It has happened to me only twice, and luckily without any loss or damage. Both times in not ideal landscapes. It looked like this: stayed the drone as usual in normal mode, raised the drone with pure line of sight without goggles a couple meters to make sure it didn't hit anything, and then I click the stop button to put on the goggles. However, during those 1-2sec drone immediately started to fly away at fast speed, ignoring the multiple presses of the emergency break, until it crashes somewhere. I've double checked that the propellers are mounted in the right order, and nothing else comes to mind. The drone is able to keep stability for a couple of seconds, until it fully loses control.
What could be the problem here? Is this a known issue (and maybe has a name)? If I could understand what went wrong, maybe I would be able to somehow prepare? This doesn't happen often, but is quite frightening.

Hope this makes sense, any tips would be appreciated!

Hello there maratonininkas. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for reaching out. May we please know what is the model of the mobile device you are using please and kindly please fly your DJI FPV drone to a different location to see if the issue will still persist? The said DJI drone might have picked up magnetic interference on the ground, and you took off from close to a buildings with rebar concrete metal objects on it. In addition, please make sure that the antennas are pointed toward the aircraft for optimal transmission. Thank you.

DJI does not fly away, I have thousands of hours under many DJI platforms and never even came close to a drone flying in a manner that RTH or any other error caused flight patterns to shift.

100% user error

Whoreable Posted at 1-25 22:11
DJI does not fly away, I have thousands of hours under many DJI platforms and never even came close to a drone flying in a manner that RTH or any other error caused flight patterns to shift.

100% user error

could you please expand on the user error part? In my understanding, If that was the case, wouldn't you think emergency brake should've worked after at least one of the tries? I'm just trying to understand what went wrong. I'd hope it's a user error since it's easily fixed, but after the first fly away I'm always double checking things and trying to get in air as carefully as possible. Since it hovered steadily for a couple of seconds, the props were correct, what else could it be?

Magnetic fields sound plausible. Both times were near tall rocks and the lake, in confined spaces mostly. The second was near a large waterfall. any way to deal with that besides pointing the antennas? Will get back with the software versions, I'm sure I'm behind the current firmware version, it should be the original one it launched with.

Did you wait for GPS to have a stable signal?

Arnor Posted at 1-26 06:06
Did you wait for GPS to have a stable signal?

Could this be the issue? I usually always check, but I might have missed it those two times. Is the Fpv so heavily dependent on GPS to hold and emergency break? I think I've flown it successfully in houses with no GPS, so there was only a warning regarding RTH, but no other issues.

maratonininkas Posted at 1-26 07:55
Could this be the issue? I usually always check, but I might have missed it those two times. Is the Fpv so heavily dependent on GPS to hold and emergency break? I think I've flown it successfully in houses with no GPS, so there was only a warning regarding RTH, but no other issues.

To break you need to know where you are to hold in place :-)

So yes, drones in general are super reliant on GPS. I always "warm" up for 2-3minutes, and use a strict check list to avoid issues. As stated above, mostly human interferences ;-)

If GPS and home location is poorly initialised you 'll encounter severe issue...in the past some drone where flying back to last know location...Phantom 3 if I remember.

PS: in case of issue with GPS > switch to ATTI or Manual if you are able to control.

RE-Ps: fly indoor with caution...especially with RTH and altitude.

I'm in agreement with Arnor's suggestion above. If you are starting your flight without checking the view in your goggles you will not see any messages/alerts/warnings during the arming process. I know a lot of people still confuse a flyaway when in actual fact the drone has lost, or hasn't acquired, a solid GPS lock and it's actually moving with the wind. This is exasperated because the user usually goes into panic mode and overreacts on the sticks, making a bad situation worse. Without a solid GPS lock the panic button will be rather ineffective. It may momentarily halt the movement of the Drone but without knowing its position in 3D space it will continue to move in the direction of the wind.

I would suggest you pull the goggles down prior to arming and ascending so you can ensure that:

You have a suitable lock, the satellite icon should be green. If the icon is Amber even though you have a high satellite count it will be indicating that positioning accuracy is poor.

On take off you want to see a message informing you that the home point has been updated.

If there is magnetic Interference this will also only show up in the goggles. The rear lights on the drone will also turn solid yellow but this could be difficult to see, especially in bright sunlight.

Nidge Posted at 1-31 11:39
I'm in agreement with Arnor's suggestion above. If you are starting your flight without checking the view in your goggles you will not see any messages/alerts/warnings during the arming process. I know a lot of people still confuse a flyaway when in actual fact the drone has lost, or hasn't acquired, a solid GPS lock and it's actually moving with the wind. This is exasperated because the user usually goes into panic mode and overreacts on the sticks, making a bad situation worse. Without a solid GPS lock the panic button will be rather ineffective. It may momentarily halt the movement of the Drone but without knowing its position in 3D space it will continue to move in the direction of the wind.

I would suggest you pull the goggles down prior to arming and ascending so you can ensure that:

Thank you all for the great advices, will definitely keep them all in mind!

maratonininkas Posted at 1-25 23:33
could you please expand on the user error part? In my understanding, If that was the case, wouldn't you think emergency brake should've worked after at least one of the tries? I'm just trying to understand what went wrong. I'd hope it's a user error since it's easily fixed, but after the first fly away I'm always double checking things and trying to get in air as carefully as possible. Since it hovered steadily for a couple of seconds, the props were correct, what else could it be?

Magnetic fields sound plausible. Both times were near tall rocks and the lake, in confined spaces mostly. The second was near a large waterfall. any way to deal with that besides pointing the antennas? Will get back with the software versions, I'm sure I'm behind the current firmware version, it should be the original one it launched with.

I just lost my Avata near a waterfall while about 20 feet from me. It flew fine for about 10 minutes then it picked up speed flying backwards. I pressed the emergency brake button and it did absolutely nothing. It crashed into the water and I couldn't recover it. This is my 6th DJI drone. It was a flyaway.

djiuser_GoOkimzpUI90 Posted at 9-13 11:02
I just lost my Avata near a waterfall while about 20 feet from me. It flew fine for about 10 minutes then it picked up speed flying backwards. I pressed the emergency brake button and it did absolutely nothing. It crashed into the water and I couldn't recover it. This is my 6th DJI drone. It was a flyaway.

... maybe you should use the Avata forum...?