First Clip was with motion controller, lost control for too long and drone did not just fly up it flew backwards very quickly, about 100 yards from my property and luckily did not hit anything. The entire time I was trying to hit the brake button, throttle etc.   
Second clip was with FPV remote in manual mode, this one at least only flew upwards but again total loss of control, could have easily gotten stuck in a tree.



Is this normal? Is there a way to have the motors just shut off when it detects an impact?



HD version of video may still be processing.

RTH scenarios are explained in the manual.

did you have enough GPS ?

KLRSKIR Posted at 9-15 07:03
RTH scenarios are explained in the manual.

https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/ ... _User_Manual-EN.pdf

The three scenario's that would trigger a RTH per the manual are
1- Smart RTH is initiated
2- Aircraft battery level is low
3- Signal between the remote control device and the aircraft is lost.

I would say that the behavior in my video seems like the Failsafe RTH process, "Fly backwards for 50M on its original flight route"
In my video the route is no where near the original flight route and it's pure luck that it did not cause a crash. Also no where in the manual does it mention "Impact Detected".

It might loose connection with the remote then you hit the ground/fly very low and this triggers RTH.

flew backwards, you cannot fly backwards using motion controller.

hallmark007 Posted at 9-15 07:13
did you have enough GPS ?

Yes you can see the satellite count in my video, 20+ satellites the entire time.

hallmark007 Posted at 9-15 07:32
flew backwards, you cannot fly backwards using motion controller.

In my video you can see the controller signal, never drops.

hallmark007 Posted at 9-15 07:32
flew backwards, you cannot fly backwards using motion controller.

It will fly backwards in "Failsafe" RTH. It was quite interesting when I first tested it.

KLRSKIR Posted at 9-15 07:44
It will fly backwards in "Failsafe" RTH. It was quite interesting when I first tested it.

Will failsafe kick in so close to homepoint I think you have to be further from home.

hallmark007 Posted at 9-15 08:13
Will failsafe kick in so close to homepoint I think you have to be further from home.

It seems odd with this bird, as "Failsafe" will combine with "Straight Line" IF control is regained by the pilots' controller during "Failsafe."

With this incident, it's tough to say as there was an impact.

I hit a tree so hard that I heard a "SMACK" from about 20 yards away... I got Impact Detected and it did nothing after bouncing off the tree; continued flying back to HP for inspection.  I have to say... these drones are HARDCORE. Literally. many props (pun) to the DJI devs that constructed this beast.

As for the crash and what seems like a gyro malfunction... what do the logs say? Anything in those?

I do also see that at 00:08 you flipped to sport mode; or it did... that's a bold move. lol

jjslat Posted at 9-15 07:40
In my video you can see the controller signal, never drops.

Do you have the newest firmware?
Mine has done the same thing, touches the ground, gimble points down, and the drone goes like snot in a random direction - scary. Haven't flown since the update though.

That looks scarily out of control!

Hello there jjslat. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for reaching out. Kindly please fly your DJI Avata to a different location to see if the issue will still persist? The DJI drone might have picked up magnetic interference on the ground, and you took off from close to a buildings with rebar concrete metal objects on it. That might be the reason why you are experiencing these issues. Kindly please keep us posted for further assistance. Thank you.

DJI Stephen Posted at 9-15 18:53
Hello there jjslat. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for reaching out. Kindly please fly your DJI Avata to a different location to see if the issue will still persist? The DJI drone might have picked up magnetic interference on the ground, and you took off from close to a buildings with rebar concrete metal objects on it. That might be the reason why you are experiencing these issues. Kindly please keep us posted for further assistance. Thank you.

I would be surprised if my lawn caused that kind of magnetic interference.
I still think this is big concern, it's one thing if I bump in the ground and cause a few scuffs, with this thing rocketing towards the tree's out of control and at a reverse diagonal angle it's just asking to get lost forever in a tree or in my case go through my neighbors window.

A similar issue just happened this morning with the DJI Avata using the motion controller and DJI goggles v2. The drone, controller, and goggles have the latest firmware updates. I launched the drone and flew it up about 30 meters. Then used the touch screen on the right side of the goggles to put it into gimble mode so I could look around freely. The moment I put the goggles into gimble mode, the drone locked into full throttle flying in reverse. I hit the BRAKE button REPEATEDLY and the drone wouldn't stop. It flew straight backwards into the dirt bank, crashed, and powered off.

Give it time,  you'll lose the drone as well, its inevitable

It happened to me something very similar the other day. I hit a branch and the Avata instead of stopping or something it flew sideways into a wall. Luckily it was fine.

The same thing happened to me today morning. It hit a poll and then instead of stopping or correcting itself it flew randomly and hit a tree. Battery got dislodged and fell on a roof and now needs a repair. The aircraft is fine, fortunately. But how to stop it from happening again?

same here hit a branch and drone slided on until it hit a tree no input worked

Really disappointed with DJI support on this. I tried calling and chatting with no solution offered or option to return the drone. Sold it privately because it wasn’t safe to fly, lost about $300 on the sale

Really disappointed with DJI support on this. I tried calling and chatting with no solution offered or option to return the drone. Sold it privately because it wasn’t safe to fly, lost about $300 on the sale

The identical experience today. DJI please solution.

Same experience here.  Hit something and it launches out like a rocket blasting off into space.

My avata hit the ground and it said impact detected and it continued to fly straight up at full speed to 175 ft both times it happened ,and I had no control, that is not a good thing

I crashed my Avata earlier today and it detected an impact and shut off the motors when it clipped the wire I was trying to fly under. This repeated twice on three of my attempts. Fully my fault but my point is that It already does shut the motors off on impact.

Every case is a different scenario, speed of aircraft, force of impact, angle, wind etc....is not because did not happen to you now that will not happen in the future at higher speed or impact.
Seems like we have way too many suffering from the same problem, guess the only solution with Avata is.....go slow and don't crash because if you do you are rolling the dices and may injury someone or cause property damage in a fly away. I can see liability insurance needed as I don't see any solution coming from DJI.

Had a smillar Failure hitted a tree branch then the copter dropped in another tree and after that flew straight with 70++kmh against a House wall that was 200m away, pure luck it missed the window by 30cm... Thought it was.a broken Rotor but it seems I had Something Like you. There are some Videos showing the Same scenario.

Scary stuff..

You can bind Motor Off to your controller I have set that Up now...

This happened to me a couple of times this weekend while I was out doing some acro practice. Seems like the only thing I had control of was the throttle, but the drone shot off at like a 30-degree angle each time after impacting the ground. The first time I throttled back completely and the drone just crashed after about 100 feet. The second time I was in an area where I had more room so I just let the drone slowly ascend (again, with a 30-degree roll) until after a few seconds it came to its senses and righted itself. In both cases, the drone kicked itself into N mode, but with complete loss of pitch/roll/yaw control for roughly 5 seconds. Honestly would prefer to just have the drone completely shut down on impact, since the uncontrolled flight could cause some serious trouble.

2wheeledphotog Posted at 1-3 09:54
This happened to me a couple of times this weekend while I was out doing some acro practice. Seems like the only thing I had control of was the throttle, but the drone shot off at like a 30-degree angle each time after impacting the ground. The first time I throttled back completely and the drone just crashed after about 100 feet. The second time I was in an area where I had more room so I just let the drone slowly ascend (again, with a 30-degree roll) until after a few seconds it came to its senses and righted itself. In both cases, the drone kicked itself into N mode, but with complete loss of pitch/roll/yaw control for roughly 5 seconds. Honestly would prefer to just have the drone completely shut down on impact, since the uncontrolled flight could cause some serious trouble.

I agree. I ended up selling my Avata because this issue was serious enough that I didn't feel safe flying it in a neighborhood and even going out to a park seems like I'm just asking to lose it in a tree during a fly away. Lost about $400 on the sale.... would love to get one again or a FPV V2 whenever that comes out.

jjslat Posted at 1-3 16:45
I agree. I ended up selling my Avata because this issue was serious enough that I didn't feel safe flying it in a neighborhood and even going out to a park seems like I'm just asking to lose it in a tree during a fly away. Lost about $400 on the sale.... would love to get one again or a FPV V2 whenever that comes out.

Thinking about the same, dont wanna hope for DJI which not even seam to response/care to that problems to fix this... who know if its happen, its already one month scince the last Update,

Maybe just sell the Avata and get something like a Nazgul... this thing wont rocket in a random direction if you crash it after a yaw turn which it didn't like...

Got a bad feeling flying in Places where it could potential crash something in 100m Radius already...

Will do some tests the next days and will decide... really dissapointed about this situation because I really like the Drone and possibllitys of the Motion controller and would like to keep it..


will loose alot of money too because of the motion controller and Fly more kit, wouldve been the first and last product from you for sure...

To DJI: Your drone is still a big risk and it has NOTHING to do with software update, settings or signal strength. You guys just haven't figured it out yet to make a several hundred dollar drone safe.
I was flying in acro mode just 20 minutes ago and lightly touched the ground. Only so much as there was a little jerk. As a result, the drone flew uncontrollably in one direction. After 5 seconds I was able to activate the emergency stop. Before that it was not controllable.
It's a real shame that you throw such a product on the market and claim that they can keep up with the rest. Very sad picture you guys are delivering.
Would you buy a car that sometimes explodes when you drive too hard over a hump?

this is a Flight Controller issue, i have seen this with other (DIY) drones in the past, with some this is still an issue, but then the drone responds like it should to RC input, so you can disarm the motors instantly.
When this happens to the avata, it does not respond to any RC inputs

BadBert Posted at 2-8 04:46
this is a Flight Controller issue, i have seen this with other (DIY) drones in the past, with some this is still an issue, but then the drone responds like it should to RC input, so you can disarm the motors instantly.
When this happens to the avata, it does not respond to any RC inputs

even the avata should respond to a disarm with the toggle switch. but I guess everyone reacts to slow for that or has not configured that arm/disarm mode.

MoppelMat Posted at 2-8 11:03
even the avata should respond to a disarm with the toggle switch. but I guess everyone reacts to slow for that or has not configured that arm/disarm mode.

AFAIK there is no "toggle switch" to disarm. You either land normally or you can emergency stop by moving the sticks to the bottom inner or outer corners. But I have emergency stop enabled and the propellers do NOT stop when I move the sticks to the inner/outer bottom corner, so effectively my Avata does not have a disarm function AFAICT.

MoppelMat Posted at 2-8 11:03
even the avata should respond to a disarm with the toggle switch. but I guess everyone reacts to slow for that or has not configured that arm/disarm mode.

there are lots of reports of people flying with the rc2 in manual mode, and have the toggle switch set up.

others report that even holding the drone upsidedown (in n or s mode) does not stop the motors,
so what you are assuming here, is not always correct.

2wheeledphotog Posted at 2-8 12:47
AFAIK there is no "toggle switch" to disarm. You either land normally or you can emergency stop by moving the sticks to the bottom inner or outer corners. But I have emergency stop enabled and the propellers do NOT stop when I move the sticks to the inner/outer bottom corner, so effectively my Avata does not have a disarm function AFAICT.

there is... at least in manual mode, you can set up the "camera toggle switch" to do this, not sure if this works in n and s mode
In N or S mode you can hold the sticks in a certain position (on the rc2) to do a emergency stop of the motors, but even that does not work in these cases....

BadBert Posted at 2-8 22:59
there is... at least in manual mode, you can set up the "camera toggle switch" to do this, not sure if this works in n and s mode
In N or S mode you can hold the sticks in a certain position (on the rc2) to do a emergency stop of the motors, but even that does not work in these cases....

I was not assuming. I was hoping. Disarm should always work.

The motor stop feature (with the sticks) only works if the feature is enabled and it takes about 2 seconds to engage. thats a looong time in a flyaway like this reported here.

the disarm in manual with the toggle also takes about 0,5s, but it is easy and really should always work.

@DJI please check and fix this safety feature if needed!

MoppelMat Posted at 2-8 23:16
I was not assuming. I was hoping. Disarm should always work.

The motor stop feature (with the sticks) only works if the feature is enabled and it takes about 2 seconds to engage. thats a looong time in a flyaway like this reported here.

indeed, it should always work, but it does not in these cases

dji should fix that, the problem lies in the fact that the avata responds to NOTHING from the RC signals at that time