How to stop a "run away" when Mavic Pro is in your hand?

[tjcooper]

I have 300 hours of flying on Mavic Pro units. Today I was at an outdoor party and wanted to take video of the picnic group. Took off from an empty table. Unit could only get to ALTIMODE because was having trouble getting enough satellites. That was OK because I only planned to fly in a 30 foot circle at 8 feet altitude and only take video. Went through the process of taking video for about 7 minutes. Everything under normal control. Started to land on an empty table. Without warning the AC went left and came down to 4 feet and flew into a friend sitting at the table. AC bounced off his back side and I was able to grab unit after it hit the table and popped up.

Having grabbed it from above, I was able to keep control and force the unit onto the table top. It was running at almost full power and trying to climb. I held it down and used the other hand to push the throttle to zero.....nothing changed. I hit the "power button" and held it until controller said "SHUTTING DOWN".......again......nothing changed. I repowered on the controller and tried to initialize it. AC still flying very had in my hand.

I then reached around on AC and double hit the battery power button to go to power off status.......nothing changed. After a minute or two of holding the AC on the table top I was able to position my right hand to go under the AC and grab the battery lock down buttons. I squeezed then and then used the other hand to lift the battery up. Finally the AC powered off. It is the worst fly away condition I have ever seen. Has anyone else ever had this happen? Any causes found?
I will try to dump the flight logs tonight and see if I have anything on the AC or in the controlller. What is the best way to get a dump?
Ted Cooper

 

[Meta4]

It is the worst fly away condition I have ever seen. Has anyone else ever had this happen? Any causes found?
I will try to dump the flight logs tonight and see if I have anything on the AC or in the controlller. What is the best way to get a dump?

It sounds like your drone found satellites or it wouldn't have fought you when you tried to constrain it.
And most of your issue was that you didn't effectively shut it down, leaving it to continue trying to be where it was trying to go.
Shutting down the controller never shuts down the drone.
It only triggers RTH on loss of signal.
Turning off the battery shuts down the drone, so it's possible that in a panic, you didn't shut down the battery properly.
You also could have shut down the Mavic by flipping it upside down.

To get the flight data, 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 the report looks empty or garbage..
Or .. just post the txt file here.

 

[SkyeHigh]

And now you know why you don’t fly near people.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

..
Even turning it 90 degrees into a sideways position shuts it down.
Immediately.

After 300hrs I find it hard to imagine you've never known or tried this ?
I use it sometimes when hand catching, much easier / safer, negates the drones attempt to pull away while fiddling with controller left stick.
There are other things you can do (if it's in a stable hover), by slipping your hand in close from the front, it won't try and lift up, and you can use the landing command to land it on your palm.

After 300hrs safe flying, 7 mins can make you and drone ops look pretty bad in front of a crowd.
No mention of the party the drone hit, hopefully it just 'bounced off' his backside without injury, but bet it gave a few people there a fright and a half.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Sometimes tipping a drone on its side i.e. 90deg roll, will cause a shut down. I have used this when I had to grab my drone because a dog was preventing me from landing and the battery had been drained waiting for the dog to clear off.

Oddly enough I was doing some testing yesterday with my damaged M2Z and 'flying it' in my hand with no props on and the motors throttled up, I was trying to test the obstacle sensors.
Having finished the testing I tried to switch the drone off and it would not switch off. After 3 or so attempts I realised the motors were still running. Bear in mind I am deaf and would not hear any motor noise if there is any. Once the motors had been stopped in the normal manner by holding the throttle closed the battery button switch of worked normally.
This left me wondering if it is a safety feature designed to prevent the drone being switch of whilst in flight, quite how that would 'accidentally' happen I do not know.

There is always the CSC maneuver but it is tricky do do single handed and might need the 'response' to be changed from the default.

 

[WildDoktor]

Yep...flip it over. Hope nobody was seriously hurt.

 

[dirkclod]

I’m not sure if your that experienced why you took off without enough satellites .You should have known you would have not had a HP and around people. What were you thinking.
Overconfident maybe. I mean I fly a lot in ATTI but would never do
it in a group of people. Not a smart move IMO ?‍

 

[tjcooper]

Much thanks for all your comments. It is very true that I should have waited for 8 satellites to be found, but that sometimes takes minutes and I only had 30 seconds to start capturing video before all the tables were about to empty out. I have flown over a 100 times in ALLT mode and never had problems if I was just hovering over a small area. But with people there I should have just left the AC in the case. Fault is all mine.

Things not mentioned earlier. Person who got hit with blade suffered no injury, thank god. AC immediately "fell down" to the bench seat and turned sideways. I grabbed the AC from the sideways position and immediately turned unit to upright position. So the flip of 90 deg did not shut the unit off. I have done that on other occasions and know it works. When I pushed on the battery button I did the normal quick push followed by a long push to shut the battery down. None of the LED lights came on so I knew unit would not power down by control signal moves. Same was true of hitting switches on the controller. I assumed that throttle down would slow down and eventually stop the rotors. They never changed speed. Shutting off the controller was a panic move because nothing seemed to work. Getting the battery physically disconnected was also a panic move but I had no other options. I am really lucky that I never made contact with the blades. All of my "fly in my hand" was holding the Mavic FROM THE TOP. Would have been a much easier situation if I could have grabbed it from the bottom.

Still trying to figure out an electronic condition that would keep the blades running with all the steps I tried. I am really gun shy now of turning unit back on. Will lock it to a table top and do a complete battery flight with it locked down. If that works I will put it on a rope and fly in small circles to see if it tries to fly away. Anybody body got an idea why it would lock on the rotors?
Ted Cooper

 

[Meta4]

Much thanks for all your comments. It is very true that I should have waited for 8 satellites to be found.

The number of satellites required for the drone to go to P=GPS mode is not fixed.
The number varies with the spread of satellites.
Just wait for the drone to go into GPS mode, however many sats that takes.
The app will show you when it has GPS.
And if you do it in an open area where the GPS antenna has a clear skyview, it won't take as long.

I am really gun shy now of turning unit back on. Will lock it to a table top and do a complete battery flight with it locked down. If that works I will put it on a rope and fly in small circles to see if it tries to fly away. Anybody body got an idea why it would lock on the rotors?

You'd do better to look at the recorded data to understand why the drone made you think it was "flying away" (it wasn't).
Despite all the threads about "flyaways", DJI drones don't fly away.
Your drone was trying to return home or get back to where it thought it should be.
It couldn't do either unless it had GPS reception.
WIthout GPS, it doesn't know where it is, doesn't know if it's been moved and doesn't know how to RTH.

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

I have 300 hours of flying on Mavic Pro units. Today I was at an outdoor party and wanted to take video of the picnic group. Took off from an empty table. Unit could only get to ALTIMODE because was having trouble getting enough satellites. That was OK because I only planned to fly in a 30 foot circle at 8 feet altitude and only take video. Went through the process of taking video for about 7 minutes. Everything under normal control. Started to land on an empty table. Without warning the AC went left and came down to 4 feet and flew into a friend sitting at the table. AC bounced off his back side and I was able to grab unit after it hit the table and popped up.

Having grabbed it from above, I was able to keep control and force the unit onto the table top. It was running at almost full power and trying to climb. I held it down and used the other hand to push the throttle to zero.....nothing changed. I hit the "power button" and held it until controller said "SHUTTING DOWN".......again......nothing changed. I repowered on the controller and tried to initialize it. AC still flying very had in my hand.

I then reached around on AC and double hit the battery power button to go to power off status.......nothing changed. After a minute or two of holding the AC on the table top I was able to position my right hand to go under the AC and grab the battery lock down buttons. I squeezed then and then used the other hand to lift the battery up. Finally the AC powered off. It is the worst fly away condition I have ever seen. Has anyone else ever had this happen? Any causes found?
I will try to dump the flight logs tonight and see if I have anything on the AC or in the controlller. What is the best way to get a dump?
Ted Cooper

Holy Mackerel! That was a scary sequence of events. Very lucky nobody got lacerated by the blades of death. I only ever fly GPS mode, and never sport mode, so hopefully, my Mavic Pro won't go rogue on me.

 

[Meta4]

so hopefully, my Mavic Pro won't go rogue on me.

His Mavic didn't go rogue.
He just didn't understand what it was doing and tried to stop it.
But the drone knew what it was doing and restraining it doesn't stop it from continuing what it was doing.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

AC immediately "fell down" to the bench seat and turned sideways. I grabbed the AC from the sideways position and immediately turned unit to upright position. So the flip of 90 deg did not shut the unit off.

Burn that Mavic Pro, I think it's become self aware !! ?

 

[Mav2Pro]

@tjcooper Please post the flight log so we can confirm. It does sound like the craft was attempting to RTH, what altitude do you have the RTH set to?​

 

[lilewis]

My first and only accident with the MP2 was on one of my first flights.
I took off from a picnic table in my back yard, and when finished flying, I hit the RTH.

All was fine until the the drone got close to the table. Then I got obstacle avoidance warnings but knowing it was the table I tried to force it down. It veered away from the table against my downward control, and clipped a seat. It only fell a a foot or two onto the cement patio but luckily didn't get harmed. I now always land manually after taking off on a table.

 

[Capt KO]

Flipping my A2 upside down will NOT turn it off, it continues to run.(have destroyed props to prove). Turning 90 on it's side works.

 

[WildDoktor]

I believe holding both sticks down/inside for 3 seconds (same action as manually starting the motors) would kill the motors, but...that's difficult while holding a tiger by the tail in one hand. But it could have been done as soon as the bird started going sideways.

 

[WildDoktor]

Flipping my A2 upside down will NOT turn it off, it continues to run.(have destroyed props to prove). Turning 90 on it's side works.

Interesting; good to know.

 

[dirkclod]

I believe holding both sticks down/inside for 3 seconds (same action as manually starting the motors) would kill the motors, but...that's difficult while holding a tiger by the tail in one hand. But it could have been done as soon as the bird started going sideways.

it does and if your wearing a lanyard to hold the tx is very doable.
Is how I shut mine down handcatching ?

 

[Slade]

I have 300 hours of flying on Mavic Pro units. Today I was at an outdoor party and wanted to take video of the picnic group. Took off from an empty table. Unit could only get to ALTIMODE because was having trouble getting enough satellites. That was OK because I only planned to fly in a 30 foot circle at 8 feet altitude and only take video. Went through the process of taking video for about 7 minutes. Everything under normal control. Started to land on an empty table. Without warning the AC went left and came down to 4 feet and flew into a friend sitting at the table. AC bounced off his back side and I was able to grab unit after it hit the table and popped up.

Having grabbed it from above, I was able to keep control and force the unit onto the table top. It was running at almost full power and trying to climb. I held it down and used the other hand to push the throttle to zero.....nothing changed. I hit the "power button" and held it until controller said "SHUTTING DOWN".......again......nothing changed. I repowered on the controller and tried to initialize it. AC still flying very had in my hand.

I then reached around on AC and double hit the battery power button to go to power off status.......nothing changed. After a minute or two of holding the AC on the table top I was able to position my right hand to go under the AC and grab the battery lock down buttons. I squeezed then and then used the other hand to lift the battery up. Finally the AC powered off. It is the worst fly away condition I have ever seen. Has anyone else ever had this happen? Any causes found?
I will try to dump the flight logs tonight and see if I have anything on the AC or in the controlller. What is the best way to get a dump?
Ted Cooper

This issue happened to me with my Hubsan Zino.

 

[hiflyer201]

Flipping my A2 upside down will NOT turn it off, it continues to run.(have destroyed props to prove). Turning 90 on it's side works.

I would have a hard time flipping one upside down..I'm not that flexible but 90 works great. I used to land my Phantom3 on my tiny wooden landing pad. A couple of times it slid off and tipped over and continued to run upside down....very hard on props.