I am an expirenced pilot. I've flown different DJI products and all are very stable. Yesterday, while flying the Mavic Air it took on a mind of its own and started to fly away and continued on its own course no matter what my stick positions were in. I was about ready to hit the RTH button and thought I'd try switching it to "sport" mode. The drone stopped its flight path and waited for my commands, I flew the drone back to my position and switched back from "sport" mode to "P". The MA behaved itself from there on.

It was quite windy as I flew and tried the prop guards to see how the drone would handle the extra wind resistance. DON"T FLY THE DRONE WITH PROP GUARDS IN THE WIND unless you are competent in your pilot abilities! Winds where 15mph w/ gust to 25.

I flew my Spark too in those winds! "Mighty Mite" held up good with her tiny motors whinning to compensate for the winds!

Good call on switching it to sport mode!

First of all congratulations for the successful recovery! Would you mind posting the flightrecord here? Maybe it can explain what has happened.

Good thing you recovered!

Wachtberger Posted at 2018-2-2 04:54
First of all congratulations for the successful recovery! Would you mind posting the flightrecord here? Maybe it can explain what has happened.

it wasn't my drone i was flying

Nice recovery and very good advice.

I'm happy to hear that you got it back in the end. I've heard not once about wind stopping drones from coming back, good thing we have sport mode.

MJLSTUDIOS Posted at 2018-2-2 08:11
it wasn't my drone i was flying

A flyaway would have made it very awkward. Your quick thinking clearly saved the day and the Mavic  Air!

MJLSTUDIOS Posted at 2018-2-2 08:11
it wasn't my drone i was flying

Sir, feel sorry about your case. Please contact our support and start a case first: http://www.dji.com/support. I would recommend you forward your flight records to our support for further analysis.  

Hi,
Good recovery.
Was the APAS on and the sun glaring to the front sensors when this happened?
I am thinking of a known and myself experienced behavior with the Mavic pro, that to the sun  triggered the obstacle avoidance and triggered the emergency stop.
Going further in my thoughts, I could imagine the the APAS would try to avoid this "object " and fly on it's own.
As soon the Sort mode is enabled that the APAS is off and you have control again. (Did the same with my Mavic Pro to gain control again)

DJI Elektra Posted at 2018-2-3 22:44
Sir, feel sorry about your case. Please contact our support and start a case first: http://www.dji.com/support. I would recommend you forward your flight records to our support for further analysis.

Its not my drone. The drone did not crash. I was able to gain control of the drone. No need to contact support.

MJLSTUDIOS Posted at 2018-2-4 06:51
Its not my drone. The drone did not crash. I was able to gain control of the drone. No need to contact support.

Great! Please be careful next time and avoid flying toward wind.

I also had a Mavic Air Fly Away! The Flight Record was sent to DJI Support and this was their response.


"Thank you so much for your feedback, and our engineering department had already investigated into this issue. Please kindly wait for the newest upgrades of the firmware for the aircraft, in which this issue will be renovated."

How long do I have to wait? What will be the new Firmware Version? Why isn't DJI sending out a general warning regarding these Fly Aways?

Yea bit u should send support the flight log! In case it's a problem and something really went wrong they could try to fix it in an update!

Fansc41ffd87 what happened in your case?

Great job on making that decision

Great job on making that decision

DJI Elektra Posted at 2018-2-8 02:23
Great! Please be careful next time and avoid flying toward wind.

You tell him DJI Elektra

$gambino$ Posted at 2018-2-11 10:57
Fansc41ffd87 what happened in your case?

The email from DJI Support arrived today, so basically I am in a wait mode...

fansc41ffd87 Posted at 2018-2-11 13:33
The email from DJI Support arrived today, so basically I am in a wait mode...

Just received email from DJI Support, concerning my Fly Away, which stated:

"The DJI Go app Android Version v4.2.6 was released, and this issue has been renovated in that upgrades."

Hopefully the update resolves the Fly Away issue. Will need to conduct controlled RTN tests for confidence sake.

fansc41ffd87 Posted at 2018-2-12 03:28
Just received email from DJI Support, concerning my Fly Away, which stated:

"The DJI Go app Android Version v4.2.6 was released, and this issue has been renovated in that upgrades."

Be sure to get to us with the result. Hopefully a good one this time...

You did exactly what one is supposed to do, most flyaway incidents occur because of a simple compass error and by switching modes it cancels that out same with switching to atti- mode on the inspire. There would be a lot less flyaways if the operator would keep a cool head like you did......

What some novice pilots should do in a high stress situation, not panic ! think quick and act with a solution.

I having similar issues only had three flights with the air and on every occasion Gps sats disappear and lock is gone second occasion signal dropped just after GPS dropped and I had to go and find it luckily I did ... I’m a experienced liscensed pilot who has not had this before on any other DJI aircraft I own.

This happened to me over the weekend. I took out my new Mavic Air for its second flight in the back yard. I was hovering around 53ft and 15 - 20ft away trying to capture a bird's eye view of my property when the drone suddenly started to ascend and fly away from me backwards. It caught me off guard but I am also an experienced pilot of RC aircraft so I immediately walked towards the direction the drone was flying off in and directed the antennas to try and gain control and the drone eventually stopped. I was then able to rotate around to get my bearings and land the drone. It was an unerving experience and I'm not sure what happened.

fans1c7ed8a2 Posted at 2018-4-9 13:50
This happened to me over the weekend. I took out my new Mavic Air for its second flight in the back yard. I was hovering around 53ft and 15 - 20ft away trying to capture a bird's eye view of my property when the drone suddenly started to ascend and fly away from me backwards. It caught me off guard but I am also an experienced pilot of RC aircraft so I immediately walked towards the direction the drone was flying off in and directed the antennas to try and gain control and the drone eventually stopped. I was then able to rotate around to get my bearings and land the drone. It was an unerving experience and I'm not sure what happened.

After reviewing my flight log it seems possible that it could have been a wind gust at altitude however if this could be confirmed by someone looking at my flight logs that would be much appreciated.  It looks like I increased altitude to get a better birds eye view. I was informed of high winds  briefly and then the drone took off backwards and I can see myself fighting the sticks to pull the drone back towards me but it does not respond until I put in some yaw then I have full control.