Yesterday I experienced a fly away. A friend that is also an experienced pilot (rc and full size) witnessed the event with me. I have been flying radio controlled models and drones for many years. I have had a South African drone pilot license (RPL) for the past 3 years and occasionally fly commercial jobs for one of the licensed operators in South Africa.

The weather was calm. It was night time. The previous day I flew with the drone and it was absolutely fine.

I took off in my friend's garden where he has been flying his mavic mini the past two weeks. There is wifi interference, so range is limited to a few hundred meters according to him. We both have the CE version.

Basically I took off and the next moment the mavic mini just flew away. I thought it was drifting and gave additional throttle to give me some space to work with. It gained speed and I pulled back, but to no avail. And then it was gone. It all happened in a few seconds. The controller disconnected after it was about 100m away.

I have emailed DJI support and is now awaiting a response from them.

I attach the log file of the flight if someone clever wants to have a look at it. All I can see is what looks like incorrect orientation of the drone (blue arrow).

Did you take off with enough satelites?
Have you flown other dji drones in the Past?
When was your Last compass calibration if you did one?

the log shows that you had no blame in this situation, will see what dji says

WooZie Posted at 11-30 07:50
the log shows that you had no blame in this situation, will see what dji says

you are all very brave to open a zip-file from  a person, you did know...

Nothing against you MegaTesla :-)

So did you recover the drone?
For how long did you have the Mini working correctly?

could somebody open log and post it, I'm using iPad all I get is mish mash txt

Hello and good day MegaTesla. I am sorry to read and to know what happened to your DJI Mavic Mini. This is not the experience we want you to have with your DJI Mavic Mini and with DJI. Since you have contacted DJI with regards to this matter. Rest assured that DJI is doing its best to know and to find out the reason of the incident and then the corresponding resolution would be provided. After the analysis DJI will be sending you the result via an email. Again I am sorry for the trouble and thank you.

djiuser_SFmb5tb7bQWj Posted at 11-30 07:30
Did you take off with enough satelites?
Have you flown other dji drones in the Past?
When was your Last compass calibration if you did one?

Yes, 10 satellites.
DJI Mavic Pro for commercial operations.
Compass calibration only after I set up the mavic mini the first time. After that it flew perfectly and I did not consider doing another calibration if not needed.

InspektorGadjet Posted at 11-30 08:43
So did you recover the drone?
For how long did you have the Mini working correctly?

No I drove around in a car in the area trying to get a connection, but I'm sure the drone just kept on going.
Worked without issues until Thursday. On Friday (yesterday) the fly away happened. I think there was an App update between Thursday and Friday. Not sure if that might have contributed to the problem.

MegaTesla Posted at 11-30 10:56
No I drove around in a car in the area trying to get a connection, but I'm sure the drone just kept on going.
Worked without issues until Thursday. On Friday (yesterday) the fly away happened. I think there was an App update between Thursday and Friday. Not sure if that might have contributed to the problem.

Oh my bad, didn´t the ¨fly my drone¨thingy in the App remembered the last point?
I hope the issue has a good end for you.

DJI Stephen Posted at 11-30 09:28
Hello and good day MegaTesla. I am sorry to read and to know what happened to your DJI Mavic Mini. This is not the experience we want you to have with your DJI Mavic Mini and with DJI. Since you have contacted DJI with regards to this matter. Rest assured that DJI is doing its best to know and to find out the reason of the incident and then the corresponding resolution would be provided. After the analysis DJI will be sending you the result via an email. Again I am sorry for the trouble and thank you.

Hi all people . Need assistance .
I have find big  problem with mavic mini rc with s6 galaxy  Samsung cell phone.
The rc create magnetic field and this cause bug with compass in cell phone and this bug create big bug with map in fly app and bug with central icon in app to put controller in direction to drone correctly.
I have recorded the trouble with cam .
When I put the cell phone on controller the compass going crazy ! Magnetic field decalibrate compass in cell phone .  

MegaTesla I created a link to view your log.

https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Z9O0V2WMULIQUSHDFH55

djiuser_RDpozUn4JhQY Posted at 11-30 13:11
MegaTesla I created a link to view your log.

https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Z9O0V2WMULIQUSHDFH55

That is awesome, the slider is a very neat function.

MegaTesla Posted at 11-30 10:56
No I drove around in a car in the area trying to get a connection, but I'm sure the drone just kept on going.
Worked without issues until Thursday. On Friday (yesterday) the fly away happened. I think there was an App update between Thursday and Friday. Not sure if that might have contributed to the problem.

Your drone did not go that far. Unless someone found it it should be easy to locate.

Your flight log shows nothing strange with what you did equally it shows nothing wrong with your MM, I think you are going to have to send in your craft to dji if you have it and let them check the .dat file which will have all the information on it, this log doesn’t show this , and if you don’t have your MM dji are likely to find no pilot fault no craft fault and they might offer discount off new craft .

The log from the website above is poor, it contains nearly nothing ... the Airdata site shows ESC errors with a high acceleration

It's looking like every Mini owner should download and analyze their flight data to determine if their 'new' drone is faulty... before it crashes or flies away. It looks like the esc boards are running on a razor's edge. It could be the esc, the motors or the firmware.  Was the firmware updated? I read someone with a spark had a corrupt firmware and an update fixed the problem. So maybe it's a good idea after a firmware update to do a indoor/close range test flight and anaylize the flight data to see if the mini is giving any errors. It will be a pain to have to keep doing it though.

BobB Posted at 11-30 13:43
Your drone did not go that far. Unless someone found it it should be easy to locate.

The log stops where the controller lost connection. By that time the drone was still picking up speed (36.4 mph) and heading off into the distance....

MegaTesla Posted at 11-30 16:17
The log stops where the controller lost connection. By that time the drone was still picking up speed (36.4 mph) and heading off into the distance....

Looks to me it hit that tall tree is why i said that. Did you check the trees/area there at that location?

BobB Posted at 11-30 17:36
Looks to me it hit that tall tree is why i said that. Did you check the trees/area there at that location?

It was well above the tree line. (unfortunately?)

DJI is busy reviewing my case. I will let you all know what the result is.

MegaTesla Posted at 12-1 05:06
DJI is busy reviewing my case. I will let you all know what the result is.

ok but we already know what DJI will do since you don't have the drone.....

BobB Posted at 12-1 05:48
ok but we already know what DJI will do since you don't have the drone.....

I don't. What will they do?

MegaTesla Posted at 12-1 08:48
I don't. What will they do?

Offer you a small percentage off on a new one is all i have ever seen them do for not having the drone.

Hi MegaTesla,

Had a look at your flight as well.

First its strange to see that the file starts flying and not start at takeoff.

The RC forward | aft input did moved your craft away from you. Craft was more/less pointing to the RC but the input was aft stick. So it moved away from you. Hope that my chart will make this clear. But when you zero`d all RC input it should come to a stabilized hover, it did not but moved on....GPS signals are good in the file.

With only aft stick (+up) it should move in a straight line. As there is only a short distance to analyse, butmy guess it would travelled in a curve. Indicates compass/imu errors.Hope that DJI will tell your more.

Why the file stopped recording after 15 seconds i cannot tell you.



cheers
JJB

Thanks JJB! I will look at your charts.

At take off the drone was pointing away from the controller. I took off in that orientation (tail in). The drone yawed to the right and started the fly away with the nose pointing in the direction of the flight curve.

The log stopped because that was the distance where the drone disconnected from the controller. It is the CE version so that distance in a built-up suburb with lots of wifi might be normal.

MegaTesla Posted at 12-1 12:14
Thanks JJB! I will look at your charts.

At take off the drone was pointing away from the controller. I took off in that orientation (tail in). The drone yawed to the right and started the fly away with the nose pointing in the direction of the flight curve.

Weird,

Data in log shows that your mini was heading all the time about 175 to 155 heading, did not yaw in the file.
Mayby this happend in the first part wich is not in the file.
Ofcourse i believe what you saw, so data in the log is wrong. Heading data in the log can be totally wrong if there is a compass error.

See another chart.

I know that the log stopped when disconnectet, but why dit it disconnect at 110 meters away from you ??

Best (well, that my opinion) is to start a flight hovering in front of you, move in all directions and always back to start position. Check the indicator in the app for correct heading (same as actual craft heading) if all OKE, start flying.
cheers
JJB

Thanks for the additional chart!

The compass was clearly malfunctioning. It allowed me to take off and not once indicated a problem, and immediately upon releasing the throttle stick at hover height (in my case about 5 meters) it locked me out completely. No inputs from the controller such as additional throttle or pulling back on the pitch had any influence. The mavic mini on-board flight controller had perfect barometric height, accelerometer (and gyro?) data, and perfect GPS data, yet it continued to fly away and not try to hover or land. Also after the controller disconnected no attempt was made by the mavic mini to RTH. Even on a windy day I can fly a drone nose-in wherever I want without GPS positioning, but this mavic mini gave me no options to recover it...

Good news!

DJI support has been fantastic. They have completed the data analysis of the log file and confirmed it is a warranty case. They will be sending me a replacement Mavic mini.

MegaTesla Posted at 12-4 02:01
Good news!

DJI support has been fantastic. They have completed the data analysis of the log file and confirmed it is a warranty case. They will be sending me a replacement Mavic mini.

did you recover the old drone? Or will they send you a new one without you to have the old one?

WooZie Posted at 12-4 02:20
did you recover the old drone? Or will they send you a new one without you to have the old one?

The Mavic mini that flew away was not recovered.

MegaTesla Posted at 12-4 02:01
Good news!

DJI support has been fantastic. They have completed the data analysis of the log file and confirmed it is a warranty case. They will be sending me a replacement Mavic mini.

Good news for you!   You are not the only one with this weird behaviour. Hope that DJI can fix this with an update.

MegaTesla Posted at 12-4 02:26
The Mavic mini that flew away was not recovered.

in this case you have considered you are lucky man, because i know dji won't replace a drone that is not returned

WooZie Posted at 12-4 04:54
in this case you have considered you are lucky man, because i know dji won't replace a drone that is not returned

Isn't this "must return" policy just about the DJI Care Refresh package? Seems like a drone simply flying away (with logs to prove it) should always be covered by warranty, there's nothing else the pilot could have done.

Ice_2k Posted at 12-4 05:24
Isn't this "must return" policy just about the DJI Care Refresh package? Seems like a drone simply flying away (with logs to prove it) should always be covered by warranty, there's nothing else the pilot could have done.

i did not know this, it could be true, i don't have the care refresh, but i had an accident with my drone and it was replaced on the warranty, but i returned to them, i was thinking if my drone would fell in the lake...what would i have returned?

WooZie Posted at 12-4 05:31
i did not know this, it could be true, i don't have the care refresh, but i had an accident with my drone and it was replaced on the warranty, but i returned to them, i was thinking if my drone would fell in the lake...what would i have returned?

well, you obviously can't return it from the lake but if the flight logs clearly show that you were telling it to go up and the drone just decided on its own to go down I don't see why that wouldn't be a clear warranty case.

indeed, you are right

MegaTesla I'm so sorry to hear about your fly away! I really hope DJI will have a solution for you. Tell me did you buy the Fly More Combo?

djiuser_yGIdr2H0kSJY Posted at 12-12 04:47
MegaTesla I'm so sorry to hear about your fly away! I really hope DJI will have a solution for you. Tell me did you buy the Fly More Combo?

DJI is replacing the malfunctioning Mavic mini under warranty. I should get it tomorrow (Shipped with DHL from China).

Yes it was the fly more combo. But I don't see how that is relevant.

MegaTesla I'm looking for somone that had a fly away, I'm interested in the rest of the stuff if you still have it and want to sell it. I really wish we hade DJI Care option here in SA. I'm so glad DJI is replacing you old unit, Big thumbs up to them. Enjoy flying Sir!