Below is a copy of an email message sent to DJI In Re: Inspire 1 Fly Away on July 13, 2015

Between the initial flight(s) on July 11, 2015 and the fly-away date on July 13, 2015, the Inspire 1 had flown approx. 30 flights, logged under two different users. All flights were flown using dual remotes. Most of the flights were flown on July 11 and July 12, prior to updating to the latest firmware. The UAV’s compass was always calibrated before flying. All of these flights averaged approx. 11 minutes and were all without incident. We tested all system functions including auto take-off and landing and emergency RTH functions and the craft always responded as expected. All flights have been flown in P-GPS mode.

The firmware for the craft and controllers was updated between flights on July 12 and July 13. We started flying around 2100 CST on July 13 and a total of three flights were flown, including the fly-away. The first flight was without incident and the battery in the craft was replaced with a fully charged battery.

According to flight logs, the second flight was initiated at 2113 CST with a duration of 7:22, maximum height of 263 feet and a flight distance of 10,216 feet and the auto take-off function was used. Approx. 2:50 into the flight, a RTH command was sent to the aircraft after losing visual contact with the aircraft. Radio/Video communications were also malfunctioning and we noticed that the craft seems to be flying on a tilt, rather than level. The craft began it’s return to home and around 5:45 flight time, visual contact with the craft was resumed. The craft automatically initiated the landing gear and started decending above the home point. At an altitude of 92 ft., I cancelled the auto landing and manually landed the craft without incident. The craft was inspected and everything looked as it should including all of the props being securely attached.

At 2121, the craft once again took off using the assisted take-off. After the issues on the previous flight, we were cautious and wanted to do a test flight, staying roughly within a 100ft radius of the home point. At approx. 2:40 into the flight, the controls seemed to have become unresponsive. The craft was above the home point and we had a full visual (eyes and video) on the craft. I released all controls and then noticed that the craft started to drift. I tried regaining control of the craft but all communications seemed to be down at this point. No controller input was registered by the craft and it had become completely unresponsive to any input. At 2:57 a RTH command was initiated. We still had full visual on the craft which was at an altitude of 108 feet and 126 feet south of the home point. The craft ignored the RTH command and looped around to the west past the home point. Manually trying to over ride the RTH command and regain control of the craft was unsuccessful and no communications were registered between the controller and the craft. The craft took off to the NE and made another circle, one block to the east of the home point. The craft moved back to the west and appeared to be coming towards the home point. It then turned back to the NW and a command to resend the home point location was sent to the craft at approx. 3:34. The craft once again ignored the command to RTH and was unresponsive to pilot input. The craft continued to the N and then turned to the NE at a horizontal speed between 50-60 mph. We had lost visual contact at this point, including video. The last recorded point was 1,966 ft to the NE of the home point with an altitude of 249 feet and a horizontal speed of 57 mph with 13% battery remaining. A full search of the area within about a 1.5 mile radius of the last known location turned up no results and the craft has still not been recovered.

Mowog2 Posted at 2015-7-16 04:02
I am sorry to hear about this.

I am getting very close to the point where I am going to sell my In ...

Thanks. I am waiting to hear back from DJI and I will post their response to this thread once I receive it.

Did you calibrate the IMU after the update? if not, that might be the problem. And don't calibrate the compass every flight. Do it once in a place away from any large metal objects and magnetic interference. You need to recalibrate compass only if you travel more than 50 miles from the last calibration spot.

Good details of the events very objective, without the constant interjection of opinion & slang. Thank you, it's very helpful and easy to read. I know this isn't the experience DJI is trying to sell, they want your aircraft to return when commanded, anything less is a flaw in design. There's fine line between a hobby RC Aircraft & a professional RC Aircraft & DJI has perfectly placed the Inspire right on that fine line. In  RC Hobbies there's never been a call to a mfg. to replace an RC aircraft because of an unknown mfg. failure. I can understand the argument for a professional RC Aircraft  since there is certainly more at stake.  It may shock you to know that Mfg. recalls for real aircraft are issue by the mfg. in conjunction with the NTSB/FAA & paid for by the aircraft owner, in other words the aircraft owner not only pays has to pay for the recall, (whatever it may be) but his aircraft will be grounded until he has e recall performed!?!!

It hasn't been all that long since  RC aircraft companies have started offering more & more complex flight management systems. These systems, while instead of transmitting the input controls directly they translate the commands in a way that gives the average person the ability to control the aircraft. This is where the problem lies. To the best of my knowledge there is no means to defeat most of these flight mgmt. systems & there's no prior experience in flying the aircraft manually in the first place. So what would be worse? Aircraft flying away on its own or operator given the opportunity to control the aircraft manually.

I have read so many stories almost like yours, I can not keep them all straight in my head. One unusual commonality between most of them is the 3rd flight/battery. Invariably the recollection of events reach a tipping point with the 3rd battery installed.
Please take some time & research Inspire 1's flyaways & 3rd flight or 3rd battery, it's far to common to consider it coincidence.

I'm reasonably certain,  if you can provide DJI with the volume of information, like you have initially. DJI, will assist you. However, the most important thing, right now, is to find that aircraft. Do whatever is within your means to locate your Inspire 1, it's pivotal & without it, your outcome is dismal.

Regards,
  Wormwood

Mowog2 Posted at 2015-7-16 04:02
I am sorry to hear about this.

I am getting very close to the point where I am going to sell my In ...

This was my feelings exactly I sold my p3 and bought an I1, seemingly for all of the same reasons that  I sold the P3 for.  My feeling is that the difference in the hardware between the P3 an I1 being tried to make run on the same app is not doing any of us any good.  Same problems on both machines, appeared at the same time  Competitors will soon be knocking on their doors.  I was 100% behind Dji until I bought the P3,  If I have any of these problems with my new I1, I will be looking at other products, even if I have to wait.  

Mowog2 Posted at 2015-7-16 04:02
I am sorry to hear about this.

I am getting very close to the point where I am going to sell my In ...

It's tough to say.  These problems are not being reported with the P3 like they are with the I1 and there's probably more P3 out there!  My I1 sits in the case, unused, while I decide whether I want to keep it and assume the risk or not.  

However.....  while I'm no expert, the basic questions must be asked:

Did the original poster calibrate the IMU after the firmware update?  Perhaps he should have calibrated it again after the first sign of trouble when it was recovered.   What troubleshooting was done before flying again?

Rob

Mowog2 Posted at 2015-7-16 04:02
I am sorry to hear about this.

I am getting very close to the point where I am going to sell my In ...

First of all we are far from hopeless. We did not get where we are by being hopeless. I am sorry to hear you have so little faith. I wish there was something I could say to change that.
We are always working on inproving our products. Please keep in mind that the number of people (having trouble) is many, many, many times less than people (not having trouble) with the Inspire1.
Also keep in mind that nothing is full-proof or infallible.
418 US Military Drones crashed in just the last few years and they cost millions of dollars. A quick google search pulled this up.
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014 ... tary-drone-crashes/
How much money went into military drone R&D for these drones? Yet they crash all the time.
And thats just US drones what would the number be for world wide? All countries? What about all aviation accidents, manned and unmanned?
I only bring this up to add some perspective. Nothing is infallible. Including machines and people.

The choice to fly will always be your choice. Nothing in this world is without risk! The choice to sell your Inspire or not sell it, is up to you. I understand if you are very risk adverse then flying anything RC might not be a good hobby for you.

dmfreeland Posted at 2015-7-16 04:30
Thanks. I am waiting to hear back from DJI and I will post their response to this thread once I rec ...

I hope this works out for you. It would be much better if you could find your Inspire and we could do a through investigation on the craft.

DJI-Dave Posted at 2015-7-16 14:08
First of all we are far from hopeless. We did not get where we are by being hopeless. I am sorry to ...

Ouch...  The guy just lost his $3000 UAS from DJI, and you write long about how military drones crasch all the time, like it will help him?

DJI, you really need to get better at communicating with your customers. Seriously, I'm shocked.

Rob W Posted at 2015-7-16 14:56
Ouch...  The guy just lost his $3000 UAS from DJI, and you write long about how military drones cr ...

The guy I am writing to did not lose his $3000 UAS from DJI any more than you did. Why don't you try rereading the post and WHO I wrote it too.
Then after you figure that one out, read the post right under it that I did write to the guy that just lost his $3000 UAS from DJI.

It is a very different post.

DJI-Dave Posted at 2015-7-16 15:01
The guy I am writing to did not lose his $3000 UAS from DJI any more than you did. Why don't you tr ...

The DJI Inspire 1 is manufactured by DJI, right? Or else I've missed something. The Aircraft have not been found yet after it behaved strangely. So, the aircraft is so far lost, as it is not yet found. What the problem was with the aircraft is unknown.

What I react upon is the attitude toward customers in your first post (the second was better and). Yes, I know the first post you wrote was not directed to the person who lost the aircraft, but to another person. But I'm pretty sure the guy who lost his Aircraft will also read your first post...

I found that post about military drones not supportive to the community, or the customers (certainly not for the guy who lost his drone). Instead it gave a feeling that it is more or less expected that a drone should crash as it also happens with military drones, and that comes from a DJI employee... Maybe I'm extra sensitive in this matter because I've worked with support for a very long time. Every support case should be handled with respect and care, with the customer in mind. Whatever the reason was for this fly-away, user error, firmwarebug, hardware failure or whatever, DJI should be supportive to the customers and take every accident seriously.

Rob W Posted at 2015-7-16 15:20
The DJI Inspire 1 is manufactured by DJI, right? Or else I've missed something. The Aircraft have  ...

My post was written to someone who said we are hopeless.

I was just trying to bring in some real world truth and perspective. There was no attitude in my words unless someone chooses to read that into it and assume there was.
Sorry if you felt that way.

DJI-Dave Posted at 2015-7-16 15:31
My post was written to someone who said we are hopeless.

I was just trying to bring in some real  ...

A person who just lost his $3000 *might* take it very hard, I'm just saying. And other users with many DJI aircrafts might in worst case start questioning the products and the support.

But I do understand what you wanted to say, so I understand you. But it is easy to misunderstand it. And with quite a few topics with fly-aways, it is sensitive.

Personally I have 4 DJI rigs (F450, S800, S900 and an Inspire) and I have had no problems so far. For us users it is a lot of money invested, and we rely on the aircrafts as tools for making our job and putting food on the table. As such, we need them to work as announced. If something happens with an aircraft, it can be a disaster. Not just loosing jobs, but an uncontrollable/crashing aircraft can do a lot of harm, in worst case scenario it can hit someone.

I'll leave it at that. I know DJI work hard and apparently struggles with some things that have not met the schedule. Hope you look into these fly-aways, weither it is learning us pilots (even better manuals, guides or other tips), or if it is fixing a product problem.

All the best,
Rob

Mowog2 Posted at 2015-7-16 15:52
DJI-Dave

The simple truth is people are having issues and DJI "IS" difficult to deal with.

Ok point taken. But we do have some users that take every opportunity to bash DJI. Not saying you are one of them.
I disagree with you that the Inspire can not be trusted. I fly mine 2 or 3 days every week. Just flew today in fact. Thousands of them are flying every day. As I said in my post I wish there was something I could say to change your mind. And I truly am sorry you feel this way. I think you are missing out, but I do understand your concern.
It is true about the people with 100's of flight hours.
Check out this thread.

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... mp;page=1#pid170019

Rob W Posted at 2015-7-16 16:04
A person who just lost his $3000 *might* take it very hard, I'm just saying. And other users with m ...

Thanks.
I also understand what you are saying and can see your point of view.

your flight beforehand was 10,000ft away (3km) !!! you are asking for trouble doing flights like that as you dont know what structures or devices are around that can reduce signal and control stability.

You say that the craft was right above the home point or you. if you had an iPad on the control unit then this can easily mask the antennas, which ultimately kill the control and image signal. Also you didnt mention what the battery indicator was displaying on the transmitter, if its low then you can only expect a reduction in control.

You mention the 50-60mhp fly away. the Inspire is unable to do these speeds unless aided by heavy and fast winds, which might account for the initial observation of the craft banking on the second flight.

At the point you felt you were losing control, why didnt you try switching to ATTI Mode? this might have helped. Was anyone standing near you with their Bluetooth or Wifi on? all these can affect the control of the aircraft.

You cant just blame firmware when you intend to fly way beyond the limits of the control frequancy. look at any commercial pilot and the checks they do before a flight. forget the aircraft itself, they look at weather, the KP rating for the day, structures, power lines, and any testing that maybe going on within the vacinity or route of the flight.

I have over 120 hours on the Inspire and S1000 and never had a problem with Firmware.

If I understand this the I1 lost control input the controller was useless the I1 went off on its own. How does the IMU calibration fit in here. I can understand it being erratic if not done properly after a firmwear update, but if you have a signal between the two you should be able to wrestle it home maybe in ATTI mode unless of course you don't know how to fly it in ATTI mode in which case it's partially pilot error.  Also with regard to RTH how should the I1 respond to the command if it's an issue with IMU calibration does this freak it out even worse. Did the controller loose the connection? the user didn't state that the pilot app showed this error but He did state  that he initiated RTH and nothing no response and he did state the I1 was not responding to controller input either.  So my question(s) for DJI please help me understand the relationship here IMU calibration and total loss of control,  if the IMU is not calibrated properly  will this lead to total loss of control, no controller input allowed?  will iniating RTH make things worse. If  true this is good to know but truly scary,  that the I1 flight  controller fails to allow the controller to communicate with it if  IMU calibration is not done or not done properly. Also should their be a warning on this in the pilot app if true and  then it should not allow take off until it receives a confirmed proper calibration of the system. Then last if the controller did loose communication with the I1 and that being the issue not IMU calibration then should not the flight controller iniate RTH on its own and bring her back safely.  I do understand that if the system just completely failed then maybe of course it's an issue appropriate for another post.

I appreciate the response

Ken

dmfreeland Posted at 2015-7-16 04:30
Thanks. I am waiting to hear back from DJI and I will post their response to this thread once I rec ...

Hi. My checklist counts 30 points. I always take care to all of them. Guessing by Your story Your checklist counts only a few points. So IMHO such posts only augment my habit to stick strictly to my checklist.

I have seen a lot of these problem described here with fly aways, There seems to be two things that are associated,  it seems that more incidents occur at extremely low battery levels, than at the first of the flight.  I experienced a low battery incident where it seems as though the RTH would not function I was in LOS and that was the only way that it got it back.  also most that have reported problems, starts by saying I calibrated the compass or Imu or both.  just an observation.

DJI-Dave Posted at 2015-7-16 14:08
First of all we are far from hopeless. We did not get where we are by being hopeless. I am sorry to ...

Dave,

The folks at DJI need to start paying a lot more attention to what the company looks like from the outside.  Depending on your role at DJI, you likely have a great deal of awareness of the efforts being put in to improve customer service, or engineering, or software.  You might know of engineers who stay up late at night or are overstressed because they are trying to crack a problem, they KNOW there is a solution, and they just haven't figured it out yet.  That dedication is enormously valuable.  But customers can't see it.

Customers don't know any of what you know.  They know about loss of control and flyaway so (but not what is being done about them).  They know they can't buy spare parts and self-repair (with a very few exceptions).  They know their local dealer who used to do repairs isn't allowed to repair their Inspire even though the availability of a local repairer drove the customer's purchasing decision when the product was announced and before this policy was revealed.  They know about eight week repair times that could permanently lose them a client and potentially destroy their small business.  They know DJI customers will complain bitterly about a problem like controllers spontaneously shutting off and receive no acknowledgement of the problem being a firmware issue until it is quietly mentioned in a set of release notes (with the result that many controllers were wrongly sent in for repair).

To customers for whom these observations represent their entire relationship with the company, I'm sure DJI does indeed appear hopeless.  And I recognize that's likely a flawed perception.  But the only one who can fix it is DJI, and it can only do so through much greater candor in its communications with customers.

Many people, myself included, believe this is a cultural issue between the way things work in China and the way they work in the West.  Western Europeans and Americans demand far greater levels of communication and candor from their vendors than do Chinese.  My suspicion for quite some time is that Americans are perceived by Chinese as being very spoiled, self-important and self-entitled.  Whether or not this is so, the divide needs to be fixed or competitors who have better understanding of Western sensibilities will steal the market.

PeteGould Posted at 2015-7-16 20:50
Dave,

The folks at DJI need to start paying a lot more attention to what the company looks like f ...

@ DJI-Dave

I understand your comments but I am puzzled by your response in this thread , Are you here to Defend DJI or are you here to help the forum members and give good advice? The reason I ask is I think you have went down the wrong track here in this forum we don't need some here to Defend DJI, what we need is some from DJI to help take the information back to their company and help get issue put on the table to resolve, I am a forum member that is a bit insulted by your responses and I think someone above you needs to review your actions, people here are going to vent on their issues, also a 3K loss is a big deal especially to me as I am a Hobbyist and don't make money off the DJI product, I wish you take my reply seriously and step back a bit and help us to the best of your ability I am not here to bash you but to give my point of view the way this thread as been addressed by a DJI employee. Please try not to read into peoples frustrations as I would be venting as well if I had a fly away. I usually don't go down this route but I had to state my opinion.

_Carlo Posted at 2015-7-16 21:41
@ DJI-Dave

I understand your comments but I am puzzled by your response in this thread  , ...

@ dmfreeland

I am sorry for your loss and thank you for posting your results and questions asked by forum members, we all try to learn from other peoples issues to HOPE it wont happen to us, I am sorry this thread got out of hand I hope DJI Helps you out. Good Luck and keep us informed.
Thank you.

This post has generated a lot more conversation that I had expected. My goal was simply to share the experience that I had, since fly aways seem to be fairly common. I also wanted to share how DJI responds to such events through my experience of dealing with them. I am still awaiting their response but I am hopeful that they will work with me. I will try and address a couple things that people seem to keep going back to.

1 - IMU Calibration; The IMU was not recalibrated after the firmware update. All of the sensor data was within "normal" ranges and unless I over looked something, I have not seen any official instruction from DJI that you should always recalibrate after an update.

2 - Compass Calibration; All of the flights with this particular craft were flown from the same location. The compass was not calibrated before every flight but was always calibrated each day before flying.

3 - Unresponsiveness; There were times, as noted in my original post, that I had visual contact on the craft and even had a video link which would leave to to assume (possible incorrectly) that I would also have radio contact. There were no errors reported through the DJI Pilot app and the app gave both audible and visual cues to verify that the RTH command had been initiated. Replaying the flight through the app also recorded all of the commands. The craft completely ignored the command. There were also times that I attempted to manually take over the craft when I realized that the "fail-safe" had failed and no joystick commands were even registered by the craft or recorded by the app.

4 - Recovery; After 3 days of searching, the craft is still unrecovered. I did order a new Inspire 1 through Drones Etc. and have it overnighted along with a Trackimo GPS system. The second Inspire 1 was not ordered through DJI because it took a month to get the first one and the second is being used for Search & Recovery of the first craft. We will resume search efforts later today from the air. We have also talked to some of the local ranchers since the craft is most likely in once of their fields. There is a rather large search area because the drone was still over 200 ft in altitude when it recorded the last check point and doing the math with estimated flight time remaining and current speed, the craft could have flown another 1/3 mile in any direction before falling from the sky.

5 - Battery; A fully charged battery is installed in the craft before each flight. There were actually two flights on the same battery when the fly away happened. The first flight was 7:22 in duration. It was cut short to land and inspect the craft because it was not operating as expected. After inspecting the craft, checking sensor data, etc., the decision was made to take back off and do what was more or less a diagnostic flight right around the home point. At the time of take-off for the second flight, the battery had 44% and 5:30 estimated flight time remaining. This should have been plenty for going straight up, making a couple tight circles and coming right back down.

The craft is set to alert to a low battery warning at 30% and initiate a RTH when the battery reaches 15% though the craft is usually back on the ground before ever reaching the critical battery level. The auto RTH fail safe had previously activated due to critical battery levels 2-3 times, However, each time I was in the process of landing the craft and was only 2-6 feet off of the ground when it prompted the auto landing due to a critical battery level. I make a point to always try and have the craft grounded before the battery hits 20% or less.

richardhuison@y Posted at 2015-7-16 17:38
your flight beforehand was 10,000ft away (3km) !!! you are asking for trouble doing flights like tha ...

The total distance of the flight was over 10,000 feet traveled in total, not the distance between the home point and the craft. The craft  is flown typically within a 1,500 ft radius of the pilot/home point.

Weather, controller setup, location, etc. was all about the same for each flight with this craft. As stated previously, we had roughly 30 flights in the two days prior without incident. Winds were slightly higher the day of the fly away but well within safe flying speeds. Winds were out of the south at 8-10 mph with maximum gust speeds of 14 mph.

_Carlo Posted at 2015-7-16 21:44
@ dmfreeland

I am sorry for your loss and thank you for posting your results and questions asked ...

Thanks for the well wishes. My intent is not to shame or attack DJI, only to share my experience with other users. I do hope that in all cases, including mine, that DJI will investigate and work to address any issues.

It is unfortunate but sometimes stuff happens. With each new advance in technology there will always be problems that require attention. Problems are inevitable but how DJI responds to them and how they choose to deal with the issues that arise will speak to the character of the company and the people that they employ to represent their brand.

PeteGould Posted at 2015-7-16 20:50
Dave,

The folks at DJI need to start paying a lot more attention to what the company looks like f ...

Well said. I agree with most all of it. I was up late last night also, about 2 am on this thread and others.
I can sympathize with DJI customers. I have been a DJI customer for a lot longer than I have been a DJI employee. That being said I have been doing forum support and moderation for a long time.
We are putting in a lot more effort to improve customer service.

_Carlo Posted at 2015-7-16 21:41
@ DJI-Dave

I understand your comments but I am puzzled by your response in this thread  , ...

My job is both to defend DJI/other members and to help the forum members. I am a moderator/technical forum support.  Defending Dji is not a easy job, I sympathize with a lot of the users.
However,
If I walked up to you and said you were hopeless you might get defensive also. We let a lot of stuff slide there are complaints and DJI bashing all over this forum. But we are trying to keep it from getting out of control. The bashing part, valid complants are ok.

Please make sure you understand I did not in any way come down of the guy that lost his Inspire. I would never do that!

I came down very very lightly on someone else. Please reread my post to him, and this time reread it while forcing yourself to smile. You will see that the words and language I used was not that bad.
This is the problem with the typed word verses the spoken word.You can not see how I feel.  I was not mad in any way at the guy. I tried to explain to (Mowog2) about how we are not hopeless. I stand by that opinion 100%. We are not hopeless.
I think some here are getting a little over sensitive. Gee, all I was trying to say to that one guy I replied to Mowog2 was that we are not hopeless and nothing is infallible. I also stand by the fact that nothing is infallible.

Sorry if some were offended. But lets not blow this out of proportion. I have seen other moderators get a lot more stern in the responses they make to some members or they just delete their post not even trying to engage them.I could have done that but I did not.  On our forum moderation team I am actually known for being too soft and too nice. I am sure in the future I will have to get more stern with some members.  

dmfreeland Posted at 2015-7-17 01:07
Thanks for the well wishes. My intent is not to shame or attack DJI, only to share my experience w ...

I am not customer service (as I said in my other post I am Forum Moderator and Forum Technical support) and and I can see from your post you are already dealing with a customer service rep. That being said I do know people high up in the company and I will talk to them on your behalf about your situation.
Being how as you do not have the Inspire for us to look at I pretty much already know what they will offer you. But I will see if I can expedite this and make the offer better through my contacts. I am not promising anything just trying to help if I can.

DJI-Dave Posted at 2015-7-17 02:37
I am not customer service (as I said in my other post I am Forum Moderator and Forum Technical sup ...

Any help would be appreciated at this point. I have still not received any sort of reply from DJI Support. My original email included all of the aircraft's details including all serial numbers. I did not include that in my post for obvious reasons. Thank you for taking a look at this.

dmfreeland Posted at 2015-7-17 02:44
Any help would be appreciated at this point. I have still not received any sort of reply from DJI  ...

Do you have a ticket number you can provide me? I just 2 minutes ago got off the phone with my boss and it looks like I will be able to help you.
If you do not have a ticket number yet (sounds like you dont if they have not replied yet) post it here as soon as you do. I will be monitoring this thread.

Dave

DJI-Dave Posted at 2015-7-17 03:02
Do you have a ticket number you can provide me? I just 2 minutes ago got off the phone with my boss ...

The email auto-respond message shows REQUEST #168961.

dmfreeland Posted at 2015-7-17 03:26
The email auto-respond message shows REQUEST #168961.

Ok thanks

Oh boy...My Inspire is still not being able to go into travel mode in any fashion and fails to update completely...with sensor issues but will fly perfectly otherwise...I Still have not received the QR Props from my dealer as they don't believe me they exist even after showing them...I have only one battery as they are way over priced in my opinion And even I get scared that mine will one day say adios amigo and head for the hills. I hope DJI do fix the companies image soon.

DJI-Dave Posted at 2015-7-17 01:47
My job is both to defend DJI/other members and to help the forum members. I am a moderator/technica ...

@ DJI-Dave
As I sit here and Smile, You are a great writer I applaud your rebuttal, Im glad to see the OP is getting help and I enjoyed reading your reply , as I said in my previous in no way I wanted to come out bashing you.
I am sincerely glad to see you jump in and help, I know it going to be hard to do because most  people here are going to come to the forum and tell their stories of success or issues they have experienced. I love this forum truly and get allot of knowledge and help with my use of my bird, without this forum I would probably be lost, and I am glad DJI hosts such a forum, but I am more glad to know help is out there.
I follow your POST often, and enjoy them.  

@dmfreeland   -   Sorry to hear about your incident. However, I have a sincere question: why would you send up your i1 on a 44% battery charge after just witnessing erratic behavior?  It's always been good practice to fly on a full-charged battery. Unless you landed and let the i1 idle w/o turning off unit; which was not your case. You turned off the i1 and then took off, again, on a 44% battery.  

For research purpose,
I would like to ask other questions: 1) Did you try switching to ATTI?
2) Did you physically move toward the i1 at any time of TX no-response?
3) Did you readjust your TX antenna for correct positioning in accordance to your i1?

Thanks!

_Carlo Posted at 2015-7-17 09:21
@ DJI-Dave
As I sit here and Smile, You are a great writer I applaud your rebuttal, Im glad to see ...

Thank you Carlo.
One thing I have definitely learned in this thread is that I need to be extra careful with my words!
A wise mature person is known for his understanding. The more pleasant his words the more persuasive he is.

DJI-Dave Posted at 2015-7-17 12:03
Thank you Carlo.
One thing I have definitely learned in this thread is that I need to be extra ca ...

I agree, I know by experience that what is written can sometimes come out in another way that it is meant or how it would have been received if you where face to face.

I also know you help a lot of people here, more than what you should do probably as you, as you wrote, is not a part of the customer service. Now I'm reading the morning news here at the forum, and I just want to say that I'm happy to see that you've been so active and trying to help and answer people kindly.

This is the kind of bridge we need, a liason between we users and support/developers. It would also help DJI as there would be better communications and less misunderstandings that can make customers angry.

Thank you, Dave!

DJI-Dave Posted at 2015-7-16 14:08
First of all we are far from hopeless. We did not get where we are by being hopeless. I am sorry to ...

If I compare the P3 forum to the I1 forum, there is barely, if any talk about flyaways with the P3.  It seems pretty darn reliable so far.  In this forum there's just way too much talk about it and you can't avoid it.  I'm sure I've seen at least 20 different users here report a flyaway and I've seen videos of what happens.  Yet there's still no explanation as to the fault.  It's the unknown that is worrisome at this point.   

I have a P3 and an I1.  The I1 is still in the box, unused (just purchased).  

Rob

I had 3 fly-aways from about 30 flights. The last one was extremely worrying, because even with a mild wind the A mode didn't let me give much of a control over the drone. It was just drifting away in P mode with just trees around. I was very lucky to get it slalom-flyied between trees and landed it in one piece. And then there are days, when it is very responsive.  I have very mixed feelings about the platform. But as client is seeing this, I am not so sure, they will hire me again.

tysteryang@yaho Posted at 2015-7-17 09:38
@dmfreeland   -   Sorry to hear about your incident. However, I have a sincere question: why would y ...

As I stated previously, the flight was only meant to check the behavior of the craft. Basically straight up, make a couple maneuvers above the home point and and then straight back down. I had plenty of battery for what was intended to be about a 90 second flight. Under normal circumstances, the battery is changed every time that the craft lands.

In response to your other questions; I did switch to ATTI mode to try and take back control of the craft but it remained unresponsive to any input. When visual contact was lost, we did get into a vehicle to try and chase it down. Contact was never regained with the craft.