Why are people crashing or having their birds fly away

[Monte55]

I got my first P1 in April of 2014. Bought 2 more in 2015. When I was first flying my first one, I had a couple boo boos. My fault and no damage. All still flying well. Now, I have to assume the later birds should be better but more complicated as features were added. But along with these features increases the chance of someone making a mistake and trashing their bird. I know the P2 had some issues with some ESCs. P3s had some cracking on the shells...but that wouldn't cause a crash or fly away. I don't remember hearing all of these problems with the P1 models. Mine never have a problem and all are stock...no windsurfers, no amps, only 9450 props on one because it's carrying a metal gimbal, gopro, and larger battery. I follow the forum and read about all the problems people have and can only assume that most of the problems are pilot error in some way. Not totally understanding the features or not implementing them properly to get expected results. With the ability to fly further and viewing a screen adds more risk of things going bad...like the monitor crashing, some problems with software glitches, smart batteries with more connectors to keep clean. I know it's really cool to fly your bird out miles but I think if people didn't push the envelope so much and practiced VLOS more, there would be less loss of our toys. I'm not saying against people that like long range flights but there is more risk. By doing so you are adding more things to rely upon to have an uneventful flight. This post is just thoughts I have and not here to start any arguments. Your thoughts. I wouldn't mind upgrading to a more sophisticated bird but if all the extra things I have to worry about like software glitches, NFZs, etc take away from the reliability and enjoyment I have now, not sure it would be worth it to me. My birds will not last forever and at some time I will have to get a newer model. I just like going out to fly and not have any problems.

 

[BigAl07]

It comes from them getting easier and easier to fly. Instead of setting them up and learning to fly you can now literally "buy-n-fly". Today's society is set up for instant gratification and the P3 (and forward) will fall victim to this trend. People aren't able to fly in MANUAL mode, get easily disoriented, and often times don't fully understand what is and is NOT happening during a fly away.

With the advent of gyro stabilization, GPS enabled flight controllers, and hurried/rushed operators you have a recipe for the perfect storm (aka fly away).

 

[Monte55]

It comes from them getting easier and easier to fly. Instead of setting them up and learning to fly you can now literally "buy-n-fly". Today's society is set up for instant gratification and the P3 (and forward) will fall victim to this trend. People aren't able to fly in MANUAL mode, get easily disoriented, and often times don't fully understand what is and is NOT happening during a fly away.

With the advent of gyro stabilization, GPS enabled flight controllers, and hurried/rushed operators you have a recipe for the perfect storm (aka fly away).

I guess you are correct. I came from flying planks for many years and flying within vlos was never an issue. I guess most don't fly them anymore, they just tell them where to go. I enjoy flying mine close. Sometimes I will walk behind it as I fly through obstacles. When it's way out and very small to the eye, not as much fun to me. I only go up high and out if the video requires it.

 

[BigAl07]

I guess you are correct. I came from flying planks for many years and flying within vlos was never an issue. I guess most don't fly them anymore, they just tell them where to go. I enjoy flying mine close. Sometimes I will walk behind it as I fly through obstacles. When it's way out and very small to the eye, not as much fun to me. I only go up high and out if the video requires it.

Exactly the same here. Keep in mind with "planks" (which I still love to fly) orientation is much easier even more so after you get used to it.

 

[GMack]

ABC News had some report stating that "64% of drone accidents where not the fault of the operator but faulty equipment." I'd lump software into that as well.

Research shows faulty equipment behind over 50 per cent of drone accidents

 

[JohnnyB]

Sorry for my noobness, what is planks? I've been in with a P4 since August and am hitting this forum daily trying to absorb all I can. Have a huge respect for you guys. I surely know where to go if I ever do have a problem. Lucky not to have any yet as I haven't had the nerve to fly long distances yet. I'm like you, I like seeing it go through these obstacles yet I haven't messed with atti mode much. Just enough to prepare for the worst. Very excited owner of my P4. Love to fly when I can but only have about 5 hours of flight so far without even getting close to crashing only because I've paid much attention to these guys posting and explain themselves the cause of their crash and I try not to replicate. Thanks for those post!

Sent from my XT1096 using PhantomPilots mobile app
And from your post I sense the importance of knowing how to fly "non GPS" so my next few flights will be atti. Thanks and I'm excited to get home and hear the tones of it firing up!

 

[Monte55]

Exactly the same here. Keep in mind with "planks" (which I still love to fly) orientation is much easier even more so after you get used to it.

Yeah, but you need more space and a decent runway. After my first ARF, I started building mine from sticks. My first was a biplane. Learned to fly it and went to semi scale models. I wanted to fly the planes like the full scale would fly. J3 cub...slow and puttering around with a Saito 4 stroke. I wanted and practiced the perfect takeoffs and landings. I would see people put a giant engine on a Cub and do vertical climbs. That wasn't my style. I think my favorite era of planes were the 30s. Love the GeeBees. I have a D model. I have a 72 inch J3cub, 72 inch modified Ryan STA. Beautiful aircraft with a Supre Tiger 90. All hand built that took weeks. I even machined shock absorbing landind gear for these. I have others that I can't even remember the names now. You are right. People want instant gratification these days and I think miss such an important part. Build it, learn to fly it....with no gyros, no help....just skill.

 

[Monte55]

Sorry for my noobness, what is planks? I've been in with a P4 since August and am hitting this forum daily trying to absorb all I can. Have a huge respect for you guys. I surely know where to go if I ever do have a problem. Lucky not to have any yet as I haven't had the nerve to fly long distances yet. I'm like you, I like seeing it go through these obstacles yet I haven't messed with atti mode much. Just enough to prepare for the worst. Very excited owner of my P4. Love to fly when I can but only have about 5 hours of flight so far without even getting close to crashing only because I've paid much attention to these guys posting and explain themselves the cause of their crash and I try not to replicate. Thanks for those post!

Sent from my XT1096 using PhantomPilots mobile app
And from your post I sense the importance of knowing how to fly "non GPS" so my next few flights will be atti. Thanks and I'm excited to get home and hear the tones of it firing up!

Planks are airplanes. I never heard of that term before joining this site but I used it.

 

[Monte55]

ABC News had some report stating that "64% of drone accidents where not the fault of the operator but faulty equipment." I'd lump software into that as well.

Research shows faulty equipment behind over 50 per cent of drone accidents

I don't put much importance in what the NEWS will say about anything. They wantt reaction more than the truth.

 

[BigAl07]

ABC News had some report stating that "64% of drone accidents where not the fault of the operator but faulty equipment." I'd lump software into that as well.

Research shows faulty equipment behind over 50 per cent of drone accidents

Nothing against you GMack but they don't have a clue what they are talking about. You could tell them your drone runs off of "Blinker Fluid" and they would publish it.

If it's hardware/software how can some people have literally hundreds of flights each with no problem? Anything is possible but Operator Error is accountable for a lot more than 50% of the problems IMHO.

 

[Monte55]

Nothing against you GMack but they don't have a clue what they are talking about. You could tell them your drone runs off of "Blinker Fluid" and they would publish it.

If it's hardware/software how can some people have literally hundreds of flights each with no problem? Anything is possible but Operator Error is accountable for a lot more than 50% of the problems IMHO.

Yeah, they're too lazy to get the truth so they just copy something someone said.

 

[GMack]

Nothing against you GMack but they don't have a clue what they are talking about. You could tell them your drone runs off of "Blinker Fluid" and they would publish it.

If it's hardware/software how can some people have literally hundreds of flights each with no problem? Anything is possible but Operator Error is accountable for a lot more than 50% of the problems IMHO.

No problem.

If these things were plu-perfect and not needing constant updates I might agree. But redundant "Intelligent" (??) batteries as used on the DJI Matrice don't instill confidence that these things won't have flight issues not related to the operator. Even some new P4 Intelligent batteries fail to work right out of the box, or drop cells in flight which leads to a crash. Nor is "Cannot connect to the controller" errors, why P4 #1 sees 16 satellites and P4 #2 only sees 11. IMU imbalance. Etc.

There's even a couple of "Prop stops & drops" in the DJI forum now that shouldn't happen in flight. Software bug leading to suspect operator error? No doubt there will be some other app update or firmware fix soon where we will never learn of what bug was addressed. Too easy to blame the operator with these things, but we never hear of what issues lay in wait within the complexity of the software and the drone itself, and I doubt if DJI would ever admit to an issue that might raise safety concerns related directly to their product. Easier to blame the owner.

I've been into RC long enough to know RC sometimes loses the R part for whatever reason; and the C part you have no control over to regain the R part once it happens.