Hi everyone, it's good to meet you all and I look forward to our discussion. I don't fly my drone much, I've owned it for 2-3 years and can count on my hand how many time's I've flown it. I recently decided to try and make the money back that I spent on it by doing some odd-jobs around the neighborhood, and my client got to witness this first hand, leaving me looking very unprofessional and embarressed. The drone was brought to a halt without damage to property, but this was a close call and I still have to finish the job but I'm afraid this will happen again. I've provided everything I can think of and I hope this can be used to help me prevent this from happening again.

Link to Flight Log: https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/6JBUIGZSHYLWH5JJ2V8A

• Unlock Request was Accepted during this time-period.
• Link to an images showing context where I was relative to a nearby no-fly zone: https://imgur.com/a/GuQZD38
• Log is slightly inaccurate by 1M, here is a handdrawn overlay of a the incident (in blue): https://imgur.com/poGk3Ct
• Link to the video, only the beginning of the clip is relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-LuNhdEEQ8
  

Explanation: From the moment it took off, it immediately straffed east, at it's 9 o'clock left, headed toward a parked car.

I initially felt like I had no control, but I did quickly learn I had the ability to gain altitude. I raised the altitude to prevent the drone from hitting the nearby parked truck, the drone then hits a tree and this is where the video starts recording.

The drone continued to proceed east all by itself toward a series of windows and my immediate reaction was to reduce the drone's altitute. As you can clearly see in the video, I was bringing down the aircraft while it continued to proceed east. As I realized it was likely going to hit the building, I tried to fly the drone north, and I think it registered my commands because it changed course, but it still wanted to travel east this entire time.

Thankfully it was able to be forced onto the ground by holding the remotes trigger down such that the altitude kept being reduced until it hit zero. Now my drone is all scratched up and it's battery also refused to charge after this experience, I had to buy another one for $100.

Thank you all for your time and input.

Hi, BLSmith2112. Thanks for reaching out, and we're sorry about the accident. Since the drone crashed and incurred damages, we recommend you send it back in for a proper diagnosis. You may request a Data Analysis to determine the cause of the drone's behavior. You may submit an Online Repair Application directly or contact our Customer Support at (support.dji.com) if you need further assistance submitting the case. Please note that warranty service will be applied depending on the analysis result and the warranty status of the drone. We appreciate your understanding. Stay safe!

To be clear the drone works again and is usable and as far as I can tell is in no need of additional repair.  This post is merely an attempt to try and understand what caused it to do what it did in the first place.

Honestly spending $100 to replace the battery is the last thing I intend to spend money on with this drone; reason being that I don't use it that much and the money I've spent on it far outweighs my rate of clients such that it's doubtful that I'll ever fully pay it off. If sending it back in for a proper diagnosis costs additional money after having owned the drone longer than the warranty period (~3 years), I'll likely use this drone until the next issue occurs and then try another brand sometime over the next year or two when I need one again. I need to be able to trust that the product won't take off and head straight for a vehicle, object, person with my hands off the controller. That being said, I hope the information I've provided can provide some clues as to the cause of the issue so that I can try to avoid this from happening again.        

I thought I did everything right. Got unlock permission, made sure there was adequate satellite coverage, had sport mode disabled, and yet it still took off, chose a direction, and nearly hit a car and a condo.  

Hi,

Sorry for your crash.

In the log at 8second :  
"IMU heading error. Please try flying forward and backward or land as soon as possible to calibrate the compass"

Most likely a compass yaw error.

Do you remember wich heading your drone at the ground ?

The most important check is before takeoff to check heading drone on the app and compare this with the actual heading. If not the same : DO NOT FLY

cheers
JJB

I have recently had the exact same issue ... no control over direction but did have altitude was fortunate to force land with only a chip in a rotor blade. I could do with More info on how to avoid this issue.

"The most important check is before takeoff to check heading drone on the app and compare this with the actual heading. If not the same : DO NOT FLY`"

Whats the heading Drone ??   ....   Mine after take off said compass data error then it got GPS lock then it did exactly what you described... really weid behavour never seen it before and compass was calibrated.

AndyAir Posted at 4-3 04:21
I have recently had the exact same issue ... no control over direction but did have altitude was fortunate to force land with only a chip in a rotor blade. I could do with More info on how to avoid this issue.

"The most important check is before takeoff to check heading drone on the app and compare this with the actual heading. If not the same : DO NOT FLY`"

Hi,

check the compass before you start a flight.

In the fly app ; open the map chart left bottom in the app
Check the direction of the blue arrow and check this heading with the actual heading.

Compass calibration once performed = oke for years...   ;-)
I have calibrated my MINI2 once, and my Mini3Pro never....out of te box and just flying.
But i always check before each flight my compass. if heading is not oke, switch off drone, move to another position and switch ON drome again and check again...


cheers
JJB