As I read this, I wonder where you live?  No matter somewhat.  Read this report on our website that may help:  http://dronephotography.weebly.c ... ilots-space-weather

Never fly without checking this site!!
SPACE WEATHER
NOAA Forecasts






Updated at: 2015 Feb 16 2200 UTC  



FLARE

0-24 hr

24-48 hr


CLASS M

10 %

10 %


CLASS X

01 %

01 %





Geomagnetic Storms:
Probabilities for significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field are given for three activity levels: active, minor storm, severe storm

Updated at: 2015 Feb 16 2200 UTC  

Mid-latitudes  


0-24 hr

24-48 hr


ACTIVE

30 %

15 %


MINOR

05 %

01 %


SEVERE

01 %

01 %



High latitudes  


0-24 hr

24-48 hr


ACTIVE

15 %

20 %


MINOR

35 %

30 %


SEVERE

35 %

25 %


http://www.spaceweather.com/

Near crash

Ok, so I can finally say my story has a somewhat happy ending. After my Inspire crash & burn I immediately called Dronefly my dealer who advised me to inform DJI. After close to 1 hour on hold I was able to speak witha DJI representative who issued me an RMA number, no hassles. Sent the bird to DJI that same afternoon, and received email about place in queue. It stated 4-6 weeks.
At the same time I contacted my cc company and told them of my experience with this product and the myriad of unreliability issues.
Cc company sent me the dispute papers advising to contact the dealer for resolution. Within. 2 weeks I get a notice from DJI that the bird is fixed and they are shipping back. No charge for repairs. Thank you DJI. Contacted dealer and initially did not get much of a positive response, when I told them about initiating a cc dispute I get an email offering to take the drone back less 15% restocking fee. Phew! Done deal. Within 48 hours receive money and the ordeal is over. In my case, this is truly a case of early adoption pain, albeit a very painful -potentially expensive - one. Taking on the chin for $500 was worth the thrill and agony of owning an Inspire 1. Maybe someday this or other drones will be reliable enough for newbies who just want to do some cool aerial photography without having to do compass dances, IMU calibrations and prayers to the almighty before taking off. Sayonara Inspire 1.....

Your crazy !  This is purely a case of incompetence! I'm sorry but study first then fly. If you had done your homework you would have been aware this aircraft is in its infancy and is suffering growing pains. Knowing this you would have, at the very least learned how to fly a cheapo quad in ATTI before attempting to fly a $4,000 quad. Sure you may say I'm being unfair, but I'm not. GPS is an aid nothing more, without it you should still be able to fly or don't launch, that simple! Despite the fact this quad has issues it still makes me smile every time I pull the trigger on it. Sure some of the issues, firmware being the biggie, piss me off but hey give them time, they'll fix it. I still think they released the INSPIRE 1 prematurely. Too bad you gave up the quad, once you learn how to fly it she rocks! And man alive in ATTI mode she moves along at a fair clip I must say!

I watched the Vintage video and that is exactly what I do. No mention about infancy and growing pains. I'm happy for you that you are such an accomplished pilot, and wish you a lot of fun! I'm just happy to have gotten rid of this rather expensive and buggy toy.

"...Maybe someday this or other drones will be reliable enough for newbies who just want to do some cool aerial photography without having to do compass dances, IMU calibrations..."

Sorry, but after reading your last words, I think that you didn't understand any part of this game.

peterbowers Posted at 2015-3-17 21:06
I watched the Vintage video and that is exactly what I do. No mention about infancy and growing pain ...

In the Vintage video there's no mention of having to recharge the batteries before every flight. Well... do you expect the bird to fly without recharging its battery? Hope you get what I mean ;-)
That (and many other videos) is just a video, nothing else.

Blade_Strike Posted at 2015-1-25 00:34
This sounds like the unit going into Atti mode. The unit never lost connection or you would have not ...

Great answer Blade and most likely the issue as he could bring it down. Another example of practising ATTI Mode continually.

rmaxwell.email Posted at 2015-2-8 11:59
Welcome to the real world of aviation.  Many modern airliners can be flown by a fully automated Flig ...

Absolutely agree. GPS-Mode ist only an (wonderful) aid. This is the main reason I don't fly my lady in winds + 15m/s. Not because I don't trust my baby but because I don't trust myself in case GPS-Mode could get lost. Some day when I feel more comfortable in ATTI I will fly her at higher wind rates, too.

Folks (and specially beginners): first of all, learn to know you own limits!

And yes, the i1 has bugs that piss me off, too.

This also why a pilot should only fly beyond line of sight if that pilot is willing to accept the loss of the aircraft. Pretty hard to fly in ATTI mode if you can't see it. Also, I'm curious to know why a guy would spend $4,000 on a quad- crash it and buy another one ?  Then get his money back for the second one, no mention of a refund on the first one? The time line on the original post has me wondering about the validity of it. This seems to me to be a bunk post. Unless the individual is really that bad of a writer. Anyway anyone that expects to fly these or any other quad without the need to fly ATTI is going to be in for a surprise.

The whole time I am reading this my only thought is OK, so what, why not take manual control and land it?  Are these cases of the pilot not knowing how to really fly it or when it drops down in ATTI mode is it not responding to control inputs anymore?  Seems odd because about every other flight I spend 5-10 minutes in ATTI just to keep my skills fresh and the aircraft flies just fine.  If this is an issue that it is not responding anymore then we have a serious firmware problem.

Something tells me that this could have been solved with some stick correction and landing.  Go grab a cheap one off of Amazon and bang it around your house for a week, make for great training and most of them are indestructable.  Good fun for the kids to if you have any.

Sorry to hear about your issue, hopefully you come out of this OK.

You ever get your bird back peterbowers? Would like to hear what happened.

houston Posted at 2015-3-18 05:10
You ever get your bird back peterbowers? Would like to hear what happened.

Houston: He got it repaired and returned for 500 restocking fee

Ok, so I can finally say my story has a somewhat happy ending. After my Inspire crash & burn I immediately called Dronefly my dealer who advised me to inform DJI. After close to 1 hour on hold I was able to speak witha DJI representative who issued me an RMA number, no hassles. Sent the bird to DJI that same afternoon, and received email about place in queue. It stated 4-6 weeks.
At the same time I contacted my cc company and told them of my experience with this product and the myriad of unreliability issues.
Cc company sent me the dispute papers advising to contact the dealer for resolution. Within. 2 weeks I get a notice from DJI that the bird is fixed and they are shipping back. No charge for repairs. Thank you DJI. Contacted dealer and initially did not get much of a positive response, when I told them about initiating a cc dispute I get an email offering to take the drone back less 15% restocking fee. Phew! Done deal. Within 48 hours receive money and the ordeal is over. In my case, this is truly a case of early adoption pain, albeit a very painful -potentially expensive - one. Taking on the chin for $500 was worth the thrill and agony of owning an Inspire 1. Maybe someday this or other drones will be reliable enough for newbies who just want to do some cool aerial photography without having to do compass dances, IMU calibrations and prayers to the almighty before taking off. Sayonara Inspire 1.....

Man, what an ordeal. Clearly DJI is not prepared for any of this. I have heard rumors of a Inspire 2 coming out later this year. I wonder if there will be a deep rebate program for previous Inspire 1 owners. LOL .

sometimes i can't get the Return to Home feature to work in the simulator mode after the new update. I haven't flown my inspire yet, not until i know that i can get myself out of these situations with a calm head.

Sorry to hear that. I guess it still must be stessed out that even with a system with all the extra tools for a beginner to fly, experience/training is essential to fly safely. Also sorry to say that a trained pilot probably would have saved the day.

The only thing I don't understand is when the Inspire loses GPS and drifts why people panic and try to use RTH instead of checking whether the sticks are still active?   

Mine used to drop GPS and I would just correct it with the sticks and fly manually until GPS came back.   I'm a complete novice at flying but this seemed obvious to me.    I quite enjoy it, keeps me on my toes!

Now if the remote is completely unresponsive and the Inspire flies itself to death that's different, but most of the reports I read suggest the sticks were probably still active during ordeal, which means pilot error.