A very interesting discussion.
I only wish the accident investigators from Farnborough or the FAA crash investigators would delve into this. Three weeks - SORTED.
All the theorising about what could cause fly aways is not going to solve the issue, but at the end of the day - it DOES happen for whatever reason.
Determining the cause is difficult to say the least, but to my mind,
if the aircraft did NOT have GPS capability the problem would never have arisen. Also, the problem could be in the Naza flight controller components and / or its controlling architecture and / or flying procedures. Flyaways are
NOT pilot error.
Its high time the powers that be admit there is a problem. I suppose THAT will never happen though because that would lower sales figures. However, they must be working on the problem. Hopefully.
I can see in the future that the following sentence will be inserted into the manual,
"In the case of ANY loss of control, switch immediately into Manual Mode to regain control"
This is something to be aware of and for all of us to do in the case of a loss of control - and maybe - the majority of pilots would be able to recover their aircraft or bits instead of loosing it forever.
I think we are all in agreement that there is a fault somewhere, and as such, if a Phantom kills someone as a result of a fly away condition, what would be the decision of the law courts and would DJI be sued or would it be the pilot who has to take the responsibility? Its bound to happen some time from ................ NOW.
The following is interesting though.
In the USA .... Negligence was also broached with Florida aviation attorney Timothy Ravich. He said the operator of a small UAV that loses control and accidentally injures an individual could be named as a defendant in a trial. Though the question of liability is up to a judge and jury, the vehicle's loss of control could lead to charges of negligence--charges that, depending on the specifics of the situation, could also lead to the UAV's manufacturer being named as defendants as well.
http://www.fastcompany.com/3028781/what ... ne-crashes
Regards
Pete