Flyaways

[ext237]

With all these threads about flyaway drones, I'm terrified to take mine out of the box. I've flown RC helicopter in the past. But what are the best tips for a new Mavic owner to avoid a fly away caused by operator error?

Thanks!

 

[Egika]

Don't worry. There are 1000 people successfully flying their copters to maybe 1 having a fly away.
Now who do you think is posting here?

 

[chad7218]

Fly it, if you've flown helicopters this will prove to be a walk in the park. Tell me a time you could take your hands of the controller of one of your rc helicopters and it sat in a perfect hover???
Enjoy the MP is a lot of fun.
Read the manual and posts here to ensure you know how all the functions work and then have fun

 

[Egika]

Just take it slow in a wide open space and in beginner mode for the first flight. You'll soon get a feeling for everything.
A little common sense is always a good idea

 

[Robbyg]

You should have no problems at all. All you need to do is make sure to test out the drone with conservative settings first and that you start out in a nice open field. When your sure it's working fine you can move things up as you gain confidence.

A good start is using beginners mode which has a low maximum altitude and short maximum flight distance and slower speed and maneuvering.

You can set max altitude to 30m and max distance to 100m.
From what the manual says the Mavic will auto return if it somehow goes past the max distance.

Check your IMU meters and make sure they are in the low down in the green area and then calibrate the compass out in the open field.

Also make sure you get the "Home Point Set" voice message before you take off.

Happy flying, it's a blast and so stable that you will wonder why you ever worried.

Rob

 

[brantdw]

I had a drone fly away years ago. I was due to my neglecting the thing and some wires chaffing in the GPS module. Mind you this was 4 alsmost 5 years ago. Treat your drone like a real aircraft and preflight check, plan your route and definable plan and prepare for emergencys. May fly aways can be prevented with checking hardware and setting a good RTH. Also check the props for any chips or nicks. Some fly aways are crashes after the prop turns to dust.

 

[msinger]

With all these threads about flyaway drones, I'm terrified to take mine out of the box.

DJI drones rarely fly away on their own. Lost Mavics are usually the result of some kind of pilot error. The best thing you can do is read and understand the Mavic manual in its entirety before trying to fly. You can download the Mavic manual from the Mavic downloads page (it's not in the box).

 

[MacIak]

Fly it, if you've flown helicopters this will prove to be a walk in the park. Tell me a time you could take your hands of the controller of one of your rc helicopters and it sat in a perfect hover???

Mine do, right off the assembly table...gives me the butterflies in belly every time. Love them critters!
@OP: Just go fly it after reading the manual and do the settings carefully.
You have to understand what will happen in certain conditions. Many things are logical and explained in the manual.
You flown heli where the most important thing is (besides common sense where/ how to fly which size) : FAIL-SAFE setting and know how to perform autorotation.
Mavic has some more kickass features than that, makes heli feel stone-age. Please take it out of the box, give it a gentle kiss, give it a name and enjoy it.

 

[rydfree]

If you fly helis then you will have no problems controlling the Mavic , it does everything for you . Before lifting off always check the map and position icon of the Mavic on screen to be sure it is pointing the way it is actually pointing on the ground , if not then check the compass . If it doesn't know where it is when it takes off it will never know how to get back. Also be sure to set the RTH settings correctly for altitude and what you want it to do if it loses signal . Ideally you want it to return to the launch point but it will not do this unless the compass is correct and you have told it to do so . Check these before every flight because things get changed with updates ,butter fingers by accident etc . Make sure the "Home Point Has Been Updated" message is shown just after liftoff before you fly away or it may try to fly back to the last saved home point . Simple pre-flight checks can prevent the so called fly-aways IMO.

 

[dewster]

I think the flyaways were mostly from the Phantom 3 generation.

Just watch your battery level. Those that claim flyaways are probably dealing with Return to Home induced by a critical battery level.

 

[LucVN]

With all these threads about flyaway drones, I'm terrified to take mine out of the box. I've flown RC helicopter in the past. But what are the best tips for a new Mavic owner to avoid a fly away caused by operator error?

Thanks!

Haha, I know what you mean

 

[spacecase]

I specifically waited for the mavic pro as it was long enough in the evolution line for DJI to make something reliable.
And less one forget the "Find my Drone" locator in the GO app. Hope I never have to use that.
Dont worry, fly!!

 

[BerndM]

I flew my Mavic today and it did NOT fly away.

 

[BudWalker]

With all these threads about flyaway drones, I'm terrified to take mine out of the box. I've flown RC helicopter in the past. But what are the best tips for a new Mavic owner to avoid a fly away caused by operator error?

Thanks!

The single most effective way to prevent launch time fly aways is to look at the red triangle heading indicator in the map display and make sure it's consistent with the actual heading.


Most (>95%) of the launch time fly aways you see here could have been prevented by checking this before launch.