Finally pulled the trigger on the Inspire 1 3 days ago. I've watched all the videos and tutorials and read everything. I updated the firmware on the Inspire, Controller, and batteries. I also calibrated noth the IMU and the compass. Went to maiden her today. Flew around for about 6 min at very close proimity at a school field. Altitude was never more than 30M, when all the sudden, the I1 started taking off, my screen said no signal yet there was no RTH sounds or anything. It kept climbing and climbing until is was out of sight. I was seriously feeling that I was going to faint. My $4000 quad was gone. It wasn't until 5 min later when I finally heard something, The I1 was coming down at full speed, basically a 6 lb brick falling out of the sky with the props trying to slow it down. I still had no control as it luckily slammed into a garen in the back yard of someones house. Thank god it didn't hurt anyone or anything but some plants. Camera flung off, one prop broken, and the battery flung out. I couldn't get it back into travel mode as it has no more communication with the controller. I feel so fortunate that I actually got it back but have zero faith in the product. Seriously, I've been reading all the comments here and just thought that maybe people were flying to the outer limits or something. This is really scary. All I want is a product that can be solid and can be operated with confidence. This is not it. I'm returning this to the dealer stat. Can anyone else suggest what could have happened. BTW, I had 16 satellites locked in, fully charged batteries on both controller and I1 and all updates and calibrations done. I just can't believe that I got it back.

That sounds like a nightmare. I can't even think of what could have happened in your case as it was "locked" flying up?! And Then "falling" without control????
I' curious to learn more about it and sorry for your crash.

chowtime- Sorry to hear the bad news.

I speak from experience on this matter, return the product and walk away. Believe me, I don't hate DJI however, in my humble opinion, this product was about a year out before being released. Like you, I was so enamored with the tech and positive implications after reading, studying, videos, etc, I purchased one. Four days later, it was just me and pieces of my Inspire on a neighbors lawn and roof. Luckily, they let me retrieve the parts without offering any grief.

Truly sorry to hear your experience to be such a bad one. Keep us up to date, sir.

-S.N.

I don't hate DJI either. I bought the I1 because I have a few video projects coming up that could use it. All I want is a unit that works but I really am scared. This could have easily been the first DJI fatality if someone had been ion the back your where it dropped like a rock. I have nothing to gain by badmouthing DJI.

I'm so so sorry to hear about this. You know, DJI really has to take these things into consideration. You're lucky no one got hurt, and it wouldn't have even been your fault. But even worse, what if this thing flew up into an area above 400 feet where a plane is flying by. In my area, there are planes above where I fly, but I would never dare to go up to them. Hope that your damage isn't bad and your back up flying again safely with no problems this time!!!

I have no idea how high it even went. It was completely out of sight for many minutes. This was the maiden flight, and the last one. I'll be returning this to the dealer. Even my RTH was set only to 80m. It went way way beyond that. I really hope I can recover the video file somehow. The file is over 3 gb but won't play probably because it was slammed into the ground while still recording.

chowtime Posted at 2015-5-25 12:04
I have no idea how high it even went. It was completely out of sight for many minutes. This was the  ...

Were all four props still on the Inspire when it fell? Was the home point properly recorded? What were your IMU values?

Yes, all 4 props were still on. One was broken in half with the other half beside it. I'm not sure what the IMU values were, all I know was that it wen through the calibration, took about 10 min and was successful. When I hit check IMU afterwards, it displayed that it was up to date or not necessary, something like that. I have a very short video of it falling. As soon as I heard it, I asked my brother in law to hurry and record it. He didn't have much time before it smashed. I have one onboard video that is about 5 min long and uneventful. It did fly nice while it worked.

So sorry to hear about your loss. Very scary. I'm wondering because if it was it's maiden flight, that proper IMU calibration wasn't done. To properly set IMU, you have to make sure that the Inspire is perfectly level as well as no interference.

did u get the video??? sorry to hear about your inspire 1.... hopefully dji will replace it for you.

Really sorry for your loss, chowtime. It must be a nightware.
The log will tell us what happened, let's wait the analysis result.

DJI-Autumn Posted at 2015-5-25 14:48
Really sorry for your loss, chowtime. It must be a nightware.
The log will tell us what happened, le ...

HI Autumm,
Will DJI also tell us what is happen, since it seems that the number of uncontrolled fly aways is exploding
and meanwhile, and I think many other fellow owners, are losing their confident and pleasure on the I1.
Mine is grounded till there is a brief explanation, workaround or fix for this uncontrolled behavior  

  

DJI-Autumn Posted at 2015-5-25 14:48
Really sorry for your loss, chowtime. It must be a nightware.
The log will tell us what happened, le ...

Autumn,

I have a similar concern to what is being expressed by enkhome.  With these recent reports of flyaways that clearly could have caused accidents with injuries or fatalities, I am beginning to be concerned that anyone in the USA who flies an Inspire and gets into an accident is going to be charged with careless and reckless operation by the FAA.  By being on this board we are all on notice that these incidents are happening.  We have no idea of the cause and no idea how much risk there is of the same thing happening to us.

I assume DJI is already investigating this issue since it obviously involves multiple Inspires in different places in the world.  Can you give us an update?

DJI is too busy releasing new products (Matrix 100) rather than fixing and maintaining the "old" ones. This is sad and seeing all threads about flyaways in this forum my I1 is grounded until this is sorted out.

chowtime Posted at 2015-5-25 12:04
I have no idea how high it even went. It was completely out of sight for many minutes. This was the  ...

Did you set your RTH to Aircraft Present Position on the app before you blasted into the unkown?

I did not manually set the rth before blasting into the unknown. I assumed the aircraft does it for you when you take off. Perhaps my assumption was wrong. There was nothing around that could provide lots of interference like power lines, cell towers etc. It was a very large field  approximately 300m X 400m. I flew it no further than 60m in distance and 30m high. Absolutely clear line of sight only. This is totally unacceptable especially reading online of how many people this has happened to. Even if my RTH wasn't manually set, I had set the max height to 80m so even if it had landed in a different place, it should have only flown up to 80m plus, the I1 wouldn't know of any other RTH location except this one since this was its first flight. This is one of those things where you always say "that would never happen to me" and then next thing you know, you're a new member of the flyaway club. I really am so surprised that no one has gotten hurt or killed from a rogue drone. I have a video of it falling, not are if I can post a video here though.

chowtime Posted at 2015-5-26 03:33
I did not manually set the rth before blasting into the unknown. I assumed the aircraft does it for  ...

Hi Chowtime,

Not another one!!. Wont go thru everything again in this post but here is the details of my situation:

Fly away

To recover your footage, use this method,


It will be interesting to see if the final stages of the footage show the gimbal violently resetting itself a couple of times, I have been told that it is a sign that the accelerometer is stuffed, the re-setting of the gimbal is because it simply is confused as to where it is.

Good luck with getting this sorted with DJI.

Thanks Wolfman. Does this work with Mac and .mov as well? I'm so curious to see the footage.

chowtime Posted at 2015-5-26 09:23
Thanks Wolfman. Does this work with Mac and .mov as well? I'm so curious to see the footage.

So the Inspire doesn't speak to the remote?   If it does you just have to put the SD back in and record another short clip.   This happens a lot and the fix is really easy, but obviously you need to be able to record.

Inspire no longer recognizes controller. I did solve it by inserting SD card, powering the I1 for about 30 sec, powering down. Clip some how finalizes and is able to play. Pretty wild, in the l1's last moments, to was actually flying inverted and then it stopped recording.