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Trying to understand this flyaway - MP2 (Drone Recovered)

DronePilotNH

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Yesterday went to finish a facade photo shoot. Got the drone up to about the send story. Went to check something on the phone and the drone just flew off.
I did a compass calibration before flight. Got FAA authorization to fly. In the Launch.jpg the red X is the approximate takeoff point(behind the old New England Telcom building), at the time there was a coating of packed snow and ice so I did not see what was under it. When the drone started to fly off I tried to bring it down to land and had no response.

Used the Find My drone to locate the drone. It was found on top of the building under some steps just below the towers. Damage done to the drone were four dinged up props that will be replaced. Some surface scratches that are not bad since I had a decal on it, so the decal took the brunt of it. The camera gimbal does not move and has a very noisy startup.

My first impressions looking at the flight on Airdata that it looks like I may have some interference with the radio signal.
I am hoping someone here can take a look at it and see what went wrong. I have attached the TXT file.

Thank you
 

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  • DJIFlightRecord_2022-01-26_[10-18-09].txt
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  • Launch.jpg
    Launch.jpg
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I did a compass calibration before flight.
That should not have been necessary.
Was there any particular reason you did that?
My first impressions looking at the flight on Airdata that it looks like I may have some interference with the radio signal.
At worst, interference might swamp the control signal, but it won't cause the drone to do anything unpredictable or fly off.

The data looks like this: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

There are a number of things about this incident that don't add up.
GPS was not good enough to record a home point until 2:17.5, flight data shows a home point right from the start, although there is no message to confirm a home point was recorded.

RTH initiated at 1:44.7 (when GPS was not good enough for RTH to work.
Why did you initiate RTH with the drone so close?
 
That should not have been necessary.
Was there any particular reason you did that?

At worst, interference might swamp the control signal, but it won't cause the drone to do anything unpredictable or fly off.

The data looks like this: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

There are a number of things about this incident that don't add up.
GPS was not good enough to record a home point until 2:17.5, flight data shows a home point right from the start, although there is no message to confirm a home point was recorded.

RTH initiated at 1:44.7 (when GPS was not good enough for RTH to work.
Why did you initiate RTH with the drone so close?
Compass calibration was requested by the DJI App. I had traveled an hour to this location.
As for the RTH, I did not initiate it. The drone was hovering about 18' above me. The RC said the drone was initiating a RTH. I tried to take control and my stick inputs were not being followed.

I did fly at this location 5 days prior and flew the front and the top three floors on the alley side. Looking at the Airdata info from that flight, I did go from 12 satellites down to 7 in some locations.

This is what Airdata shows:
Lack of GPS is one problem but still doesn't explain the drones behavior.
 
If you don't cancel the RTH, but try to fight against it, you cannot expect to have proper control.

I did fly at this location 5 days prior and flew the front and the top three floors on the alley side. Looking at the Airdata info from that flight, I did go from 12 satellites down to 7 in some locations.
This site just isn't suitable for drone flying.
It's a narrow canyon where most of the skyview (and most of the satellites) are obstructed by the buildings.
You need GPS Health to be 4/5 or 5/5 to have good GPS location data and to record a home point.
This is another flight where you had neither until 2:17.5 when the drone climbed higher than 50 ft on RTH.


The RC said the drone was initiating a RTH. I tried to take control and my stick inputs were not being followed.

Lack of GPS is one problem but still doesn't explain the drones behavior.
The drone never "flew away".
If you don't cancel the RTH, but try to fight against what it wants to do, you cannot expect to have proper control.
 
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