My new Mavic Air doesnt fly backwards.

[plainman007]

Hi,

Ive only had the Mavic AIR about 8 days now and have flown for about 40 minutes on 4 occasions. First 2 occasions were very self prohibitive due to my being nervous etc so i only flew straight up for about 50-60 feet and a little left and right etc and was content to land. Basically just hovering around as any beginner would.

The later 2 flights i removed beginner mode and flew in normal mode and in a more complete open space (as opposed to my roof top tries for the first 2 occasions). The AIR was feeling very under powered, like it was sluggish and responding late to my stick moves. AND WAS STRAIGHT OUT REFUSING TO FLY BACKWARDS, except for about 30 feet or so. In complete open space as if there was an invisible wall holding it behind. I tried to back up from different directions also to cancel out wind conditions from being the reason. Still no result. These last 2 occasions were at different geographical locations (6 football field sized open spaces) and it did the same at both places. Then suddenly it wouldnt want to move to the left and would only move right. But then after sometime would react to left movements. Spinning (yaw) seems to work always. Forward also works always except a bit sluggish at times. This is taking the fun out of flying this thing and getting the shots i wanted.

 

[colinfowler]

Hi
Have you removed all the plastic film from the sensors

 

[plainman007]

Hi Colin,
Yes they removed it at the shop when i was buying it to demo fly it. However i dont see any stickers but pure violet'ish glass sensor lenses. The current stickers are only the yellow and black ones which come on the arms advertising the unfold sequence etc.

 

[dondi]

Lower or raise your flying AGL to allow sensors to let you fly freely

 

[Air Beetle]

Watch the DJI lesson videos one by one. It is an amazing drone that has many features to help you. You need to learn the DJI system. Keep at it.

 

[plainman007]

Lower or raise your flying AGL to allow sensors to let you fly freely

Im sorry but i didnt quite get your sentence correctly. Im flying much higher above ground level only. Still it goes to about 100 feet up straight above me and then i want to pull back to have a more frontal view and it goes maybe 50 feet backwads and then just stops, it doesnt want to go further backwards.

 

[plainman007]

Watch the DJI lesson videos one by one. It is an amazing drone that has many features to help you. You need to learn the DJI system. Keep at it.

Hi,

I didn't say it wasn't an amazing drone, but this is a very basic feature no ? to just go backwards, and when its able to do all other moves, refusing to go backwards isnt i think pilot error because it seems theres some problem. This is like if i buy a car and it doesn't turn left, you tell the driver, "keep persevering, learn driving well" it will turn one day ?

I know there are several other features etc which ive not tried and i need experience to use them. But just going backward not working in normal mode when everything else works looks like an anomaly right ?

 

[Air Beetle]

I was being very nice about encouraging you to read the manual. The very first settings screen has a section called flight restrictions. Check there. Are you near a no fly zone?

I'm afraid that you won't get much help if you keep bashing people that try to help you! Good luck but I'm not going to help you any further. Using your analogy, you haven't learned how to out your car in reverse LOL.

 

[InvisibleName]

Have you’d tried turning your drone 180 degrees when it won’t fly backwards, then tried to fly forwards in that direction? I suspect the not so clear suggestion in the previous thread may be correct that you are flying on the edge of a NFZ. If that is the case, your drone won’t fly forward when you try the above.

 

[plainman007]

I was being very nice about encouraging you to read the manual. The very first settings screen has a section called flight restrictions. Check there. Are you near a no fly zone?

I'm afraid that you won't get much help if you keep bashing people that try to help you! Good luck but I'm not going to help you any further. Using your analogy, you haven't learned how to out your car in reverse LOL.

I wasn't fuming or anything. Just gave an example as your reply merely said go watch videos and learn how to use your drone properly. That wasn't a very helpful statement. So i just pointed out with an example of just because im new to drones doesn't make me at fault and the gadget is always right, but you seem to have gotten worked up over that.

I wasn't bashing you or anything as you'd like people to believe.

For the kind of nonconstructive help your trying to give me id be well off without it. No thank you. Dont help.

 

[Underdog1964]

Im sorry but i didnt quite get your sentence correctly. Im flying much higher above ground level only. Still it goes to about 100 feet up straight above me and then i want to pull back to have a more frontal view and it goes maybe 50 feet backwads and then just stops, it doesnt want to go further backwards.

Check the settings to make sure you aren't in beginner mode.
I believe that limits things to about 100'
Can't account for the not flying backwards though.

 

[plainman007]

Have you’d tried turning your drone 180 degrees when it won’t fly backwards, then tried to fly forwards in that direction? I suspect the not so clear suggestion in the previous thread may be correct that you are flying on the edge of a NFZ. If that is the case, your drone won’t fly forward when you try the above.

Hi,

I didn't try that. I'll give it a go and let you know. The location im flying is 30kms from the airport. Its nothing but rural / agricultural land with nothing of significance in the vicinity. Another thing is that its doing the same thing in different locations. Always same 30-40 feet that too in all directions, like an invisible radius from where im standing. That only made me rule out NFZ when i experienced this. But i didn't try pointing the nose of the aircraft into the barrier as you suggested since most flights are so hurried and time flies (pardon the pun) by so theres hardly time to think. Switch on, re-calibrate, compass error, by the time im up in the air its half battery over.

 

[plainman007]

Check the settings to make sure you aren't in beginner mode.
I believe that limits things to about 100'
Can't account for the not flying backwards though.

Hi there !

I removed beginners mode specifically. Thats why i went to this rural area outside the city. So i can fly with beginner mode OFF. But that turned out like this.

 

[Underdog1964]

Hi there !

I removed beginners mode specifically. Thats why i went to this rural area outside the city. So i can fly with beginner mode OFF. But that turned out like this.

I'm sorry, I missed that in your earlier post. That's all I can think of. I can't imagine how frustrating this is.
Have you tried contacting DJI?

 

[plainman007]

I'm sorry, I missed that in your earlier post. That's all I can think of. I can't imagine how frustrating this is.
Have you tried contacting DJI?

I bought it here in India form a DJI shop. But with no warranty / no support of any kind is what they told me when selling it. It was however a sealed box which they opened in front of me.

 

[Fried Eagle]

I was being very nice about encouraging you to read the manual. The very first settings screen has a section called flight restrictions. Check there. Are you near a no fly zone?

I'm afraid that you won't get much help if you keep bashing people that try to help you! Good luck but I'm not going to help you any further. Using your analogy, you haven't learned how to out your car in reverse LOL.

He didn't bash you. He was just carrying on a conversation.

 

[JDawg]

I am curious if you get the same thing in Sport Mode. This is an odd problem. It may be worthwhile to download your data - sar114 and a few others can figure out anything if they have your flight logs.

 

[Lzet]

I bought it here in India form a DJI shop. But with no warranty / no support of any kind is what they told me when selling it. It was however a sealed box which they opened in front of me.

Generally the controllers stick is a combined potentiometer or other movement sensors containing equipment. So the error can be in sensing that you moved the stick on the backwards direction - error of the RC. Simple test could be done to try to borrow another (functional) remote controller, link it to drone and try. Simpler exclusion of sw/drone fault is to connect MA directly to you phone via wifi and check if this stillnot work. The last possibility to switch to Smartcapture and controll it by hand.
The best is to look at youtube how to connect the drone directly to your phone via wifi.the same with smartcapture.
Good luck
p.s. in order to exclude restricted area issue (this is figured out only when you are i gps mode so the dji4go knows your location) fly it indoors in larger room (atti mode)and try the backward move with controller.

 

[beachcombing]

I was being very nice about encouraging you to read the manual. The very first settings screen has a section called flight restrictions. Check there. Are you near a no fly zone?

I'm afraid that you won't get much help if you keep bashing people that try to help you! Good luck but I'm not going to help you any further. Using your analogy, you haven't learned how to out your car in reverse LOL.

This is nothing to do with being able to fly backwards or not.

Also, the OP was not bashing you in any way.

 

[Underdog1964]

I bought it here in India form a DJI shop. But with no warranty / no support of any kind is what they told me when selling it. It was however a sealed box which they opened in front of me.

I meant that perhaps DJI (parent company) could help.
It's worth a shot! Consumer drones & camera gimbal - DJI