A quick question concerning beginner mode flyaways. Has anyone experienced such a thing? I searched the DJI and Phantom Pilots forums but didn't find anything. A friend of mine just flew his P4 for the first time and he said it happened to him. I'm getting the flight logs from him but as of yet don't have them. Apparently he was flying in beginner mode and all was good then he "tried" the RTH (button on RC) and he was given a choice, home point or RC, he chose home point when it flew away approximately 2,000 feet at normal speed. The area he was flying is a large valley with lots of open space. Anyway, just curious if anyone has experienced such a thing?

I haven't heard of beginner mode flyaways but beginner flyer confusion can be quite common.
Not everything you've recounted adds up exactly but here's my best guess to an explanation.

If what you say is correct, your friend has not initiated RTH at all.
When you initiate RTH, there are no options to choose from.
The Phantom returns to whatever home point has been recorded.
It sounds a lot like your friend has somehow reset the home point and been given the choice of resetting home to either the Phantom's current location or the controller's location.

And for the flight record ... Go to http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.

Come back and post a link to the report it provides and something more definite might be able to be deduced.

Again sounds all too familiar to what I experienced http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=51733&extra=page%3D2%26filter%3Dtypeid%26typeid%3D368%26typeid%3D368&mobile=2

Heck, sorry for the long URL, posting on mobile. Did your friend get his drone back?

Yeah, the P4 was recovered with damage, split shell and bent motor boom/arm.
@Call4u2, thanks for the link Id read your account before this happened thanks for the reminder.
@labroides I know and we'll get the log(s) up soon. It happened yesterday (7th) and he was pretty bummed and didn't want to deal with it.

treeboyy Posted at 2016-5-9 00:52
Yeah, the P4 was recovered with damage, split shell and bent motor boom/arm.
@Call4u2, thanks for t ...

Hello treeboyy, I'd suggest you friend to contact our service center in North America and send the drone back for the diagnoses as well as the data analysis.
Email: support.us@dji.com
Phone: +1 (818) 235 0789  
Mon-Fri 9:00 am - 5:00 pm (PST)

So I think I figured it out. His tablet had the "Location" in Settings set to "WIFI and mobile networks". While flying, in beginner mode, he pushed the RTH button on the tablet and the DJI Go gave him a choice of "Last home point (where he took off from) or Current location" (gray and blue buttons respectively) at which point I think he chose "current location" and since the tablet was using wifi and cell it put his current location first at some triangulated position 2,000 feet away and once the drone got there and hovered around I think he did it again, the RTH "current location", which was reset to a neighbors house with a wifi signal he was receiving whence in route it crashed into some trees.

I tested this theory today and I replicated it nicely. I turned his "Location" services to wifi and cell (which I changed when I first started analyzing his equipment) and, standing where he was when the fly away occurred, I hit the RTH in DJI Go and it gave the choice as stated above, I chose "current location" and off it went towards the neighbors house 1,100 feet away. The only way I could stop it was to go into the MC Settings and turn off "Beginner mode", which I did and all was well again.

So, in summary I think one needs to be sure of ones location services settings (Android, I don't know anything about Apple) and make sure that it's set to GPS. I have a dedicated tablet for the Phantom so I don't need the "GPS, WIFI and mobile networks" because having that set and then losing GPS signal may lead to trouble.

treeboyy Posted at 2016-5-12 09:42
So I think I figured it out. His tablet had the "Location" in Settings set to "WIFI and mobile netwo ...

'While flying, in beginner mode, he pushed the RTH button on the tablet and the DJI Go gave him a choice of "Last home point (where he took off from) or Current location" (gray and blue buttons respectively) at which point I think he chose "current location" '

Just to clarify this, there is no indication in the manual that you will be asked to choose between two choices when you hit RTH. There is a choice when you press the Dynamic Home Point button, but that is not on the main page of the P4 version of DJI Go.

There appears to be some evidence that this mysterious behavior can be prevented by taking the aircraft out of beginner mode and removing all distance settings.

treeboyy Posted at 2016-5-12 09:42
So I think I figured it out. His tablet had the "Location" in Settings set to "WIFI and mobile netwo ...

"he pushed the RTH button on the tablet and the DJI Go gave him a choice of "Last home point (where he took off from) or Current location"  ....

I hit the RTH in DJI Go and it gave the choice as stated above, I chose "current location"

If DJI have started offering this choice for RTH, they haven't updated the manual to include it.
The latest version of the manual still says ... that when you activate RTH by pressing the RTH button ... The aircraft will automatically go to the last recorded home point.
There's no mention of options - just whatever home point was last recorded.

I don't have the latest firmware to check what they've done in the newest version but IF they have changed it as described above, it would appear to introduce potential confusion for inexperienced pilots and if the mobile device used gives bad data, even worse.

When you say you hit the RTH button, was it a quick press of the button?

I ask because to initiate RTH you have to long press the button until you get confirmation that RTH has started and it starts beeping.

Advocate Posted at 2016-5-12 11:54
When you say you hit the RTH button, was it a quick press of the button?

I ask because to initiate  ...

He is talking about the button in the app, not the one on the RC unit.

Geebax Posted at 2016-5-12 03:05
He is talking about the button in the app, not the one on the RC unit.

Ahhhhh right, don't think I've ever noticed a RTH button in the app before.  Maybe I should read the instructions

Please accept my apologies

Interesting! I never paid attention to the choice after pressing rth, mind you I got P3A.. Anyhow, whe I was playing with my phone's gps and follow me mode, i almost had a fly away, that is why ability to cancel the RTH is such a good thing! As much as these incidents suck, it only proves how very important it is to read the manuals, forums, get very familiar with the GO app options, and make sure you understand all the options as well as how to abort out of them...  Anyhow, those sorts of forum posts are what helps "newbies" (and that may just mean new to DJI, or even a specific model, not necessarily to flying) - I have learned a LOT from reading all of your people posts!
Thx in general!

Just to clarify I used the RTH in the app, and the location service within Android was set to wifi and mobile networks. That being said at one point I set the location services to GPS and then walked away from the take-off point about 100 yards and hit the RTH on the DJI App and got the choice of home point or current time location. I chose current location and it flew to me. So I really think the fly away was due to the location services in Android being set to wifi and mobile networks.

Yeah,  the rth , when activated from the app,  does offer this choice.  But press/hold the rth on the r/c just goes rth.  Still,  nice catch.

Perhaps there should be an option to not allow getting position info from the mobile device for those devices that may provide location data not based on GPS.  

treeboyy Posted at 2016-5-11 15:42
So I think I figured it out. His tablet had the "Location" in Settings set to "WIFI and mobile networks". While flying, in beginner mode, he pushed the RTH button on the tablet and the DJI Go gave him a choice of "Last home point (where he took off from) or Current location" (gray and blue buttons respectively) at which point I think he chose "current location" and since the tablet was using wifi and cell it put his current location first at some triangulated position 2,000 feet away and once the drone got there and hovered around I think he did it again, the RTH "current location", which was reset to a neighbors house with a wifi signal he was receiving whence in route it crashed into some trees.

I tested this theory today and I replicated it nicely. I turned his "Location" services to wifi and cell (which I changed when I first started analyzing his equipment) and, standing where he was when the fly away occurred, I hit the RTH in DJI Go and it gave the choice as stated above, I chose "current location" and off it went towards the neighbors house 1,100 feet away. The only way I could stop it was to go into the MC Settings and turn off "Beginner mode", which I did and all was well again.

I just purchased a P3A, and on my 2nd flight in beginner mode had a very similar incident to the one described in your thread. Very luckily mine auto-landed 1.3km away safely in a field. But I will not be flying again until I have an answer as to why it occurred. I checked my android tablet and the location services were set to "GPS plus Wi-Fi" ( default) which should be okay, as it has dual GPS/GLONASS.
Did your friend ever get a full explanation from DJI ??
I am going to contact DJI support about my problem.

fansb93560a3 Posted at 2017-1-3 11:54
I just purchased a P3A, and on my 2nd flight in beginner mode had a very similar incident to the one described in your thread. Very luckily mine auto-landed 1.3km away safely in a field. But I will not be flying again until I have an answer as to why it occurred. I checked my android tablet and the location services were set to "GPS plus Wi-Fi" ( default) which should be okay, as it has dual GPS/GLONASS.
Did your friend ever get a full explanation from DJI ??
I am going to contact DJI support about my problem.

DJI are very slow to investigate and not good at communication information.
But that doesn't matter since the answer to your mystery is almost certainly in the flight data recorded in your app.

Go to http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.

Come back and post a link to the report it provides and someone here will probably be able to analyse it and give you an understanding of the cause of the incident.

treeboyy Posted at 2016-5-11 20:18
Just to clarify I used the RTH in the app, and the location service within Android was set to wifi and mobile networks. That being said at one point I set the location services to GPS and then walked away from the take-off point about 100 yards and hit the RTH on the DJI App and got the choice of home point or current time location. I chose current location and it flew to me. So I really think the fly away was due to the location services in Android being set to wifi and mobile networks.

No question you correctly deduced what happened

While not really a bug, this is certainly a usability shortcoming of the app, and should be a pretty high priority fix/enhancement for a near-future release (in bigger-guns software world, something like this would justify an even smaller update increment called a "patch").

The Android Framework provides the ability to determine the source for location information, as well as the accuracy. So there's no reason the app doesn't check on this and help the user avoid a mistake like your friend experienced -- while still allowing you the option to RTH with the coarse-resolution location information if you know that it's okay anyway (out in the middle of a prairie, for example).

Fix this, DJI. The coding is simple.

fansb93560a3 Posted at 2017-1-3 11:54
I just purchased a P3A, and on my 2nd flight in beginner mode had a very similar incident to the one described in your thread. Very luckily mine auto-landed 1.3km away safely in a field. But I will not be flying again until I have an answer as to why it occurred. I checked my android tablet and the location services were set to "GPS plus Wi-Fi" ( default) which should be okay, as it has dual GPS/GLONASS.
Did your friend ever get a full explanation from DJI ??
I am going to contact DJI support about my problem.

No full explanation from DJI, but I'm pretty sure the wifi/cellular positioning was the issue. That being said, I wouldn't set your location services to anything but GPS as the cellular and/or wifi may give erroneous results.

treeboyy Posted at 2016-5-11 20:18
Just to clarify I used the RTH in the app, and the location service within Android was set to wifi and mobile networks. That being said at one point I set the location services to GPS and then walked away from the take-off point about 100 yards and hit the RTH on the DJI App and got the choice of home point or current time location. I chose current location and it flew to me. So I really think the fly away was due to the location services in Android being set to wifi and mobile networks.

But the APP clearly says when the AC  has a GPS lock, The Home Point Has Been Updated Please Check It On The Map, I realize he was only a Beginner and there is a lesson to be learnt here, when checking the Home Point on the Map you should also be taking note of the current location of the Android device as indicated by the Blue Dot,  if the device  has a GPS fix or the Red Dot if it has a WIFI Mobile Network Fix. So I don't see it as a bug but more of a beginner user error from which we can all learn from.

Nevillejp Posted at 2017-1-16 11:57
But the APP clearly says when the AC  has a GPS lock, The Home Point Has Been Updated Please Check It On The Map, I realize he was only a Beginner and there is a lesson to be learnt here, when checking the Home Point on the Map you should also be taking note of the current location of the Android device as indicated by the Blue Dot,  if the device  has a GPS fix or the Red Dot if it has a WIFI Mobile Network Fix. So I don't see it as a bug but more of a beginner user error from which we can all learn from.

I agree it's not a bug the pilot in control (PIC) needs to know where the equipment is getting the location data from. If the location data is derived from cellular or wifi then the RTH isn't going to function as expected. The PIC also needs to realize that the location data is determined by the phone or tablet and therfore is their responsibility to set it correctly.

treeboyy Posted at 2016-5-11 15:42
So I think I figured it out. His tablet had the "Location" in Settings set to "WIFI and mobile networks". While flying, in beginner mode, he pushed the RTH button on the tablet and the DJI Go gave him a choice of "Last home point (where he took off from) or Current location" (gray and blue buttons respectively) at which point I think he chose "current location" and since the tablet was using wifi and cell it put his current location first at some triangulated position 2,000 feet away and once the drone got there and hovered around I think he did it again, the RTH "current location", which was reset to a neighbors house with a wifi signal he was receiving whence in route it crashed into some trees.

I tested this theory today and I replicated it nicely. I turned his "Location" services to wifi and cell (which I changed when I first started analyzing his equipment) and, standing where he was when the fly away occurred, I hit the RTH in DJI Go and it gave the choice as stated above, I chose "current location" and off it went towards the neighbors house 1,100 feet away. The only way I could stop it was to go into the MC Settings and turn off "Beginner mode", which I did and all was well again.

Your little investigation sounds serious. Thank you for sharing it.



the RTH is calculated at take-off. I'm surprised she offered option to RTH. didn't know she can actually return to whatever controller tells it is. but if it does, I would use it cautiously because that means to rely on the gps fix provided by the screen device. the location calculated by the screen device may not even be  related to satellites, since phones can use radio towers to triangulate the position.

WindSoul Posted at 2017-1-19 11:55
Your little investigation sounds serious. Thank you for sharing it.

'since phones can use radio towers to triangulate the position.'

Normally the phones do not use the cell towers to 'triangulate' anything, although there is a method of doing this, instead they use the known geagraphic location of the cell tower to fix the general area the phone is in. This is done in order to get a first fix in a hurry, then the GPS receiver is used to fix the point more accurately.