Reading About a Lot of Fly-Aways

W5CI · Dec 17, 2019

I think most fly aways are Pilot error. If the first thing you do is to see how far and how high it will go what else would you expect.

pmshop · Dec 17, 2019

johnbirt said:
Probably should add "don't try to be too adventurous" which is probably as dangerous as flying in windy conditions. Unfortunately YouTube is full of irresponsible flyers encouraging flying in wind and exceeding the capabilities of their craft particularly in exceeding LOS. Those new to drones often have no idea why flying too far has potentially very bad consequences.

A full explanation would take an extensive article so the best way is to keep your drone close, learn the basics and don't be too ambitious too soon.

I agree.
I am one of those adventurous pilots with encouraging videos on YouTube.
However, the skills I have gained are over the course of 4.75 years and 275 painstaking hours of flight.
Painstaking in the beginning.
Maybe 5 flights and crash.
10 and crash.
And most of all, even I am not invincible:

unionglzr · Dec 17, 2019

TDZHDTV said:
It’s going to be raining Mini’s come christmas day.... on roofs, on schools, on roads etc. It will not help the perception of the hobby.

Think I’ll go mini shopping then

unionglzr · Dec 17, 2019

pmshop said:
I agree.
I am one of those adventurous pilots with encouraging videos on YouTube.
However, the skills I have gained are over the course of 4.75 years and 275 painstaking hours of flight.
Painstaking in the beginning.
Maybe 5 flights and crash.
10 and crash.
And most of all, even I am not invincible:

Where do you want a statue put......WOW

pmshop · Dec 17, 2019

unionglzr said:
Where do you want a statue put......WOW

You will get there too - one hour at a time - one flight at a time.

And when I studied for the Part 107 back in 2016, the instructor said, "Remember when you got your first drone, opened it up, charged the batteries and went to go fly? That is flight time. Does not matter if it is hobbyist or commercial...hours are hours."

So I went back as far as I could with my electronic records (proof because you can manually enter data) and that took me back to December 19, 2015. From December 18 to February 14, 2015...the start of my new hobby....those flights are unaccounted for.
Maybe 25 hours there?

If you do plan on going Part 107, keep track now with this:

DroneLogbook

DroneLogbook is the one-stop flight log and management solution for the UAV/Drone Industry.

www.dronelogbook.com

Because like the same instructor says "you go into a sale of your services and the client sees 20 hours, they may say 'oh that's nice'. but go in with 200 hours and they will say "OK, let's do business".

hiflyer201 · Dec 17, 2019

The long battery life has led a lot of people to think they can go off into the woods with no thought as to how they are going to get back home. If you take off and fly downwind with a 15 kt wind...adios... but it seems to be happening so often..I don't know....the 737 MAX comes to mind

dragonmuzz · Dec 17, 2019

There are not flyaways!! .....they are blow aways... 2 different things Completly.... 1 is due to a malfunction of the drones sensors.. The other is due to pilot error because they made the mistake of flying in high winds..

pmshop · Dec 17, 2019

dragonmuzz said:
There are not flyaways!! .....they are blow aways... 2 different things Completly.... 1 is due to a malfunction of the drones sensors.. The other is due to pilot error because they made the mistake of flying in high winds..

I respectfully agree to disagree.
Before the Mavic Mini, pilot error was called flyaways.
Now that the Mavic Mini has been introduced and is lighter and can easily be affected by the wind does not make a difference in pilot error.

dragonmuzz · Dec 17, 2019

That's a first for me and I'm on my 4th DJI drone and have been flying for years.. Flyaways were always put down to compass and IMU failure... This forum was always taking about it.. Phantom pilots also when I had my P3A and P4.... Never once seen a flyaway contributed towards pilot error?

pmshop · Dec 17, 2019

dragonmuzz said:
That's a first for me and I'm on my 4th DJI drone and have been flying for years.. Flyaways were always put down to compass and IMU failure... This forum was always taking about it.. Phantom pilots also when I had my P3A and P4.... Never once seen a flyaway contributed towards pilot error?

I have been here too.
With 5 DJI drones

My fleet: 2x Spark 2X Mavic Air and now a Mavic Mini

You are the first mention of blow away and not fly away

dragonmuzz · Dec 17, 2019

[emoji23]

pmshop · Dec 17, 2019

Gotta love the ignore feature for trolls

unionglzr · Dec 17, 2019

pmshop said:
I respectfully agree to disagree.
Before the Mavic Mini, pilot error was called flyaways.
Now that the Mavic Mini has been introduced and is lighter and can easily be affected by the wind does not make a difference in pilot error.

Plus like anything else some do malfunction and fly away. DJI is not perfect

unionglzr · Dec 17, 2019

pmshop said:
Gotta love the ignore feature for trolls

So anybody that disagrees with you is a troll....maybe just a difference of opinion...no?

pmshop · Dec 17, 2019

unionglzr said:
So anybody that disagrees with you is a troll....maybe just a difference of opinion...no?

No, troll is one who goes on about nothing.
Can you not read?

"I respectfully agree to disagree.
Before the Mavic Mini, pilot error was called flyaways.
Now that the Mavic Mini has been introduced and is lighter and can easily be affected by the wind does not make a difference in pilot error."

I came here to give simple advice and the troll comes in here and wants to split gnat hairs.

dragonmuzz · Dec 17, 2019

pmshop said:
No, troll is one who goes on about nothing.
Can you not read?

"I respectfully agree to disagree.
Before the Mavic Mini, pilot error was called flyaways.
Now that the Mavic Mini has been introduced and is lighter and can easily be affected by the wind does not make a difference in pilot error."

I came here to give simple advice and the troll comes in here and wants to split gnat hairs.

Sorry but I disagree to agree lol.. I've ever once heard of a flyaway been called pilot error.. Every single one I've read about was always the same... Flying perfect then the drone shoots off at a weird angle and no control can be regained including RTH function.. I've seen many flyaway vids myself and none were pilot error.. The pilots were flying perfectly good.. Unless I've missed a case or 2 but this is all new to me

TDZHDTV · Dec 17, 2019

i think what the Mini has introduced here is the ability to be blown away, not to be mistaken by a genuine fly away. Many of the ‘fly away‘ posts are pilot error, too far away, too high, ignoring wind warnings, direction of flight and not understanding RTH function. Other posts have included taking off without good GPS etc. again pilot error and not understanding operation and capabilities. There have been some genuine failures, motor issues for example and I’m sure that’s the case with most drones and manufacturer. Personally I think the Mini is very capable if you respect it and access the situation and fly accordingly.

Phantomrain.org · Dec 17, 2019

pmshop said:
I agree
I would be very interesting.
I am with post #4 - mostly pilot error.

We do keep track and by track I mean we screen capture threads that provide us the trend as to where and why drones our going down.

The Mavic Mini quite honeslty has and excellent track record compared to the release of other DJI drones, and you can thank DJI for there new battery design which has eliminated a lot of the problems that both the Mavic 2 and Mavic Pro have had and thus the reason why we made the Wet Suits for those drones to fix what was vulnerable on those drones.

When it comes to the Mavic Mini there is a trend already forming and it is do to pilot error.

Blocked Motors: have been popping up on this forum and others , this is the result of the design of these props and how easily they our effected by debris, sand, dirt, pollen , stones, dust both on the ground and when flying. This is one of the reason why we felt that Prop Covers were needed for more secure flights and why we provided them with the Mavic Mini Wet Suits.

Magnetic Interference: This is a big one and most likely responsible for some of the ones being reported as a fly aways in the wind.

This one is tricky and goes by many names: compass error, magnetic interference , compass calibrations , atti mode
all of which drones our susceptible to and the end result of many fly a-ways.

Think about how many times you have seen a flash on the screen of some warning : Could be any of the above and it goes away and so you think your good to fly but the truth is , your drones compass has been compromised.

6 mintues into your flight and you have lost GPS and the drone enters Atti Mode , and this is where the best pilots will struggle to get there drone back fighting against the wind .

This is where Pilots start to claim that no matter what they did with the sticks the drone just kept going . Atti mode can completely give up as things go from bad to worse and you get yaw errors and now our drone is now completely out of control .

So what causes this Magnetic Interference the list is to long: Grass and hand launching our a good bet to take off from but the drive in the car can compromise the compass where as you need to re calibrate so can cement, pavement, wood with bolts , metal frames , Gates , your job is to get that drone in the air without magnetic interference and when you do get an error , start over shut down and move to a new location.

Its really easy to watch your drone take off and not pay attention to the flashes of warning that our taking place on your screen , once you loose a few drones this way , you will start to realize how important it is to watch for those flashes that the compass has been hit with a bat and is not itself.

Magnetic Interference is subjective to many but really it is Pilot Error which the Data Logs will show and its still remains your greatest threat not the wind.

Phantomrain.org
Elite gear for your Mavic
Coal

pmshop · Dec 17, 2019

Phantomrain.org said:
6 mintues into your flight and you have lost GPS and the drone enters Atti Mode , and this is where the best pilots will struggle to get there drone back fighting against the wind .

Unless you started with a SYMA X5C/ X8C then built your own drones that has GPS but you only used that for autonomous missions in auto mode instead of flying in Position Hold...basically flew manually first

dfwblah · Dec 17, 2019

My advice to beginners would be don't even think about flying it in wind speed greater than 15 mph irrespective of what it's rated at. And keep it max 200 ft altitude at any wind speed 10 mph or greater.