected or perhaps aware of the over 400 AGL incident. To the OP, please check to see where you are flying more carefully. Basic operators can fly in these zones, however our rules say to take extra care ... that seems to have been overlooked. Screen shot from the excellent DronePilot Canada app. Highly recommend all Canadians invest in it. (I have no affiliation)

 

[Phantomrain.org]

The problem there is the term used. A aircraft that would do as you proposed would not be a fly away. A better term would be operator error and a "Float Away" combined with a "Flown Away". I am certainly not here to hash out things or point fingers. But the better half of new fliers and some even senior in their flying are using that term wrong and thus adding to confusion and DJI Scorn.

The actual term "Fly Away" is when the aircraft has a serious hardware failure and is not responding to either command from radio side or FC side and is basically dead and flips into a throttled motion off in some direction or retains last command. This was conceived way back with the Phantom 2 series and gave DJI the coined term of being habitual to this. This simply isn't the case.

However since the onset of the P3 series true "Fly Aways" are a thing of the past and well below a percent of a percent from my observations. Hardware failure will happen, but are EXTREMELY rare of this nature. Most would result in a plumetting aircraft, not a true Fly Away.

In your instance of situation. Magnetic interference would have nothing to do with a aircraft losing GPS lock which would be why it would go to Atti Mode. If the aircraft would encounter Mag errors in flight it would inhibit a true RTH. That being said it would not induce a auto RTH. IF in the event it could happen then the aircraft would rise above any interference to RTH normally anyway.

There are plenty of videos shown that most DJI aircraft are immune to radio towers, transformers, microwave transmissions or any number of myths and legends that people come up with these days. Simply the aircraft have redundant systems in many instances and "know" what to do had these systems fail, unfortunately the same can't be said of the latest (Year or so) operators (Nothing Implied).

Let's PLEASE, stop using the term flyaway unless it has been proven, DJI gets enough flack in the press and media and the haters groups...let's not add to the mix.

We had two Fly Aways with the Phantom 4 Pro - Magnetic Interference / Atti mode / Yaw Errors / and no return home that engaged.
The drone never came back an we filed with DJI and got %100 coupons for brand new Phantoms . Note: DJI forum advisors said not to file the claim but We did anyway.

There were many Fly Aways taking place back than on the Phantom 4 until the UPDATE ; after that things changed.

A fly away for me will always be this: Magnetic Interference / Atti mode / Failure of stick movement in Atti Mode to get it back. and RTH not engaging .

Sine the Introduction of the Mavics , we dont see to many True Fly Aways on the Mavic as most are Pilot error and Pure Panic ....

NOTE: There is one tell tale I do look for right away when looking at the flight pattern and that is a circle that the drone makes before flying away , after I see that , than its a matter of finding if there were YAW errors to match up to what happened on the Phantom in Atti mode.

Trying to keep it simple:

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your drone in the rain and float it on water.

 

[Ron (MM)]

Well I went out to do a film of our local water tower and as I sent my Mac air 2 up to 200 ft it took off straight up until it disappeared. I tried all the controls to reduce height but no response from the drone. I hit the home button on the remote but still nothing. As I was about to give up I heard my drone close by and turned and saw it behind me above a tree about 100 ft high. I took control of it and landed it. Scared the life out of me, I saw $1000 flash before my eyes. I’m going to do a bunch of test flights before I try the water tower again.

Intresting

 

[xtampa]

Did you take off straight overhead?

Yes

 

[xtampa]

It would REALLY help the analysis if you answered the simple request to check what you apps RTH height was actually set to.

I checked and it was set to 265m, that is odd because previously I set it to 142m so I’m baffled by that, I re set it today back to 142m

 

[xtampa]

Ok attached is output data from the CsvView software that I used to process your txt flight log.
As I understand the naming of the various bits of information this chart presents
1) your RTH height in red text and 246m
2) in the green plot the height of the drone above the homepoint
3) various flying 'states' shown as bands of colour
light blue = "gentleGPS" I do not know what that means.
pink = "GoHome" which I think means RTHing
light green = "AutoLanding" which I assume is the landing phase of the RTH

If I have understood this correctly this means your RTH height was set to 246m and substantial part of the flight was in multiple RTH's.

Hence my asking you to check what is showing in the app now.
Hopefully one of the log guys will confirm whether or not I am correct, or up a gumtree

Thank you

 

[Deleted member 103366]

prior to this flight had you increased the maximum distance setting?

 

[Repaid1]

I checked and it was set to 265m, that is odd because previously I set it to 142m so I’m baffled by that, I re set it today back to 142m

Just checking, but at any time since you previously set it to 142m did you update any firmware or perhaps even update the App? If so that is where you will most likely see that it was changed, you should always note or write down your normal settings to help you verify the aircraft is where you want it. After such updates. Note they don't always change things...so you can never really know...unless you read on forums that it doesn't or does

I do these type of long checks the night before I have a plan to fly, saves on battery at a flying site by giving a less than total run through type of flight check. But with that said, survey the area when you arrive to note anything of height difference from your norm and adjust as you can just to be sure.

The more times you perform a preflight check of systems the faster it becomes, I like to do it at the time I allow for a pause after lift off for the camera to take it's down shots for precision landing, YMMV

 

[xtampa]

Magnetic interference can send a drone anywhere the wind is blowing once it goes to Atti Mode and if there our Yaw errors any control is gone thus the term fly away.
This was not a fly away, its was pilot error based on obvious Panic.

I didn’t panic but my drone just flew straight up out of my control, I attempted to lower the altitude but the controls did not respond. I hit RTH and my screen did not indicate that it received the command. It obviously did because within 3-5 min it was hovering behind me at tree top level.

 

[InvisibleName]

I checked and it was set to 265m, that is odd because previously I set it to 142m so I’m baffled by that, I re set it today back to 142m

142m or 465ft? Can I ask what the max flight altitude is in Canada? In fact, on checking:

Drone Laws in Canada | UAV Coach (2023)

Want to learn more about drone laws in Canada? Check out our list of links and regulations for people flying drones in Canada.

uavcoach.com

Why would you set the RTH to 22m above your legal max alt?

 

[xtampa]

Just checking, but at any time since you previously set it to 142m did you update any firmware or perhaps even update the App? If so that is where you will most likely see that it was changed, you should always note or write down your normal settings to help you verify the aircraft is where you want it.

I do these type of long checks the night before I have a plan to fly, saves on battery at a flying site by giving a less than total run through type of flight check. But with that said, survey the area when you arrive to note anything of height difference from your norm and adjust as you can just to be sure.

The more times you perform a preflight check of systems the faster it becomes, I like to do it at the time I allow for a pause after light off for the camera to take it's down shots for precision landing, YMMV

Thanks, the update I did after the scare and I reset the rth height.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Prior to the scare flight did you increase the maximum distance setting?

 

[xtampa]

Thanks everyone, I never asked the drone to accelerate to max altitude I had piloted the drone to about 200 ft to clear the water tower and was in the process of setting the tower as a point of interest when it unexpectedly went skyward till it was gone from visual. I then hit the RTH button hopeful that it would come home. It did which was a huge relief. Btw I am also a licensed pilot and our ceiling is 400 ft in Canada for drones and as a pilot we are not to descend below 500 ft. I was operating well outside of any controlled airspace since the closest aerodrome is some 30km away. All in all I’m learning some of the quirks of drone piloting and trying not to lose my investment. Cheers all! Stay safe!