Forum Post: DJI Air 2S - Difficulty Ascending Issue

Hey all !

I've been encountering a rather strange issue with my DJI Air 2S drone recently and I'm hoping to get some insight from the community here.

Sometime early this year (I can't pinpoint an exact date) but i belive after one firmware update , I started noticing that when I fly my Air 2S forward at full speed and then attempt to ascend, it seems like the drone either struggles(alooot) to start ascend or does so at a painfully slow rate. This problem is seriously impacting the drone's agility and responsiveness during flight.

If i turn to one side or the other and push up he goes up fast no isues in that case

I've taken a look at all the settings, made sure the firmware is up to date, but unfortunately, the issue persists. It's really frustrating. and doing fast low fligths is realy easy to crash it.

Has anyone else encountered a similar problem with their drone, particularly in the past few months? If so, have you been able to find any solutions or workarounds?

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your help!

I have three DJI drones and this is the way they have always worked while moving forward at full power. I don’t have the Air 2S but do have the MA2 and works the same. So I do understand what you’re asking about but don’t believe it’s anything with the aircraft or firmware. I believe it’s because when flying forward at full power the aircraft’s pitch’s down at 35° so a good amount of forward pitch. It’s harder for the aircraft to ascend at the same rate when it’s pitched at that angle which is pulling it forward. I’ve sometimes ran lower altitude high speed runs and mine still ascends up more than fast enough though. Not sure if that helps but unless DJI says different it’s normal. Enjoy RC215……..

Has anyone else encountered a similar problem with their drone, particularly in the past few months? If so, have you been able to find any solutions or workarounds?
No-one else has observed this.
The best thing to do would be to identify the cause of the issue so it can be addressed properly.
To do that you would need to post recorded flight data form a flight that demonstrates the problem.

Go to: https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
... where you'll find instructions.
That will give a report you can post a link for the report here.
Or just post the .txt file.

If you used the RC controller, you'll find your files here:
Android\data\dji.go.v5\files\FlightRecord

Wyldwestaz10 Posted at 3-16 09:23
I have three DJI drones and this is the way they have always worked while moving forward at full power. I don’t have the Air 2S but do have the MA2 and works the same. So I do understand what you’re asking about but don’t believe it’s anything with the aircraft or firmware. I believe it’s because when flying forward at full power the aircraft’s pitch’s down at 35° so a good amount of forward pitch. It’s harder for the aircraft to ascend at the same rate when it’s pitched at that angle which is pulling it forward. I’ve sometimes ran lower altitude high speed runs and mine still ascends up more than fast enough though. Not sure if that helps but unless DJI says different it’s normal. Enjoy RC215……..

I believe it’s because when flying forward at full power the aircraft’s pitch’s down at 35° so a good amount of forward pitch. It’s harder for the aircraft to ascend at the same rate when it’s pitched at that angle which is pulling it forward.
Perhaps you've imagined this, but it's not true.
The pitch angle has no effect on the drone's vertical speed.
Your drone can achieve max vertical speed at the same time it's making max horizontal speed.

It's easy to confirm this by looking at your recorded flight data.

Labroides Posted at 3-16 16:48
Has anyone else encountered a similar problem with their drone, particularly in the past few months? If so, have you been able to find any solutions or workarounds?
No-one else has observed this.
The best thing to do would be to identify the cause of the issue so it can be addressed properly.

Here is the fligth log in i feel it hapend check at 7m25s full speed ans full stick up and for me it doesnt climb as it should ( https://phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/4DY9D3EHCL0LCSZ7XINZ/ ) it hapend a couple more times in the same fligth.
I undestand what Wyldwestaz10 says and as i get more confortable whit the drone i will notice more its limitations (i only have like 10 hours in the air), but what i notice is if i give a touch on the stick to the rigt or left it starts climbing fast and is someting that doest hapend always so im more tilted to someting faulty im my controller/drone/firmware.

lol. Here we go.

Rc215 Posted at 3-17 08:24
Here is the fligth log in i feel it hapend check at 7m25s full speed ans full stick up and for me it doesnt climb as it should ( https://phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/4DY9D3EHCL0LCSZ7XINZ/ ) it hapend a couple more times in the same fligth.
I undestand what Wyldwestaz10 says and as i get more confortable whit the drone i will notice more its limitations (i only have like 10 hours in the air), but what i notice is if i give a touch on the stick to the rigt or left it starts climbing fast and is someting that doest hapend always so im more tilted to someting faulty im my controller/drone/firmware.

Hi again RC215. When rolling left or right the aircraft doesn’t pitch nowhere as much as when flying forward. The easier way to test it is fly at full power and then ascend up and look at the app and see what the ascent rate is which is in Mph. The MA2 specs indicate about 13 MPH while ascending. Then stop and hover to see what the ascent rate is. Just to be clear so the other zealots on here don’t misunderstand, It should not be much different. However, if it is ascending up much slower while at full power at something like 2 MPH then sounds like an issue. If there is a big discrepancy then the first thing I’d do is use the DJI Assistant 2 (consumer drone series) PC software and do a complete refresh on both drone and cuntroller. Then as always it best to calibrate the IMU & Compass. It may not be necessary but always best to go through everything to make sure it’s all updated. DJI almost always reminds doing this first before you do anything else further like sending in for repair. Hope this helps. Enjoy.

Just accessed the log and according to data when going from about 33 mph up to 42 mph it is indicating about that 13 mph ascent rate. It may be just do to when flying lower to the ground at high speed it appears to not ascend as fast because of how quickly it approaches obstacles. So according to the logs the aircraft os working as it should. Good luck and enjoy.

Rc215 Posted at 3-17 08:24
Here is the fligth log in i feel it hapend check at 7m25s full speed ans full stick up and for me it doesnt climb as it should ( https://phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/4DY9D3EHCL0LCSZ7XINZ/ ) it hapend a couple more times in the same fligth.
I undestand what Wyldwestaz10 says and as i get more confortable whit the drone i will notice more its limitations (i only have like 10 hours in the air), but what i notice is if i give a touch on the stick to the rigt or left it starts climbing fast and is someting that doest hapend always so im more tilted to someting faulty im my controller/drone/firmware.

Here is the flight log
I've checked your recorded flight data for each time you pushed the left and right sticks fully forwards.

In all cases, the drone achieved the full ascent rate while at full forward speed.
But the time to accellerate to full climb speed varied.

24 sec, full left and full right stick, full climb rate in 1.4 seconds
5:24.2, full left and full right stick, full climb rate in 1.1 seconds
5:39.4, full left and full right stick, full climb rate in 1.4 seconds
5:54.1, full left and full right stick, full climb rate in 3.1 seconds **
6:04.7, full left and full right stick, full climb rate in 1.5 seconds
6:16.8, full left and full right stick, 85% full climb rate in 2.1 seconds, paused, then full climb rate after 3 seconds
6:43.4, full left and full right stick, full climb rate in 6.5 seconds **
7:09.3, full left and full right stick, full climb rate in 2.3 seconds
7:27.2, full left and full right stick, full climb rate in 4.1 seconds **
7:53.9, full left and full right stick, full climb rate in 6.1 seconds **

The slowest climbing accelleration (the sections marked **) were all accompanied by hard rudder input to rotate the drone while trying to fly forward.
For the two slowest, the drone was first rotated one way, then the opposite direction.

To rotate the drone, the flight controller has to slow the motor speed on one diagonally opposite motor pair while increasing speed on the other pair.
To climb, the flight controller has to increase motor speeds on all 4 motors.
As the data confirms, the drone is unable to climb at full speed while also rotating.

But flying fast forwards does not affect the drone's ability to achieve max climb rate quickly.

ROTFL….

Wyldwestaz10 Posted at 3-18 07:38
ROTFL….

Why don't you give a little more detail to support your ROTFL ?

Keep going. You already proved my point about ascent rate which is different than the max ascent rate speed. Now please move on kid. This is not one of your dozens of social media apps where you try to be someone. I have already prayed for your hardened heart.

Hope you enjoy your drone RC215. Best wishes….

Wyldwestaz10 Posted at 3-18 12:54
Keep going. You already proved my point about ascent rate which is different than the max ascent rate speed. Now please move on kid. This is not one of your dozens of social media apps where you try to be someone. I have already prayed for your hardened heart.

You have no idea what you are talking about.
First you claimed that ja drone at full forward speed couldn't climb at max climb rate, which is completely wrong.
Second his recorded flight data shows you are wrong.
Third, I pointed out the mechanism that explains why he noticed a slow climb sometimes, but not at other times.

But you are too obtuse to see and understand facts when someone rubs your nose in them.

Wow. The kid is still going. Move on please. Lol………