I have owned 4 DJI drones all the way back to the original Phantom.  I have loved and trusted these devices and am always interested in the newest and latest when DJI releases them.

So, naturally I bought an Avata..  Received it, and for my first flight, flew it for about 3 minutes and it lost sync with the goggles...  Been here many times, the unit has always returned to home automatically...  Hundreds of times with my previous DJI models....

Not this time... Avata lost connection, and never regained connection, and never returned home.  At the time it lost connection, I was ~20ft above ground near my home, but not a place that is accessable (a steep rock at the edge of a mountain).  I was stopped and just using the remote to pan around and look at the Arizona skyline.

Someone asked if maybe it was shot down -- Possibly, but unlikely as this is in the middle of the city and there are no people or homes where the drone was when it lost touch.

Battery on drone, goggles, and remote were all 80%+ when this happened.  No other random issues or symptoms that I was aware of that could have led up to this.


I have to wonder if it is a bug in the new firmware that had just installed before I took my first flight.  Like I said earlier, all of my other DJI products have lost touch hundreds of times and it always comes home without fail.

Any ideas???

Lost connection with your previous drones "hundreds of times?" Wow! I've also been flying since the Phantom 3 days and MAYBE lost connection 5-6 times. I will say one of those times was with the DJI FPV never to be seen ever again!

I'm hoping you had Care Refresh w/ Flyaway coverage. Good luck to you with the situation.

KLRSKIR Posted at 9-1 14:32
Lost connection with your previous drones "hundreds of times?" Wow! I've also been flying since the Phantom 3 days and MAYBE lost connection 5-6 times. I will say one of those times was with the DJI FPV never to be seen ever again!

I'm hoping you had Care Refresh w/ Flyaway coverage. Good luck to you with the situation.

Yeah, I know hundreds of times sound dramatic...  But I like to fly them far...  I usually am just flying them around my house and I get sick of the same scenery..  So I push it because the return to home has proven itself over and over again (except in this case!).

I get a connection lost at least on any flight I do... so according to Airdata I have 1700 flights... and at least the same number of disconnections; much more in fact, cancelling undesired RTH is a common thing in long range. If you stay legal and VLOS, specially in FCC, disconnections are basically unicorns.

I have 450 hours of flight time and still no crashes/flyaways/not reaching home. But I had some vast experience in flight simulators before trying drones... and I'm conscious about prefly checks, so I think that may count. Even though, you may hit a bird, a prop may go off, a motor may die, a battery cell can die, a resistor or capacitor may burn/explode, a cosmic ray may hit the processor turning a 1 into 0, etc, etc...  sht happens.

Upload the flight log and ask JJB* for help, he'll probably find the cause.

Did you have it set up as RTH or hover? did you take the time to go through all the settings?


Is there a track my drone on the Avata?

Lucas626 Posted at 9-1 17:57
Did you have it set up as RTH or hover? did you take the time to go through all the settings?

It was set as RTH, as it had already disconnected once and started to RTH when I cancelled it so I could keep flying, then it disconnected again a minute or so later and never came home!

John-AZ Posted at 9-1 18:00
It was set as RTH, as it had already disconnected once and started to RTH when I cancelled it so I could keep flying, then it disconnected again a minute or so later and never came home!

Maybe it got caught on a tree on it's way up.  Did you try looking the last location you were flying?

Lucas626 Posted at 9-1 18:02
Maybe it got caught on a tree on it's way up.  Did you try looking the last location you were flying?

I can't get to the location it was flying...  I live next to a small but steep mountain and it was hovering above that when it was lost.  I was stabilized and just panning around with the camera when it lost comms.

I'm guessing something electronic happened to it...  Some short, or something like that...  

John-AZ Posted at 9-1 18:08
I can't get to the location it was flying...  I live next to a small but steep mountain and it was hovering above that when it was lost.  I was stabilized and just panning around with the camera when it lost comms.

I'm guessing something electronic happened to it...  Some short, or something like that...

You could upload the flight data and someone here can tell you exactly what happened and the last coordinates of the drone and maybe it is still out there.

Hello there John-AZ. I am sorry for the trouble this has accused and thank you for reaching out. Since this unfortunate incident happened and you have lost your new DJI Avata. I would recommend for you to contact our DJI Support Team at https://www.dji.com/support?site=brandsite&from=nav for further assistance. We will do our best to help you and give out the best resolution for the said issue. Again, I am sorry for what happened and thank you.

#I just lost my Avata as well. Also an experienced DJI owner with 5 previous DJI's. I notice my Avata went rogue in my porch and thought i just had to get used to new remote but no. I ensured I knew exactly where the brake button was just in case. I was flying the Avata and it started to act strange flying sideways. I tired to regain control but it began flying backwarst at a high rate of speed. i immediately pressed the brake button but it continued picking up speed and crashing on the water while flying on reverse. This is definitively and issue and its a "flyaway" issue. I'm trying to solve it with DJI but I am clear that this should be covered under warranty and not under the Fly Safe insurance. Its not a pilot error, its a drone issue.   Reply Here#

I just lost my Avata as well. Also an experienced DJI owner with 5 previous DJI's. I notice my Avata went rogue in my porch and thought i just had to get used to new remote but no. I ensured I knew exactly where the brake button was just in case. I was flying the Avata and it started to act strange flying sideways. I tired to regain control but it began flying backwarst at a high rate of speed. i immediately pressed the brake button but it continued picking up speed and crashing on the water while flying on reverse. This is definitively and issue and its a "flyaway" issue. I'm trying to solve it with DJI but I am clear that this should be covered under warranty and not under the Fly Safe insurance. Its not a pilot error, its a drone issue.  

djiuser_GoOkimzpUI90 Posted at 9-13 10:52
I just lost my Avata as well. Also an experienced DJI owner with 5 previous DJI's. I notice my Avata went rogue in my porch and thought i just had to get used to new remote but no. I ensured I knew exactly where the brake button was just in case. I was flying the Avata and it started to act strange flying sideways. I tired to regain control but it began flying backwarst at a high rate of speed. i immediately pressed the brake button but it continued picking up speed and crashing on the water while flying on reverse. This is definitively and issue and its a "flyaway" issue. I'm trying to solve it with DJI but I am clear that this should be covered under warranty and not under the Fly Safe insurance. Its not a pilot error, its a drone issue.

Thank you for sharing this.  I'll be interested to see what DJI finds with your situation.  If you could update once you have some feedback from them, i'd appreciate it.

KLRSKIR Posted at 9-1 14:32
Lost connection with your previous drones "hundreds of times?" Wow! I've also been flying since the Phantom 3 days and MAYBE lost connection 5-6 times. I will say one of those times was with the DJI FPV never to be seen ever again!

I'm hoping you had Care Refresh w/ Flyaway coverage. Good luck to you with the situation.

I live and fly in some wide open spaces in a canyon. I'm frequently pushing the edge of the "Radio Range Dome", looking for cool views, and it's not uncommon for me to go out of range sometimes, particularly with the FPV at high speed.

I have 6 DJI drones, and I count on the RTH to bring them back towards home when this happens. So far, it always has.

It would be very disturbing if this turns out to be more than a random fluke...

TCS

DJI Avata has no obstacle sensors and default RTH height is set to very low 30 meters.. So it will simply start flying straight to the home position but will hit any tree or cliff in a way if it's above the 30 meters and you did not change the default settings before flying.

Second issue, as a cinewhoop it's very weak against the wind.. easily could have been caught be the wind at the edge of the mountain.

Originalas Posted at 9-13 11:19
DJI Avata has no obstacle sensors and default RTH height is set to very low 30 meters.. So it will simply start flying straight to the home position but will hit any tree or cliff in a way if it's above the 30 meters and you did not change the default settings before flying.

Second issue, as a cinewhoop it's very weak against the wind.. easily could have been caught be the wind at the edge of the mountain.

Thanks for the input...  I was definitely the higher than anything around when I was hovering and lost connection..  But your point about wind could be a good one...

Hi from Oslo, Norway. 5 days ago i was flying my new avata. It was my 5 day of flyng. Flying with motion controler. I was on my second batt, flying over a lake, sudenly RTH cam on with 26% batt left. Thats it, sundenly  Avata went black and dive right in to the lake!!!!! Now i am on talking everyday with dji care, and getting no wear. Can anyone tell me how i can copy the "Camere view Before loss" from goggl 2. I want to send it to them......

John-AZ Posted at 9-13 11:30
Thanks for the input...  I was definitely the higher than anything around when I was hovering and lost connection..  But your point about wind could be a good one...

Does the Avata determine RTH altitude based on the home point or its current position? Does flying at the edge of a cliff affect this? What does the Avata do in this situation regarding RTH return altitude? Have you calibrated the IMU at your location? Is it's barometric altimeter accurate? As the Avata heats up, does it affect altimeter accuracy?

Just asking.

John-AZ Posted at 9-13 11:30
Thanks for the input...  I was definitely the higher than anything around when I was hovering and lost connection..  But your point about wind could be a good one...

Just post the flight log

Team Geezer Posted at 9-13 13:03
Does the Avata determine RTH altitude based on the home point or its current position? Does flying at the edge of a cliff affect this? What does the Avata do in this situation regarding RTH return altitude? Have you calibrated the IMU at your location? Is it's barometric altimeter accurate? As the Avata heats up, does it affect altimeter accuracy?

Just asking.

All attitude information relates to altitude 0 at the takeoff point. If you set 10 metres as return to home flight and fly up a mountain then to is quite possible that you will strike an object.  

post logs, we will try to help

KREMi Posted at 9-14 09:54
post logs, we will try to help

DJI reviewed the logs and saw no anomalies...  Just disappeared

John-AZ Posted at 9-14 09:57
DJI reviewed the logs and saw no anomalies...  Just disappeared

if You accept their opinion - please close topic
otherwise without log it's just time wasted discussion.
there are (on forum) great pilots with good experience in reading logs, who might look at it and give some opinion, sometimes they confirm pilot error, sometimes it was faulty unit, which open possibility for free replace discussion
but with no basic info like logs, it's just chitchat, no real case, so no offence, but I'll skip any more reply here

KREMi Posted at 9-14 10:20
if You accept their opinion - please close topic
otherwise without log it's just time wasted discussion.
there are (on forum) great pilots with good experience in reading logs, who might look at it and give some opinion, sometimes they confirm pilot error, sometimes it was faulty unit, which open possibility for free replace discussion

Ok, I will look at getting the log and uploading it.  Hopefully it's still available to download.  Once I received my new Avata, I deleted my old one from the app b/c it wasn't obvious which one was my old vs new one anymore.

Team Geezer Posted at 9-13 13:03
Does the Avata determine RTH altitude based on the home point or its current position? Does flying at the edge of a cliff affect this? What does the Avata do in this situation regarding RTH return altitude? Have you calibrated the IMU at your location? Is it's barometric altimeter accurate? As the Avata heats up, does it affect altimeter accuracy?

Just asking.

Take off. Fly to the height of the tallest obstacle in your flying area. Set RTH altitude to 50m/100f higher than the highest known obstacle and you should be good.

As another person stated here and I believe to be true, it considers the initial home point zero altitude for all altimeter readings during the flight.

Team Geezer Posted at 9-13 13:03
Does the Avata determine RTH altitude based on the home point or its current position? Does flying at the edge of a cliff affect this? What does the Avata do in this situation regarding RTH return altitude? Have you calibrated the IMU at your location? Is it's barometric altimeter accurate? As the Avata heats up, does it affect altimeter accuracy?

Just asking.

Here it's going -10m bellow the home point and showing as -10m height, so it should take the total height into account.

John-AZ Posted at 9-1 15:01
Yeah, I know hundreds of times sound dramatic...  But I like to fly them far...  I usually am just flying them around my house and I get sick of the same scenery..  So I push it because the return to home has proven itself over and over again (except in this case!).

Maybe the FAA has been watching you and captured your Avata drone because you are a bad boy. lol
ie: Flying BVLOS is illegal in the USA; Part 108 may allow this in the future. Distant future.

pew-pew

Team Geezer Posted at 9-13 13:03
Does the Avata determine RTH altitude based on the home point or its current position? Does flying at the edge of a cliff affect this? What does the Avata do in this situation regarding RTH return altitude? Have you calibrated the IMU at your location? Is it's barometric altimeter accurate? As the Avata heats up, does it affect altimeter accuracy?

Just asking.

Height gain from take off point.

New  reports on Avata crashing for no reason.. or just bad drone design again.



My did crash in sports mode just a few seconds after lift off in an open field. I think, it got flipped by a gust of wind. It happened only once in like 50 flights and there was no damage. But that's a huge hit for DJI, if this is a design flaw and drone may fall at anytime because of a wind or a simple turn.  

Originalas Posted at 10-2 04:32
New  reports on Avata crashing for no reason.. or just bad drone design again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F16sSbx5DWw

Not sure how people are crashing their Avatas, but this has me paying a little more attention to details. I haven't had any crashes from "design" errors. My mistakes so far have been

a. flying full throttle low to ground/dunes, small dune comes up suddenly, and drone crashes into dune head first - power stopped, i walked over and recovered it manually, used a blower to clear out the sand from the gimbal and motors

b. learning to thread the needle - pilot error (I'm used to flying regular drones, FPV is very new to me). Poor coordination, lack of confidence, plus a small gust of wind (lateral) and boink - Avata bounces off a branch, spins, hits the ground, motor error, motor powers back up, and I take off and fly back to home point to see if there's any damage

c. flying indoors - went from outside through a door into an abandoned house. Not sure what happened, during entry (was flying slowly), the Avata drifted to the right (windy day) and clipped the door frame, flipped and crashed. Again, Avata's fault or simply caught by a gust of wind or user error?

I checked with a couple of friends who fly FPV and apparently, my mistakes happen to them too - part of parcel of flying FPV. They haven't flown the Avata, but from what I can tell, it's nowhere close to what they fly (cinewhoops) which are far more configurable, agile, and designed for acro

Think of the Avata as an Audi TT for trackdays, and asking why it handles so badly compared to a Caterham 7...

Ken-W Posted at 10-2 23:55
Not sure how people are crashing their Avatas, but this has me paying a little more attention to details. I haven't had any crashes from "design" errors. My mistakes so far have been

a. flying full throttle low to ground/dunes, small dune comes up suddenly, and drone crashes into dune head first - power stopped, i walked over and recovered it manually, used a blower to clear out the sand from the gimbal and motors

I'm laughing..      Yep...sounds like all the common mistakes many of us make along the way.  Unfortunately, experience is often the only way we learn.  Like riding a bike..you can tell someone how to do it...but until they do it for themselves.  We'll, you get the point.

To be honest..I'm thoroughly enjoying the Avata (having flown multiple traditional FPVs).  Not to say the Avata doesn't have it's own issues. But anyone who's been around FPV long enough knows you would be hard pressed to find ANY FPV quad that doesn't have it's own set of issues.  

Hang in there guys....it does feel like the world of FPV is making progress.  It's just slower than we would all like it to be.  

P.S.  Not making light of anyone who's lost their quad..just know it comes with learning to fly FPV quads.

Mind sharing the last footage of the drone from your goggles? You need to record with a phone in the goggles, as you cannot extract it. Unless you were recording on the goggles also

Originalas Posted at 9-13 11:19
DJI Avata has no obstacle sensors and default RTH height is set to very low 30 meters.. So it will simply start flying straight to the home position but will hit any tree or cliff in a way if it's above the 30 meters and you did not change the default settings before flying.

Second issue, as a cinewhoop it's very weak against the wind.. easily could have been caught be the wind at the edge of the mountain.

The AVATA is pretty good in the wind, had it in upto 35knot gusts yesterday (based on weather report not logs yet) and it bounced around a bit when paused but held it's position, tricky to land though in those conditions.

KREMi Posted at 9-14 10:20
if You accept their opinion - please close topic
otherwise without log it's just time wasted discussion.
there are (on forum) great pilots with good experience in reading logs, who might look at it and give some opinion, sometimes they confirm pilot error, sometimes it was faulty unit, which open possibility for free replace discussion

Even if you accept their review it's worth posting the log here.  The Forum gave me a much more detailed explanation of what happened with my flyaway and an understanding of how to read them.

djiuser_GoOkimzpUI90 Posted at 9-13 10:51
#I just lost my Avata as well. Also an experienced DJI owner with 5 previous DJI's. I notice my Avata went rogue in my porch and thought i just had to get used to new remote but no. I ensured I knew exactly where the brake button was just in case. I was flying the Avata and it started to act strange flying sideways. I tired to regain control but it began flying backwarst at a high rate of speed. i immediately pressed the brake button but it continued picking up speed and crashing on the water while flying on reverse. This is definitively and issue and its a "flyaway" issue. I'm trying to solve it with DJI but I am clear that this should be covered under warranty and not under the Fly Safe insurance. Its not a pilot error, its a drone issue.   Reply Here#

I had the same thing happen today. I lifted off and it immediately went out of control and flew backwards until it crashed into a building.

zvandorn13 Posted at 10-7 16:52
I had the same thing happen today. I lifted off and it immediately went out of control and flew backwards until it crashed into a building.

I have the same issue.  Twice the thing just took off out of control...    There real problems with this drone.Details of my issue

I was flying my Avata down a river, about 6 feet above the water. At about 2150 feet distance and with many trees blocking the signal was lost. The aircraft entered RTH and ascended to 200 feet (which is what I set it to) where the signal was reaquired. I switched it out of RTH and flew it back manually. It was scary, but the Avata performed just as it should.

In the video from the aircraft, you could not tell that there was a problem at all. It appeared that the pilot ascended and fly home, all is well.

Yesterday the same thing happened to my Avata. Lost signal 300-400 meters from the takeoff point at an altitude of 50-60 meters. I am terribly disappointed in DJI. I have been using its devices since 2017 and thought it was the best on the market. I have a lot of experience flying drones from this company starting with the DJI Phantom 3, Mavic Air, FPV and Avata. Never had a single fall or any situations with crashing or loss of drones. But starting with the FPV line, the drones have a very weak signal. The signal with the goggles is lost at 100 meters which is 100 times less than the range stated by DJI. This problem was on my previous drone DJI FPV Combo as well as on DJI Avata. The Avata lost signal even faster than my previous drone. Because of this problem I have irrevocably lost my new drone DJI Avata on 3 flights. At a distance of 300-400 meters from the takeoff point. Terribly disappointed in DJI drones. They are in no way conducive to finding a lost drone. Their DJI Fly app does not indicate the exact coordinates of where the drone is. As I have looked through this location many times for hours at a time and within 100 meters and have never been able to find the lost drone. The drone just lost the signal and did not return to the takeoff point as it should have, according to the settings I set.

djiuser_GoOkimzpUI90 Posted at 9-13 10:51
#I just lost my Avata as well. Also an experienced DJI owner with 5 previous DJI's. I notice my Avata went rogue in my porch and thought i just had to get used to new remote but no. I ensured I knew exactly where the brake button was just in case. I was flying the Avata and it started to act strange flying sideways. I tired to regain control but it began flying backwarst at a high rate of speed. i immediately pressed the brake button but it continued picking up speed and crashing on the water while flying on reverse. This is definitively and issue and its a "flyaway" issue. I'm trying to solve it with DJI but I am clear that this should be covered under warranty and not under the Fly Safe insurance. Its not a pilot error, its a drone issue.   Reply Here#

Your post sounds exactly like the experience I had with my Avata. Became uncontrollable and flew into the water. No chance of recovering control. I contacted Support and they just told me user error but I've been flying for a couple years now and this crash was not my fault. Something strange happened. Something I've never experienced with a DJI product. I think DJI needs to recognize the problem.
Good luck with your case!

Team Geezer Posted at 9-13 13:03
Does the Avata determine RTH altitude based on the home point or its current position? Does flying at the edge of a cliff affect this? What does the Avata do in this situation regarding RTH return altitude? Have you calibrated the IMU at your location? Is it's barometric altimeter accurate? As the Avata heats up, does it affect altimeter accuracy?

Just asking.

As I understand it, DJI drones measure height related to the home point