I think I just experienced the same issue that has resulted in a number of crashes. Sharing my experience and feedback for both other users and Dji.

Had two flights today.
Flight 1:
No unexpected behaviour or notable issues.
Very low wind.
Spent a portion of the flight in ATTI mode as part of my continued effort to be able to confidently fly in ATTI if emergency occurs.
Noted that there was no significant drift in ATTI mode.

Flight 2:
Waited usual ~1min after initial GPS lock before takeoff.
Wind was negligible
Takeoff and climb to 70m AGL.
Doing some photos, everything seems ok for a couple of minutes. Begin descent.
At ~50m AGL, notice video link is showing movement when I'm not giving directional stick inputs.
Look up to see the inspire shooting off away from me at 50-60km/h (guesstimate)
Noticed yellow text at the top of my tablet saying something to the effect of "gps signal lost"
Managed to regain control with aggressive input on the stick, almost felt like I didn't have enough stick to overcome the HUGE drift forward
GPS lock was re-acquired shortly after, landed in P-GPS with no further incident.


My best guess regarding the flyaways.
I noted on multiple occasions that the home point seems to be set to the location of the previous takeoff, even after trying to set the home point multiple times. I confirmed that the incorrect home point is set on the craft itself by triggering RTH and watching it attempt to fly away god knows where.

Given the above, I can think of one certainly possible scenario resulting in a no-return flyaway:
GPS lock loss followed by aggressive drift that operator fails to overcome.
Loss of TX signal triggers RTH
Home point is incorrect, craft attempts to return to previous takeoff location
Bye bye.

My questions and feedback.
Why was there such significant drift in P-ATTI after GPS lock was lost, when not 2 hours earlier I was flying in ATTI and not seeing any drift? Can anything be done to manage the drift (equivalent of trim?) under safe conditions?

There needs to be some work done to allow the pilot to overcome the drift. I fear a worst case where the drift+wind is more than full stick input in the opposing direction can command.

There really needs to be a loud and clear audio and visual alarm from the controller and the tablet if GPS is lost. The little yellow box at the top does not draw enough attention given the severity of the situation.


Fix the incorrect home point issue.

I've been 3 different quadcopters over 3 years and have had GPS loss and assorted other close calls with all of them. This was by far the most terrifying, there was nothing to prepare me for the huge drift that occured after GPS loss; ATTI mode was nothing like that. I see 3 favourable outcomes from my experience:
1: This is a defect with my particular Inspire and will be fixed/replaced. This is not representative of the Inspire model in general
2: This is an issue that can occur with any Inspire at any moment, but Dji is doing something to manage the severity of GPS loss
3: This is an issure that can occur with any Inspire at any moment, and cannot be mitigated. In which case Dji should put out a very strong warning for operators to be prepared for a super aggressive flyaway at any time, and perhaps provide a flight mode for operators to experience it in safe conditions.

You bring up some valid points and some more info too the 'Round Table' of Inspire owners worst nightmares.
Yet it seem lately that the more that is bought too the table the less people want to believe because it's like The boy who cried wolf...

• What system are you using?
• What battery?
• What temputure was it?
• What toilet paper did you use?
• What this and that...
  

But it's good too see just what's getting more and more reports of lately
Your's is more informative than some but will be asked more by the more experienced pilots who have been piloting theirs for a thousand years. lol

I bet your heart started racing when it took off....

I've had this same issue as well twice so far. Very scary when it takes of on its own. I notice the "gps signal lost" on screen as it blows away while I attempt to regain control. Had anything been in the Inspire's way, it would've hit. I've been lucky so far, but this really needs to be addressed.

Iv'e experienced it as well and it resulted in a smaller crash againts the ground, loosing only a propeller and got a scratch against the arm between the propellers and the unit (I was lucky as there was a river in the same direction as the inspire started to drift). This happened as i was taking the inspire down to the ground and with only a few meters left it went up a little bit first and then started to drift. Indicating that bicubic might be right about the RTH problem. But it did not go up to 30m as was set in the app (android v1.0.4 or 1.0.5 not sure).

I have experienced this as well. When the GPS was lost, there was no audible notifications anywhere and the only way i could tell GPS was lost was the way how my Inspire was drifting in the wind. Looking at my screen, I saw that it read: "GPS signal lost : ATTI mode" or something along those lines. I pushed up on the throttle and got my Inspire high enough to be out of danger and a few seconds later, GPS was regained.

Close call but I think this should be looked into by DJI.

Ok the fact that you guys are reporting similar behaviour suggests that it's an endemic problem in the Inspire 1 line and not just my particular one.  I just spoke to the support chat about this and got "we fill fix the issue on next fireware[sic]" followed by "the issue is "GPS signal lost". Ignored questions about when or what the fix will be. It sort of felt like talking to an early 90s chat bot. I'm not really sold on this..

If there's a known issue of "aircraft becomes a barely controlled high speed projectile when (not if) it loses GPS lock", without some sort of assurance from Dji that it is in fact going to be fixed within a reasonable time, I will have to go seek a refund.

I love the Inspire and would hate to give it up, but seeing critical issues like this get completely ignored by support is insane for a 4000 dollar product, especially considering it puts the safety of the operator and others at risk.

I experienced two RTHs with my Inspire when it was only 60 feet away and only 30 or 40 feet high. Fortunately it had recorded the proper home point and landed perfectly. This happened on the same battery twice within a couple minutes of take off. Between the two incidents I had shut down the Inspire and transmitter and did a complete restart and checked all calibrations. Everything looked normal. After the second RTH I again restarted and checked all calibrations and again all looked normal. I took off again and carefully flew the remainder of the battery without incident.. Do not recall if I left the landing gear down on the 3rd attempt as I see some have had issues with  GPS signal and RTH when transitioning the landing gear up. DJI requested I send it in for diagnosis and repair which I did about a week ago to LA. 3-4  week repair timeframe. Had a couple camera issues as well that they are going to look at. Been flying my Phantom during a Inspire absence. Never have had any issues with Vision Plus V3.

This is not a fly a way. This is the craft switching into P-ATTI. You still have control of the craft but you have to fly it.
They are currently working on a solution but this is why you need to learn to fly as well and not fully rely on auto pilot.

Has anyone experienced this problem with flying only in atti mode?

Thankfully I've not experienced the fly away problem, but with only 17 flights on my inspire one so far, maybe I've just been lucky.

Doesn't seem like we can refer to this as "drift" when gps signal lost, more like, aggressive acceleration.

Blade_Strike Posted at 2015-2-11 22:22
This is not a fly a way. This is the craft switching into P-ATTI. You still have control of the craf ...

I can fly my 1st gen hand built arducopter quad in full manual and acro. The Inspire 1 was both less predictable and less controllable.

Pretending for a second that this is in fact desired behaviour, still leaves the question of why was P-ATTI exhibiting huge drift while ATTI was not, and why that drift was so severe that it required full stick input to recover from.

Blade_Strike Posted at 2015-2-11 22:22
This is not a fly a way. This is the craft switching into P-ATTI. You still have control of the craf ...

Seems logical Blade. In reading the information above which is very detailed in the Post. I had a situation with my Phantom Vision once where I went to far and the Phantom did what it was supposed to do and started back home on it's own. When it was within view a switched to ATI Mode and regained control and flew back easily to a perfect landing.

Very good description of your experience. See Blade's response below it all adds up and DJI is working on the issue.

Blade_Strike, appreciate what you are saying, but it sounds like (though I've not experienced this myself) that the Inspire is trying to head somewhere when it drops out of GPS mode. Handling Atti mode should be okay if its not trying to fight you.

well when there are other variables involved it can feel like the craft is fighting you. Take wind for example, if it's blowing 10mph and GPS disengages then the craft will start moving with the wind very fast if not corrected. The wind will make it feel like the craft is fighting you but it is not.

DJI knows what's going on, they have logs now so it's no more guessing like in the past. They are currently working on a batter solution

Blade_Strike Posted at 2015-2-11 23:18
well when there are other variables involved it can feel like the craft is fighting you. Take wind f ...

Batter Solution?   It makes waffles too?

;)

Good to know they have a handle on the issue.

Appreciate your presence in these forums.

Sorry typo.. but that would be cool, I love pancakes

Same thing happened to me, yesterday.

But honestly, I gained a little comfort. With all the Freaking out on all the problems (still not completely at peace) I didn't know what to expect until I saw for myself.

Everyone says 'fly away' but I don't think anyone experienced a REAL fly away. Except Dearmas..(praise drone jesus)
Like Blade said, it switches to ATTI mode (which IS a bug) but that's all. Yea, they're more susceptible to wind, but they're still fully controllable.

At higher altitudes the birds movement seems less on screen than if you actually looked at it via 'line of sight'
So I'm guessing people notice slight drift on screen, look up, and see they're bird moving exceptionally faster.
This may cause a little freak out, resulting in a crash.

Still cannot wait for the update, but the majority of problems reported  were 'fly aways' starting from a loss of GPS and I'm happy I was able to experience it because it let me know what people were really running into. (Granted my case could be different) but I was in GPS, lost it, switched to ATTI automatically (while controller still was on P) and flew it manually until it regained control.

The only other problem I ran into for the first time yesterday was:
Gimbal tilt :/ sad day. But if I press the center camera button, it goes back. (Only happened once)
Army batter said (failed to connect to main board or something (restarted bird, worked fine)
And my advance IMU calibration goes to 99% and then reverts to Basic calibration. Once basic calibration finishes I get a 'basic calibration complete' so I know the advance didn't fukky work.

Overall I'm still happy with my bird and will continue to take extra precautions when flying.

Best of luck!!!!

Blade_Strike Posted at 2015-2-11 23:18
well when there are other variables involved it can feel like the craft is fighting you. Take wind f ...

If you read the original description he says "Look up to see the inspire shooting off away from me at 50-60km/h (guesstimate) "  This does not sound like wind from the conditions noted.  Blade Strike when will you recognize something is really wrong with the firmware.  Every day there is a new incident.  

Did your bird take a steep angle of attack??

As if you gassed your right stick forward?? Or did fly away while still relatively straight?

Isn't it possible there are multiple types of "Fly Away"? I about shat myslef in proxy support just reading this and it sure sounded like the ship flew away to me Fly Away seems like an appropriate term. It's the cause(s) that vary.  We could call them Un-Planned Fly Away Actions or UP-FAA! (the explanation point isn't silent) for short?

bicubic - Thanks for the details. I'm glad it sorted so well for you!

tkn78.aol Posted at 2015-2-12 01:45
If you read the original description he says "Look up to see the inspire shooting off away from me ...

hmmmm , your avatar ?

tkn78.aol Posted at 2015-2-12 01:45
If you read the original description he says "Look up to see the inspire shooting off away from me ...

TNK78 please change your avatar.  That is DJI copyrighted material and as you are not a DJI employee you have no right to use it.  It may also cause confusion on the part of users.  Thank you for your cooperation.

I had a thought.

If the aircraft loses GPS it should still NOT MOVE unless it is being blown away by the wind, right?  So if it "flies away" and in this case at about 50km/h, this would either suggest that there was 50km/h of wind up there, which is unlikely given what OP said, then is it possible that the IMU or other electronics are somehow out of calibration?  

If this is the case, then it might be prudent to check P-ATTI just after take off to see if the aircraft shoots off or not.  It should be stable and easily controllable.  If the aircraft is up at 50m and the P-GPS mode is fighting against either wind or dodgy IMU values, then once GPS is lost it will just stop fighting and drift off.

I agree HUGELY that there should be a loud audible alert (from controller and from tablet) similar to that in an A330 when reverting from Normal Law to Alternate or Direct Law....  Hopefully for (near) future firmware upgrades

Cheers

Roastie

I had a similar experience the other day.
I was using IOS app 0.92, had many fights previously with no issues. Beside occasional loss of GPS but that is usually causing lights and predictable drifts with the wind. I do have go practice flying small drones so usually it doesn't bother me in any way.
But the other day after flying for 5 minutes i was coming back to be and when it approached me at about 20 feet high bellow tree height, all of a sudden i saw it moving forward on it's own almost as if i pulled to stick forward about 60%.
I had to pull the same amount down just to correct for this. I started landing it and all the way to the ground i had to hold the stick that amount to compensate for forward movement.
I can see where someone who doesn't expect this and never flown drones before will crash in the instant.
Right after landing and starting motors again, this drift completely disappeared and Inspire was behaving normal.

What scared me though what if it was not 60% forward or 100% and there would be a wind... Even with pulling stick all the way, there is nothing that would help to stop it from moving.

tkn78.aol Posted at 2015-2-12 01:45
If you read the original description he says "Look up to see the inspire shooting off away from me ...

please change your avatar, your use of it is a copyright infringement as you are not a DJI employee.

I also had an incident where in gps mode i had to add stick input to keep the aircraft from flying off.  With the new v1.0 of the ios app i can see the aircraft going in the opposite direction of the stick inputs in playback. It also shows gps mode. Anyone else seen this in the logs?

tkn78.aol Posted at 2015-2-12 01:45
If you read the original description he says "Look up to see the inspire shooting off away from me ...

When we can replicate it.. What needs to be done is logs reviewed. Then we will know 100% what happened

s.slaton@me.com Posted at 2015-2-11 22:07
I experienced two RTHs with my Inspire when it was only 60 feet away and only 30 or 40 feet high. Fo ...

This sounds like you hit the cone of silence with being directly above you and more than likely having the antenna tips pointed directly at the craft. This would cause transmission loss and activate RTH. Since you had a valid home point recorded, it did what it was supposed to do.

If your are flying high but not far you would need to adjust your antennas accordingly.

No offense Blade_Strike, but you seem to be very selective about what you're reading of the posts here and generally hand-waving away what appears to be a critical safety issue.

For example selectively ignoring my info stating wind was negligible, that I've done plenty of manual flying on quads in the past, that FULL STICK was required to overcome the drift. Are you seriously really telling me that the incredibly overpowered Inspire suddenly needed full stick to overcome a nonexistent breeze and then suddenly stopped needing it after it got GPS lock? Are you joking?

Take wind for example, if it's blowing 10mph and GPS disengages then the craft will start moving with the wind very fast if not corrected. The wind will make it feel like the craft is fighting you but it is not.

The (lack of) response I'm getting from Dji is in stark contrast to my experience with the 3DR developer release program where reports such as these were always taken seriously, followed up with an analysis of the logs, a description of the root cause, and a corrective/preventative measure.

DJI knows what's going on, they have logs now so it's no more guessing like in the past. They are currently working on a batter solution

If this is in fact a known issue even after you try to dismiss reports with 'wind!', and Dji has not released any guidance for operators to disclose it, it starts to sound a lot like willful negligence and failure to disclose a safety hazard to the operator. I don't know about the rest of the world, but in Australia this is grounds for a prompt national ban and investigation by ACCC.

Like I said, get your log into dji, really that simple. until then your beating a dead horse. If you have already done so then I would suggest to chill out a bit and realize I'm only here to help.
Most issues people claiming are flyaway are not, proven by the logs.

Well I'm not getting in the middle of this conversation but I can say I've gotten nothing but good info from Blade_Strike not that I needed much as I just got back from my 38th flight with the inspire and like usual Rock Solid ......

Mike

Seriously, who is right or wrong, it does not matter. What matters the most right now are your flight logs for all those 'supposed' flyaways, provide it to DJI and let them sort it out. If you are impatient or unhappy about the service or the drone, I do suggest selling it and moving on. That's life, isn't it?

Similar to most, my inspire 1 is as usual Rock Solid.

I do understand peoples fustrations . But please let's not take it on each other.

Roastie Posted at 2015-2-12 02:51
I had a thought.

If the aircraft loses GPS it should still NOT MOVE unless it is being blown away b ...

I agree that the problem not a loss of GPS signal. The 6 times this has happened to me my app has not indicated a loss of signal. It just takes off forward and to the right. But if I take control with the sticks and fight it back it quickly (2-6 seconds) corrects itself and settles down. Otherwise it would have kept going.

I too have notice unusual gimbal movements right before it heads off. I can't be sure if it is every time.

Can someone point me to a thread that will help me access the flight logs and download them to my mac so that they can be sent to DJI.

I love DJI support, which includes Blade Strike.  The inspire is dangerous.  DJI's brain washing product on the other hand looks like it is working well.

miketeel Posted at 2015-2-12 11:39
Can someone point me to a thread that will help me access the flight logs and download them to my ma ...

Never mind I found one here:

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... id=5269&lang=en

I'm not suggesting these fly-aways don't occur, but if you call yourself a pilot.. learn how to fly your bird. $h!t happens, even in real life. If there's an issue I'm sure DJI will address it, but in the meantime have a plan if trouble comes and If you're a single operator be a pilot first. Nothing trumps that, not even that perfect shot.

Same here, on my first flight I had a few problems. I left mine in hover position while I took a look around the app, noticed on the screen that the bird was quickly flying off and tried to counter this. It also felt like there wasn't enough stick to fully counter the movement and I needed to wrestle with it to get it home. I had no message about gps as far as I know.

I have loss of GPS almost every flight.
The first time it happened I thought it was a fly away. It was not. It was wind drift.
The location I fly at has a weather station, at the time of my GPS loss the wind was blowing at 5.9m/s.(This is a light breeze)
That means the craft can cover 59m in 10 seconds. That certainly LOOKS like a flyaway but in actual fact is not.
I hit RTH and the craft returned at 7.9m/s.
This is all verified by looking at the log.