I've been flying my Inspire for some months now, and always go through full preflight checks and have been very careful where and how I fly as I use it as an aerial camera platform. But . . .I just set up and took it outside for a flight to catch the late afternoon sun.  All checks done, satellites acquired, and green for go. As soon as it took off, it started a very strange drifting motion (similar to atti mode, but more violent,  there was no wind, plus I had a full 'ready to fly' lock on). I corrected and then she seemed to buck and fly all over the place.  I could counter the directional changes, but there seemed to be no intermediate power control - it felt like it was all on or all off.   I managed to (felt like I was fighting it) keep it from flying into the trees surrounding my property as I attempted to bring it down - all the time it was skating all over the place.  Near the ground, I got the gear down and was just getting to land and it did an almighty buck and went backwards into a bush. Took the end of a prop, but nothing else appears to be broken. This is a severe loss-of-confidence situation for me as (until now), since the recent firmware upgrades the Inspire has behaved perfectly. If I had done something wrong, then I'd accept the consequences (and not post a message on the forum), but everything was good for a flight, and this happened. Has anyone else experienced this erratic behavior recently?

did u re-calibrate your compas before you started flying?

Hi John,

Were abouts in NZ are you? I'm in Nelson.
You are very lucky not to have sustained serious injuries or caused major damage.
I am getting very nervous about these flyaways reported here.
It almost sounds like the units are going into a manual mode, where there is no stabilisation.

I have just started an enquiry with consumers affairs regarding this product. I don't think it's fit for purpose and safe to operate. Yes I know, many here have not had any issues so far. I only had the vibration problem at the start. But the many reports of unexplained crashes etc. make this product a liability, not an asset.

mattd@internode Posted at 2015-5-25 14:08
did u re-calibrate your compas before you started flying?

No recalibration, my last flight  was from same place so not normally required

Mail sent.   You can send me the logs.

Why don't you upload the flight logs for DJI to have a look at.
As for Aknaur, what do you hope to achieve? Are you looking for a refund? The majority of us don't have an issue with our Inspires.

DJI-Autumn Posted at 2015-5-25 15:39
Mail sent.   You can send me the logs.

Thanks Autumn - I'll extract and send the logs.

lethbrp Posted at 2015-5-25 15:40
Why don't you upload the flight logs for DJI to have a look at.
As for Aknaur, what do you hope to a ...

Yes - I'll be sending the logs to DJI

aknauer@xtra.co Posted at 2015-5-25 14:16
Hi John,

Were abouts in NZ are you? I'm in Nelson.

Sunny Kapiti Coast!  Great place to fly the Inspire.

Magnetic Sheep maybe And the Inspire was just following like a lost Sheep

Why didn't you switch to Atti?

When you review the replay, what does the Height show - does it show any odd reading?

Way too many reports of this type of erratic behavior, WHERE IS DJI??? the rest of us need answers! should we stop flying and cancel our scheduled jobs??

Acidsnow  Just back up and punt.     The P2v3 is performing great.     I understand your concrerns.       P2v3 is very affordable and still supported by DJI.     
I call mine ButtpuckerFree Turnkey Duty.
Summation
p2v3 simply makes money.

f1@frankschaffe Posted at 2015-5-25 23:15
When you review the replay, what does the Height show - does it show any odd reading?

The flight looks very erratic (and it was!).  Heights and locations recorded by the app seem accurate to what I remember.  The aircraft was only between 10 and 20 metres away all the time.  I was fighting to take some control of it for the entire 2 minute flight.

markjacobs.talk Posted at 2015-5-25 19:40
Why didn't you switch to Atti?

Might have been an option if I had been able to take a breath.  Not sure why that might have given me more control though.

johnmillsnz@icl Posted at 2015-5-26 04:34
Might have been an option if I had been able to take a breath.  Not sure why that might have given ...

Because it would have immediately taken GPS and the magnetometer (compass) out of the equation.
You would have had instant control restored.

But I take your point of it all happening/unfolding very quickly.

Hi John,

I think you have been stalking me???  - I experienced very similar stuff back in march resulting in uncontrolled fly away and destroyed craft.

Prior to fly away, inspire was basically a few metres in front of me trying to control it to lower the legs for a landing. I was wrestling the bird which seemed to be wishing to violently move in the opposite direction to my stick inputs - fish bowling is the term I believe. RC signal failure was the next step

Flight log review identified gps and accelerometer issues. I have asked on numerous occasions for DJI to let me know what the result of their investigation of the inspire found but I have got no response.

Thanks to dundees info on recovering lost footage, it shows some very strange behaviour especially with the gimbal resetting itself or re centering itself every couple of seconds,   Fly away occurred with craft flying backwards full noise at approx 45 degrees whilst climbing.

Got my inspire back yesterday and completed software updates last night. Am a little amazed that DJI rebuilt what look destroyed to me. ALSO very amazed they can test a rebuilt craft without the current firmware!! Also of concern at this point is that the aircraft completed update in about 4 minutes, controllers in less than this and batteries even faster. TXT files all said updates successful but it did seem a little quick! Kind of nervous at this point to go for a test fly.

Good luck with your battle getting any answers from DJI.

DJI>>>>> my RMA is 150416401. Can anyone from DJI would like to share with us all the results of the investigation in to my fly away?  Something not right is happening to the inspires, I am not alone and it seems to be on the increase.

IF THERE IS AN ANOMALY OR ISSUE THEN YOU NEED TO TELL US DJI and sort it out before someone gets seriously hurt.

Wolfman Posted at 2015-5-26 06:32
Hi John,

I think you have been stalking me???  - I experienced very similar stuff back in march res ...

I think when most of us read these posts, we probably think that there must be an element of user error, and it won't happen to us.  I'd be happy if it was my fault, as at least there would be something I could do about it (more practice and training).

Now I have lost confidence in the reliability of the craft, and until I find the reason for the erratic behaviour, sadly, things will remain that way .

johnmillsnz@icl Posted at 2015-5-26 06:56
I think when most of us read these posts, we probably think that there must be an element of user  ...

John,

exactly where I am mate. I have had no help what so ever from DJI as to what specifically went wrong with me. Best I got from them was "GPS not performing well and accelerometer not performing well"

How I received rc signal failure with the craft 3m in front of me needs explaining. Where it was going to after the rc signal failure with NO GPS and NO home point (due to failed gps) whilst in atti mode needs some type of explanation.

As with you, happy to take it on the chin and learn from mistakes made but this will certainly be in the back of my mind as possible happening again as there have been zero answers to the issues that occurred.

Having said that though, there are still a lot of folk out there that have had zero issues with their Inspires so hopefully we have just been an unlucky minority.

I had exact experience like you had. I had a very good hour and a half fly before it went nuts. everything was checked, and locked on the GPS, green to go, but as soon as I took off, it fly randomly by itself, so I had to have to fight for get it landed, luckly I did not hit anything, I did exactly same test before and after firmware updated, it happened before I updated the firmware, then I though might be update the firmware will help this situation, so I did, however, it still flew itself when I took off, so I called DJI, they needed me to sent the bird back to them for technician to diagnose what happened. I just mailed back last week, waiting for  them to fix the issue. so the issue boiled down as the drone is not hover when on the GPS model.

Howie

Hi John, I am sorry that this happened to you. I experienced the exact same thing. I actually feel the same way as Wolfman when I read stories like yours on this forum, as there are more than a few others who have been through this. I hope DJI takes care of you. I have returned all three I1's that we have purchased and decided to hold off until DJI makes this platform safe to fly.

Hello,

After about 20 flights with no problems, I experienced a similar thing the day before yesterday. No damage fortunatly.

The only thing is that I do not recall that I checked if the app said it was "safe to fly". Normally I always do that, but this time I'm not sure.

Do you now if there is some automatic logging where I can see if it was "Safe to fly"when I started the rotors? If so, where can I find it?

the same exact thing happened to me... i have lost confidence in the drone i crashed it once with no damage, and managed to safely land it the second time, wtf this seems to be a very common problem, and no
word at all from dji, they said i needed to recalabrate my I.M.U app says its not necessary, i will try this and test again, in a open field...

arq.kamal@gmail Posted at 2015-5-26 13:23
the same exact thing happened to me... i have lost confidence in the drone i crashed it once with no ...

Seems to be an all-to-common issue.

I hope all of us who have had this problem, take the time to send their flight report log to DJI to give them a chance to review, determine a fix, update firmware, then ship it out. Autumn seems to be onto it.

99.5% of the Inspire is fantastic - but we just cannot afford ($ and safety wise) to have anything like a .5% chance of failure.

lethbrp Posted at 2015-5-25 15:40
Why don't you upload the flight logs for DJI to have a look at.
As for Aknaur, what do you hope to a ...

I'm hoping to find an avenue that protects my interests, and perhaps of others. DJI certainly can't be relied upon to do that at all.

My Inspire does fly, even after the recent update. However, I am experincing dropped connections to the controller - so far luckily only at start. But since these frequent flyaways seem to be happening at random, the Inspire can't be considered fit for purpose or safe to operate.

I have beeen building and flying drones for the last four years and have hundreds of hours sticktime - so not afraid of flying ATTI, actually prefer it.

I installed and followed all instructions to the letter. I did my normal total preflight check list and calibration.

I didn't have a battery issue, but I did have a serious flight issue that caused the bird to circle and not hover. It actually started out in small circles and then grew larger and larger until it wasn't controllable. No where in the Firmware Instructions Guide does it say to update the IMU. However, after my bird smashed into a palm tree with a 5 to 6 week turnaround on repairs, I was told this was something I should have done.

If this is the case, then why the hell wasn't it in the guide? Why wasn't an emergency email sent to the owners to make sure this was added to the preflight / update check list?  I can see there are several / many people who have issues with the firmware update.

I am waiting to hear back from the repair team to see what their conclusion is once they take a look at the flight records. I will repost once they tell me what they find.

johnmillsnz@icl Posted at 2015-5-26 14:22
Seems to be an all-to-common issue.

I hope all of us who have had this problem, take the time to  ...

Today when I started the Inspire it wouldn't link to the controller at all. I powered everything down and up a couple of times.
I wonder if the Inspire sometimes un-binds from the controller. But then the fail-safe routine should take over. Just a thought.

aknauer@xtra.co Posted at 2015-5-26 14:43
Today when I started the Inspire it wouldn't link to the controller at all. I powered everything d ...

Hopefully, DJI will replace your craft as it clearly sounds defective.

linfisher Posted at 2015-5-26 14:40
I installed and followed all instructions to the letter. I did my normal total preflight check list  ...

What you describe sounds like the Fishbowl effect. It happens when the GPS can't get a reliable fix, but receives some signals. So it starts hunting around some point in search of it's position.
Switching to ATTI will get you out of this straight away. The craft should level but will not hold a position.
I prefer to take off in ATTI and switch to GPS when I have checked that the craft flies level and responds.

lethbrp Posted at 2015-5-26 15:13
Hopefully, DJI will replace your craft as it clearly sounds defective.

This only started with the new FW

aknauer@xtra.co Posted at 2015-5-26 15:26
This only started with the new FW

Odd, I'm not having such issues with mine. Have you tried re-installing the update? and checking each components version?

aknauer@xtra.co Posted at 2015-5-26 15:25
What you describe sounds like the Fishbowl effect. It happens when the GPS can't get a reliable fi ...

I have experienced the FB effect, first with the Phantom V2+, and with the Inspire pre the last Firmware update.  The FB effect is a smooth circling and movement of the aircraft and it settles down after a brief time as it appears to get a better location lock.  This incident was something different all together.  It had much more of a violent nature to it, as though the Inspire had gone a bit wild and had to be tamed.

johnmillsnz@icl Posted at 2015-5-26 17:54
I have experienced the FB effect, first with the Phantom V2+, and with the Inspire pre the last Fi ...

It is more often known as the Toilet Bowl effect.

My has the same issue.  Totally nuts, barely hanging on to get it to the ground!  Latest firmware, IMU and compass calibrated.  Heading back to DJI today.  Scared to fly this thing

Thought I should post a follow-up to this event.
Autumn (DJI) contacted me, and I sent the flight controller logs.

I have just received her reply:
"From the MC data, we find that you didn’t calibrate the compass before the flight.
The compass had interference during the flight but the aircraft still had the corresponding reaction to your command so it was controllable."

It was correct that I did not calibrate the compass prior to this flight - as I had flown the last 3 from exactly the same location - but from now on I will calibrate before every single flight.

As for the interference and control aspects, I don't think there would be any magnetic interference (again I flew the last 3 and many others previously from the same spot and never have had any issues).  The aircraft definitely did not seem to fly or respond to the controls as it normally does - but I will accept their findings, calibrate my compass and enjoy the Inspire as I have always done.

johnmillsnz@icl Posted at 2015-6-6 03:55
Thought I should post a follow-up to this event.
Autumn (DJI) contacted me, and I sent the flight co ...

Further to my previous - I just want to thank Autumn for her assistance to me, and to the Inspire community.  She appears to be the chosen one -  to interface between the (often irate and anxious) users who have lost or crashed their beloved aircraft, and a company that (without her) does not appear to rate particularly well in the area of customer support.

Autumn - your help is very much appreciated.

aknauer@xtra.co Posted at 2015-5-26 15:25
What you describe sounds like the Fishbowl effect. It happens when the GPS can't get a reliable fi ...

"Fishbowl" (toilet bowl is more common name) is usually caused by compass interference or calibration problems, rather than GPS issues.

johnmillsnz@icl Posted at 2015-6-6 03:55
Thought I should post a follow-up to this event.
Autumn (DJI) contacted me, and I sent the flight co ...

You can look at the sensor data in the app and determine if compass calibration is necessary; you're looking for a mod between 1400 and 1600 on the compass settings.

Compass can require calibration for any number of reasons. The most obvious is, as you say, location... if you always fly in place X and travel a while to place Y you'll want to calibrate. But there are a lot of ways to disrupt the calibration of the compass without moving the aircraft geographically. Strong magnetic fields, for example, will cause the compass to need calibrating.

Always check.

I find calibrating before each session is fine; if you're going to burn 5 or 6 batteries you can probably avoid "the dance" before each takeoff, but I generally calibrate before every session. Takes 20 seconds and at least you can check it off the list.

I think you can fly multiple trips at the same location and only caliph rate at the first flight.  Do as you will but I've seen quite a few DJI reps says this.   When I read the initial post, I thought compass right off the bat.