On the Fence

[Mile_high]

I've been into RC for years and have been thinking about a drone. The Mavic Air 2 seems like a good bang for the buck but still not cheap. In all my years flying RC I've never had a fly away, is this common? What are the general causes for a fly away.

Thanks in advance.

 

[old man mavic]

@Mile_high not allowing the drones IMU compass and GPS to have time to initialise before take off
flying in too windy weather, for the drone to be able to make headway
lack of perception of the surrounding,such as flying out of direct line of site between the RC s antennas and the drone

 

[THE CYBORG]

Ninjad by old man mavic
I would say when you get to the bottom of things most are pilot error or adverse weather conditions but flying in bad weather is still pilot error

 

[Heindrich1988]

I would say that unless you fly recklessly on a very windy day, "flyaways" are exceptionally rare. Flyaway suggests the drone just flying off into the sunset due to some sort of technical failure. That pretty much never happens, and in the one occasion I've heard about it, the guy got a free replacement from DJI. (It was a YouTuber, I don't remember who it was and I don't remember whether it was a M2P, Mavic Air 2 or Mini)

That said, drone crashes are fairly common, though in the vast majority of cases, it is due to human error.

 

[msinger]

What are the general causes for a fly away

Pilot error. See more details here:

Prevent a Crash or Flyaway with Your DJI Drone (The Complete Guide)

 

[maelstrom]

I would say that unless you fly recklessly on a very windy day, "flyaways" are exceptionally rare.

The wind doesn’t have to very strong, it only needs to be stronger than the speed the drone can fly at. Most flyaways are really better described as blowaways. Additionally, winds less than the drone speed can still become a problem if you fly downwind of your takeoff point. You can easily find that although you’re making headway against the wind, you may not have enough battery left to return home at the reduced speed.

 

[SpitFire]

Welcome to the Forum from Chicago the Windy City.
If you check out Mavic Tips and Mavic Help, under Prevent Flyaways, you will find 75 tips how to prevent a crash and Flyaway. It happened to me once, wind related, did not check wind speed. Managed to bring it down in open field, did the finger method. Wet my finger, to test wind speed, it was the last time I ever did that. Any way, landed safe, in open field. As you will see when you check it out, things can happen if your not alert to what is going on.

 

[MA2 317]

Hello from the Hoosier Heartland Mile_high.

Good advice above.

Welcome to the Forum.

 

[A.O.]

Welcome to the Forum from Chicago the Windy City.
If you check out Mavic Tips and Mavic Help, under Prevent Flyaways, you will find 75 tips how to prevent a crash and Flyaway. It happened to me once, wind related, did not check wind speed. Managed to bring it down in open field, did the finger method. Wet my finger, to test wind speed, it was the last time I ever did that. Any way, landed safe, in open field. As you will see when you check it out, things can happen if your not alert to what is going on.

I looked for this and could not find it, where is it?

 

[Meta4]

What are the general causes for a fly away.

Drones don't fly away.
Flyaway is a term that means: I lost my drone and don't understand why.
Some of the most common causes of lost drones are:

• Poor understanding of how the drone is programmed and how to use it, particularly RTH.
• Flying off downwind in a wind that is too strong for the drone to RTH against it.
• Not understanding how winds are stronger at high levels.
• Flying behind a building, terrain etc, losing signal and having an RTH height too low to clear any obstacles in the RTH path
• Launching from steel surfaces or reinforced concrete (it messes up the compass)
• Flying into an area where GPS signal is blocked (a canyon, close to a building etc) and not being familiar with atti mode.
• Flying with a partially discharged battery that has been sitting for a week or more.

And the most common cause of crashes is:
Flying close to obstacles like trees and buildings

 

[Mile_high]

Thanks everyone for the information.

 

[SpitFire]

Welcome to the Forum from Chicago the Windy City.
If you check out Mavic Tips and Mavic Help, under Prevent Flyaways, you will find 75 tips how to prevent a crash and Flyaway. It happened to me once, wind related, did not check wind speed. Managed to bring it down in open field, did the finger method. Wet my finger, to test wind speed, it was the last time I ever did that. Any way, landed safe, in open field. As you will see when you check it out, things can happen if your not alert to what is going on.

msinger DJI drone expert. He welcomed you as well. Just click on info about flyaways.