I've read many stories of lost drones due to fly-away.
How is it possible that a drone suddenly flies far away and possibly dissapears by itself? If that happens it's a major flaw in the software. The computer knows when and where it has started and if the software suddenly instructs the drone to fly a far distance from that then there is no failsafe software involved, GPS or no GPS!

Shape up DJI! That is called Lazy Programming!

How is it possible that a drone suddenly flies far away and possibly dissapears by itself?
It's not possible and it doesn't happen.

If that happens it's a major flaw in the software. The computer knows when and where it has started and if the software suddenly instructs the drone to fly a far distance from that then there is no failsafe software involved, GPS or no GPS!
There are lots of reasons that peple might lose their drones, but if they tell you that the drone just flew away ....
They are lying or simply don't know what they lost their drone.
But since DJI drones started using the Go app back in 2015, we can look into the recorded flight data and learn the cause of lost drone incidents.
And surprise, surprise we don't find drones just flying away.
It just doesn't happen.
We do, however find lots of drones lost because their operators made mistakes and a small percentage due to uncommon genuine hardware failure.

Shape up DJI! That is called Lazy Programming!
Shape up Johnny J, you need to find out a little more about the topic before going off the rails about it.
I challenge you to find a single case where a drone just up and suddenly flew far away with no cause for the incident that could be explained.

Labroides Posted at 8-7 04:06
How is it possible that a drone suddenly flies far away and possibly dissapears by itself?
It's not possible and it doesn't happen.

You can search yourself. Why would I accept a stupid "challenge" when the facts are all over the net?

Johnny_J Posted at 8-7 04:09
You can search yourself. Why would I accept a stupid "challenge" when the facts are all over the net?

Sorry Johnny ... I just updated my post while you were posting.
Go back and read what I added and come back if you have any questions.

Johnny_J Posted at 8-7 04:09
You can search yourself. Why would I accept a stupid "challenge" when the facts are all over the net?

FYI .. I'm one of the few people who read flight data and analyse the causes of lost drone incidents.
I've looked into over 1000 incidents.
I know what I'm talking about.
The "facts" that you think are all over the net, aren't facts at all.
You might find someone that thinks their drone flew away, but it didn't

I'd be really, really surprised if you can point me to a case you think supports your assertion (and has data available to investigate).

Labroides Posted at 8-7 04:32
FYI .. I'm one of the few people who read flight data and analyse the causes of lost drone incidents.
I've looked into over 1000 incidents.
I know what I'm talking about.

Labroides wrote: I'd be really, really surprised if you can point me to a case you think supports your assertion (and has data available to investigate).
Of course you'd say that. If a drone flies away and you are given no data then there is nothing wrong at all.  Ridiculous statement!

Johnny_J Posted at 8-7 07:20
Labroides wrote: I'd be really, really surprised if you can point me to a case you think supports your assertion (and has data available to investigate).
Of course you'd say that. If a drone flies away and you are given no data then there is nothing wrong at all.  Ridiculous statement!

Of course I would because without data, nothing can be proved.
But unlike you, I've analysed the data from hundreds of lost drone incidents.
And the flyer for many of them was convinced that their drone had "flown away".
But the data always shows that the loss was usually due to operator error with common incidents involving flying behind obstacles, flying downwind in winds too strong to return against, flying into trees, flying too far for the battery to make the return trip etc, etc.

Ridiculous statement!
What's ridiculous is the way you (without any knowledge at all), are so convinced that you know all that needed to make your ridiculous judgement.

Now come back with an incident that you think shows a drone "flying away" and I'll analyse the flight data to show you what actually happened.

Labroides Posted at 8-7 07:27
Of course I would because without data, nothing can be proved.
But unlike you, I've analysed the data from hundreds of lost drone incidents.
And the flyer for many of them was convinced that their drone had "flown away".

Exactly my point! If the flight data is lost then there are no errors in the drone according to you.
Then Labroides wrote But the data always shows that the loss was usually due to operator error ...

Johnny_J Posted at 8-7 07:30
Exactly my point! If the flight data is lost then there are no errors in the drone according to you.
Then Labroides wrote But the data always shows that the loss was usually due to operator error ...

Exactly my point! If the flight data is lost then there are no errors in the drone according to you.
You don't have a point.
The depth of your ignorance is huge.
The flight data doesn't get lost, it's there on the phone or tablet used to fly.

If the flyer can't or won't come up with his data, he can say anything but can't prove it.
And if you are an idiot with no understanding of how drones work, you might believe him.
And it sounds like that's what you've done.

Labroides Posted at 8-7 07:41
Exactly my point! If the flight data is lost then there are no errors in the drone according to you.
You don't have a point.
The depth of your ignorance is huge.

Labroides wrote: "And if you are an idiot with no understanding of how drones work, you might believe him."

I understand why DJI use you to "prove" cases. Hence you cannot deviate from that course but has to say that I'm an idiot. Well done Labroides!

Johnny_J Posted at 8-7 07:47
Labroides wrote: "And if you are an idiot with no understanding of how drones work, you might believe him."

I understand why DJI use you to "prove" cases. Hence you cannot deviate from that course but has to say that I'm an idiot. Well done Labroides!

Labroides wrote: "And if you are an idiot with no understanding of how drones work, you might believe him."

I understand why DJI use you to "prove" cases. Hence you cannot deviate from that course but has to say that I'm an idiot. Well done Labroides!
Hey Moron ... I didn't call you an idiot but it seems you've self-identified as one anyway.
And just another thing that you have no understanding of (but don't let that stop you from making ridiculous assumptions),  ... DJI don't use me for anything.
Where did you get that ridiculous idea

Don't annoy me until you can come up with just one case to prove your stupid assertion that DJI drones fly away.
Not a case of someone saying it happened, a case where the flight data shows it happened.
If it's as common as you imagine, you shouldn't have any trouble.

Labroides Posted at 8-7 08:00
Labroides wrote: "And if you are an idiot with no understanding of how drones work, you might believe him."

I understand why DJI use you to "prove" cases. Hence you cannot deviate from that course but has to say that I'm an idiot. Well done Labroides!

Labroid wrote: Hey Moron ... I didn't call you an idiot

You just did!

There is a big Youtuber, Ken Heron, who had a true flyaway in Asia. He admits to not waiting for Home Point update and then flying over a building. I would imagine that this alone accounts for a large portion. Operator error. Labroides, I do believe you are correct. Empirical over anecdotal.

Mobilehomer Posted at 8-7 08:09
There is a big Youtuber, Ken Heron, who had a true flyaway in Asia. He admits to not waiting for Home Point update and then flying over a building. I would imagine that this alone accounts for a large portion. Operator error. Labroides, I do believe you are correct. Empirical over anecdotal.

I agree! I never fly before the GPS position is established. Yet, I as previously wrote, the lack of failsafe actions are missing. Easy to program, yet DJI refuse!

Johnny_J Posted at 8-7 08:11
I agree! I never fly before the GPS position is established. Yet, I as previously wrote, the lack of failsafe actions are missing. Easy to program, yet DJI refuse!

Yet, I as previously wrote, the lack of failsafe actions are missing. Easy to program, yet DJI refuse!
As I previously wrote, you are a moron with no understanding of how the drone works or what failsafes DJI has progrtammed into their drones.
It would be easy for you to educate yourself, but you don't want to.
Until you back up your stupid position with evidence, you are just trolling.

Labroides Posted at 8-7 08:29
Yet, I as previously wrote, the lack of failsafe actions are missing. Easy to program, yet DJI refuse!
As I previously wrote, you are a moron with no understanding of how the drone works or what failsafes DJI has progrtammed into their drones.
It would be easy for you to educate yourself, but you don't want to.

As I previously wrote, you are a moron with no understanding of how the drone works or what failsafes DJI has progrtammed into their drones.

Look: Labroides is stressed: progrtammed

Using an iPhone maybe?

Labroides Posted at 8-7 08:29
Yet, I as previously wrote, the lack of failsafe actions are missing. Easy to program, yet DJI refuse!
As I previously wrote, you are a moron with no understanding of how the drone works or what failsafes DJI has progrtammed into their drones.
It would be easy for you to educate yourself, but you don't want to.

There actually IS a failsafe. If one goes fullscreen with the map, it shows the path you have flown. You can either go to the end of the path to retrieve it or fly back along the red line.

Mobilehomer Posted at 8-7 08:47
There actually IS a failsafe. If one goes fullscreen with the map, it shows the path you have flown. You can either go to the end of the path to retrieve it or fly back along the red line.

There are multiple different failsafes programmed into DJI drones.
But details like that don't matter to Johnny troll.
Facts are much too difficult for him to deal with.

What else should be built in as "failsafe actions" ? I don't know if there ever was a flyaway that wasn't due to a mistake by the pilot. Video or log please ?

Labroides Posted at 8-7 08:51
There are multiple different failsafes programmed into DJI drones.
But details like that don't matter to Johnny troll.
Facts are much too difficult for him to deal with.

Yes, he knows it all. Therefore, he can not/will not learn. I need all the education I can get!

Johnny_J Posted at 8-7 08:11
I agree! I never fly before the GPS position is established. Yet, I as previously wrote, the lack of failsafe actions are missing. Easy to program, yet DJI refuse!

What kind of failsave do you expect ? Not to be allowed to start ?
Have you ever flown your drone inside a building, below a bridge / tree or in a situation where the drone switched to ATTI mode because of insufficient GPS reception ? All this would not be possible with the failsafe action you are expecting.
This is why the FlyApp makes an anouncement to get the pilots attention for safety on possible  insufficient GPS reception after turning it on.
It really seems that you are not very experienced with drones nor their behavior.
Maybe it is time to reread the manual completly and take your time to understand it.

You are an idiot Johnny J, plain and simple. Do you know how to tie your own shoelaces in real life? I thought not.

The best failsafe would be if the aircraft could not be started in the first place, if the owner is a moron.

Johnny, I'm afraid I mostly agree with Labroides.  I've investigated a large number of "fly away" incidents and in my experience, the anecdotal comments from the flyer quite often don't line up with the data and what actually happened.  

Case in point, check out 51 Drones popular YT channel.  About a week ago, he put out a video talking about how he lost his drone into the water and was blaming the downward sensors for the loss.  After watching his video, I reached out to him personally and offered to help him review his Flight Record from his phone.  After reviewing it, it became extremely clear that what he thought happened, didn't happen at all.  The problem was actually him and his stick movements.  He posted a follow up video a few days later explaining what actually happened.  Pilot error!

Fortunately, in 51 Drones' case, he had the humility to actually want to know for sure what happened and was willing to admit he was wrong in his initial assessment.

Unfortunately, there are many like yourself without the same level of humility that are unwilling to dive into the data and learn from their incident.

Best of luck to you on your journey!  There is always time to learn and grow!

Cheers!

Flying my 3rd DJI drone now. Never had a fly away.

With my first, a mavic pro, I lost connection in the iceland Highlands. When I got connection again, the drone was already flying towards me.
Now, I live in an area with lots of wood and many times poor gps satelite reception. The drone doesn't allow me to fly higher than 3 meters. Waiting at that hight for half a minute and I get the homepoint setting. Before I get that acknowledgement I do not fly off.

Same when I'm taking pictures low over te water, I am prepared to push my stick up when the drone makes an attempt to fly lower on its own.

In my experience the drones are quite stable. I use them for photography. I am not a typical RC enthousiast. Had no experience at all before flying my first drone, just common sense.

https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=246821

There is one problem though that DJI should sort out and it is related to height restricted zones. If you for some reason set your RTH altitude to something above 150m and altitude zone gets between you and the drone it will hit the zone wall and hover there until battery drains. This use case should be handled better IMO.

Johnny_J Posted at 8-10 04:35
https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=246821

Johnny_J ... you'll have to point out why you posted a link to that thread.
I've read it but can't see the relevance to anything.

I fly now from the beginning DJI drones started with de Phantom  i had 9 different drone's i fly now Mini 2 i had never problems with it  only sometimes pilot error.
You can't expect that DJI know's what every one for phone has and what's running on it its is impossible . The can't know what someone install on his phone what can interference.
So i fly everytime with no background operating apps on my Android phone and have no problems flying. Only some times a little pilot error.

Fly safe every one

Johnny - A drone doesn't fly away on itself.
It is always operator error. Most common mistake is not to wait for proper GPS signal and start flying anyway.
No GPS data then has been stored and so it doesn't know where it is. This is cause for many fly-aways.

Another reason for fly-aways is not doing a proper compass calibration before flight or start from car roof then start flying with no or near to zere sattelites.
Drone again can't know its position.

All these faults are related to operator who was too anxious to start flying without taking the proper precautions.
Let it be a lesson!

GregT. Posted at 8-11 01:47
Johnny - A drone doesn't fly away on itself.
It is always operator error. Most common mistake is not to wait for proper GPS signal and start flying anyway.
No GPS data then has been stored and so it doesn't know where it is. This is cause for many fly-aways.

"Let it be a lesson"? What do you mean by that?

I never start without GPS position established, never start on or close to metal objects, never start with an uncalibrated compass. My drone has to this day never flown away. Others have!

Johnny_J Posted at 8-11 02:48
"Let it be a lesson"? What do you mean by that?

I never start without GPS position established, never start on or close to metal objects, never start with an uncalibrated compass. My drone has to this day never flown away. Others have!

My drone has to this day never flown away. Others have!
Please come up with something to support your claim that other drones are flying away.
I really need to know about this and find out what's causing it.

I never start with an uncalibrated compass.

Can you explain what you mean by this?

Johnny_J Posted at 8-11 02:48
"Let it be a lesson"? What do you mean by that?

I never start without GPS position established, never start on or close to metal objects, never start with an uncalibrated compass. My drone has to this day never flown away. Others have!

As already ask somewhere above, you have not shown a source for a real approved flyaway yet .
After nearly 12 years experience of flying and building drones i have never seen a flyaway except with a faulty electronics like GPS, compass or pilot errors like already said obove.
So please stop spreading rumors and making new pilots anxious.

GregT. Posted at 8-11 01:47
Johnny - A drone doesn't fly away on itself.
It is always operator error. Most common mistake is not to wait for proper GPS signal and start flying anyway.
No GPS data then has been stored and so it doesn't know where it is. This is cause for many fly-aways.

Most common mistake is not to wait for proper GPS signal and start flying anyway.
No GPS data then has been stored and so it doesn't know where it is. This is cause for many fly-aways.
FYI .. your drone will record a home point when it first gets good GPS location data.
If you are impatient and launch before that, it's usually not a big problem as the drone will get GPS soon after launching and record a homepoint wherever it is at the time, but it might be 1-200 metres from the launch point.
And the drone will know exactly where it is as soon as it does get GPS.
To suggest this is the cause of a lot of "flyaways" is an exaggeration.
Occasionally it could be a relatively small problem, but it would be uncommon for it to cause something that might be (wrongly) described as a "flyaway".

Another reason for fly-aways is not doing a proper compass calibration before flight
This is total nonsense.
There's no reason at all to recalibrate your compass before flying.
If it flew well last time, it will fly well next time (unless you've modified the drone since).

or start from car roof then start flying with no or near to zere sattelites.
Drone again can't know its position.
What does launching from a car roof have to do with having no satellites?
It could cause compass issues, but won't have any effect on GPS reception.

MySky Posted at 8-11 03:10
As already ask somewhere above, you have not shown a source for a real approved flyaway yet .
After nearly 12 years experience of flying and building drones i have never seen a flyaway except with a faulty electronics like GPS, compass or pilot errors like already said obove.
So please stop spreading rumors and making new pilots anxious.

I'm trying to make myself non-anxious ...

Johnny_J Posted at 8-11 03:42
I'm trying to make myself non-anxious ...

No-one wants to be anxious ... but are you saying that you recalibrate the compass before each flight?

Labroides Posted at 8-11 03:50
No-one wants to be anxious ... but are you saying that you recalibrate the compass before each flight?

Nope! Please read again!

Johnny_J Posted at 8-11 04:11
Nope! Please read again!

What you should have stated was "I always check my sensor/compass states before flying off.
Not "I never start with an uncalibrated compass".
I tends to read as tho you always recalibrate.

Flycaster Posted at 8-11 04:30
What you should have stated was "I always check my sensor/compass states before flying off.
Not "I never start with an uncalibrated compass".
I tends to read as tho you always recalibrate.

Nope! I do not check the compass calibration before take off. Never said that. What I said was that I never take off before the GPS position is established. Regarding the compass and other stuff, I trust the app to tell me if anything needs to be done and in such a case I'd do what is required.

Johnny_J Posted at 8-11 03:42
I'm trying to make myself non-anxious ...

Seriously...!!!
Give me some type of example where a drone just flew away due to it being dji's fault???

I'm certainly not defending them but been flying there stuff and FPV for close to 15 years.
Stuff just doesn't fly away.
I've lost plenty of FPV stuff over the years and always turned out to be human error.