While flying my phantom 4 pro in position mode I lost control when I got too close to the side of a large metal building.  The accident was in slow motion as the drone slowly drifted towards the building until it finally made contact and crashed.  Thankfully I was only about 7’ off the ground and other than a couple of broken propellers everything seems fine.  My question is what could I have done to avoid the accident?  Would quickly switching to atti mode given me control?  From what I’ve read so far I suffered from a compass failure that caused this but why the loss of control? (While slowly drifting towards wall drone did not respond to my inputs from the controller)

I have had this problem and I think its because of the obstacle sensing that you lose control when in danger. I shut it off and then I could fly it close to stuff without any issues. I did crash a lose mine today though..

crashingguy Posted at 1-22 21:36
I have had this problem and I think its because of the obstacle sensing that you lose control when in danger. I shut it off and then I could fly it close to stuff without any issues. I did crash a lose mine today though..

Thanks for the reply and sorry to hear you lost your drone

Chickenhawk Posted at 1-24 17:23
Thanks for the reply and sorry to hear you lost your drone

You may have lost your GPS and that could send you into atti mode and then your bird is at the mercy of the wind. Also depends on what side of the building you were on, you could have lost connection to the RC. I'm not saying this is what happened, but I have had this happen before and it's shocking when she flies right at the obstacle she should be avoiding. If you post this on the Phantom 4 site and upload your flight log, someone can tell you exactly what happened. Good luck.

1Eagle Posted at 1-30 15:38
You may have lost your GPS and that could send you into atti mode and then your bird is at the mercy of the wind. Also depends on what side of the building you were on, you could have lost connection to the RC. I'm not saying this is what happened, but I have had this happen before and it's shocking when she flies right at the obstacle she should be avoiding. If you post this on the Phantom 4 site and upload your flight log, someone can tell you exactly what happened. Good luck.

Thanks for the feedback eagle

Chickenhawk Posted at 2-5 22:12
Thanks for the feedback eagle

No problem.
Hope you get it worked out so you can avoid that in the future.
Fly safe, fly often.

Hi, thank you for reaching out and we're sorry for the incident happened to your drone. I will highly recommend you to fly in an area wherein there is no possible interference that will interfere with the drone and its connection, it might caused disconnection if you are flying normally in an urban area with large metal buildings. Also, please make sure to calibrate your compass and make sure that you have updated firmware to avoid any troubles. Please don't hesitate to reach us if you have other inquiries or concerns. Thank you for your support!

It has happen something like that with my Mavic Pro , i get message compas error and saw how slowly Mavic is moving away but after few second message was gone and Mavic was hovering in the new positonion but i didnt lost conection and I could still controll Mavic  all the time even when was drifting with compass error.

humla Posted at 2-6 14:14
It has happen something like that with my Mavic Pro , i get message compas error and saw how slowly Mavic is moving away but after few second message was gone and Mavic was hovering in the new positonion but i didnt lost conection and I could still controll Mavic  all the time even when was drifting with compass error.

Thanks hula, I’m thinking about upgrading to a Mavic

DJI Gamora Posted at 2-6 09:08
Hi, thank you for reaching out and we're sorry for the incident happened to your drone. I will highly recommend you to fly in an area wherein there is no possible interference that will interfere with the drone and its connection, it might caused disconnection if you are flying normally in an urban area with large metal buildings. Also, please make sure to calibrate your compass and make sure that you have updated firmware to avoid any troubles. Please don't hesitate to reach us if you have other inquiries or concerns. Thank you for your support!

Thanks Gamora, will do

ATTI mode would've helped actually. You would drift around a lot but you are in more control though since the drone doesn't rely heavily on the compass and gps. Just the barometer. ATTI mode is always your life saving mode. Also, I recommend getting propeller guards.

Chicken Hawk Posted at 2-6 19:07
Thanks Gamora, will do

You're welcome. Thank you for your support!