Flyaway avoidance

[Meta4]

There are two types of "fly aways".

The first is pilot error.

None of those things should cause anything that could be described as a flyaway.

That usually happens when someone doesn't set home point and the drone goes into RTH to the wrong direction.

The flyer doesn't have to set a home point, the drone does that automatically as soon as it gets good GPS location data.
If the flyer launches prematurely, the drone will still record its home point as soon as it gets good GPS data, usually quite close to the launch point.

It can also be caused by someone not calibrating the compass when needed.

Compass calibration is almost never needed and certainly not as a regular thing before flying.

Another commonly seen one is when someone flies too close to a structure emitting frequencies that mess with the control of the drone.

At worst, a drone in such a situation might have the control signal swamped, causing the drone to follow its failsafe action, which is almost always RTH.
It won't cause the drone to fly off uncontrollably.

 

[Meta4]

I read these "flyaway" questions avidly. Has anyone posted a list of good-practice suggestions to avoid flyaways?

Here, those threads usually have data analysis and an explanation of what actually happened to the drone.
What people call a flyaway is almost always a case of a confused flyer not realising what happened.
Drones don't "fly away".

The way to avoid losing a drone, is to understand how the drone works, what can go wrong and how to prevent those things happening.
The flight incident reports are useful as a way to learn from the mistakes and misfortune of others.

 

[Vic Moss]

None of those things should cause anything that could be described as a flyaway.

The flyer doesn't have to set a home point, the drone does that automatically as soon as it gets good GPS location data.
If the flyer launches prematurely, the drone will still record its home point as soon as it gets good GPS data, usually quite close to the launch point.

Compass calibration is almost never needed and certainly not as a regular thing before flying.

At worst, a drone in such a situation might have the control signal swamped, causing the drone to follow its failsafe action, which is almost always RTH.
It won't cause the drone to fly off uncontrollably.

 

[Ty Pilot]

I read these "flyaway" questions avidly. Has anyone posted a list of good-practice suggestions to avoid flyaways?

Yes. But it is not a list, rather it is a detailed explanation of how the internal components of our drones work and what causes the errors that lead to a "true" flyaway, and importantly: what steps to take to avoid one. Under the same topic you posted this thread (Crash & Flyaway Assistance): at the top are two "sticky threads" the one you want to read is:

A short explanation of compass function, calibration and errors.

Since you read the 'flyaway" threads avidly you may (after reading the above linked explanation), note that an exceedingly high number of crashed or lost drones that are blamed on fly aways are in fact, not fly aways at all. They are simply bad decision making coupled with an unfamiliarity with ones own equipment - Pilot Error.

 

[Fernando2]

I’ve had a couple of unexplained “fly away” situations. I’m both cases I calibrated the compass and set the home point.
On take off the drone, once it reaches a reasonable flying altitude to avoid surrounding obstacles (trees and houses) it takes off at a blistering speed in a random direction. The first time it happened I froze for a moment stunned at was was happening and almost immediately started getting engine overheating messages. It was not responding to any commands I tried until, fortunately, I hit the return to home. It had gone far enough that it was out of site but I saw that it responded to the return to home and slowly made its way back.
The second time it happened it was basically 2 feet off the ground and just suddenly accelerated and took off crashing into nearby bushes.
Never did figure out the causes.

 

[Ty Pilot]

. . . . . Never did figure out the causes.

You may want to take a look at that link I just posted.

Without seeing the flight logs, one can only speculate at the true cause of crashes such as yours.

 

[mobilehomer]

I’ve had a couple of unexplained “fly away” situations. I’m both cases I calibrated the compass and set the home point.
On take off the drone, once it reaches a reasonable flying altitude to avoid surrounding obstacles (trees and houses) it takes off at a blistering speed in a random direction. The first time it happened I froze for a moment stunned at was was happening and almost immediately started getting engine overheating messages. It was not responding to any commands I tried until, fortunately, I hit the return to home. It had gone far enough that it was out of site but I saw that it responded to the return to home and slowly made its way back.
The second time it happened it was basically 2 feet off the ground and just suddenly accelerated and took off crashing into nearby bushes.
Never did figure out the causes.

Why did you calibrate the compass? Most times that warning appears when you start up near enough metal to affect the compass. All you really need to do is move a few feet.

 

[Meta4]

Never did figure out the causes.

What you described sounds very much like yaw error situations.
Do a search for "yaw error" and you'll find out what that is, why it hapened and how to prevent it.
Post flight data from one of your incidents and it can be confirmed whether that was what happened.

 

[Kuiper Denizen]

I have been poised to ask the question “What exactly is a ‘flyaway’?” for a while. After reading these posts I’m inclined to believe that the term itself is a misnomer. It implies that the drone just goes rogue and flies off.

The only thing that made sense to me would be the pilot error of flying downwind with a wind too strong (apparently over 15 m.p.h.) to fly against in returning. The drone might even be blown further downwind.

It’s not “flying away.”

I’ve had three accidents. All were within 50 feet of the home point. Two were clearly my fault in being distracted at the wrong time.

The third time was the only one where the drone was “doing its thing.” I was bringing it in under a tree on low battery, maybe 40 feet from the landing, when it announced that it was returning home and proceeded to rise to its R.T.H. altitude, which would put it in the tree. I panicked and my effort to take control only lost control. The drone went off bouncing through the trees.

Unless someone has had an experience that was clearly a case of a drone flying off on its own, I have to go with what others have said about pilot error. Not calibrating the compass or the I.M.U. when prompted is asking for trouble. There is another calibration which is more complicated and requires the use of the DJI assistant.

Even the idea of a home point being too close to a magnetic field should trigger a prompt to recalibrate the compass, I would think. I get warnings of being too close to plain metal.

I realize that a drone will not always do what it’s supposed to. Everyone should test all the sensors under a controlled situation. My current Mavic Zoom will not stop rising when under branches. I have also tested R.T.H. several times in open fields to make sure it responds as expected.

I have only lost a signal once and my drone immediately started to return to home. I was also able to quickly regain control and continue to fly it.

The question that I pose is “Has anyone actually had a drone fly off without so much as a ‘So long,buddy!’?”

 

[Meta4]

Not calibrating the compass or the I.M.U. when prompted is asking for trouble.

Even the idea of a home point being too close to a magnetic field should trigger a prompt to recalibrate the compass, I would think. I get warnings of being too close to plain metal.

An almost all cases where the app suggests calibrating the compass, it is not necessary and won't help at all.
The correct action is usually to power off and move away from the magnetic interference that has caused the problem.
Recalibrating the compass is almost never necessary.

The question that I pose is “Has anyone actually had a drone fly off without so much as a ‘So long,buddy!’?”

There have been cases of genuine hardware faults that have caused loss of the drone.
But they are very rare.

 

[Yogi053]

I tend to use my M2P in 'out of the way' places and usually it asks me to carry out a compass calibration even if I am miles from any wifi or magnetic interference. I just put that down to each location that I use being normally >50 miles from previous location.

 

[Meta4]

I tend to use my M2P in 'out of the way' places and usually it asks me to carry out a compass calibration even if I am miles from any wifi or magnetic interference. I just put that down to each location that I use being normally >50 miles from previous location.

That would be due to DJi forcing the Mavic 2 to ask for recalibration when you are >30 miles from the last place you flew, even though there is no physical reason for such a thing.
You can travel 5000 miles and it makes no actual difference to the compass calibration.

 

[Ronny St.]

Prevent a Crash or Flyaway with Your Mavic | Mavic Help

Mavic Help is a site for help with DJI Mavic drones. Find the latest fixes, how-tos, guides, accessories, modifications, and more.

www.mavichelp.com

Very interesting stuff! A lot to read, but very comprehensive.

 

[Earls Court]

I think you know exactly what the average person means when they say "flyaway". No need to be super technical here and get off topic.

Agree!

 

[marcosvc]

IF its not a hardware error, justamente press "pause" in The controller.

 

[Jamesz]

There are two types of "fly aways".

The first is pilot error. That usually happens when someone doesn't set home point and the drone goes into RTH to the wrong direction. It can also be caused by someone not calibrating the compass when needed. Another commonly seen one is when someone flies too close to a structure emitting frequencies that mess with the control of the drone.

Those are all chalked up to "pilot error".

The other type is from controller or flight malfunctions caused by mechanical or software issues with the drone system. Those are not "pilot error" and it's a good idea to report those to NTSB. If it's a flight control issue, those actually require an NTSB report.

I hope this clears things up.

From the many discussions here it seems most compass calibrations are unnecessary and not based on science. Equally, there have been many suggestions of fly-aways caused by 'emissions' interfering with the control link, but little evidence of this being true. Is there any solid evidence of interference causing C2 link issues?

 

[Vic Moss]

From the many discussions here it seems most compass calibrations are unnecessary and not based on science. Equally, there have been many suggestions of fly-aways caused by 'emissions' interfering with the control link, but little evidence of this being true. Is there any solid evidence of interference causing C2 link issues?

"Back in the day", compass calibrations were very commonplace and necessary. However, unless your app says it's necessary, you don't need to these days.

 

[netfolks2000]

Don't forget the other possible reason of a "flyaway." That would be when you take off and the home point was somehow NOT where you just took off from. Now every single time before I take off I do actually verify it on the map, see that it is actually on the map right there in front of me where I am. But I wonder if when the voice says "Home point designated, please check it on the map" that it is foolproof. What is your experience? Have you EVER heard that and later realized that the home point was actually someplace else??? Am I wasting my time every time I fly opening the map and verifying the drone is where the map says it is at?

 

[Yogi053]

Don't forget the other possible reason of a "flyaway." That would be when you take off and the home point was somehow NOT where you just took off from. Now every single time before I take off I do actually verify it on the map, see that it is actually on the map right there in front of me where I am. But I wonder if when the voice says "Home point designated, please check it on the map" that it is foolproof. What is your experience? Have you EVER heard that and later realized that the home point was actually someplace else??? Am I wasting my time every time I fly opening the map and verifying the drone is where the map says it is at?

It takes seconds to check. You are DEFINITELY not wasting your time!

 

[Ty Pilot]

Don't forget the other possible reason of a "flyaway." That would be when you take off and the home point was somehow NOT where you just took off from. Now every single time before I take off I do actually verify it on the map, see that it is actually on the map right there in front of me where I am. But I wonder if when the voice says "Home point designated, please check it on the map" that it is foolproof. What is your experience? Have you EVER heard that and later realized that the home point was actually someplace else??? Am I wasting my time every time I fly opening the map and verifying the drone is where the map says it is at?

What you describe is not a flyaway as much as it is a pilot rushing to take off before the home point is set and thus (perhaps) landing in an unexpected location. Pilot error.

Of greater importance is that you check the drone's orientation on the map before take off. For if there is a compass error that could lead to a true fly away, the drones orientation will not show correctly, but it's location will.