Total loss of control - started gaining altitude and ended up going 14000ft+ the wrong direction

[bigboots]

Hi everyone

Took my drone for a little fly today and after using for a few minutes of just hovering but at a higher altitude. I tried returning to home the drone and it started flying towards the sea and started gaining altitude in the process. I tried using the RTH feature however that wasnt doing anything and was just flying the wrong direction (away from us). I then tried manually to fly it towards us however it still continued flying away and gaining altitude. The drone got to around 14K feet distance from us and was just hovering above the sea and still wouldn't come back to us even when in RTH mode. The battery warning came up and tried returning to home but still didnt even come towards us. I will attach logs so you can take a look. Any help would be appreciated.

It then went into the sea at around 15% battery life and now its gone
Kind regards

 

[raven swe]

was this a mini and how bad was the wind

 

[bigboots]

was this a mini and how bad was the wind

it was a pro but the wind was quite blowy but i had it just above house roof then tried to bring oit back down but it just kept going up higher and flying away

 

[raven swe]

someone will be along soon and read your logs, that sort of thing goes over my head

 

[Fly Dawg]

@bigboots ...Looks to me that the wind was far too strong. Also, the only time the aircraft climbed was when you commanded it to do so. You gave no inputs during RTH ( Which you should have cancelled ) and at that altitude its not surprising the the winds were strong.

 

[sirbadger]

A bit breezy and blowing the way your drone went :|

 

[bigboots]

@bigboots ...Looks to me that the wind was far too strong. Also, the only time the aircraft climbed was when you commanded it to do so. You gave no inputs during RTH ( Which you should have cancelled ) and at that altitude its not surprising the the winds were strong.

View attachment 92806

I tried to get it to come down but it did not respond to it. and it kept climbing higher it's self. then i rth but it just ignored rth and flew higher and away. It was only about 30 mrt the rest of the height was on it's own.

 

[sar104]

Impressive - wind out of the WSW approaching 50 mph above 700 ft. Not much else to say about that except that, as @Fly Dawg noted - all the climb was in response to your throttle input.

 

[bigboots]

Impressive - wind out of the WSW approaching 50 mph above 700 ft. Not much else to say about that except that, as @Fly Dawg noted - all the climb was in response to your throttle input.

So the controller must be faulty? on rth i did not touch any sticks. Nor did it respond to any direction. but was fine when taking off etc. and i cannot also understand why it kept going up on it's own and flying off i tried to get it back down but kept going over 400ft then 800ft. and rth should drop it to 50 mtr anyway and i tried to cancel rth and control it a few time but nothing just kept going.

 

[old man mavic]

it goes like this took off in garden, did you have enough sats locked and was there metal in the ground where you took off from ? then up you went and when you cleared the house the drones IMU was conflicted, it tries to get a fix but in the meantime it is put in RTH and it then climbs and because it does not have a good GPS lock it is in ATTI mode and now at the mercy of the very strong gusty wind and the rest is history thats my take on the flight from reading your account sorry you lost your drone

 

[sirbadger]

So the controller must be faulty? on rth i did not touch any sticks. Nor did it respond to any direction. but was fine when taking off etc. and i cannot also understand why it kept going up on it's own and flying off i tried to get it back down but kept going over 400ft then 800ft. and rth should drop it to 50 mtr anyway and i tried to cancel rth and control it a few time but nothing just kept going.

According to the manual RTH will not cause it to descend, it will at the current altitude if it's above your RTH altitude.

 

[sirbadger]

it goes like this took off in garden, did you have enough sats locked and was there metal in the ground where you took off from ? then up you went and when you cleared the house the drones IMU was conflicted, it tries to get a fix but in the meantime it is put in RTH and it then climbs and because it does not have a good GPS lock it is in ATTI mode and now at the mercy of the very strong gusty wind and the rest is history thats my take on the flight from reading your account sorry you lost your drone

Log shows good satellites from start of flight.

 

[bigboots]

it goes like this took off in garden, did you have enough sats locked and was there metal in the ground where you took off from ? then up you went and when you cleared the house the drones IMU was conflicted, it tries to get a fix but in the meantime it is put in RTH and it then climbs and because it does not have a good GPS lock it is in ATTI mode and now at the mercy of the very strong gusty wind and the rest is history thats my take on the flight from reading your account sorry you lost your drone

I had no problems with my phantom 3 from the same place and its at the end of my drive. it had satellites and updated home point. as i always do and the altitude after about 30 mtrs was the drone it's self i tried to get it down but no look then it got to 403 i hit rth and it just flew away non responsive.

 

[bigboots]

According to the manual RTH will not cause it to descend, it will at the current altitude if it's above your RTH altitude.

this was above me when i activated rth then it did it's own thing(gained silly amounts of altitude + started flying towards the sea) that's what i cant understand

 

[sar104]

So the controller must be faulty? on rth i did not touch any sticks. Nor did it respond to any direction. but was fine when taking off etc. and i cannot also understand why it kept going up on it's own and flying off i tried to get it back down but kept going over 400ft then 800ft. and rth should drop it to 50 mtr anyway and i tried to cancel rth and control it a few time but nothing just kept going.

No - you must have been confused. You repeatedly applied throttle during this event. And each time you did it cancelled RTH, and then you re-enabled it. All the ascent, including your initial takeoff and climb, corresponds exactly with the recorded throttle inputs (black trace):



To add to that - throttle was the only input that you applied when it started to blow away - you made no attempt at all to fly it back other than repeatedly engaging RTH and some very brief elevator inputs around 300 seconds.

 

[sar104]

this was above me when i activated rth then it did it's own thing(gained silly amounts of altitude + started flying towards the sea) that's what i cant understand

It did not do "it's own thing". All the climb was commanded by the throttle. It was already above the set RTH altitude (50 m) at 122 m when you first activated RTH at 84 seconds.

 

[Thomas B]

Likely should contact DJI.
The data all indicates a blow away, not fly away.
DJI may offer a discounted replacement if they determine same as the case in point.

 

[sar104]

Likely should contact DJI.
The data all indicates a blow away, not fly away.
DJI may offer a discounted replacement if they determine same as the case in point.

They might offer a discount if they are feeling generous, but this was entirely pilot error and there is no ambiguity at all in those data. Pitch was maxed out at 25° during RTH as the aircraft attempted to return, but it was still being blown backwards at an average of 5.5 m/s.



Switching to sport and flying back manually would have accessed 35° pitch, and might have worked, but the OP didn't try that.

 

[sirbadger]

this was above me when i activated rth then it did it's own thing(gained silly amounts of altitude + started flying towards the sea) that's what i cant understand

You were at 120m, the average winds were 40mph +

 

[old man mavic]

it needs an input from the controller to climb or it will climb in RTH, even if in ATTI mode the wind would not have made it gain any significant altitude,and why did it keep going up some strange things going on there