Drone Fly Away

[pbxcomm]

Hello all,
Its been months since my last fly away and loss of drone (Phantom 4 Pro Plus). Unfortunatley, the mystery of the flyaway has not been resolved. That said, I have purchased a new Phantom 4 Pro, however have not brought myself to fly it as yet. Has anyone experienced flyaways as of late? Has new firmware updates helped limit flyaways?

Look forward to all input on this matter.. I most likley will not fly this drone until Im convinced that there has been some resolution.

Thanks to all.

 

[xspwhite]

I would think that as long as you keep the drone in VLOS, then there would be no problem.

I've never heard of a drone just flying away.

 

[LarBear360]

Hello all,
Its been months since my last fly away and loss of drone (Phantom 4 Pro Plus). Unfortunatley, the mystery of the flyaway has not been resolved. That said, I have purchased a new Phantom 4 Pro, however have not brought myself to fly it as yet. Has anyone experienced flyaways as of late? Has new firmware updates helped limit flyaways?

Look forward to all input on this matter.. I most likley will not fly this drone until Im convinced that there has been some resolution.

Thanks to all.

Resolution to what? I'm not aware of any recalls of the P4P due to "flyaways". The vast majority of losses can be attributed to pilot error.

I would go out and start enjoying your new A/C!

 

[shuggins]

Yea, agree. I've never experienced anything like a fly away in any of the 6 different DJI (and Yuneec) drones I've had. Maybe some of us are lucky.

Also agree, get out and enjoy your new quad. P4P is awesome.

 

[Meta4]

Has anyone experienced flyaways as of late? Has new firmware updates helped limit flyaways?

"Flyaway" just means I lost my drone and don't understand why"
When we look at the recorded flight data, we see that the cause of almost all "flyaways" is operator error which firmware is unable to address.

I most likley will not fly this drone until Im convinced that there has been some resolution.

I'm unaware of anything to suggest that there's any issue that requires resolution.
The P4 pro is an extremely stable and reliable drone for recreational and commercial use.

 

[Starz]

Home point recorded. Problem solved.
(and stay away from any metallic material)

 

[Safety71]

Purchase a Marco Polo tracking system before your first flight. Excellent investment and good insurance......so to speak against pilot errors causing fly always.

 

[Chris Angel]

I had a Phantom 4 pro refurbished drone flyaway (started to fly away) no control over direction of flight could only control its height. It was in line of sight and heading to the local village so I was prepared to crash land but fortunately I was able to regain control and fly it home (did not try the home button and uncertain that would have worked anyway) just before I was about to land it started to fly away again but after a few seconds control was re-established and I immediately landed. Apparently was told the problem was the gyros and DJI replaced the complete drone and never had any problems since. Suspect it originally went back for refurbishment because of this problem which had not been picked up.

 

[BigAl07]

Hello all,
Its been months since my last fly away and loss of drone (Phantom 4 Pro Plus). Unfortunatley, the mystery of the flyaway has not been resolved. That said, I have purchased a new Phantom 4 Pro, however have not brought myself to fly it as yet. Has anyone experienced flyaways as of late? Has new firmware updates helped limit flyaways?

Look forward to all input on this matter.. I most likley will not fly this drone until Im convinced that there has been some resolution.

Thanks to all.

I fully understand is SUCKS to lose an aircraft but to lose one and not know why double sucks.

I don't see a thread about your loss or any data to help figure out why the aircraft was originally lost. That would be the FIRST thing you should do in order to try and come up with a valid and reliable solution. Without that type of research everything else is purely a guessing game.

It's not too late... go ahead and post your flight data in this thread and as a group we can look at it and possibly give some informed input rather than pure guessing.

My mistake and I apologize. I completely missed your thread on it when it was lost. Again I apologize.

 

[Martin Healy]

Hi,

I do sympathise with you about the flyaway that you experienced and I can appreciate the fear that you must feel over the loss of control.

As others have already said the Phantom 4 series is well engineered with built with dual IMUs etc and is renowned for its reliability. That said the systems are not infallible. However, we should all be prepared to look closely at our own actions because pilot error is unfortunately a common factor. Last December I posted an account of my 'flyaway' that was purely my fault and I have cut and pasted that info below:

Over a year ago I nearly lost my P4 when it started to misbehave in flight. After take off I intended to use the course lock function so turned the P4 on to the course heading I wanted but I noticed that the P4 continued to turn slightly after I stopped the stick control and when I turned the bird back onto the desired heading it drifted past again. So although I noted this odd behaviour I didn't fully realise the danger. After I engaged course lock the P4 flew away but was in sight and I managed to fly it back. Luckily I was wearing brown cords. I landed it in a panic and checked over the drone. I did the compass dance and all seemed well so I risked taking off again (yeah, I know!!!) and it flew off out of sight beyond tall trees but I eventually landed 1/4 mile away and recovered it. The first lesson here is to note that you must take heed of any unusual behaviour by the drone and immediately land it to investigate.

I have to put my hand up and admit that this issue was an own goal - totally my fault. After recovering the P4 and while doing the compass dance for the 5th? time I realised that the compass error increased as I approached my P4 back pack. I first moved the pack a few yards to a new position suspecting that there was an object in the ground causing the anomaly and repeated the dance but the compass error persisted. It dawned on me that it was the pack itself that was the problem. I started emptying out the pack until the issue changed. The weather was cold and I had worn a pair of shooting gloves to the take-off site. I had taken these gloves off before flying and put them into the backpack from which I launched the P4. These specialist gloves allow the first finger and thumb to be exposed for operating the trigger/bolt on a gun. These parts of the glove are clipped out of the way by TINY magnets built into the fabric of the gloves. When I found the cause I felt like a complete fool because this silly mistake had nearly cost me my P4.

I thought that it was worth posting this info as a warning to others so that no one else falls in to this trap. I strongly suspect that the same problem has caused many of the reported flyaways. We all need to be aware that tiny neodymium magnets are built in to so many every day items - such as the clips on mobile phone and tablet cases, glasses cases, key fobs etc etc. After this incident I completely emptied out the back pack again at home and focused on a screen shade I had bought, but very rarely used, for the Nexus tablet that I use on the controller. To my horror I realised that the fold-flat screen shade when folded out and mounted on the tablet relied on built in flexi magnetic strips (as used on fridge magnets and shower doors) to hold it in shape. That shade immediately got binned and I made a replacement out of black card.

I then thought back to a non-DJI drone that I owned a year earlier. That drone eventually met its end when it started to fly erratically and uncontrollably. Because it had drifted near to houses and I was not in control so I was forced to initiate a forced motor stop to bring it down. Of course I couldn't remember whether I was wearing the same gloves but it did make me wonder. We live and learn. Fly safe.

All the best, Martin

 

[RodPad]

I fully understand is SUCKS to lose an aircraft but to lose one and not know why double sucks.

I don't see a thread about your loss or any data to help figure out why the aircraft was originally lost. That would be the FIRST thing you should do in order to try and come up with a valid and reliable solution. Without that type of research everything else is purely a guessing game.

It's not too late... go ahead and post your flight data in this thread and as a group we can look at it and possibly give some informed input rather than pure guessing.

Is this not it?

LOST DRONE!

Rod

 

[BigAl07]

Is this not it?

LOST DRONE!

Rod

Somehow I completely missed that in my searching. I edited my post to reflect my error.

Good find Rod.

 

[RodPad]

Hello all,
Its been months since my last fly away and loss of drone (Phantom 4 Pro Plus). Unfortunatley, the mystery of the flyaway has not been resolved. That said, I have purchased a new Phantom 4 Pro, however have not brought myself to fly it as yet. Has anyone experienced flyaways as of late? Has new firmware updates helped limit flyaways?

Look forward to all input on this matter.. I most likley will not fly this drone until Im convinced that there has been some resolution.

Thanks to all.

I read your thread: LOST DRONE!

What I spotted was you suddenly lost GPS on a P4.
Please look at these threads, and tell me what you think.

A Lucky Day!

Litchi Flight Phantom 4 A Did Not Return

Rod

 

[cneedelman]

I have State Farm Insurance, $67/yr, not available in all states. It's comforting

 

[PhoenixOne]

Home point recorded. Problem solved.
(and stay away from any metallic material)

Yeah taking off from the roof of your car isnt a great idea..!!

 

[Andy9]

Well, I just bought such gloves for touch screens. I haven't use them yet so I don't know if this will be a problem or not. But I have them in my backpack and my Phantom P4 did not have any problems becouse of that.
So now you make me worried, should I use them or not? How many of you are using such gloves?
All this is really pretty odd.
And I can't beleive that gloves did your erratic flight. Even there are micro magnets in that stuff it should not make problems few m apart.
This really need to be tested.

 

[PhoenixOne]

I have State Farm Insurance, $67/yr, not available in all states. It's comforting

For your drone?? I gotta get some. What does it cover? Only if your crash your drone into something or someone right? Not drone replacement if you crash or have a fly away ? Im interested now.

 

[Starz]

For your drone?? I gotta get some. What does it cover? Only if your crash your drone into something or someone right? Not drone replacement if you crash or have a fly away ? Im interested now.

St.Farm policy covers the cost to replace if lost or stolen. Repair I can’t answer.

 

[PhoenixOne]

St.Farm policy covers the cost to replace if lost or stolen. Repair I can’t answer.

But say it does flies away.. is that considered a eligible claim? I wouldnt mind getting insurance for mine.

 

[The Famous]

Careful with State Far Insurance! I had a claim on my truck for tailgate damage. Two months later crashed my drone (insured by State Farm). They paid for a replacement. Two months later they canceled my insurance! Two accidents in one year!