Question About Fly A Ways

[PhotobyWD]

I am hearing a lot about fly a ways and would like to know what the main causes are and how to prevent them. Thanks in advance for your serious reply.
JNNR (Jokers Need Not Reply)

 

[msinger]

Check out this guide:
Prevent a Crash or Flyaway with Your DJI Drone (The Complete Guide)

 

[FoxhallGH]

If you look through the threads in this forum, and how some very clever people (@sar104 , @Meta4 - to name just a couple) have gone to the trouble of analysing the flight records of drones that have been reported as suffereing a fly-away, or an unexplained crash of some kind - you will see that in a VERY high proportion of the cases, it is due to Pilot error. I don't mean that in the traditional sense of the wrong control input being made at the wrong time (but that does still apply to some!), but in a general lack of understanding about the sophistication of the Mavic and how it works. Personally, I think that DJI's (and other drone manufacturer's too) advertising that implies 'out-of-the-box and off into the wild blue yonder' type fun for all has a lot to answer to ... There are just too many situations where the drone has got into trouble because the operator; doesn't know how the Return to Home function works, or doesn't know what effects the compass, or doesn't allow the drone to fix it's position before heading off on the flight etc.

In addition to that, we also see situations where operators who get into trouble, don't know how to stop or correct the situation (switch to 'Sport', hit the 'Pause' button etc.), because they are reliant on automated intelligent flight modes, or Return to Home sequences, and have never practised what to do if the Drone does something unexpected, or Go4 locks-up!

There is a huge amount of on-line tutorials and advice about flying a Mavic - but some times it is just sad when you realise that somebody has lost an expensive bit of kit, because they couldn't find the time to read the manual and look on YouTube to get further info about the things that the manual may not have explained very clearly.

 

[AMann]

If you look through the threads in this forum, and how some very clever people (@sar104 , @Meta4 - to name just a couple) have gone to the trouble of analysing the flight records of drones that have been reported as suffereing a fly-away, or an unexplained crash of some kind - you will see that in a VERY high proportion of the cases, it is due to Pilot error. I don't mean that in the traditional sense of the wrong control input being made at the wrong time (but that does still apply to some!), but in a general lack of understanding about the sophistication of the Mavic and how it works. Personally, I think that DJI's (and other drone manufacturer's too) advertising that implies 'out-of-the-box and off into the wild blue yonder' type fun for all has a lot to answer to ... There are just too many situations where the drone has got into trouble because the operator; doesn't know how the Return to Home function works, or doesn't know what effects the compass, or doesn't allow the drone to fix it's position before heading off on the flight etc.

In addition to that, we also see situations where operators who get into trouble, don't know how to stop or correct the situation (switch to 'Sport', hit the 'Pause' button etc.), because they are reliant on automated intelligent flight modes, or Return to Home sequences, and have never practised what to do if the Drone does something unexpected, or Go4 locks-up!

There is a huge amount of on-line tutorials and advice about flying a Mavic - but some times it is just sad when you realise that somebody has lost an expensive bit of kit, because they couldn't find the time to read the manual and look on YouTube to get further info about the things that the manual may not have explained very clearly.

When cars start autodriving, then we will really be in trouble for the same reason. Many people just don’t like to read for information- I see it in class with my students as well. Hand them an assignment having anything to do with reading for facts, and the lights turn off almost instantly.

 

[Meta4]

I am hearing a lot about fly a ways and would like to know what the main causes are and how to prevent them.

Flyaways??
The term comes from early on in the development of drones and was used to describe a lost drone incident when the flyer did not know the cause of the incident.
It made the pain of losing a drone softer when you could tell yourself and others that it "flew away".
Since 2015 when DJI brought out the Phantom 3 series which used the DJI Go app which records flight data, we've been able to study the data to identify the actual causes of flight incidents.
What the data shows is that drones don't "fly away", and the overwhelming majority of lost drone incidents are due to flyers failing to understand their drones and how to fly them.

 

[PhotobyWD]

If you look through the threads in this forum, and how some very clever people (@sar104 , @Meta4 - to name just a couple) have gone to the trouble of analysing the flight records of drones that have been reported as suffereing a fly-away, or an unexplained crash of some kind - you will see that in a VERY high proportion of the cases, it is due to Pilot error. I don't mean that in the traditional sense of the wrong control input being made at the wrong time (but that does still apply to some!), but in a general lack of understanding about the sophistication of the Mavic and how it works. Personally, I think that DJI's (and other drone manufacturer's too) advertising that implies 'out-of-the-box and off into the wild blue yonder' type fun for all has a lot to answer to ... There are just too many situations where the drone has got into trouble because the operator; doesn't know how the Return to Home function works, or doesn't know what effects the compass, or doesn't allow the drone to fix it's position before heading off on the flight etc.

In addition to that, we also see situations where operators who get into trouble, don't know how to stop or correct the situation (switch to 'Sport', hit the 'Pause' button etc.), because they are reliant on automated intelligent flight modes, or Return to Home sequences, and have never practised what to do if the Drone does something unexpected, or Go4 locks-up!

There is a huge amount of on-line tutorials and advice about flying a Mavic - but some times it is just sad when you realise that somebody has lost an expensive bit of kit, because they couldn't find the time to read the manual and look on YouTube to get further info about the things that the manual may not have explained very clearly.

Thank You

 

[Piperbiker]

I recently had a system error check app appear on my controller and immediately my mavic went on a bender, camera feed was at 45 degrees on display and drone was not responding to correct control input or RTH
Luckily I was able to recover flight control shortly after by using sport mode
Upon checking app there seems to be no error in the system.... A ghost in the machine maybe...

 

[Docfly]

Buy something for one Dollar or one Euro, lose the item, and you're not sad. You may not even spend time looking for it. Buy something for hundreds or thousands of Dollars or Euros, it is a different story if you lose it. Solution: make an investment. FoxhallGH said it best, "it is just sad when you realise that somebody has lost an expensive bit of kit, because they couldn't find the time to read the manual and look on YouTube." Do the tutorials, watch the safety videos, and explore the joy of flight as you knowledge expands. Trying to increase your knowledge during or after a fly-away is pointless.

 

[Johnmcl7]

Msinger's link is very comprehensive and definitely worth the time to read, when I first bought my Mavic I read through all the topics when there had been a crash to understand how it happened and how to avoid it happened which essentially what that page does in one go.

What's quite noticeable is a lot of the thread titles will suggest there was an unavoidable flyaway but on reading through the thread, it's almost always the case that it was due to a pilot error and could have been avoided.

 

[Stephenmaycol]

Buy something for one Dollar or one Euro, lose the item, and you're not sad. You may not even spend time looking for it. Buy something for hundreds or thousands of Dollars or Euros, it is a different story if you lose it. Solution: make an investment. FoxhallGH said it best, "it is just sad when you realise that somebody has lost an expensive bit of kit, because they couldn't find the time to read the manual and look on YouTube." Do the tutorials, watch the safety videos, and explore the joy of flight as you knowledge expands. Trying to increase your knowledge during or after a fly-away is pointless.

like a wise man once pointed out...... no new knowledge is gained from the 2nd time one is kicked by a mule.

 

[redserv]

P

I recently had a system error check app appear on my controller and immediately my mavic went on a bender, camera feed was at 45 degrees on display and drone was not responding to correct control input or RTH
Luckily I was able to recover flight control shortly after by using sport mode
Upon checking app there seems to be no error in the system.... A ghost in the machine maybe...

Yes