Hi, thought I would share what happened to me today.

Was out flying, had a great time and then decided to walk the mile back to the car. Decided I didn't want to carry inspire back to car so thought I would fly it back. So there I was happily walking back with inspire about 10 feet in front of me and 20 feet off the ground. Nearing the car the app told me I was getting low on battery but I ignored it as I would be at car in 5 minutes. Near car app told me critically low and will go into go home in a few seconds. So decided to land it. Inspire got to within 2 ft from ground when suddenly went into go home mode and climbed to 200 ft ( I set that earlier) and then headed to home ( from where I started walking back)....fast.

I thought...."bugger" and then went into fully fledged panic mode. Don't know why, but decided to press any button or stick to gain control back......no luck. But what I did manage to do was turn the motors off.......what was I thinking? So I just stayed calm and watch my inspire fall 200 feet......like a rock. Walked in the general direction of its crash but it had fell beyond a wall of bushes, forced my way through them and found my inspire hanging 2ft off the ground in a bush, no damage whatsoever, the camera vibrating board thing came off and had camera attached to it, popped it back on and all good, boy was I lucky.

Must remember if I'm walking along to set home point as where aircraft is and land when first battery warning.......scared me to death. By the way, I'm new to drones and I only fly in the middle of nowhere so the only things that are hurt are my inspire and pride.

So lucky... but know for future reference that you can turn the flight mode switch to "F" and be able to regain control of your machine. You can also select the option "Cancel Go Home" on the app (it should pop up pretty prominently on the screen).

brerwolfe@gmail Posted at 2015-10-1 22:43
So lucky... but know for future reference that you can turn the flight mode switch to "F" and be abl ...

Thank you for info......did not know that so thanks. Yes very lucky indeed. Thought it would be smashed to pieces.  

brerwolfe@gmail Posted at 2015-10-1 23:43
So lucky... but know for future reference that you can turn the flight mode switch to "F" and be abl ...

To F not to A? RTH should work in F as well.

Rule of thumb, to preserve your batteries and play safe, ALWAYS land when you get around 30% of battery left.
If you're flying LoS, as you should be, that should be plenty of time to land and avoid things like what you did.

All good advise above.
Additionally, i would suggest turning off the "Smart-Return-To-Home" option.

Count your lucky stars! You are the luckiest fellow on the planet earth right now. When I hear or see 30% on the battery I am coming in I don't care. It just isn't worth the chances. I am glad for you that nothing was damaged. I know you thought that your inspire 1 was done with. I'm just really happy for you.

The RTH on the i1 is fine. Thats why they gave you the dynamic home point function. U paid for it, why not use it.

Very good to hear. When I read the title of the thread I thought this is going to be bad.
Happy to hear it is not, you were very lucky.

Dave

maclean156 Posted at 2015-10-1 23:50
Thank you for info......did not know that so thanks. Yes very lucky indeed. Thought it would be sm ...

Glad your Inspire suffered no damage....what you can also do is hold down the right button on the remote where the toggle switch is for the landing gear. That should also disengage the RTH function.

Thanks for inputs guys, going to take it for a flight this afternoon to see if it's ok but all looks good. In future if battery is at 30% I'm going to land it. So to disable dynamic home return which is the mode it went into just flick switch to atti mode or f mode? Is that correct?

I am glad its okay!
I had a similar thing happen with a phantom. Except I launched it from a boat...
Good news is I was able to fight the auto-RTH and make it a rough landing

Honestly, my rule is to start getting it ready for landing at 30%. And I turned the Auto Low battery RTH off.
There are too many stories of peoples batteries going from 20% to 5% in a matter of seconds.

Please do a complete IMU calibration and check mod values before next flight. I would also suggest to calibrate batteries every 10-20 flights. This helps the smart battery learn it's true capacities. I would also like to add, NEVER FLY THE CRAFT WITH A partially charged battery.

I'm pleased you had a positive outcome. Good things come from these episodes. We all experience similar situations at some point or another in our flying career, as long as we learn from them, then they are helpful. episodes!

With healthydrone logs I realized there are randomly lost connections even in very near range. While the flight records say this I didnt see it on the tablet when flying. At critical low battery it does not go into RTH it just is descending to land. It seem if it looses the connection then for more then 3 seconds - I suppose this was the reason - it still starts RTH mode even with critical low battery.

So its a bug - it should check battery status and not go into RTH if it cannot land safe with it. However at 0% battery its still flying 1 minute its also possible that though crying for critical battery at 10% ? it still could go to 200ft and land then safe.

PaulKerry Posted at 2015-10-2 23:19
WHAT dynamic home point function?

You mean the one where one selects the remote as the home point  ...

I have no problem using the dynamic home point function. I just relocate the home point where my remote was if im walking away or to land at my location.
I do understand the gps beneath the remote doesnt capture the location cos i had encounter before. The I1 GPS signal strength and satellite count is displayed but that for the RC is not.  The RC GPS receiver is not as sensitive and is hidden behind the back antenna panel and the iPad can shield it.  This can take up to 10 mins.
On average, i had a 8/10 successful tries. Recently i had no issues with it.The way ur remote facing could be a wrong. If you get a weak signal warning when you try to select Dynamic Home Point, you need to elevate the white panel at the rear of the RC and point it towards the equator sky for a few seconds to get a good GPS position. Then try select Dynamic HP again. It should work. Dont just walk 1-2 metre away from the home point. Try to test 5 metres or more.

In this case since he is walking back to his car, he could just used it and prevented a unwanted RTH.

PaulKerry Posted at 2015-10-3 22:25
Thanks for the response.

I've tried everything that I can think of including even having the iPad' ...

It  will go to homepoint B. I would rather able to set home point manually then for it to auto record. Reason: wad if I'm walking pass a tree and it records as my last home point as under it? U wouldn't want that to happen right? So that is why the 3 sec updated as you go don't work.

PaulKerry Posted at 2015-10-4 15:44
Then this is not dynamic home point.
The home point should update automatically and no excuse justi ...

If that's not DHP, then wad do you called it? Do you have a name for function? And I'm not here to debate all night with you abt DHP, I refer to my first statement. If he was to use this function, he would had avoid a unwanted RTH to the wrong point. Which that this so call function is working fine for me. I have no problem in locating gps on my remote. Thank you.

PaulKerry Posted at 2015-10-4 22:17
I have no name for it but Dynamic is the last thing that it is.
In that sense it is no different to ...

Lol. Ok nvm. Just stay as wad you understood and i stay from wad i understood. End of discussion.

PaulKerry Posted at 2015-10-4 00:44
Then this is not dynamic home point.
The home point should update automatically and no excuse justi ...

Paul,

That's fine then do not use RTH.  On loss of signal you can always set it to hover.  There are choices.

that's scary!   i'm glad that your inspire is alive

PaulKerry Posted at 2015-10-5 02:47
Indeed, Ed. Yes, I have to have mine set to "hover" and I have to disable "Smart Go Home" - Also th ...

Paul, I am sorry that you feel that our product does not meet your needs.  No, the option to hover has been there all along as it is with all our controllers.  That goes back to our Naza days.  If you did not know how the craft performed before you purchased it then you should have.  Complaining that we do not do what you want to do is not productive as we have changed nothing in the way our craft respond to RTH in at least 2 if not 3 years.  

thats pretty lucky, nice save bush, lol!  I think the RTH feature is the number 1 cause of crashes, definitely on of the top 3.

Paul, I am done discussing this with you.  You can read the manual.  You can see how the craft operates.  We have many commercial operators in the UK that manage to make it work.  I will not respond to any more of your posts on this subject.  You need to be careful when you say YOU.  I am not DJI.  I am an employee and do not run DJI.  If you attack me personally that is a violation of our rules.